Exile Island

For years I have been a student of the gifts given to us by God to fulfill our mission in reconciliation. Working together in different ways towards a common aim, Paul compared us to a human body. It consists of many parts but each part is ordered to the well-being of the whole. That should be a picture of the Christian community. We are all equal in dignity - Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, man or woman, cleric or lay - but different in calling and manner of service.

On this feast of Pentecost, as we celebrate the formation and the mission of the whole Christian community, I also need to reflect on the particular role that God has for me, to reflect on the particular contribution that I can make to the corporate mission of the Church (and of the particular group with which I am involved, whatever that is to look like).

Missionaries on a foreign mission field find themselves pioneering new works, forging new paths, carrying on a work in what must feel at times like isolation. One night while we were watching Survivor, I began thinking how similar the experience on Exile Island is to the experience I am having with the Christian community. The community is still there, back at camp doing the things you do back at camp. I am still part of the community, just not in proximity. There are times I feel like I live in some kind of exile. That is not new, I am not the first or only Christ follower who has experienced this. Some who have gone before us have been literally exiled. It is how we use this time, right?

Today, because of what a friend of mine is going through being separated from her family at a time when she most needs to be with them, I am again considering the power of proximity, or the lack of. My friend is at work right now, surrounded by people who have no idea what she is going through. She is a child of God saying goodbye to a loved one. I prayed that she would know the "Peace be with you" that transcends proximity and as I prayed, I knew that it was possible. A mystery to be sure.

Ultimately the mission of the Church is to bring people to God. It is not primarily to make converts to Christianity or to build up the Church but to work with God in building the Kingdom. The Kingdom realized is the whole world acknowledging the lordship of God our Creator and people directing their lives to be one with him.

In exile, this may look different than it has before. So, what's it gonna be...this life on the Island.