Interruptions

Today was one of those days filled with interruptions.  They added up to mean that I missed my self-imposed Friday morning blog deadline.  Don't expect me to apologize for attending to these "interruptions."  Ministry, meaning the service of others, that makes any real difference in everyday life is always open to interruptions of real, ordinary people.  Here's a paragraph that makes the same point better than I can:

Almost everything written in the Gospel accounts of [Jesus'] life relates directly or indirectly to the wrenching, but strategically petty, personal agendas of the ordinary men and women who pressed in on him on all sides during the few short years of his ministry.  The Creator God incarnate, bent on saving the whole world, allowed himself to be interrupted by the sick, the lame, the blind, the withered, the bereaved, the outcast, the deaf, the demon possessed, the grieving.  Whatever he may have been doing at the time, he seemed never too busy or tired to stop and pay close attention to their agendas.  How understandable it would have been for Jesus to regretfully turn away these ordinary folk, reminding them that as Creator of their planet, now charged with redeeming it, he simply did not have time to give attention to the personal details of their everyday lives.  Instead, he showed his followers that any proclamation of the Good News that does not intersect with the actual needs of ordinary people is not good news, but mere religious propaganda.  On this issue he was at distinct odds with the Pharisees, as his followers today should be.  We must never forget that it was his willingness to yield to one final, fatal interruption on a hill just outside Jerusalem that accomplished our redemption.  I is this interruption that lies at the heart of the Gospel that takes missionaries to the ends of the earth.

Bonk, Jonathan. 2007. Mission and Money. International   Bulletin of Missionary Research 31 (4):174.

I'll be at at the Europe Ministry Team's "leadership huddle" all next week.   You can expect pictures next Friday of this my first visit to the Austrian Alps.   Yes!  I admit that's not too bad as far as interruptions go.  It'll be a relief to get out from under my piles of books and to breath some fresh Austrian air.

 

Comments

[Matt Elofson]

Hey Jonathan,
I always enjoy reading your blogs. I noticed in a previous post that you are working on a Ph.D. in Intercultural Studies at Fuller. How did that come about? How are you arranging your studies?

I hope things are going well.

Matt

p.s. Congratulations on the newest member of the Finley tribe.

[jonathan]

Hey Matt,

Good to hear from you. Where are you? What are you doing? You didn't leave an e-mail address. What about you, did you ever finish that dissertation...when was it... back in summer 2005 ?

As for me and the SIS-PhD, it's a long story, a story that will continue to unfold on this blog. Watch for me in your web reader.

jf

[Matt]

Hey Jonathan,

I did finally finish my dissertation this past year so I am officially a Ph.D. The title of my dissertation was "The Co-Opting by Modernity of the Theory and Practice of Evangelism within American Evangelicalism". It was a long process, but very valuable to my thought processes and my life.

Currently, I am looking for a permanent teaching position while still adjuncting at APU. The market is pretty tight, but we will see what happens now that I actually have my Ph.D. completed.

Keep in touch,
Matt