Personal Mission Field/Demonstration

...so many acts of pity and righteousness did she perform, answering the needs of the poor, whether it was convenient to do so or not.

  - Cogitosus, Life of St. Brigit (Irish, 7th century)

"Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?"

  - Luke 10.36

Certainly it was not convenient for the Samaritan to interrupt his business to care for one who, had he known who was attending to him, would probably have despised him. It was not convenient for him to go out of his way in order to find temporary housing for the sufferer, or to sacrifice his own wealth to care for him, or to return to check on his wellbeing at a later date.

It was not convenient, but Jesus explained that this is what neighbor-love looks like. Brigit, the greatest Irish saint of the early fifth century, was renowned for her good works. She was a model for all the Irish, and her day - February 1 - is still celebrated in Celtic lands to this day.

Brigit reminds us that the Celtic revival was not simply a period of missionary outreach and fervent evangelism - although it was that. Those who evangelized the pagan Celtic lands and re-evangelized the moribund Christian churches of Europe between the years 430 and 800 AD did so on the strength of exemplary discipline and selfless giving to others. They did not allow questions of convenience to factor into the work they'd been given to do. The issue was not convenience, but faithfulness in living as Jesus did.

Convenience can become a kind of lesser deity in our lives, an idol we turn to whenever we don't want to do something that we probably ought to do. You can tell when you're falling back on mere convenience in anything when you hear yourself excusing yourself from some opportunity or challenge by saying, "I have to..." Have to? Is someone making you? Don't you really mean, "It's not convenient for me just now"?

It was not convenient for Jesus to become incarnated as a Man, nor to fulfill all righteousness for ungrateful wretches such as we, nor to go to the cross and endure the hell of separation from His Father as payment for our sins. But He did it. And if we want to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ to the people in our Personal Mission Fields, then we must banish the god of convenience and make ourselves available to serve others in season and out.

It's what Jesus would do in us, if we would but listen to Him as Brigit did.

Today at The Fellowship of Ailbe

We begin a new series of Kingdom Civics articles this week, looking at those in Scripture and Church history who followed a vision of the Kingdom unique to their time and place, beginning with Adam and Eve.

In today's ReVision we look at how one secular ethicist presents a strong case for the Biblical view of ethics and human life - even though he had no intention of doing so.

T. M. Moore, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.