BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

MISSIONS SUNDAY 
BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH

Between heaven and earth. We find ourselves today in a remarkable moment — suspended, as it were, between heaven and earth. Last Thursday we celebrated the Ascension of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, when He was taken up into heaven in glory, having completed His divine work on earth. And next Sunday, we will celebrate Pentecost, with the descent of the Holy Spirit empowering the Apostles to continue the divine mission of Christ. We live today in the ten days between those feasts, and precisely here, in this holy in-between, we discover our mission.

When the disciples watched Jesus ascend into heaven, they stood gazing upward as two angels appeared to them saying, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?" It’s a question for us to reflect upon this morning. Why are we looking upward? We have been sent outward. Remember, before ascending into heaven, our Lord gave the Church our marching orders not as a suggestion, not as an invitation only to the willing, but as a command to "Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you" This is our Great Commission. This is one of the central reasons the Church exists in the world.

Notice that Jesus does not say "make disciples of people like you." He does not say make disciples with those who already feel comfortable walking through our church doors." He says make disciples of “all nations,” from every people, every culture, every language, every corner of the earth. The love of God knows no bounds. It’s not a tribal treasure but an inheritance for all humanity. And we, baptized believers, are stewards and ambassadors of the Lord bringing this Good News!

Today in our Church, we celebrate Missions Sunday, and it is appropriate and good for us to pause and reflect on what it means to be a missionary Church. The word "missionary" comes from the Latin “missio,” which means to send. When we call ourselves the “apostolic” church, that comes from the Greek word “apostelo” which also means to send. We are a sent people. We were not gathered into the Body of Christ simply to sit comfortably together in beauty and worship, although of course our worshipping of the Lord is indeed the heartbeat of everything we do. We gather together to be filled with the grace of God and empowered by His Spirit in order to go forth with a message of life, hope, healing, and resurrection into a world that desperately needs it.

Consider our contemporary society. There are millions of people - our neighbors, our coworkers, the strangers we pass each day - who have never truly heard that God loves them. They’ve never heard or understood the authentic Good News, not as a platitude, not as a bumper sticker, but as the world-shattering, life-transforming Truth that it is! How many people don’t know that the God who created the universe became human for our sake. That He suffered, died, and rose again to defeat Satan, sin and death. That we find healing for every wound, forgiveness for every failure, and life beyond every grave. This is the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ and it’s a gift for every human being on earth.

So, let us give thanks this morning for those among us who are answering the call “to go forth to all nations” in tangible, sacrificial ways. Three of our own — Katina Christo, Helen Dunning, and Petru Cojocaru — are serving this summer as interns with Project Mexico, helping to build thirty homes for families in desperate need. Thirty families. Thirty roofs. Thirty front doors through which children will walk, knowing someone cared enough about their dignity to cross a border and pick up a hammer in the name of Jesus Christ. That is missions. That is discipleship made concrete.

Yet, it doesn’t stop there. This July, our Church will send a team of 25 to continue this sacred work, building another home and acting as the hands and feet of Christ to families who have very little by the world's measure. These Mexicans will know, because of our presence, that they are seen, loved, and valued by the God of the universe. What an extraordinary privilege it is to participate in something so much larger than ourselves.

And our Church Family participates in other ways as well through our support of the OCMC and its work. George Dunning, our Church’s OCMC ambassador, will be talking to us about other ways we can participate and promote the spreading of the Gospel throughout the world.

Let us be careful, however, not to think that the mission field is only across borders and cultures. It is also right here in our midst. In Webster. In Central MA. In our workplaces and our neighborhoods, our grocery stores and our schools. There are people all around us who are hungry for meaning, starving for hope, quietly drowning in despair, who have never encountered the living God - not because they rejected Him, but because no one thought to introduce them. We are the introduction. Remember, each of us is an ambassador of Christ to the world.

The light of Christ does not belong only to those who grew up Orthodox, or who know the Divine Liturgy by heart, or who feel at home surrounded by icons. The light of Christ belongs to every person made in the image of God, which means every person who has ever lived. We aren’t told to guard that light jealously, protecting it from others, but to let it shine to all through our words, as well as through our kindness, our generosity, our willingness to notice the person others overlook. God expects us to speak a word of genuine warmth and love where the world offers only indifference.

Let us prepare for the great Feast of Pentecost next Sunday by praying for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon our Church Family, not merely for our own consolation, but for our commissioning and sending forth. The Spirit of God was given so that the Church would have power to be witnesses "in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Jerusalem is right outside these doors. The ends of the earth are also within reach, through our prayers, our giving, and the courageous few who go on behalf of us all.

The risen and ascended Jesus Christ reigns over all things. He is not a threat to the world but the world's greatest hope. How can we keep this treasure to ourselves. Let us go forth as His ambassadors. May we make disciples of all nations. Let us live in His light and share His light with all people. To God be the glory.