In Exodus 33:1-17, we have what I would consider one of the rawest conversations between God and Moses. Stop and read this passage and reflect on the give and take between Moses and God. How is their relationship described? What is the main focus of their conversation? Does this look like your relationship with God? I try to hold this passage as an image of what I want my relationship with God to look like. The more perfect image of what our relationship with God should look like is Jesus Christ. I hold this image because of Moses’ focus on the need for God’s presence. Spend your week reflecting on this conversation with our church in mind. What do we strive for most as a church?
God’s presence through the Holy Spirit is poured out on the church to give us peace during trials, assurance during times of doubt, and guidance for where we need to carry God’s mission. Early in ministry I was confronted with a statement that was continued to work on me for 15 years, “God’s church doesn’t have a mission. God’s mission has a church.” The focus of this statement is on God’s mission to redeem his broken creation and he has called the church into that mission. The subtle shift in focus brings into view that God is going to move to bring about his mission and the church needs to see the work God is doing and move to join him.
What is God’s mission that the church is called into? In the “Great Commission” (Matt 28:16-20), Jesus sends out his disciples to make other disciples. They are to go to every person on the planet and invite them to walk in the way of Jesus. When he says, “make disciples of all nations,” he is saying that there is no one who is unworthy to be invited to walk in the way of Jesus. When they are baptized into the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, they receive the same status as Children of God as everyone else and are called to the same way of life as everyone who has dedicated their life to walking in the way of Jesus. Therefore, those who are baptized with the Spirit have a higher calling in how they are to live, not as a little bit better than the world, but on a whole other plane. The church is called to live out God’s good creation amongst the broken creation. We are called to live as a light to the nations (Matt 5:14-16), living within the nations. There are some in Christianity who have twisted this Great Commission into a call to legislate the teachings of Jesus to rule a nation separating the call to follow Jesus’ teachings from the call to walk with him. When this happens, those Christians pick and choose the teachings of Jesus that work for nation and ignore the ones that do not work. This has been taking place in the Western world for 1700 years and is detrimental to God’s call for the church to live as a light, set apart from the nations. Jesus formed a visible and identifiable community called to live in contrast to society. He lays out the vision for this community in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7; Lk. 6:17–46).
Looking at the whole teaching of Scripture, Leonard Allen says, “God’s mission is to make all things new, to offer people reconciliation (both to the self and to their enemies), and to fashion creation as a place for human flourishing (a place of shalom). Through the Spirit we are enabled to participate in this cosmic missional project” (Poured Out: The Spirit of God Empowering the Mission of God, p. 97).
God’s Church has a mission, and the Spirit guides us in that mission. When Jesus ascended back to the Father, he told the disciples to wait for the Spirit (Acts 1:4) and promised that they “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you,” said the risen Jesus, “and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The rest of Acts is one of the Spirit’s moving and the church following. Sometimes, this meant they had to wait. Other times, they had to keep up. But they always had to be ready, listening and looking. This echoes the end of Exodus (40:36-38). When God moved, Israel moved. When God stayed, Israel stayed.
Why is it so hard to wait for the movement of the Spirit to lead us?
In what ways do we struggle with listening and looking?
Pray for us as a church and for our leadership that we will be people who look and listen for the Spirit’s guidance.