40 Days of Yes

Day 40: Living in Newly-Discovered Reality

Bible reading

Romans 12:1–5

Reflection

The prevailing impression I have ... is of an ever-widening chasm between the fantasy in terms of which the media induce us to live, and the reality of existence as made in the image of God, as sojourners in time whose true habitat is eternity. The fantasy is all-encompassing; awareness of reality requires the seeing-eye that comes to those born again in Christ. It is like coming to after an anaesthetic; the mists lift, consciousness returns, everything in the world is more beautiful than ever it was, because related to a reality beyond the world – every thought clearer, love deeper, joy more abounding, hope more certain. Who could hesitate confronted with this choice between an old fantasy and a newly discovered reality?

(Malcolm Muggeridge)

Prayer

Glory to you our Lord and our God.
In your great love you have called us to be your people. 
By your Spirit you have endowed us with an abundance and diversity of gifts to share in your mission. 
We pray, Lord, that you will shape us to become a community of faith. 
Make us instruments of peace, love and justice.
Help us to boldly go forth to tell of your saving work in Christ. 

Amen

Day 39: Why wouldn’t I want to be a part of that?

Bible reading

Luke 10:17–20

Reflection

I have to say, I love the seven CMS promises. They help me keep my life intentionally focused on mission in the name of Jesus. They help me regularly renew my commitment to Jesus and to seeing his love shared with others – not only in those I seek to support overseas, but in my own life. There is integrity in this. I can look my African, Asian, South American and other brothers and sisters of faith in the eyes and say, “Yes, I believe in mission where you are and am seeking to make a difference there through my praying, giving and sending. But I am also helping to make a difference for the gospel here where I am too. I am living a mission lifestyle. You can trust me on that.” For me, living for Jesus, seeing him shared and lives changed is what my life is about. Being a part of the CMS Community helps make that happen and helps me help others with the same passion to do likewise.

Why wouldn’t I want to be a part of that?

(Joseph Steinberg, Director of Mission Stewardship, CMS)

Prayer

Lord, as you have entered into our life and death,
and call us into your death and risen life,
continue to draw us, we pray, by the power of your Spirit,
into an exchange of gifts and needs, joys and sorrows, strengths and weakness
with your people everywhere; that united
we may be obedient to your commission,
and together enjoy the promise of your presence.

Amen

Day 38: What do you do…?

Bible reading

John 17:6–19

Reflection

What do you do…? What do you do when the people on your street (the street you love) are in such dire need? What do you do when your neighbour (a fantastic family man, helpful in the community and very handy-selflessly so) is picked up by the police and “thrown in”, leaving his family struggling for sheer survival? What do you do when your other neighbor (whom you have grown to trust as a friend) is a “distributor” and uses the teenage children of your other friend as runners? What do you do when your newest street dweller is robbed twice in the same month and consequently moves off the street? What do you do when a good member of the residents association has her door kicked in while her partner is at work, while she is looking after her one-year old and four-year old in the house? And by four hooded men who had obviously mistaken her house for a den?

These are just a few things that have happened in the last six months on my street. The question is, what do you do? What does one do to be effective in a community like this? Leaving is not an option.

(Cyprian and Jayne Yobera in Harpurhey, Manchester)

What do you do? What do you do in the midst of the pain and suffering of the world? How might we respond together as a community of mission service?

Prayer

Lord
There are no easy answers
No quick-fix solutions to the pain and suffering of this world.
And yet, we trust.
We trust that you are with us.
We trust that you will always be with us.
You did not choose to take us out of the world
but you promise to protect us from the evil one.
Lord, consecrate us again in your truth.
Send us out again to share your gospel,
to respond to with grace and love and mercy
even when we cannot know what to do
so that lives may be transformed.
Consecrate us, Lord and unite us as your people -
a people of mission. A people of light. A people of love. 

Amen

Day 37: Being known

Bible reading

Ephesians 4:1–6

Reflection

When I imagined living in community, I envisaged myself turning overnight into a paragon of virtue, simply by sheer force of will. I would leave behind my bad habits, my judgmental attitudes, and any tendency towards gossip. I would never make myself vulnerable by exposing my weaknesses, because I wouldn’t have any. I believed that in order to find my place in the community I would need to be perfect. A year in, I have found that it is precisely in times when our weaknesses are exposed by close communion with others that we are transformed in more than a cosmetic way. God uses others to knock rough edges off us and refine our characters. As humans we have a deep desire to be known, even in all our imperfection. The relief in living closely with others and finding that they are not perfect is magical. The acknowledgement that you don’t have to be perfect to be loved and accepted is an important step in healthy Christian growth and transformation.

(Emma Woo, member of the CMS Mission House)

Do we dare to take off our masks, risk vulnerability, and allow ourselves to be known (and loved)?
How might being a member of a Christian community enable that to happen?

Prayer

May you be blessed as you engage with others, as you find the time to participate and give others the chance to do the same.
May you have the courage to create and take risks, and may you find your rest in God.
May you be blessed, as you show your weaknesses and accept God’s grace.
May others see that you are fragile that they might join in your fragility.
May our broken edges fit together to become one body.
As Christ kept the holes in his hands and feet having rose from the dead, may we keep our wounds even after we have healed.
May you be blessed as you are healed by Christ’s own wounds.
May you become broken in order to become whole.
May you become whole by knowing you are broken.
May you remember your wounds and embrace your hurt.
May you go into the places that scare you.
May you deal with anger and with sadness
And may God be with you all the way.
May you be blessed, that you are perfect in your imperfections - as you are forgiven, but never forgotten. May you be blessed, as you are accepted as you are.
As you are broken. As you are wounded. As you are hurt. As you are loved.

Amen

(adapted from ‘Broken Blessing’, Harry Baker, Grace Community)

Day 36: God be in my head…

Bible reading

Matthew 5:8, 6:22–24

Reflection

The cleansing of the heart is, we might say, the cleansing of the “eye” by which we see God. In keeping that eye “single” we must take the kind of extreme care that is demanded by the great dignity of the One we behold with such an eye. Yet even when the eye is cleansed, it is difficult to prevent a certain dust from creeping over it without our awareness, arising from those things that tend to accompany even good actions, for example the praise of others. If those among whom you live won’t praise you when you live uprightly, then they are of course in error. But if they will praise you, you’re actually in danger. You can avoid this danger only if you have a heart so single and pure that, when you act uprightly, you aren’t doing so because of the praises of others.

(St Augustine of Hippo, Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount)

Prayer

God be in my head
And in my understanding
God be in my eyes
And in my looking
God be in my mouth
And in my speaking
God be in my heart
And in my thinking... 

Amen

(Walford Davies)

Day 35: Space to reflect

Bible reading

Mark 6:31

Reflection

Benedictine Abbot Christopher Jamieson (comments) that many of us choose a busy life while pretending it is forced on us…. We choose to be busy because it facilitates our consumerist lifestyle that requires us to work harder and harder and to fulfil our consumerist ambitions. It distracts us from the deeper realities of life. When given space for stillness and silence, we prefer to rationalize our discomfort rather than face the sources of our restlessness. Communities who build in contemplation as a regular practice can begin to address these sources of restlessness. It is a gift we can offer non-Christians as they search for ways to de-stress and become less anxious in what has been described as “the general mayhem of modern life.”

(Encounters on the Edge: No 38, The Cost of Community, p 9)

Is taking time to regularly review your prayer life, your mission, your commitment to social justice, part of your Christian journey? How has it benefited you in the past? How might it benefit you in the future?

Prayer

Servant Christ, 
help us to follow you
into the place of quiet 
to intercede for the confused, the despairing
the anxiety-driven, 
to prepare ourselves for costly service with you;
Servant Christ, help us to follow you. 

Amen

(India: Litany of the Disciples of Christ the Servant)

Day 34: Coming Home (again)

Bible reading

Luke 15:11–24

Reflection

Contrary to what many may think or feel a period of spiritual endeavour (during Lent, perhaps, or while taking part in a retreat) is a time of joy because it is a time for coming home, a period when we can come back to life. It should be a time when we shake off all that is worn and dead in us in order to become able to live, and to live with all the vastness, all the depth and all the intensity to which we are called.

(Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Meditations on a Theme, p 1)

Do we dare to shake off all that is dead in us and live in the fullness of life God offers?

Prayer

From the cowardice that dare not face new truth;
From the laziness that is content with half-truth;
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth;
Good Lord, deliver me. 

Amen

(A Prayer from Kenya)

Day 33: One Square Mile

Bible reading

Acts 3:6

Reflection

A Baptist Church in Bangor, Maine, USA realised it didn’t know its neighbours. So they ran a bonfire picnic in the churchyard and invited everyone in. Next it offered some of its space around the church building for a community garden. This kind of project is beginning to catch on in many other parts of the USA. In the UK the Evangelical Alliance has encouraged churches to think in similar ways with One Square Mile projects, setting up simple mission initiatives aimed at people living within one square mile of where they are located.

(Tom Sine, Yes magazine interview, Autumn 2009)

Prayer

Lord, help us to offer what we can
even if what we can offer seems paltry at times.
Give us hearts to love and serve our neighbours
For the glory of your kingdom. 

Amen

Day 32: Setting Captives Free

Bible reading

Isaiah 58:6–8

Reflection

A Vineyard church in Southampton challenged members to live at the level of welfare recipients for a period of time and to give the surplus money to the Jubilee 2009 Fund. This small congregation managed to release an amazing £24,000.

(Tom Sine, Yes magazine interview, Autumn 2009)

How can we use all we have, (however little that may be) to bring freedom and transformation?

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, grant us the Gospel of Jubilee, the good news of liberation, freedom and unity;
proclaim the release of the prisoners of division, recover the sight of those blinded by hatred,
jealousy, greed and power; grant peace and freedom for the poor, oppressed, and lost. 

Amen

(Korea: Prayers for 1995 as a Year of Jubilee for Unification)

Day 31: Where can we start?

Bible reading

Ephesians 1:17–19

Reflection

A parish church in a fairly well-off town in Hertfordshire struggled to find ways to reach out to their community. Then someone said: “Let’s look for things that are ugly and find ways to bring the beauty of the gospel to them.” It didn’t take long to make a start. The churchyard was a favoured loitering place for homeless people who left cans and bottles strewn about. The parish started a drop in centre for these people. Later they invited them to the annual carol service. That’s the simple beauty of the gospel at work.

(Story told at a CMS members' meeting)

Prayer

We ask the God of our master, Jesus Christ,
That we will be good apprentices in our manner of life;
In our direction, faith, and steadiness;
In our love and patience;
In troubles and in sufferings.
And as the Scriptures train God’s servants
To do all kinds of good deeds
We ask the glorious father to give us his spirit,
To make us intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally
And knowing how to serve. 

Amen