April is Kick-Off Month for Mission Focus 2015

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CMYK_GS Circl logoDo you have a purpose to your life of faith? Perhaps you have a sense of how God uses you to accomplish God’s work in the world around you? At Good Samaritan we have a mission and finding our mission will certainly invite us to imagine where we might discover God’s working in our lives and in our lives with others. Let’s begin with a picture, an image that can speak to us about God working among us?

Imagine if you will the cross of Jesus. We sometimes say that the vertical beam is God reaching down into our lives to connect, renew and enliven us. We say the horizontal beam then, is our reaching out to others with the hope; reconciliation and friendship of God, as we try to love our neighbors as Jesus love them. The Cross of Jesus is not simply about his death and resurrection, but also about our new life and hope in Christ.

Imagine with me that our faith lives are a journey on which we are seeking to discover the presence and activity of God. This road we travel is a journey of discovery. So we are always looking for those moments along the way when we can see the cross clearly. One of the discoveries of the early church was that God provided encounter after encounter with people where God’s activity was discovered. Often these encounters were with people no one expected to shire forth with God’s working; Philip met the Ethiopian, Paul and Silas met Lydia, Peter met Cornelius. This is the reason I like to say, “Jesus is best discovered in Community.”

In the image above you can see the road before you. It is leading toward the Cross of Jesus. Also along the way, you will intersect with other roads; have contact with others on a journey of faith. Curiously, it is in those intersections that the Cross appears and the work of God becomes visible in our lives and experiences.

Notice that the Cross in this image is on a gold background. The brightness of the sun and the resilience of the Kingdom of God shine here on the horizon. They draw us toward the work that God will do in our lives and in the connections we have with others. Notice the fields on the left and right of the road we travel. Purple is the color of Lenten color in which we focus on our walking in faith toward Easter. Green is the Season of Epiphany and of the Sundays after Pentecost, in which we think about the manifestation of God among us. These are the seasons of growth and seasons in which we emphasize our journey in discovering God and seeking to learn from the teachings of Jesus.

As we talk about, illustrate, imagine and point toward our mission together in the coming weeks and months, we hope this image might begin to invite, encourage, awaken and spur us on toward those intersections in our lives where our encounters with others become a place where God’s activity is visible among us.  Where do you see God working in your life?  Where is God making use of you in the lives of others?  These intersections will certainly be along your journey to the cross.

Join us each Sunday in April as we explore these images and experiences as we focus on our mission, purpose and journeys of faith together.

Pastor Mitch