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Friday, March 12, 2010 CW Weekly Devotional - "Get Up and GO" By laneglaze @ 9:22 PM :: 115 Views :: 0 Comments :: :: Weekly Devotional   Go ye therefore…. - Matthew 28:19a, KJV   Note: Tomorrow I will be leaving the country with 65 other souls for a week of service, worship, learning and growth on the beautiful island of Eleuthera. This will be the ninth team that Clemson Wesley has sent to the Bahamas since 2003, and the sixth to the beautiful island of Eleuthera (“freedom” in the Greek). This year’s trip is special for two reasons. First, 13 students (mostly nurses) will be partnering with us as part of a study abroad class on Trans-cultural Health Care. Second, our group’s visit will be followed by a team of 29 from a sister church in Seneca, SC, fifteen minutes west of Clemson. Last Sunday I was asked to share some thoughts on the meaning of mission with this vibrant community of faith who will be stepping out in international mission as a church for the first time. Following are the words that I shared with my brothers and sisters at St. Mark UMC. CLG Throughout the Gospels, Jesus commands his disciples to DO many things: to feed, to pray, to forgive, to follow, to clothe, to visit, to heal, to share, to love and, the one command that has probably most shaped our tradition as Methodists…to GO. GO…Go ye therefore…GO. Into all the nations. It is that command to GO that first brought our spiritual forefathers, the Wesleys, to the shores of the Carolina and Georgia nearly 300 years ago.  It is that command to GO that led thousands to mount a horse and risk life and limb as itinerant Methodist preachers. It is that command to GO that led Bishop Thomas Coke, one of the first bishops in our church, to share the Gospel throughout the Bahamas, including on the island of Eleuthera.   It is that command to GO that is the impetus behind every group of Christians who leaves their own communities to share the love of God with others around the globe. To be a follower of Jesus – at least in our tradition – means that we cannot remain stationary. We must GO. And yet as we GO, we remember that our mission is not something that we have somehow dreamed up on our own, but that we are part of something far greater that God has been and is still doing in our world. As one of my mentors, Peter Storey, taught me in seminary, mission “is the active response by a community of believers in obedience to the call of Jesus to share his work in the world. We do not invent. We do not create. It is a reply to something that God is already doing. And it is always done by community.” Pastor Stephen Fbayne, also from South Africa, expressed the same sentiments when he wrote, The Church has no mission of its own. All we can have by ourselves is a club or debating society, and our only hope, left to ourselves, is to win as many members for our own club, and away from other clubs, as we can. And whatever this is, it is not Mission. Mission belongs to God. It was his from the beginning. It is his; it will always be his. He has his purposes from the foundations of the world, and the means to fulfill them; and the only part the Church has in this is obedience – a share in the eternal and life-giving obedience of the Son of God…” And so today we celebrate how this community of faith, St. Mark UMC, is stepping out in obedience to God’s call, to share in what God is already at work doing in God’s world. Speaking from personal experience, the members of your team will meet God in the Bahamas – in heavy doses in fact – working in ways very familiar to them and yet very different. And the members of your team, representing the love, prayers and support of this entire community of faith, will return as different people. For whenever we step out in mission in God’s name, we are changed. We are blessed. We grow…and we move one step closer to becoming faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. And what will this team accomplish during their time in Bahamas? I can only imagine. Sure, some homes will be improved. Some folks will receive medical assistance. Some local churches will be encouraged and boosted. But knowing this church…knowing so many of you…I can only imagine where this stepping out in mission will lead. Will new life-long friendships be made? Will new business or economic development projects be birthed? Will someone hear a calling…or be affirmed in a calling…to a new path, a new direction, a new vocation in life? I can only imagine. St. Mark – on behalf of my dear friends in the Bahamas and on the island of Eleuthera – thank you for saying “yes” to the call. Thank you for your willingness to GO.   Thanks for all of your support over the years to make this and other life-changing experiences a possibility for students. Including this year’s group, nearly 400 participants have shared with, served beside and learned from the people of the Bahamas through these trips over the years.   Keep us all in your prayers, lane Rev. C. Lane Glaze Director, Clemson Wesley Campus Minister, Clemson UMC PO Box 1703 Clemson SC 29633 864-654-5547 (o) and 864-207-9135 (cell) www.clemsonwesley.com Feel free to forward this email to a friend. The Clemson Wesley Weekly Devotional is a ministry of the Clemson Wesley Foundation, the United Methodist Church’s ministry to students on the campus of Clemson University. The purpose of this email is to look at issues relevant to the life of Clemson students through the lens of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you would like your name added to this list, email Rev. Lane Glaze at glaze@clemson.edu.

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