Redeemer Family,
Every Tuesday morning, at 9:00 a.m., our staff meets for prayer, coffee, breakfast, and discussion. Often, what you read about in Parish Newsletters is coming from the discussion that is happening around the staff table. So today I’d like to invite you to pull up a chair and listen in to what our staff is talking about.
Today we read two passages of scripture, Matthew 17:14-21 and Mark 9:14-29. Both narrate the same interaction that Jesus and the disciples have with a man whose son is possessed by a demon. The disciples failed to drive out the demon, but Jesus was able to do so. When the disciples privately asked Jesus why they failed, he gave them a fascinating answer, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting.” ¹
Pause and think about what has just happened and what Jesus has just said. The disciples are first century Jews who are apprenticing themselves to a local Rabbi. They are learning to be like their Rabbi in every way; learning to teach the way he teaches, to serve the way he serves, to heal the way he heals, to pray the way he prays, etc. Jesus is a great healer and exorcist. After spending some time (likely already a year or two) observing Jesus in action, the disciples have been sent out for a day to do some ministering of their own in the community. They have what we might call a “missional encounter” with a demon possessed boy that does not go well. You might say, they have a missional encounter that failed. What do they do? Well, they take the problem to Jesus (good move!) and Jesus’ response is not to teach them a new formula or strategy for being more effective in missions, but rather he suggests that more formation is needed - more spiritual disciplines - prayer and fasting.
There is profound significance if you pause to consider what Jesus is saying. Jesus himself was a person of prayer and fasting. He was a man of silence and solitude. He not only served the crowds, but he “often withdrew to desolate places to pray” (Luke 5:16). We might think that Jesus was able to drive out demons with power because he was divine (and that’s true), but have we considered that part of Jesus’ power in ministry was actually drawing upon his own formation? Jesus needed silence, solitude, prayer, fasting, scripture reading, sabbath rest, corporate worship, fellowship, and more. He did not practice these only to model them for us, He practiced them because they formed him for mission.
Missional encounters are exposing and revealing. They let us know how we’re doing. They show us where we are strong and where we are weak. True missional encounters are meant to stir a hunger within us to return to Jesus, to be with him, to learn from him, to seek his help.
Gospel Formation happens as we draw near to Jesus. Being near to Jesus stirs a hunger within us to go out and serve others, to seek missional encounters.
You might imagine something of an infinity loop between Gospel Formation and Missional Presence that looks something like this:
As we receive and embrace the good news of the renewal of all things in Jesus, we are changed - metamorphosized - into a new creature, a new kind of human with a new kind of presence. We bring our new presence out into the world as participants in the mission of God and we encounter other people. Some of these encounters go well and many do not! Both our successes and failures generate an appetite within us for more of Jesus and a deeper embrace of the Gospel. This deeper embrace of the Gospel sends us right back out again towards others. Again and again. Over and over.
This is the Way of Jesus.
This is the Christian Life.
This is the Work of the Church.
Anglican priest Henry Martyn (1781-1812) understood this dynamic when he wrote:
The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions.
The nearer we get to him, the more intensely missional we become.
The first disciples had been partially formed by their time with Rabbi Jesus. The metamorphosis had begun, but it was not yet complete. They had enough formation to begin participating in God’s missionary work in the world; but when they encountered a situation that was beyond them, they realized they were out of their depth. This sent them right back to Jesus for deeper formation. This sort of thing would keep happening to them the rest of their lives.
The same dynamic can be true for us!
In the Father’s love,
¹ Mark 9:29 reads “prayer” while Mattthew 17:21 reads “prayer and fasting.” Matthew 17:21 is a verse that is included in some manuscripts, but not all. It often is listed as a footnote in English Bibles and not included in the primary text.
