Are you being served?

Not too long ago, I went for dinner in the only restaurant of a quiet little village. The waiter came to take our orders. I ordered a vegetable dish and my companion requested the chicken. The waiter informed him that lamb was also on the menu and that tonight, the lamb was beautiful, succulent, tasty and fresh. My friend listened and thought for a moment making sure to praise the wonder of the lamb that was being offered but remained with his original chicken order. The waiter continued. This, he said, was the best lamb they had had for some time. He then detailed the delicate cooking methods used in his kitchen to produce the finest lamb dish that could be savoured. Looking awkward and a little red, my companion looked at me and then at the waiter and after further exposition and a little wrangling, ordered the lamb. The waiter went away happy.

‘Mission’ is a subtle activity, poised delicately between a desire to share a deep passion for the greatest story of all time and a true and deep respect for and sensitivity to the traditions of both the individual and culture you encounter. Mission is both an activity which tells a story and a human window through which the story is told. If one does not correlate with the other, then the action is deeply disrespectful to all involved.

We are a Christian community tasked with the purpose to tell the Good News. Just how do we do that? Forget ‘The Missions’ for a minute. Christian mission is a communication of love in the service of another. It is said that ‘the greatest service we can offer another being is to remind them of their true nature’. . If the love on which my service rests is true then my aim may not be to convert but to converse. Conversion is between God and the other person and is not something I should attempt to control. And mission must be sustained by the deepest food that human nature has to offer. Where doctrine is not a universal language, tears are. Where morality differs amongst different peoples, kindness transcends difference. 

A mission language must always be a language of deep respect, a respect based on the love of God and a respect which offers the other a freedom not to feel the same way. Sometimes my language will build a house. Sometimes it will sit with another in a time of learning darkness. Sometimes my language will teach English to those who need education and sometimes mission will speak the name of Jesus and share His life of love. At all times my Mission cannot depend on my getting what I want for another, but on offering what it is that another truly needs. Is this not the very heart of love? And how could mission be any different?

Loving is contagious. And we may find that in loving another person even one who has been brutalised by hate that they too begin to love in us, the One in whom all love begins. But that is their choice, no matter how strongly my desire it is. Our desires will always seek satisfaction. Of this, we must be truly mindful because, ‘we can never be permanently satisfied’. Instead if we mindfully act on our desire, it can become ‘like a window through which we look at the beauty of the moon but in which we can still see our own reflection’..  It is this balance which Mission must strike. Both the wonder and limitations of my own reflection must look back at me.

And so at the table of mission at which we serve, will we give others the lamb even if they ask for the chicken?

Ms. Helen Walsh

22nd October 2006