Freedom takes interdependence sometimes

This morning I was at my cousin's church for the baptism of her 2-month-old son and 7 or 8-year-old step-son. I wish I had taken better notes on the sermon because I enjoyed it very much. While I'm not sure the pastor meant for it to be about global missions, it kinda was.

The two points I remember most clearly were these:

1) Freedom does not always mean independence. Negative freedom is that freedom in which we are more isolationists and are, in essence, free from others. Positive freedom actually requires a great deal of interdependence. In this way, we are free do do what we need to do, what we've been called to do because of the help of other people.

One of the most daunting things about any form of full-time ministry for me is support raising, in which you rely on God's provision through other people to support you and your dependents financially in your ministry. Needing supporters is not a limit on freedom, though. In fact, those supporters increase the freedom to do what God has called you or me to do. "No man is an island," right?

2) The pastor talked about the change Jesus brought in shifting from temple piety to an outward focused ministry. Temple piety was the idea that the people had to go to the temple if they wanted to learn about God. Priests had it in their heads that they had the knowledge, but rather than taking that to people, the people should go to them. Jesus did things a little differently. He recruited a "street team," if you will, to take the message of repentance and the forgiveness of sins to the people, out from the comfortable confines of the temple.

Jesus, after he was resurrected instructed us in this:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
[Matthew 28:18-20]

This is a two-part command. First, "go." Unlike the priests who waited for people to come to them, Jesus says to "go." Second, make disciples of all nations. All nations. ALL nations. The fact is, by our staying put there are some entire nations of people who will never hear the message of Christ and be instructed on how to cultivate a relationship with Him.

It takes the freedom that comes from interdependence to go and make disciples of all nations and keep fighting against temple piety the way Jesus did. Still, as necessary as support from other people is, Jesus Himself promised that He would be with us "to the very end of the age." You can't beat that support.