As He was Sent, We are Sent
As I survey my city, Campbell River, I have come to love her and the people who call it home. I moved here at the end of 1997. I may not have been born here but I definitely feel this is home and that I was meant to live here. My wife and I love the weather (all four seasons). We don’t enjoy snow, scraping windows, and plugging in our cars that is all to prevalent on the prairies. We love the sun, the wind, the ocean, the trees and dare I say the rain. This is definitely home.
As much as I love the people, culture, beauty and climate, I also see the pain and brokenness of our city. There is the homeless, those who live in poverty, alcohol and drug addictions, broken homes, abuse, illiteracy, mental illness, and loneliness amongst many in our city. It is hard not to become discouraged once you meet people who “fall into” one of these categories (or maybe more than one). We can fool ourselves by choosing not to see them. But once we do see them, meet them, and get to know them - everything changes. Once you meet them, they become real and so do their problems. The discouragement comes when the problems seem bigger than anything I can solve. These problems are way bigger than anything that I can fix or solve.
As I was reading this week, I spent some time on the following verses:
John 20:21-22
21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
The problems 2000 years ago were not very different than today. They would have been more poverty without the social safety net that Canada offers but the loneliness and despair, was probably similar to today. God (Father) sent Jesus (son) to save the world. How about that for a mission. Jesus, who is God, became a man so that he could live sinlessly amongst us and ultimately die on a cross to pay the penalty for the sins of the world. He then rose again and conquered sin and death.
Prior to his crucifixion, we can look at what he did with his life to get a glimpse of what it means to be sent. If you read the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), you can see what Jesus did. Did he spend his time holed up in a synagogue reading, singing and waiting to die and go back to heaven? Nope. He did teach in the temple but most of his time he spent amongst those who were sinful and broken.
Jesus spent time with people who were ashamed, sick, dying, broken, hurting, and lost. He spent time with people just like you and me. Jesus did not care what you looked like or your social standing - he cared for those who needed help. He brought them healing, food, love, compassion, mercy and his message of hope in Him. He did it. Nothing was beneath him.
Jesus says in the John passage, “…even so I am sending you.” This is what Jesus calls us to do: to bring food to hungry, shelter to the homeless, hope to the lost, compassion to the hurting, and company to the lonely. These are the people who so often get lost in our city. These are my neighbours and this is who Jesus is sending us to.
This seems so out of my comfort zone and bigger than I can accomplish. I have not been formally trained in this and yet Christ has given us this mission and burden. He does not send us out alone to figure it out. When I began to follow Christ, he sent His Spirit to dwell in me. Jesus is guiding, directing, leading, calling, and preparing us. We are not perfect or complete but He continues to work on us.
We cannot say God does not care about the hurting because he sent his son to die …for the hurting and the lost. And Jesus wept for the dying, he loved the lost and he cared for the broken. And he sends us to those in Campbell River today on His behalf because he cares and loves more than we can comprehend.
Why don’t you step out of your comfort zone with me this next year and see how Jesus meets us and our neighbours needs? CRBC is planning some outreach projects this next year. We are planning to raise money for the homeless in February for the "Coldest Night of the Year” fundraiser. We are also planning a summer outreach event to aid the poor in our city. As important, though, join a Growth Group and find ways to serve and love your neighbours and city as a small group.