Jesus told the parable of the last judgement (Matt. 25:31-46) in which he spoke of the standards that the "Son of Man" would employ to evaluate the spiritual state of humanity. He spoke of the necessity of feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, concluding, "just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." (Matt. 25:40)
I think that he was talking about developing the eyes to see and the heart (love) to respond to the needs of our sisters and brothers who are so often not seen and who, if they receive anything are handed tokens from our sense of duty and rather than our love. But Jesus wanted us to love the least as much as we love the greatest.
Developing a heart for mission in churches is a passion of mine. Consider the joy that I felt in hearing of how one small, urban congregation, the East Side Congregational UCC, Binghamton, has responded to the needs of the indigenous people in the mountains of Honduras.
The congregation has sponsored four children in the NY/Help, Help-a-Child program for many years. When the Mission Committee heard that NY/Help wanted to put new roofs on villagers houses in order to fight the infestation of insects, and that the cost of a roof was so inexpensive, they told the church leaders. The council said that they would match and donations given by church members to this project. Soon the council reconsidered and upped the challenge to a 2-1 matching gift. The church now has a total of $3,000 set aside to give to NY/Help to put on the new roofs.
In the national setting Common Global Ministries of the UCC and Disciples of Christ encourages congregations to acknowledge their heart for mission by becoming Global Mission Churches. To find out how go to www.globalministries.org. On the home page click on the "Get Involved" tab along the top. Then click on Becoming a Global Mission Church.
East Side has a heart for mission and is working to help "the least of these". Praise God!
The New York Conference UCC
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Developing a Heart for Mission
Rick
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3 comments:
Thanks for helping East Side celebrate; our mission folk love to keep us at our tasks! I look forward to hearing what other congregations are doing in Christ's name.
Yea fir East Sude (and your pastor!) Working with communities in a kind of "church phobic" world, we have to do it one at a time......God bless you!
And Rick to btw
(sorry, I can't spell without spellcheck ROTFL)
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