Mission, Metaphor and Imagination
By Roy Angle
(From the October - December 2020 issue of VOX)
A good question often precedes a good answer. We are all asking new questions these days as we face the fallout of the pandemic. Regardless of the current situation, what shapes our thinking and guides our steps as we live out the Jesus-message here and now? This article will propose that metaphors in Scripture can help us think imaginatively and craft questions that allow for fresh responses, specifically geared for our current life contexts.
The question above has two sides: thinking and doing. Both are required. Doing without thinking is to wander blindly without clear direction. On the other hand, it is often in the doing that we are required to retro-fit our thinking. Being a representative of how Jesus is making all things right in the world is no exception to this principle.
“We are called to be faithful to Scripture while simultaneously engaging our current culture.”
We are called to be faithful to Scripture while simultaneously engaging our current culture. But how do we remain faithful to a first century text while doing mission in a 21st century context? What tools are available to help us navigate that tension as we live in this cultural moment in Ireland?
One such tool is metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech that compares two unrelated things that nevertheless share some common characteristics. There are many metaphors in Scripture describing Kingdom, Church and mission. Church is often compared to body, marriage, family, and building. Jesus and the apostles leveraged the agricultural metaphor in particular to teach the people of God to live out the good news in their world. Jesus knew that farming images about sowers, seeds, and soils would carry lessons across cultural and linguistic differences into the future. By understanding how Jesus used metaphor to help His disciples see and do gospel engagement, we can mimic this process to help us to ask good questions and imagine mission for our cultural moment.
In talking about sowing, watering, and harvesting Jesus appeals to the agricultural world as the farmer actually experienced it. He used growth factors of farming of which His audience were familiar. A ‘growth factor’ is anything that influences the growth process between sowing and harvesting. While the growth factors of the agricultural metaphor are many, not all factors are used in every parable. Jesus selects specific ones to match the purpose of any particular parable.
The following is a sampling of how the farming metaphor can help us use factors that highlight a farming principle which in turn helps us devise good missional questions.
One such growth factor is the matter of direction. With farming, who or what initiates movement? Does the farmer sit and expect the soil to come to him? Obviously, the farmer moves to the field and the seed is taken to the soil. It would be a strange farming practice indeed if he or she were to truck the soil to the seed.
If the farmer sowing seed represents the believer sowing the gospel into our world, upon whom is the onus for moving towards the other? In light of this direction, we could ask these questions:
How are we showing up in our neighbourhoods as good news? How are we moving into relational networks of the non-Christians?
Many of these networks already exist and require only our participation: relational networks such as family, work place, sporting clubs, volunteer groups, a favourite café or pub, etc. We go to them, onto their turf, on their terms.
A second growth factor could be depth. The seed must be in the soil versus on the soil to grow healthily and produce fruit. In the parable of the sower, Jesus explained that the seed that fell onto rocky soil was short-lived due to the lack of a deep root system. The deficiency of nutrients in that soil prevented healthy growth. Translating that growth factor into questions about engaging others might be:
What am I doing to gain deeper understanding of the current culture so I can talk to people with greater understanding and insight? Another could be: What popular perceptions of Jesus and the gospel are superficial caricatures instead of being deeply accurate and true? How do then we address that issue?
A third growth factor is continuity. Continuity describes the need for the seed to engage with the surrounding soil in an on-going fashion in order to sprout and grow. No seed germinates if it is inserted into the soil one day, pulled out the next, re-inserted the following, etc. The habitual contact between seed and soil optimises growth. That observation could lead to such questions as:
How am I engaging non-Christians repetitiously? What groups or people do I cross paths with on a regular basis? Would my demeanour in that initial engagement create space for a second and third encounter?
A fourth factor is to realise what I can control and what I cannot control. What can the farmer control? Can they control the weather? Can they guarantee the amount of yield? No, as these are beyond their command. In 1 Corinthians 13: 6, 7 Paul summarises capacity as ‘the farmer sows but only God grows.’
Questions derived from the control issue may be:
What am I responsible for in representing Jesus and the good news? What is God responsible for? How do we measure ‘success’? How does this realisation aid in preventing burnout as we give ongoing witness about Jesus?
The final growth factor we will consider is the conflict factor. Growth and life in the agricultural world are often confronted with hostile forces. Jesus speaks of His followers representing wheat sown in a field, which also yields weeds sown by the enemy. Both are to grow together until the harvest. We are wheat living among the weeds. Conflict is also highlighted when Jesus speaks of His message being eaten by birds, choked by thorns, and scorched by the sun. To farm is to go to war. The reality of conflict in the life of a Christian provokes questions such as these:
What rival ‘good news’ stories are present in my culture? Am I aware of how demonic forces are at work in my world? How is prayer a habit of my being battle-ready?
Note the process we went through in each of these examples. We noticed a variety of growth factors from the metaphor. We also made observations about farming and how they taught truths about engaging the world and mission. Then we used our imagination to craft insightful questions.
“No one knows your town like you do.”
But we are not done yet. This mission, metaphor and imagination process is not complete. The questions need to be answered. Then those answers need to be turned into action. Those answers and the actions are for you (and your church) to devise with your neighbourhood, your turf and your town in mind.
This invites you to come up with strategies and activities that fit your context. No one knows your town like you do. No one will invest missional sweat like you are doing or will do. While the questions that were crafted from the metaphor are universal and can be asked by any of us, the answers and actions must be localised to fit your situation with all its particularities.
Mission begins by thinking like a farmer. What would God have you imagine?
Roy and his family have lived in Ireland since 2003. Their role is to join with the Irish church in laying foundations for new churches. They currently work with 24/7 Prayer, Dublin.
