During Ordinary Time, our church is a on a mission to care for each other, our neighbors, and our location. This mission of care is our response to the Good News that because our Lord is Risen from the dead. Because of the Resurrection, we all may receive new life for God is making all things new. But there is more Good News, the Risen Christ is Lord. He reigns over all as is made evident by the kingdom of God here and now. The old power structures that keep the world’s kingdoms alive have been defeated and no longer reign for heaven has met earth. It is our proclamation that Christ is King and Lord of all that keeps our mission of care from becoming a selfish attempt to build our own kingdom through the church.
NT Wright reminds us that this was the same mission of the early church in the book of Acts: “They are to go and tell the world that Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, is the world’s true Lord and to summon them to believing obedience. And that is exactly what they do” (from Surpised by Hope, p. 242-430 ). The story of the early church reminds us that in preaching the Good News that in Christ there is new life when we enter His kingdom we are also submitting ourselves to His rule. The early church understood this and that is why a new way of living was the result.
As we struggle to share the Good News in our local communities, I find that it is easy to preach that God is making all things new and easy to forget that new life comes under the reign of our Lord. It seems easy to care for others and spread God’s love through service, but not so easy to submit to a new way of life as embodied in the work of Christ. The cost of discipleship in God’s kingdom is truly high.
I invite you to join me in praying that our mission during Ordinary Time will entail the fullness of the Gospel and we will truly submit ourselves to joyful obedience under our Risen Lord.
