We’re all wearing masks. Literally. Regulations in Travis Country require that a mask covering our nose and mouth be worn in public. I’ve enjoyed admiring the different designs and styles of masks. Before my own was sown I rocked a bandana with unicorns and rainbows (thanks Lucy!); it got a lot of comments.

Masks make communication a lot more difficult. Our voices are muffled. Non-verbal facial cues are obscured. Is that person annoyed or happy? has become an exercise in reading eyes. In fact, I often wonder while grocery shopping what “smiling with our eyes” might look like.  

As our capacity for communication has been disrupted, so too has the normal function of our church. Worship and community look different. Mission perhaps especially so. We can’t communicate God’s grace and Gospel as easily as we might like. To some degree we are forced to “smile with our eyes” during this season.

Many of us struggle to reach out in Word and deed in the name of Jesus at the best of times. We feel under-qualified. We have poor models of what it looks like. It takes a level of intention and effort that we find hard to sustain. Yet, one of the beautiful features of our participation with God is the ways that He fills in the gaps and makes more fruitful our paltry and halting efforts. The mission is His work and we’re called into it.

John Stott concludes his book, Christian Mission in the Modern World, by suggesting our participation with the mission of God involves humility and humanity. Humility to recognize that the work ultimately is God’s; humanity “to be ourselves as he has made us…exercising our God-given gifts and offering ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness in his hand.” We offer ourselves, as we are, to God and his mission.

My basic encouragement is this: Mission may be difficult in this time, but there are still ways for you to reach out and extend grace to others in the name of Jesus. Participate in the things we are doing as a church (read below about the blood drive we are doing and how Sarah is leading The Garden in mission). Pray regularly for your neighbors and colleagues and consider applying to the Good Neighbor Fund on behalf of those whom you know are vulnerable with a financial need. Pray for those funds to have an out-sized kingdom impact by God’s Spirit. You can’t do everything, maybe you feel that you can’t do a lot, but you can do something.

We are beginning a new sermon series through the Gospel of Matthew for Eastertide this Sunday. One of the treasures of Matthew is of course the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:18-20) in which we all, as followers of Jesus, are drawn in as participants in God’s mission of discipling others in the way of Jesus. In this restricted season, this good work might mean learning to “smile with our eyes.”

In Christ,

Peter+

Ps. Apologies for some of the issues some of us experienced with the live stream on Easter morning. We are working hard to ensure things are smooth on our end and hope some changes we've made will have an effect this Sunday. Thanks for your patience! Also, know that if the stream is disrupted during the 10am slot, a recording of the service will be up by around noon or so each Sunday as well.