Encountering
the three worldviews- Biblical, Missionary’s and the people of the Mission
Field
Introduction:
This
missiological approach calls upon the people to do mission in the likeness of
Jesus ministry and purpose of self emptying and provide a space to the most
unfortunate, oppressed, neglected, marginalized etc. kenosis is not a strategy
or a method, but an essential dimension of the mystery of Christ and his
mission. In Jesus’s ministry, it anticipated, and in the mission of his
disciples, it continues, the mystery of a crucified Messiah, for God wisdom is
wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1
Cor 1:23-25). Kenosis is this foolishness and this weakness of God who draws
all people to himself (Jn 12-32) by the power of a love without limits.
Biblical:
It
is a key notion that helps us to read the Gospels well and to understand that
spirituality and ministry of Jesus is Kenosis, a word forged by theologians
from the Greek verb Kenoun (to empty) in Phil 2:6-7. The New Testament does not
use the actual noun Kenosis but the verb form Kenoo occurs five times (Roman
4:14, 1 Cor. 1:17, 9:15, 2 Cor. 9:3, Phil 2:7). Of these five times it is Phil
2:7; in which Jesus is said to have “emptied himself” which is the starting
point of Christian ideas of kenosis. John the Baptist displayed the attitude
when he said of Jesus, “he must become greater; I must become less.” (John 3:30).
The Philippians passage urges believers to imitate Christ’s self-emptying. In
this interpretation, Paul was not primarily putting forth a theory about God in
this passage; rather he was using God’s humility exhibited in the incarnation
event as a call for Christians to be similarly subservient to others. Here
Jesus Christ lived in appearance as a man (Isaiah 53:3, Phil 2:8), and
submitted His will to the Father, and lived His life as a man anointed by the
Spirit (Luk 4:16-21). Yet, He retained all His powers, and demonstrated His
abilities often as a vindication of His messiahship and proof of His authority
(Mk 2:1-12). In the mysterious verse John “…My Father has been working until
now, and I have been working,” we are given a clue that He did many of His
works “in His own right,” though they were always in accordance with the will
of the father . On one occasion, He even lifted the veil of His flesh, took off
His servant nature, and so His three closest disciples could see Him as He
really was (Mat 17:2). On another occasion, He “lifted the hem of His veil a
bit”—when they came to arrest Him, He said “I AM,” and they all fell down(John
18:4-6).
The Term Missionary
A missionary is a member of a
religious group sent into an area to proselytize and/or perform ministries of
service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic
development. The word “mission” originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent
members abroad, derived from the Latin missionem (nom. missio), meaning “act of
sending” or mittere, meaning “to send”. The word was used in light of its
biblical usage; in the Latin translation of the Bible, Christ uses the word
when sending the disciples to preach in his name. The term is most commonly
used for Christian missions, but can be used for any creed or ideology.
Mission and the people of the
Mission Field : The missio Dei (God‟s mission)
offers us a perspective to understand the missio ecclesiae (church‟s mission).
Our identity is shaped by our participation in God‟s redemptive purposes.
Paul
Hiebert, in his works ‘Anthropological
Insights for Missionaries’ argues that ‘The Biblical concept of God is quite
different. In the Bible, God is infinite, eternal and the creator. All other
forms of life are categorically different. They are finite, temporal and
created. To worship any of them is idolatry and sacrilegious. In this view,
"incarnation" does not mean God lowering Himself to join others like
Himself, like a rich man joining the poor. It means God crossed the categorical
difference between Himself and humans -- a difference of kind, not degree -- to
become something He was not before, a human.’
Missionaries
have turned to anthropology and the other social sciences. In doing so, they do
not deny the religious nature of the Biblical message, or the spiritual nature
of human beings. But they recognize that people are also human: their bodies
subject to physical and biological processes, their minds and spirits to
psychological and socio-cultural processes. And the social sciences are the
study of these processes. So long as mission involves human beings, these
scholars contend, an understanding of the social sciences can help us to build
a more effective ministry.
In
the mission field the two important aspects were linguistic and communication
according to Hiebert. Linguists developed techniques which enabled them to
learn languages quickly and accurately without the assistance of language
schools. Out of their work developed some of the emphases of modern
linguistics, which is the study of the basic nature and structures of human
languages. Missionaries faced the same problems of language, and a number of
missionary linguists played an important part in the development of linguistic
and translation theory. Eugene A. Nida and William A. Smalley
also pioneered a linguistic program aimed at teaching missionaries how to learn
new languages. The problem of the relationship of language to culture is about
how to communicate. Its importance to Christian missions and all cross-cultural
communication is obvious, for communication is not measured by what is said,
but by what the listener understands.
Missionary’s view:
The
way we live this chrism and our religious vows should reflect as much as
possible the commitment of Jesus the missionary. At the same time it should be
nurtured by spirituality that is modeled on that of Jesus “the faithful
witness” (Rev 1:5). Jesus sends out his disciples with the same mission. “As
the father has sent me, so do I send you” (John 20:21; 17:18). The Father’s
sending of the Son serves both as a model and reason for sending of the
disciples.
What
we need today is not so much the Hellenized high Christology of patristic time
that explains what Jesus is, but rather a Christology that explains what Jesus
said and did, the low Christology of the gospels. To be witness is not so much
a question of accepting truths and proclaiming one’s faith, but foremost a
question of following Jesus. The kingdom became visible in what Jesus said and
did. The Kingdom is realized when his disciples follow his lifestyle, words and
deeds. If Jesus is the model of the missionary, and if Kenosis is constitutive
of Jesus’ life and mission our lives should follow, the extent possible, this
kenosis. This has profound implications for the life, ministry, spirituality,
and basic attitude of the missionary. It will transform the aims, the
priorities, the structures, and the methods for doing mission.
This
is the kenosis of mobility, availability, and provisionality, the kenosis of
walking with people, of setting out with people, and of a common search for
truth, light and hope. This kenosis will lead us to solidarity with people’s
movements and struggles and with people who are lost or on the run. It will
enable us to reaching out to all, especially to those to whom the lord urges us
to proclaim the good news of the kingdom. It is the kenosis of missionary
restlessness and daring, the kenosis of the ongoing search of the lost sheep,
and of the unconditional option for the poor. It is the kenosis of going very
far, to the outer boundaries of faith and hope. This necessarily demands a
simple lifestyle and the sacrifice of all impediments to this commitment. Like
Jesus, a missionary has to give up all ambitions, plans, and securities, and
rid him/herself of any feeling of superiority. This is the kenosis of not
having, of renouncing extra luggage, powerful means, and even one’s family
(Matt 10:9-10; 19:27-29) and of refusing to settle down, to look back.
The people of the Mission field:
The
Biblical image that powerfully renders this idea is Heb 13:12-13. “Therefore
Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people by his own
bold. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured.”To
go “outside the camp” means that we have to go and encounter Christ where his
is to be found, where he gave his life for our salvation: outside the visible
civil and religious compound, outside the security and comfort of the redeemed
community. We have to look for him and find him among the crucified people of
today, among the destitute, the persecuted, the rejected, and those who suffer.
If the disciples want to encounter Jesus and follow him they have to go and see
where he lives. “Outside the gate,” in the wilderness, at the peripheries of
society, amidst the outsiders and outcasts of the world. And once we have found
the master there, we are summoned to commit ourselves to those with whom he
suffered and for whom he gave his life: the excluded, the poor, and desperate,
and the voiceless. This is the only way to transform mission and to discover
the true meaning of Missio Dei in a time of crisis.
Since
we do not know where to the lord will lead us or how long the road is, this
kenosis requires trust, patience, and the acceptance of weakness and
vulnerability. It is also the kenosis of our willingness to share what we have
and what we are (time, talents, skills, energy), and of our constant readiness
to move, to respond to more difficult or challenging calls to follow the lord
to Galilee (Mt 28:7, 10, 16), that is to the periphery. Only through this
self-emptying will missionaries acquire the inner freedom and the prophetic
frankness they need for their task, especially in demanding situations.
Cross-
culture ministry
The need of the hour is cross-culture
evangelism. It is agonizing to know that 98% of the Indian Evangelism is
directed to 2% of the nominal Christian population neglecting the masses that
are waiting for someone to bring them in. The task given to the disciples in
the words of our Lord through the great commissions are relevant even today.
They are very specific “Go and make disciples of all nations.” The purpose is
evangelism, and the scope is the whole world. It is not so much the
geographical distance but the crossing of linguistic, religious, and social
barriers. God called Israel to be a light unto the nations (Is. 49:6), but they
became self-centered. God’s desire for the nations portrayed in the Old
Testament was fulfilled in the New Testament mission of the church. Paul was
directed to go to the Gentiles (Acts 26:16-18), and to cross the barriers of
culture. Much of the emphasis on caring and nurturing among the Indian mission
societies leaves the majority of the non- Christian population untouched. The
need of the hour is to devote more time to aggressive evangelism directed to
the neglected masses of the non- Christians populations. In India the Christian
minority is concentrated in the Southern States and the North East. The rest of
the country is largely neglected. A present need is more cross-culture
missionaries to effectively communicate the Gospel among the unreached.[1]
Christian mission is “an organized
effort for the propagation of the Christian faith.” Missions often involve
sending individuals and groups, called “missionaries,” across boundaries, most
commonly geographical boundaries, basing from the Biblical teaching.
S. J. Samartha
says: “Mission is continuing activity through the spirit to mend the brokenness
of creation to overcome the fragmentation of humanity and to heal rift between
humanity, nature and God”
Mission and the Bible
The word ‘mission’ in the research,
was used only in the context of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, as
revealed in the Bible in relevant and intelligent terms; in a persuasive manner
with the definite purpose of making Christian converts. Mission, it was
discovered, was more than an essential biblical idea, but more of the central
underlying message in scriptures.
The message of the O.T. was
universal in scope, where Abraham for example, was chosen by God to be the
instrument used by God, to be a blessing to the nations. The nations played a
central role in the biblical narrative with Israel being God’s first chosen. In
a similar manner, Christians today understand mission through God’s revelation,
by studying the live and ministry of Jesus, the work of the apostles, and the
ministry of the early church in the N.T. The need to spread the message of the
Gospel was clearly given as an instruction by Christ, to each believer in the
church, in at least 5 different places in the New Testament: John 20:19-23,
Luke 24:44-48, Acts 1:6-8, Mark 16:15-16. The proclamation of the Gospel must
be central in cross-cultural mission work but will it only be relevant, if
Christian workers are aware of the cultural historical backgrounds of
communities.
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