Sermons

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Handshake or Embrace?
October 8, 2000
Pastor Dan Baumgartner     
John 20:21

This morning we want to continue our study of “The Church,” which we’ve been talking about for the last four weeks. We’re going to just read one verse from the gospel of John. This comes AFTER Jesus was crucified and put in the tomb. He arose and appeared first to Mary outside the tomb. That evening he appeared again, this time for the first time to his gathered disciples. His first words to them come from John 20:21: “Peace be with you.” He actually says that two times. “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Let’s pray together.

Well, it’s Mission Sunday. And so, perhaps, you expect a meditation that will guilt you into coughing up a few extra dollars for a special mission offering. Sorry, no special offering today. It’s Mission Sunday, and so perhaps you expect a message that will drive you to volunteer for duty in the far reaches of Indonesia. Sorry. That one is still in my office drawer. Or maybe you expect, on Mission Sunday, to hear about the duty and obligation that every Christian has to participate in the mission of the church. Nope. I left that one behind too.

To be honest with you, thinking of mission as duties and obligations and responsibilities and mandates doesn’t get me too excited. It’s not that there’s not an element of truth in all of it. But it means that we’re thinking of mission as our work, our activity, our accomplishment in the world…even if we say it’s accomplishment for God. This morning I just want to remind you that mission is God’s work in the world.

What is this mission of God’s? God wants to draw ALL people to Himself. God wants EVERYONE to be in a relationship with Him. God wants ALL people to know the height and depth and width of His love. God wants to heal and restore and bring ALL people to wholeness. And God takes this initiative…to bring a love that is so big, so deep, so all-encompassing, so totally embracing it knocks us over. But rarely do we view that big picture. For years, the church has wrestled with what our part is in what God is doing. How do we participate in God’s mission? For years we have wrestled with whether we put our focus on evangelism, on winning converts, OR on bringing about social justice and meeting physical and emotional human needs. But it’s a false dichotomy.

As I thought about this last week, I was struck by a picture that represents this false division. The picture was of two different ways of greeting people. The first is the standard American way of saying “hello” or “goodbye” to someone. A simple handshake. You reach out one hand, maintaining a distance of about an arm’s length of personal space between you and the other person, and cordially shake someone’s hand. Variations including the macho-man knuckle-buster, or the always disturbing limp fish handshake. If you think about it, a handshake is a safe gesture, requiring very little personal risk. And it’s just one hand. We usually use the right, of course, but the left would also do.

It struck me this week that we approach missions this way much of the time. We want to participate in what God is doing in the world. We see people struggling through life…we see people all over the world, dying for love, and they don’t know the love of God shown in Christ, and we say, “I’ve got to tell them.” We put out one hand, and that hand is evangelism. The words, spoken or written, which tell people about Jesus. And we say, “they have to know, they have to know.” And that’s right, they do have to know. People need to be pointed towards Christ, to come into that relationship, to find what life and death and beyond are all about. We can’t hide behind saying “It’s not me to talk about my faith, or to point people to Christ, or I’m just going to live my own life well.”

We want to call people to faith in Christ. And so we extend that right hand of evangelism to them. 

Or instead of the right hand of evangelism, we offer the left hand of social need-meeting. One of our Sunday morning classes just finished discussing the book "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger." I reread some of it this week. And I have some advice for you: Don’t read the book if you want an upbeat word of encouragement. Don’t read it unless you want to know what goes on in the world. Don’t read it unless you are willing to change how you are living. Because you’ll hear things like this: 

In our world, in God’s world, there are 1.3 billion people who live in absolute, wrenching poverty. Another 2 billion are very, very poor. That means over half the people live on less than $2 per day. 17 million people die every year from diseases that we know how to prevent. Malnourishment is a factor in 4 million deaths every year…of kids under five years old. And on. And on. 

It’s a powerful book…and I can’t tell you how convicted I was by this. It made me determined to revisit issues I have put on the back burner for quite a while. It made me want to revisit how our family lives, and consumes and prioritizes. And rightly so…we in the West just trundle along consuming resources and living life while BILLIONS of people live in misery, if they live at all. And so we read, or we visit, and we say, “We must do something!” And we must. Whether in our country or in others, we get involved in feeding and housing and disease and medical care and agriculture and clean water. We care for people’s bodies, their physical and emotional beings. We extend the left hand, fighting discrimination and abuse and hunger.

And so it goes. Part of the church says, “Put out your right hand, offer them the gospel of salvation, call people to faith.” The other part says, “Put out your left hand, give them food and water and self-worth before you talk faith.” One says, “How will they know unless you tell them?” The other says, “Actions speak louder than words.”

But it’s a false separation. It is not a separation that exists in God. The people that God loves are whole people, body and spirit. God’s mission is to make people WHOLE. And God does not extend just one hand or the other. In fact, the handshake isn’t a good picture of God at all. Let me tell you what I think God is like.

I have a friend who lives in France, his name is Jacques. Jacques is about 70 years old now. He’s short, with long white hair. He is the father of a dear friend of ours. From the first time I met him, I noticed instantly that Jacques doesn’t shake hands. Never. When we see each other, and especially when we say goodbye, Jacques takes my head like this, with both hands, and stares intently into my eyes, almost as though he is trying to ask, “Is everything okay with you? Are you all right?” Then he kisses me on both cheeks, mmwah-mmwah, and puts this big bear hug embrace around me that practically takes my breath away. 

It’s almost as though he’s thinking, “In case we don’t see each other again…you have to know I love you.” Let me tell you…after a goodbye from Jacques, a handshake just doesn’t compare!  But it strikes me that this a better picture of the God of mission that we follow. God has embraced us in Jesus Christ.

Nothing safe, nothing cordial, not one hand or the other. God has EMBRACED us. We know that best in Jesus Christ. Jesus is God’s best missionary. With outstretched arms, in life, in death, in resurrection, Jesus conveys to us that we are loved beyond measure. And as we learn that, we are swept up into the mission of God to offer both hands to our brothers and sisters in the world. Jesus says, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” Feed the hungry, care for the poor…go and make disciples of all nations. Embrace the world that is lost and hurting. It’s not the church’s mission, it is God’s mission. And as we follow God, we are caught up in that mission.

Tim Dearborn once wrote, “The church of God does not have a mission in the world.” Instead, “The God of mission has a church in the world!” That church is you and me. And so as Jesus calls, each one of us is sent…some to Africa, some to Alaska, some to Microsoft, some to Wallingford…to participate in God’s mission, embracing the people of the whole world. Amen.