CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 6
Bearing the Witness of the Spirit:
Mission as Hope in Action
I HAVE spoken of mission as the proclaiming of God's kingship over all human history and over the whole cosmos. Mission is concerned with nothing less than the completion of all that God has begun to do in the creation of the world and of humankind. Its concern is not sectional but total and universal.
I have spoken, secondly, of mission as the presence of God and kingship in Jesus and in the church. In this aspect mission is concerned with the limited, the particular, the contingent.
Now it is essential to add a third affirmation, without which the first two would be misleading. I have affirmed that God's kingship is present in the church, but it must be insisted that it is not the property of the church. It is not domesticated within the church. Mission is not simply the self-propagation of the church by putting forth of the power that inheres in its life. To accept that picture would be to sanction an appalling distortion of mission. On the contrary, the active agent of mission is a power that rule;, guides, and goes before the church: the free, sovereign, living power of the Spirit of God. Mission is not just something that the church does; it is something that is done by the Spirit, who is himself the witness, who changes both the world and the church, who always goes before the church in its missionary journey. It is therefore not enough to speak of the proclamation of the kingdom and of the presence of the kingdom; we must also speak of the prevenience, the previousness of the kingdom. To explore this third dimension of mission will be the business of this chapter.
A very quick glance at the New Testament evidence will serve as a reminder of the central place that the work of the Spirit must have in any systematic thought about mission.
"Spirit" is the word used in English versions of the Bible to translate the Hebrew word roach, meaning "wind" or "breath.'' A person's breath is the secret of life, and the Spirit of the Lord (roach Yahweh) is the very life of the Lord himself put forth to give life and power, wisdom and speech, knowledge and understanding to humans. It is the living, mighty, self-comnumicating presence of God himself.
From the very beginning of the New Testament. the coming of Jesus, his words and works are connected directly with the power of the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that Jesus is conceived, by the Spirit that he is anointed at his baptism, by the Spirit that he is driven into the desert for his encounter with Satan. It is in the power of the Spirit that he enters upon his ministry of teaching and healing (Luke 4:14. 18: Matt. 12:18). In view of all this it is noteworthy that the Gospels are totally silent about any communication of the Spirit to the disciples during the period of Jesus' earthly ministry. It is only when the baptism initiated in the Jordan has been filled out in the ministry of Jesus and consummated in his death that the disciples can enter into the new anointing of the Spirit through their identification with the risen Jesus. I have already referred to the Johannine account of this (John 20:19-23), and we shall now look at the Lucan account in the Acts of the Apostles (which might well be entitled "The Acts of the Spirit"), in which, above all, we have the full exposition of the work of the Spirit as the real agent of mission.
At the very beginning of the book the disciples are told to await the completion of what had been begun by John's baptism in the Jordan. "John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5). John's baptism had been it sign pointing to the coming presence of the reality of the kingdom. In the baptism of Jesus sign and reality met. His baptism was baptism in water and the Spirit. The two are now one (John 3:5), and what God has joined shall not again be put asunder. Their baptism could not be complete until his was fully accomplished (cf. Luke 12:50). Now their time has come and they will share his complete baptism, which is the one baptism for the sin of the world.
Does that mean, then, that the time of waiting is over? If the sign and the reality have become one. does that not mean that the Day of the Lord is here? "Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (1:6) is a reasonable question. The answer i:; a warning and a promise. The warning is that God has his own infinite patience and it is not for mere mortals to try to foreclose on his promises (1:7). The promise is that the disciples will immediately be given not the kingdom in its fullness, but that gift which is the foretaste, the pledge, the guarantee of the kingdom - namely, the presence of the Spirit (Acts 1:8; cf. II Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:14). The word used in these two latter passages, arrabon, is a commercial word denoting a cash deposit paid as a pledge of the full amount to he paid later. The disciples are not promised the full victory of God's kingdom now; they are promised immediately the arrabon - the advance installment that will make them the living evidences of the reality that is promised. The real presence of God's own life lived in their common life will be the evidence, the witness to all the nations, that the full reality of God's vice orious reign is on the way. What is given here (and this is vital for true missionary thinking) is not a command, but a promise. The presence of the Spirit will make them witnesses.
This promise is fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. The disciples are now given the same anointing that Jesus received at his baptism. And the disciples know that this is indeed the "Day of the Lord" to which the prophets had looked forward. `'The last days" have dawned (Acts 2: 17). The curse of Babel is being reproved. The blessings of God promised to all nations in the primal covenant with Noah are now available to all (2:21). People of every nation are able to hear in their own tongues the mighty works of God (2:11 ). The gathering of all the nations to be the people of the Lord and of his Messiah has begun.
It is thus by an action of the sovereign Spirit of God that the church is launched on its mission. And it remains the mission of the Spirit. He is central. It is he who brings about the meeting of Philip with the finance minister of Ethiopia (8:26-40). It ,:s the Spirit who prepares Ananias to receive the archpersecutor Saul as a brother (9:10-19) and who prepares Peter to break his cherished principles and go to be the guest of a pagan army officer (10:1-20). It is the Spirit who initiates the first mission to the Gentiles (13:1-2) and guides the missionaries in their journeys (16:7).
The story of the meeting of Peter and Cornelius is especially significant in the light that it throws on the sovereign work of the Spirit in mission. It has been rightly said that this is the story not only of the conversion of Cornelius but also of the conversion of Peter and of the church. At the beginning of the story we see Peter firmly rejecting what seems to be an assault on his fidelity to the law (10:9-16). His whole identity as a son of Israel is bound up with strict obedience to the commandments. But despite these scruples he is persuaded to go to the home of the heathen officer and to tell him the gospel story. Before he has finished the situation passes out of his control. Cornelius and his household are caught up, in a way that cannot be gainsaid, into the same experience of freedom and joy that Peter and the others have known since Pentecost. Peter understands that he is not in control. A power greater than his own has broken down the hedge that protected devout Jews from the uncleanness of the heathen world. Peter can do nothing but humbly accept the fact and receive these uncircumcised pagans by baptism into the fellowship of the church (10:47-48).
In the following chapter we find Peter having to defend his action before the church. What he has done is a clear breach of the law under which Israel lives. His defense is simply to recount the undeniable activities of the Spirit by which he has been led, and to conclude: "Who was I that I could withstand God'?" (I I :17).
What the story makes clear, and what is spelled out in more theological terms (as we shall see) in the Fourth Gospel, is that ►nission changes not only the world but also the church. Quite plainly in this case there is a conversion of the church as well as the conversion of Cornelius. It is not as though the church opened its gates to admit a new person into its company, and then closed them again, remaining unchanged except for the addition of a name to its roll of members. Mission is not just church extension. It is something more costly and more revolutionary. It is the action of the Holy Spirit, who in his sovereign freedom both convicts the world (John 16:18-11) and leads the church toward the fullness of the truth that it has not yet grasped (John 16:12-15). Mission is not essentially an action by which the church puts forth its own power and wisdom to conquer the world around it; it is, rather, an action of God, putting forth the power of his Spirit to bring the universal work of Christ for the salvation of the world nearer to its completion. At the end of the story, which runs from Acts 10:1 to 11:18, the church itself became a kind of society different from what is was before Peter and Cornelius met. It had been a society enclosed within the cultural world of Israel; it became something radically different, a society that spanned the enormous gulf between Jew and pagan and was open to embrace all the nations that had been outside the covenant by which Israel lived.
The story of Peter and Cornelius is the preface to the much wider and more costly struggle that had to he fought out concerning the conditions on which Gentile converts should be admitted to the church. Those who insisted upon circumcision had an extremely strong case. The law of circumcision was the most fundamental element in the whole structure of the law. The uncircumcised male was excommunicated from God's people (Gen. 17:14). Martyrs had given their lives to uphold this law. Jesus himself had been circumcised, and by no single word had he suggested that circumcision was to be set aside. There was nothing in the tradition to be compared with Jesus' attitude to that other foundation pillar of the law -- the Sabbath. Those who insisted that circumcision was an indispensable condition for membership in the household of God had overwhelmingly strong reasons to support their case. To talk of uncircumcised pagans being heirs of Abraham and members of the household of God was, it could well be argued, to make nonsense of the plain teaching of Scripture, of tradition, and even of Jesus himself.
What arguments could lead the church to set aside such an overwhelming weight of authority? Only the argument of fact - the fact, namely. that through the preaching of Christ, God's own Spirit had been manifestly and unmistakably given to uncircumcised pagans. At the crucial point in his argument with the Galatians Paul writes, "Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?" (Gal. 3:2). There is only one possible reply, and it settles the matter. So also in the debate about the matter is Peter's own recalling of his earlier experience: "God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit.just as he did to us" (Acts 15:8). After this we read that "All the assembly kept silence" as they listened to the story of God's mighty works among the uncircumcised heathen through the preaching of the gospel (15:12).
At this point the church has to keep silence. It is not in control of the mission. Another is in control, and his fresh works will repeatedly surprise the church, compelling it to stop talking and to listen. Because the Spirit himself is sovereign over the mission, the church can only be the attentive servant. In sober truth the Spirit is himself the witness who goes before the church in its missionary journey. The church's witness is secondary and derivative. The church is witness insofar as it follows obediently where the Spirit leads.
The picture of the relation of the Spirit to the church's mission is expounded theologically in other parts of the New Testament. Let me briefly refer to some of the abundant material bearing on this.
The "Little Apocalypse" of Mark contains a saying that is paralleled in Matthew and Luke: Christians will be put on trial for their testimony but are not to be anxious about their defense; the right words will be given them. "for it is not you who speak. but the Holy Spirit" (Mark 13:11: cf. Matt. 10:20 and Luke 21:14-15). This idea that the Holy Spirit is the advocate who stands in court to speak on behalf of the Christian under trial is further developed in the discourses that are the Johannine equivalent of the Marcan apocalypse. The Spirit is the advocate who will stand by the disciples when the protecting presence of Jesus is removed (John 14:16-20). He will be there to bring to their remembrance the words and works of Jesus (14:26). The world will hate them and reject their teaching, but in this context of rejection there will be an advocate to stand by them in their trial, and his witness cannot be silenced: because of this powerful witness, their witness will stand (15:18-27). In fact this advocate will do more than defend them: he will confute their adversaries, proving to the accusing world that its fundamental religious and moral convictions are wrong and are proved wrong by the work of Jesus (16:8-11 ). And finally this advocate will lead the disciples into the fullness of the truth because he will bring "all that the Father has" and declare it to the church as the rightful patrimony of Jesus (16:12-15). In Paul's words, he will bring every thought into captivity to Christ (II Cor. 10:5).
This picture of the mission is as remote as possible from the picture of the church as a powerful body putting forth its strength and wisdom to master the strength and wisdom of the world. The case is exactly the opposite. The church is weak. It is under trial. It does not know what to say. It has no arguments to confute its persecutors. But exactly in this situation it can be calmly confident. It does not have to conduct its own defense. There is an advocate who is more than adequate for the task. It is his work - and he is quite capable of it - to take the weakness and foolishness of the cross, mirrored in the life of the community, and make it the witness that turns the world upside down and refutes its most fundamental notions. Because he knows this, Paul can exult in the assurance that "when I am weak. then I am strong" (I Cor. 12:1-10). Because he knows this, the writer of the Apocalypse depicts as the triumphant army of the Lord those who have suffered to the limit of human endurance and sees on the throne of the universe the Lamb who died. Because we know this, we can be assured that the mission of the church is not conducted, nor is its success ir-easured, after the planner of a military operation or a sales campaign. The witness that confutes the world is not ours: it is that of one greater than ourselves who goes before us. Our task is simply to follow faithfully.
The real triumphs of the gospel have not been won when the church is strong in a worldly sense; they have been won when the church is faithful in the midst of weakness, contempt, and rejection. And I would simply add my own testimony, which could be illustrated by many examples, that it has been in situations where faithfulness to the gospel placed the church in a position of total weakness and rejection that the advocate has himself risen up and. Often through the words and deeds of very "insignificant" people. spoker the word that confronted and shamed the wisdom and power of the world.
Paul's writings give us further illuminations of the role of the Spirit in the mission of the church. In referring to the promise of the Spirit in Acts 1:6-8, which is given in response to a question about the immediate coming of the kingdom, I drew attention to the word arrabon, which Paul uses to describe the Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is related to the coming of the kingdom as cash in advance i; related to the full settlement of an account. The Spirit is a foretaste of the messianic feast. The presence of the Spirit is a real presence of the love, joy, and peace that belong to God's perfect reign, but it is not yet the fullness of these things. It is the sign that the last things have begun (Acts 2:17): con sequently it both assures us of their coming and makes us hope more eagerly for their full fruition. It is in this way that the presence of the Spirit brings a powerful witness to the reality of the reign of God to which the world is otherwise blind.
The same idea is developed through another set of symbols in Paul's treatment of the Spirit in Romans 8. By the action of God in Jesus Christ we have been set free from the rule of sin and death and placed under the rule of the Spirit, for all '*liberation'is a change of government (8:2). This new life Under the regime of the Spirit holds out the promise not only of the renewal of our whole personalities (8:10) but of the liberation of the whole creation from the domination of false powers (8:19-21). The gift of the Spirit is the "firstfruit," which assures us that the full harvest is to come (8:22-24). Having been made children of God through the Spirit of him who enables us to say Ahha, we know that we are heirs and therefore look forward to the full possession of our inheritance (8:14-17). Our true standing as children and heirs will be authenticated by our participation in the sufferings of Jesus. Once again, as in the Johannine discourses, it is in the midst of the world's rejection and of the messianic tribulations that (low from it that we are assured of the presence of the Spirit. The Spirit brings the reality of the new world to come into the midst of the old world that is. It is the firstfruit of the coming harvest. It is the proof that we are heirs of the coming kingdom. And it is thus that the Spirit is witness - the recognizable presence of a future that has been promised but is not yet in sight. It is thus, also, that the Spirit is the source of hope -- not just hope for ourselves, but hope for the completion of God's whole cosmic work. "In this hope we are saved" (8:24). It is because of this work that we are liable to be invited "to account for the hope that is in [us]" (I Pet. 3:15) and so to become involved in the missionary dialogue. Seen from this point of view, mission might be defined as "hope in action." It is the whole way of living, acting. and speaking that arises from the fact that we have already received the first installment of the promised treasure, the firstfruit of the promised harvest, and can therefore work and wait with both eagerness and patience for the fullness of what God has promised for his whole creation. The witness of which the New Testament passages speak is God's gift, not our accomplishment. It is not a light that we kindle and carry. shielding its flame from the winds; it is the light that. shines on us because our faces are turned toward the radiance that is already lighting up the eastern sky with the promise of a new day.
The reign of God that the church prociaims is indeed present in the life of the church, but it is not the church's possession. It goes before us, summoning us to follow. The practical implications of this will be discussed in a later chapter. Here it is enough to say that the picture given us in the Acts is one that is constantly being reproduced in the missionary experience of the church. It is the Holy Spirit who leads the way. opening a door here that the church must then obediently enter, kindling a flame there that the church must lovingly tend.
My own experience as a missionary has been that the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decisions about the mobilizing and allocating of "resources." This kind of language, appropriate for a military campaign or a commercial enterprise, is not appropriate here. The significant advances in my experience have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge. God opens the heart of a man or woman in the gospel. The messenger (the "angel" of Acts 10:3) may be a stranger, a preacher, a piece of Scripture, a dream, an answered prayer, or a deep experience of joy or sorrow, of danger or deliverance. It was not part of any missionary "strategy" devised by the church. It was the free and sovereign deed of God, who goes before his church. And, like Peter, the church can usually find good reasons for being unwilling to follow. But follow it must if it is to be faithful. For the mission is not ours but God's.
From "the beginning of the gospel" (Mark 1:1) when Jesus came into Galilee preaching the kingdom of God, the concern of mission is nothing less than this: the kingdom of God, the sovereign rule of the Father of Jesus over all humankind and over all creation. I have spoken of mission in three ways. It is the proclamation of the kingdom, the presence of the kingdom, and the prevenience of the kingdom. By proclaiming the reign of God over all things the church acts out its faith that the Father of Jesus is indeed ruler of all. The church, by inviting all humankind to share in the mystery of the presence of the kingdom hidden in its life through its union with the crucified and risen life of Jesus, acts out the love of Jesus that took him to the cross. By obediently following where the Spirit leads, often in ways neither planned, known, nor understood, the church acts out the hope that it is given by the presence of the Spirit who is the living foretaste of the kingdom.
This threefold way of understanding the church's mission is rooted in the triune nature of God himself. If any one of these is taken in isolation as the clue to the understanding of mission, distortion follows.
In succeeding chapters I shall use this threefold model as a framework for the discussion of some of the theoretical and practical problems that the church must meet in pursuing its missionary calling.