My previous post was entitle “Mission Unraveling”, in reference to Bush’s infamous photo-op , aircraft carrier speech “Mission Accomplished” at what we now know as but the beginning of a mission of disaster for the people and families of Iraq. But that is a “mission” whose only “valor” is in the mythological constructs of a philosophy without God, and without the church. They may “enlist” the admiration and “preaching” of ones who so eagerly meld their “faith” with patriotism, but THE MISSION, to which only God can call us, is still in force, still an invitation, and still a focus of the many who devote themselves to the people of God and that story as it continues its ongoing activity.
I watched the movie The Mission this past week, after Anthony had recalled its plot in a comment he posted about a month ago here, and the Jeremy Irons character was so much more powerful than I remembered from my first viewing several years ago in its first home video availability.
The thing is, nobody seems to be searching for what mission calls us; listening for call; coming to the table to join the communion of saints whose purpose is to nuture gift-discovery and gift-utilizing for mission. If we don’t do that formative work, we do not even approach mission. The fact that so many of the “forgotten” folks (the poor) were left to themselves (which translates as “helpless”) is an inditement on the absence of the church in getting off their duffs and getting them out before what we anticipated was coming, knowing that these are the ones without means to leave, without connecitons or money or “priority” on the “orderly evacuation” list. I watched the last hour of Schindler’s list last night, and there should have been a “list” of the ones who needed to be placed out of harms way, lest the forces overwhelm them. The people of God have nuemerous resources, from which there is enought to feed the five-thousand with a few loaves and fishes. We need to take this as a wake-up to ready ourselves to BE THERE for the folks to which we are called.
