This Sunday’s scriptures call us – literally. From Mount Sinai, Moses calls the Israelites a priestly kingdom and a holy people and then commissions them to be priests for the nations. Likewise, in our gospel text, Jesus calls the disciples “apostles” (messengers) and sends them as laborers into the harvest. Their mission was to continue Jesus’ mission. In baptism we too are called and anointed for ministry. But what are we to do? We are to do what our worship invites us to do: announce the good news, heal the broken, extend Christ’s peace wherever we go, and share our bread with the hungry. In other words, our mission is to continue Jesus’ mission.
But what are we to do as TLLC specifically? That is something our congregation’s leaders have been grappling with over the last months. The landscape of our world is different than it was for the church 500 years ago as many of you have learned in your study of Phyllis Tickle’s book, The Great Emergence. The landscape of the church has seen a seismic shift since the pandemic began in 2020. As leaders, we realize that the way we carry out the mission will have to shift in order for it to be relevant today, but the mission itself has not really changed. In other words, our mission is to continue Jesus’ mission of sharing God’s triumphant love with others! Join us on Sunday as we begin to explore Jesus’ Mission Message!