Baptismal Covenant, Five Marks of Mission add up to living out God’s mission

Greetings, Friends!

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m currently taking an online course called “What We Believe: Theology in the Anglican Tradition.”  This week’s readings had us examining some issues that often become political in nature and we were asked to consider whether our theology plays a role in our politics.  For me, I have trouble imagining how I could dissect my theology out of my politics!  This really came home to me yesterday when I went to vote in the primary.  My beliefs about God and God’s relationship with the world and God’s people (that’s all people, just to be clear) seem to be imbedded in who I am as a person – in the decisions I make and the actions I take.  The big challenge I see is trying to consistently and faithfully live out my beliefs.

Every year we get four regularly scheduled opportunities to reaffirm our faith and our commitment to our Baptismal Covenant: the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, Easter Vigil, Pentecost and All Saints Day. Our Baptismal Covenant begins with a question and response of the Apostles’ Creed and then adds five questions which put actions to our words of faith:

Celebrant:      Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?

People:           I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant:      Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

People:           I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant:       Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

People:           I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant:      Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

People:           I will, with God’s help.

Celebrant:    Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

People:           I will, with God’s help.

And every other Sunday, we are able to reaffirm our faith with the words of the Nicene Creed or the Apostles’ Creed (in Morning Prayer).  I like these reminders of my faith and the promises that I have made to live my life as a follower of Jesus.  You’d think that maybe after all these years, I wouldn’t need to be reminded but my human nature can all-too-easily get the better of me if I’m not careful.  I’m guessing that I’m not alone in this.

Between 1984 and 1990, the Anglican Consultative Council developed the 5 Marks of Mission as a framework for God’s reconciling work which God has sent us out to do.  Former Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori wrote:

God seeks to reconcile the world, so we speak of God mission, in which the Church and its members are partners and participants.  God’s Mission has several aspects, and the complexity and expansiveness of the marks, mean that no one person, no single congregation or diocese, nor indeed any single part of the Church can completely or fully engage all the marks – it takes the Body of Christ to be god’s mission partner (from “5 Marks of Mission” by Katharine Jefferts Schori, published by forward Movement).

The 5 Marks of Mission are:

The Mission of the Church Is the Mission of Christ

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptize and nurture new believers
• To respond to human need by loving service
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

If we combine our Baptismal Covenant with these Marks of Mission, we get a pretty clear mandate for how we should be living as members of the Jesus Movement and as vital members of the Body of Christ living out God’s mission for the world!

Resolution A072 passed at last year’s General Convention reminds us of the importance of the 5 Marks of Mission:

A072: Develop Awareness of the Five Marks of Mission

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention affirm that the Five Marks of Mission adopted by the 76th General Convention in Resolution D027 are central to the work of the Church, its dioceses, its congregations, and the formation of its members; and be it further

Resolved, That the 78th General Convention encourage dioceses and congregations to use materials that instruct persons about the Five Marks of Mission, such as Marked for Mission (for youth and young adults); and be it further

Resolved, That dioceses and congregations adopt the practice of intentionally and publicly stating how each of their activities relates to the Five Marks of Mission.

I believe that our Household has been living into this resolution for quite some time already. Many previous posts from Nuts and Bolts have focused on the 5 Marks of Mission and every workshop at our diocesan Ministry Fair in recent years must specify which Mark of Mission is being addressed. In last year’s booklet for Ministry Fair, Bishop Gibbs wrote

Welcome to the 2015 Ministry Fair: Re-Imagining the Household of God. This year, we have again organized the Ministry Fair to reflect our diocesan commitment to the Five Marks of Mission as the way we live out our baptismal ministry as members of the household of God. The Five Marks of Mission, developed by the Anglican Consultative Council between 1984 and 1990, have won wide acceptance across the Anglican Communion, and have given congregations and dioceses around the world a practical and memorable “checklist” for mission activities. I hope that what you learn and experience at Ministry Fair 2015 will inspire and strengthen your commitment to live as a disciple of Jesus Christ and to participate in the Reign of God.

As Bishop Gibbs said, the 5 Marks of Mission are a great measuring tool to assess how we are doing in serving God’s mission. This year’s Ministry Fair will give us another opportunity to check up on our progress.

You might want to check out the book Marked for Mission: Youth in Action (by Sharon Ely Pearson and Bronwyn Clark Skov) mentioned in the resolution. This book might just make a perfect graduation gift for your young adults graduating from high school or college this spring. In the foreword for this book, Katharine Jefferts Schori writes:

The story or image that is most central to the lives of Christians is about God’s overarching intent for all of creation – that it be a community of love, that acts in love and becomes more like the God we call Love.  That means justice in society, peacemaking where there is strife, and living in ways that help to sustain the rest of creation.  We call that God’s mission, and it’s quite clearly what Jesus understood his job to be.

You can find this book for purchase at Amazon  (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LH7ANXE/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1 ) or the Episcopal Bookstore (https://www.episcopalbookstore.com/product.aspx?productid=8632 ).

Let’s encourage one another to be the people God intends for us to be, the Body of Christ called to live out God’s mission to the world!

Let us pray –

O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you, bring the nations into your fold, pour out your Spirit upon all flesh, and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

~ The Rev Deacon Judith Schellhammer, chair, Resolution Review Committee