People of God Who Make the World their Parish
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I’ll never forget walking along the drill field when I was at Mississippi State- yes you heard correctly. I’ll never forget it because it was beautiful. I loved to watch the flag in the center of the field each day as I would pass by. Every now and then, there would be a young man who would stand on top of the brick and yell out the gospel. Crowds of students would gather around to listen, to argue, and others just walked by. It didn’t matter to him, he kept right on yelling. I didn’t agree with all of his theology, but I couldn’t argue with the fact that he was passionate and driven. It was as if the brick wall was his pulpit and the drill field was his parish.
But what about your parish? Field preaching, as we might call it, was also practiced by the disciples. Think about the many places we find them in the book of Acts proclaiming the good news. They were arrested more than once and still would bring praise to God even from prison cells.
You might say today’s text, a text that is often considered the mission statement of the church, is inviting us to live our own lives of field preaching. Maybe you are thinking, “well I’m not a preacher Hannah. That’s your job. Or, can’t we just deal with who is here each Sunday rather than the whole world?” For many years scholars thought that Matthew 28 was a text solely for the early church and didn’t play a role in our lives today. Then they began to realize the command to “make disciples” applied to all of us. Notice how much we see the word “all” here. Jesus is given all authority in heaven and earth. We are called to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them all of what we have been taught. Through this, Jesus promises to be with us always.
This calling here is comprehensive and active. It is on the move. It has a direction. It isn’t contained within walls or marked by socioeconomic, ethnic, or geographical lines. It is quite literally a movement of discipleship. Some say this could be translated here as “as you go, make disciples. As you are on your way. As you are moving about in your parish- here, there, and yon- tell people about Jesus. I’ll never forget a pastor friend of mine who once said, “As pastors we must remember that we are preaching long before we ever come behind the pulpit. We preach with our lives.” All of us are called to go out and to preach with our lives.
Perhaps you feel ill-equipped. Perhaps this is a new concept to you or you are hesitant. You’re not alone. Notice the first verse of this text. Now we are down to eleven disciples. They see Jesus and when they saw him, some believed, and some doubted. Some were hesitant. Some weren’t quite sure. Ever feel that way? As we know from the book of Acts, the birth of the church, the field-preaching, church-planting life of the disciples, wasn’t easy.
But they were driven not by some super willpower, but by the power of the Holy Spirit and under the authority of and within the presence of God. It was all about Jesus.
But sometimes, O sometimes, the church wants to make disciples of the church more than Jesus. Sometimes we want to fashion people in our image rather than the image of God. We want to make disciples of our theology, our politics, and our side of the story. But dear friends, our calling is not to make disciples of Hannah, disciples of you, or disciples of you. We are to make disciples in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You may have or choose to have a membership here, but your discipleship is about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Speaking of membership, in the 18th century Anglican church, John Wesley began to notice that there were many who weren’t there. Those on the edges of town, the edges of society, who had fallen through the cracks, weren’t there during worship service. Wesley’s friend George Whitefield had already been preaching in the field and urged Wesley to join him. He gave his first field sermon from Luke 4 in 1739 at the age of 35. The truth, Wesley hated field preaching. It was a burden. He loathed being in the open under the boiling hot sun or the frigid cold. Yet he continued to preach outdoors, even on his own father’s grave, to reach others for Christ. Wesley practiced field-preaching for 51 years of his life, preaching outside the last time when he was 87 years old.
He said in his journals: “I look upon all the world as my parish; thus far I mean, that in whatever part of it I am, I judge it meet, right, and my bounden duty to declare unto all that are willing to hear, the glad tidings of salvation.”
He didn’t do it for popularity’s sake. He didn’t do it because he had some great love of the outdoors. He did it because he loved God, and through the love of God in his heart, he began to go to the people, bringing the good news, bringing the church to wherever they were, seeing the world, seeing all of life, as the parish of God.
So where is your parish, and who is in it? Where do you go about doing no harm, doing good, and staying in love with God? Is it at work? Is it in your home? Is it where you go hang out on Friday night? Maybe your parish is right where you are. In 2004 a movement known as Fresh Expressions was born within the Anglican and Methodist churches in England. Pastors and church members began to realize that there were opportunities every day around them to “proclaim the faith afresh to each generation.” In 2010, the movement began to crop up here in the U.S.
People began paying attention, looking at the world around them and wondering what it would look like to create space for a fresh expression of faith, right then and there. Fresh Expressions have been formed since then in dinner churches, in dog parks, on playgrounds, in tattoo parlors, in yoga studios, in pubs, book clubs, alongside Sunday night football, at concerts, and at the gym. I have friends who have started dinner churches in trailer parks, who sing hymns in breweries, and who share devotion in cycling studios.
Consider the parish of your life. Michael Beck, a leader in the Fresh Expressions movement, once took the door of its hinges in his office and put it up in the sanctuary. He told his church “I’m not going to be in here. I’m going to be coming to see you. I’m going to be outside.” Through this shared vision, the church began to be experienced not just on Sundays and Wednesdays, but through expressions of faith all over the community. A hairstylist started one in her salon. A young mom started one in her home with other moms. A walking group started one. Another started Bibles and Burritos.
* What if we took the hinges off the doors of our souls and began to look around? What would happen if our faith can’t simply be contained in here but is unleashed within us, and suddenly we are preaching with our lives whether we are getting our nails done, attending a rock concert, or working 9 to 5? People around us are saying” those people at Iuka First are unhinged. They’re sharing Jesus all over the place!” What if we look at the parish of our life and ask God, “what fresh way can I express my faith right where you have placed me? Maybe you get coffee at the same place every day, you attend a workout class, take lunch with the same coworkers, or go running at the same park. Suddenly those who may not come to formal worship may join you to talk about God at the gym.
Shannon Kiser says, “You don’t have to quit your “normal life” to start a fresh expression of church. You just have to be willing to see your “normal life” as a potential place of connection and discipleship…and see what God does with that!”
Go therefore, and dream together, preach the freshness of faith with your life. In all the ways you can. To all the souls you can. At every place you can. At all times you can. With all the passion you can. As long as you ever can. For your world is your parish.