The Selfish Side of Missions

Few authors have the effect on me that Mark Buchanan does.  In a day and age when the trendy thing is to walk away from church and blame hypocrisy, blame clergy, blame Constantine -- here comes Mark with his bold, prophetic voice saying, in part, "You don't need another 'them' to blame when the problem is 'you'!"

In that spirit please don't read this blog posting as an indictment of you - but of me.  Even in my years as a pastor I was not immune to having an attitude, at times, that what we needed to do was hunker down and regularly gather with people who we liked (and hopefully who liked us) and await our big exit.  Your mega church with all its programs is not immune.  Neither is your local, family-feeling, community church.  And neither is the  group that meets weekly in your living room.  And by the way, while we're busy throwing stones at eachother for how 'this group' or 'that group' is not God's "ideal" - once again we're missing the whole point.  Never forget that Jesus saved his grandest indictments, accusations, and judgments for those who pretended to have God's heart all figured out - while also feeling the need to constantly point out to others how they don't.  Most of the time the harshest critics and biggest whiners concerning the church - in all its forms- are not people who you look at and say, "Hey - that guy reminds me of Jesus!" - which is, by the way, the effect the church is supposed to be having - right? 
Okay - back to Buchanan.....

A chapter I read yesterday from his book made me think about "the selfish side of missions."  People make the mistake all the time that somehow missionaries have been selected for some kind of 'advanced placement' program in God's kingdom.  (And when I think of some of the "AP" students I went to school with - we can look at them and say, "Who would want that life?")  And still, there is something strangely appealing and, at the same time, something we want to avoid when it comes to serving God among those who live so simply and, many of whom, live day to day wondering how they'll survive.

In chapter 3  of his book, Mark Buchanan talks about a radio interview he did a while back and during a commercial break he heard one ad for a Christian aid agency which said: "Street gangs.  Prostitution.  Drugs.  Rising crime rates.  Violence.  This is what those who live on the East Side face every day.  If these people are left to themsleves, many of them will turn to these things.  But you can help.  How?  Well, you don't even need to go to the East Side.  For a mere twenty dollars.....".   Mark is quick to point out that, "God accomplishes great things through ordinary people's twenty-dollar donations." but then he says, "...it makes me wonder: If I make a habit of avoiding the East Side, if I seize every little last excuse not to go there, in the end am I gaining or am I losing?  Do I not risk with all my deft avoidance, avoiding Jesus himself?"

There are a lot of different theological interpretations of the Beatitudes of Jesus (blessed are the meek; blessed are the merciful; etc....).  Some say they will be the ethical norms for a future time.  Others say they are prescriptions for how we are supposed to live (i.e. try to hunger/thirst for righteousness; try to be mournful; etc...).  I'm swayed most by the argument that takes these principles at face value by interpreting them as Jesus saying, "Hey folks, are you looking for God's blessing?  Well here it is!"  It's not in somehow trying to manufacture those realities as our own - it's in rolling up our sleeves, swallowing our pride, rebuking our distractions, and getting in the muck and mire of the broken lives that surround us.  Jesus doesn't say, "Blessed are you if you try to put yourself in a position of being persecuted." - He says, "There IS a blessing there already - among those who are BEING persecuted right now -- and you can share in it!" 

Living in blatantly needy parts of the world means that there are blessings to be shared in - like ripe fruit hanging from trees all around us - and all we have to do is "go there" with open eyes and soft hearts.  Maybe missionaries and people with missionary hearts have a hunger to pursue these blessings with greater urgency - I don't know.  And this is what I mean by the "selfish side".  What I do know is that even in one of the poorest countries in Africa there are still countless ways one can embrace the blessing or avoid it just like where you live.  It's just geography. 

Mark concludes his chapter with the story of Jonah (the prophet who ran from God's call to go to a very wicked city and declare God's word of judgment and mercy for them).  He notes how Jonah's story is an unfinished one.   The people Jonah is sent to repent and change their ways and heed God's warning and Jonah is upset that God didn't judge them in the way Jonah had hoped.  Jonah wanted God to send a "mushroom cloud" and instead He sent "mercy".  At the end of the story God gets the last word (as He always will) by asking Jonah: "Do you have a right to be angry?" .......... and that's the end of the story.  We don't find out how Jonah responds.  We don't see the hero of the story transformed by grace or firmly entrenched in his bitterness.  It just ends.

Buchanan writes, "I think the detail is left out on purpose.  And not so that we're left guessing: so that we're left to decide, What will I do?"