Sent to be guests - A Missiology of Guesting 3

3. Sent to Be Guests

In his book ”Transforming Mission” (1992) David Bosch has identified six historical paradigms of mission and in each period ”there was a tendency to take one specific biblical verse as the missionary text” (Bosch 1992:339). E.g, in the patristic understanding (the Eastern Church) it was John 3,16, in the medieval Roman Catholic missionary period it was Luke 14,23 and in the Protestant Reformation focused on Rom 1,16f. Mission in the wake of Enlightenment – i.e., in the modern missionary period – the text that was most often referred to is the so-called ”Great Commission” of Matt 28,18-20.

”All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age”.

This text has no doubt inspired and mobilised many for genuine mission, but interpreted in the light of the dominant thinking in the Enlightenment period and the colonial situation this missionary this text was often understood in a way that confirmed a Western/Christian feeling of superiority. It was tempting to focus on the aspect of authority and obedience and on a one-way communication (”teaching them to obey”).

In the last part of the book ”Toward a Relevant Missiology”, Bosch discusses ”Elements of an Emerging Ecumenical Missionary Paradigm” and here he highlights many aspects that have to be taken into consideration when developing not the postmodern ecumenical missionary paradigm, but – i think – the variety of mission paradigms we need for today.

In a post-Christendom and increasing multi-religious society – such as the Danish society and most other Western societies – the Church is loosing power and Christianity is becoming one among many religious options. The Church is not longer at the centre of society and its attraction is diminishing. Fewer and fewer people respond when the church bells call people to church on Sundays. The context in which we live sometimes blind us to certain texts in the bible and help us to see the relevance of others. Maybe it is the increasing marginalisation of church and Christianity that has helped some to see the exemplary relevance of stories in Old as well as New Testament about God who approaches our world as a guest – and to see texts such as Luke 9,1-9 (parr. Matt 10,5-15, Mark 67-13) and 10,1-16 as challenging missionary texts for today.

As it was shown in the previous chapter, in his sending by his father to the world he saw himself as a guest of those to whom he was sent to minister. Thereby he set an example for his disciples who had followed him and participated in his “guesting”. When Jesus sent out the 12 and the 72 they were sent with his authority to preach the kingdom and to heal the sick. What is often overlooked, however, is the way he sends them. They are not sent out as a well-equipped army, but they are sent out empty handed. “Take nothing for the journey – no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic” (Luke 9,2). The explanation is that they are sent as – guests, which means that they would be depending not on their own resources but on their hosts to whom they were sent to minister. And they were supposed to behave like good guests: When they entered a house they should convey “Peace to this house“. And they should “Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages”. The disciples of Jesus were to carry out their missionary ministry of preaching the kingdom of god and of healing the sick as the guests of those they were ministering to.

There are examples of a continuation of the ministry of guesting among the disciples after the ascension of Jesus. In Acts of the Apostles we read about Peter who is the guest of Simon the tanner in Joppa, when  (Acts 9:43 & 10:6), when the Roman centurion Cornelius invites him to stay in his house in Caesarea. The surprising aspect of Peter’s accept of the hospitality of Cornelius is that he is Roman soldier, who is not a Jew. What convinced Peter to do so was the vision God gave him while he was still a guest in the house of Simon the tanner, a vision that helped him re realize that he “should not call any man unclean or impure” (Acts 10,28). His acceptance of the hospitality of this gentile bridges the gap between Jews and gentiles and becomes the vehicle for the evangelisation of gentiles: as the guest in Cornelius’ house he shares the gospel with Cornelius and the others in the house and the Holy Spirit falls upon them and they are baptised.[1]

In many missiological books and articles the missiological significance of hospitality has been explored and analysed. What is needed, however, is to reflect more deeply about the missiological significance of guesting.

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[1] Andrew Arterbury, ”Entertaining Angels: Hospitality in Luke and Acts” (Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor University, 2007)

God as Host - and Guest? - A Missiology of Guesting-2

God as Host - and Guest? - A Missiology of Guesting 2

God is the creator, and we are all his creatures. God the creator is our host and all is creatures are invited to his table as guests. But are we justified in conceiving God also as the guest, as the guest of his own creatures?

When the salvation history takes off through the calling of Abraham, through whom ”all the peoples on earth will be blessed” (Gen 12,3), God appears in the process to Abraham in the persons of three guests. "The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby"(Gen 18,1-2).

Abraham welcomed them as any good host would do and treated them as his guests. He had their feet washed and offered them the best food he had. In the context of being a guest of Abraham ”the Lord said, ”I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sara your wife will have a son” (Gen18,10).[1]

When God’s promise about blessing to all people through his descendants was fulfilled and a saviour was born in the family of Mary and Joseph, the encounter of the Son of God with the world was – as a guest in a stable in Bethlehem. Shortly afterwards the holy family realised that king Herod did not welcome them in his kingdom so they had to flee to Egypt and stay there for some time as refugees and guests.

Although Jesus was the Son of God, and could have approached his creation and creatures as their creator and lord, he did not impose himself on people but offered himself as  a guest, someone they could receive and welcome or freely reject him. The evangelist John reflects on this when he writes that "He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him … (John 1,10-12).

Throughout his ministry, Jesus ministered to people from the position of a guest. When somebody came to him and said that he wanted to follow him wherever he would go, Jesus pointed to his way of life: ”Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Matt 8,20). Apparently, Jesus was always the guest in someone’s house. We know that he often was the guest in the house of the siblings Mary, Martha and Lazarus (Luke 10,38ff), and we hear about him visiting many other houses. He seems to consciously be placing himself in a position of dependence on the hospitality of others.

When Jesus encounters the woman at the well in Samaria, he approaches her as her guest and asks her,  ”Will you give me a drink?” and thereby treating her as if she was him host. As a guest he shows her respect although she is a Samaritan and he belongs to the Jewish people who would normally consider themselves to be superior to the Samaritans. It seems that by making her his host he succeeded in initiating a very open conversation with her about sensitive issues of her personal life and of faith in God.

At the beginning of the history of salvation, the Lord appeared to Abraham as a guest, and at the climax of the history of salvation, the resurrected Lord appeared to two of his discouraged disciples on their way from Jerusalem to Emmaus as a stranger whom they ask to be their guest at a meal. As a guest he does not impose himself on them but listens to them and asks them questions – and then shares his insight with them.  During the meal when Jesus breaks the bread and gives thanks, however, they realise that their guest was the resurrected Lord (Luke 24,13-32).

Jesus met the disciples on the way to Emmaus as a stranger and a guest, but he ended up acting as their host when he broke the bread. This reflects a key event in the ministry of Jesus where he also acted as the host, namely the Lord’s Supper where Jesus is truly the host and his disciples are his guests. As Abraham washed the feet of his three guests in Mamre and gave them a meal, in the same way Jesus washes the feet of his disciples/guests and shares a meal with them (John 13).

The Lord is of course our creator and as creatures we are the guests in his world. The Lord is our Saviour who in his grace invites us to be his guests at his table. But a closer reading of the Old and in particular the New Testament reveals that God as our guest is a very significant theme in the salvation history.

It is noteworthy that the biblical idea of God as our guest has found a strong resonance in The Danish Hymnbook ("Den Danske Salmebog" DS, 2009). In about 30 of the 792 hymns, God (in most hymns the references are to Jesus, but in a few the reference is to the Holy Spirit) is referred to in guest-terminology. The incarnation is described in terms of guesting. Thomas Kingo states that God has broken out of his heavenly abode to become the guest of the world (DS 124,1).  And N. F. S. Grundtvig says that Jesus has come to us as guest for the sake of our salvation (DS 81,4). B.S. Ingemann in his Christmas hymns sings about the joy brought about by the creator visiting his creation:

"Joy is our guest on earth this day,
the littel King of  creation!
Come, sparrow and dove, fly down and stay
to join in our celebration.
Dance on your mohter’s lap, dear child!
a wondrous day has arisen:
today He is born, our Saviour mild –
the pathway to Paradise given".[2]

Kingo refers to Jesus being a guest at the wedding of Canaan as a reminder that Jesus also wants to be the guest and bless marriages today (DS 144). Grundtvig calls the Holy Spirit our counsellor or adviser who is the honorouble guest of our heart (DS 305,2).

In Jesus parable about judgment day Jesus identifies himself with the stranger who needs to be welcomed as a guest. Jesus says: “… I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in” (Matt 25,35f). And in the Book of Revelation Jesus is reported to have said to the Church in Laodicea, and it also may summarise his guest-approach to ministry in general: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev 3,20).

At the end of his earthly ministry Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20,21). The sending of Jesus by his father implied a ministry of guesting. The question is, if guesting is also a key component of the ministry and mission of the church?

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[1] God appeared as a guest (or rather three guests) when announcing a message of salvation (the promise of son) to Abraham, and God similarly seems to have appeared as a guest (or rather two guests) when announcing judgment (upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah) to Lot (Gen19,1-21).
[2] Verse 2 of ”Julen har bragt velsignet bud” translated by Edward Broadbridge into English in Hymns in English. A Selection of Hymns from The Danish Hymnbook (2009), p. 28)

Mission as Hospitality - and Guesting? - A Missiology of Guesting 2

Mission as Hospitality - and Guesting? - A Missiology of Guesting 1

Hospitality is a well-known metaphor for mission.[1] In the new WCC mission document it is stated that

"To the extent that the church practises radical hospitality to the estranged in society, it demonstrates commitment to embodying the values of the reign of God (Isaiah 58:6). …. God’s hospitality calls us to move beyond binary notions of culturally dominant groups as hosts, and migrant and minority peoples as guests. Instead, in God’s hospitality, God is host and we are all invited by the Spirit to participate with humility and mutuality in God’s mission."[2]

God is our host and we are his guests. The Danish theologian and hymn writer N. F. S. Grundtvig calls the church a “guest chamber”.[3] God’s hospitality – God being the host – motivates and inspires us to participate in a mission of hospitality where we in the church welcome people and extend God’s hospitality to them. Together with them we are all guests of our Lord, seated at the same table.

The host/hospitality metaphor reveals many important aspects of the mission of God and the misson of the church, but I n this chapter, however, I intend to approach the host-guest relationship from another angle and pursue “guesting” or “being a guest” as a metaphor for mission in the hope that this metaphor may reveal other missionals aspects of mission that might be pertinent to the our postmodern Danish context. God as guest, Jesus as guest, the missionary as guest.

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[1] See for instance: Julius Gathogo, "African Hospitality form a Missiogical Perspective: Aiding Church and Societal Growth" (2011).

[2] Together towards life: mission and evangelism in changing landscapes. Proposal for a new WCC Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism. Submitted by the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) (September 2012). Accessed at http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/wcc-commissions/mission-and-evangelism/together-towards-life-mission-and-evangelism-in-changing-landscapes.html .

[3] In the hymn from 1825, revised in 1853, ”Tør nogen ihukomme”.

”Huset med de høje sale

tømres kun af skaberhånd,

må fra Himmelen neddale

som til støvet Herrens Ånd;

vi af bløde bøgestammer,

under nattergalesang,

bygge kun et gæstekammer

til en himmelsk altergang.”

E-book on Missiology - in Progress

I hereby invite all interested readers of this blog to comment on and discuss and contribute to a new writing project I have just begun. I am in the process of writing an e-book on missiology, and have already written one chapter on "A Missiology of Listening", which will be made available online shortly. Now I plan to write another chapter with the working title "A Missiology of Guesting", that is a missiology that explores the metaphor of being a guest.

When a section of the chapter has been discussed I will temporarily publish it on my website: www.intercultural here: E-book in progress. Please,feel free to comment, criticize, contribute. You may also contact me throuhg my e-mail address: mogensen@intercultural.dk.

Mogens S. Mogenesn
Sunday, September 16, 2012


Questions:

•  Are you aware of book or articles on missiology seen from the perspective of the guest/guesting?
• What do you think of exploring the metaphor of "guesting" for missiology? 

Lutherans and Mennonites - Reconciliation and healing of memories

Not many may remember all that actually happened almost 500 years ago during and after the reformation. We Lutherans mainly remember Martin Luther's struggle to reform the Catholic Church and how he was finally kicked out of Catholic Church and had to establish a protestant church. We Lutherans tend not to remember how the Lutheran princes persecuted the Anabaptists, and did so with theological support from leaders of the protestant reformation. The Anabaptists, or Mennonites, as they themselves prefer to be called, however, have never forgotten how they were treated by their Lutheran brethren in the Christian faith.

What has just happened at the Council meeting of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva today is therefore very significant. The council unanimously approved the report, ”Healing of Memories; Reconciliation in Christ”, from the Lutheran-Mennonite International Study Commission, 2005-2009 and the below statement and recommended it for adoptaion at the LWF Assembly in Stuttgart, Germany in 2010.

”When Lutherans today realize the history of Lutheran –anabaptist relationships in the 16th century and beyond as it is presented in the report of the Lutheran – Mennonite International Study Commission, the are filled with a deep sense regret and pain over the persecution of Anabaptists by Lutheran authorities and especially over the fact that Lutheran reformers theologically supported this persecution. Thus, LWF, A Communion of Churches wishes to express publicly its deep regret and sorrow.

Trusting in God who in Jesus Christ was reconciling the world to hiself, we ask for forgiveness – from God and fromour Mennonite sisters an brothers – for the harm that our forbears in the 16th century committed to Anabaptists, for forgetting or ignoring this persecution in the intervening centuries, and for all inappropriate, misleading and hurtful portraits of Anabaptists and Mennonites made by Lutheran authors, in both popular and scholarly forms, to the present day.

We pray that God may grant to our communities a healing of our memories and reconciliation.”

As the president of LWF, bishop Mark Hansson, ELCA, said at this very emotionale moment: "We talk a lot about repentence, but more important than words about repentence is repentence. And this is what we are involved in today."


Geneva, Monday October 26, 2009

Mogens S. Mogensen

Religion and Politics According to Moltmann

The encounter with Islam has once again raised the issue of religion and politics. Since Islam is seen by some as a politicised religion or a religious politics, some politicians, media people and also some church people have tried to explain Christianity in a way so that it separates religion from politics.

Today I happened to read an interview with and articles by the German Lutheran theologian Jürgen Moltmann which put this debate about religion and politics into a relevant context. When explaining his "theology of hope", Moltmann points out that "eschatology is the expectation of God's coming in this wolrd to establsih his reign and perfect all the longings and desires of humanity". The coming kingdom therefore gives the church a much broader focus for its mission than a only a private "only" the salvation of individual souls. For Moltmann this means that an eschatological theolology (a theology of hope) will also be a political theology.

Referring to Ernst Blochs's "Principle of Hope" he noted that the eschatoogical conscience and messianic hopes came into the world through the Bible. But, and I quote:

"In the past two centuries, a Christina fiath in God without hope for the future of the world has called forth a secular hope for the furture of the world without faith in God. Since the Christians, the churches, and theology believed in God without future, the will for a furture of the earth has joined itself to an atheism which sought a future without God. The messianic hopes emigrated from the church and became invested in progress, evolution, and revolutions."

If Christianity does not hold forth its hope for the future - based on its escahtological theology, founded in the vision of the coming Kingdom of God - and also has the courage to relate it to the political reality, the consequences may be serious.

"'Political theology", Moltmann argues, "was our answer to the fuailure of the churches and Christendom in Auschwitz. Why did the church fail? There were many heroes in the church. Why were the churches silent? Many reasons could be named. Probably the most important reasin is religon was said to be a private matter that has nothing to do with politics."

A church that choses to be silent regarding politics based on a theology that keeps religion apart from politics, I think, does not take its calling seriously.


Christiansfeld, Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Mogens S. Mogensen

If you want to read more about similar and other topics, visit my website www.intercultural.dk/english

Holocausts and genocides

Reading ”The Lost History of Christianity” (2008) by Philip Jenkins is really an enlightening and challenging experience which I can recommend to others interested in the history of the Christianity in its interactions with other religions.

Jenkins reminds us that around 1900 Christians made up about 11 % of the population of the Middle East, and points out – if we should have forgotten it – that since then ”Christians have ceased to exist altogether – are ceasing to exist – as organized communities.” And he goes on to conclude that whether the causes of that change are religious or polititical ”the result was to create a Muslim world that was just as Christian-free as large sections of Europe would be Jew-free after the Second World War. And in both instances, the major mechanism of change was the same. For alle the reasons we can suggest for long-term decline, for all the temptations to assimilate, the largest single factor for Christian decline was organize violence, whether in the form of massacre, expulsion, or forced migration” (p. 141).

All religious communities, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu etc., have in their history events and periods which contradict the noblest ideals of these religions. It is not healthy, however, for any religious community to pretend that this was not part of their history. In Europe we have to face the reality of persecutions of Jews and the holocaust. In the same way as people in the Middle East have to face the reality of the persecution of Christians and cases of genocide, and people in Turkye will have to face the history of the Armenian genocide. Some of these tragic events took place long ago, others is part of our modern history. If we refuse to face the harsh reality and learn from our history, we may be more likely to bring ourselves – and others – in a positition where we – and others – repeat the holocausts and genocides of history.

Christiansfeld, Saturday, May 23, 2009
Mogens S. Mogensen

The Rise and Fall and Rise of Global Christianity

Next year we will celebrate the 100 anniversary of the Edinburgh World Mission Conference in 1910. At the beginning of the 20th century about more than 80 % of the Christians in the world lived in the West, i.e., in Europa and North America. And if we go a few centuries further back in time more than 90 % of alle Christians were either Europeans or North Americans. And today only about a third of all Christians live in the West.

The modern missionary movement, whose climax was the 1910 conference in Edinburgh, did not result in the conversion of all the world to Christianity – the perecentage of Christians is about the same today as it was in when mission leaders gathered in Edinburgh a hundred years ago under the slogan ”The Christianization of the World in Our Generation – but it led to an impressive globalisation. Christianity can no longer be presented as ”the white man’s religion”.

Reading Philip Jenkins’ excellent book, ”The Lost History of Christianity” (2008), I was once again reminded that the development of Christianity has not in any sens been linear and progressive in terms of extension and size. Globalisation of Christianity is not a new thing in Christian history. For many centuries in the middle ages Christianity just as globalised as it is now. Jenkins rightly observes that

”For most of its history, Christianity was a tricontinental religion, with powerful representation in Europe, Africa and Asia, and this was true into the fourtheenth century. Christianity became predominantly European not because this continent had any obvious affinity for that faith, but by defaltu. Europe was the continent where it was not destroeyed. Matters could easily have developed very differently” (p. 3).

We should keep this in mind as we celebrate the100 anniversary of Edinburgh 1910. And we should ponder this historical fact as we today celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who on this day before ascending – so that He could and can be globally present with his church - gave his disciples then (and also his disciples today) the great commission that whereever we are or go to share the good news and call people to become His disciples.

Christiansfeld, Ascension Day, May 21, 2009
Mogens S. Mogensen

To read more about similar and other topics, visit my website: www.intercultural.dk/english