By R. York Moore
I believe that Christian mission is about joining God in His work to make all things new (Rev. 21:5). As we join God in this work, there is no greater image of the end-goal than that of the wedding supper of the Lamb, when God’s people will be one with Jesus Christ! You see, the storybook of God begins with a wedding-with the two being made one flesh and told to flourish. The Storybook of God also ends with a wedding-one of a mystical union between God and His people. The missional story of Jesus began at a wedding of an unknown couple where the ordinary became the extraordinary. In turning water into wine, Jesus gives us a sign, a miracle pregnant with meaning which points to God’s dream for the wedding of all time. God’s storybook begins and ends with the picture of a wedding because at its core, the story of God is a story of joy and celebration. This is why I believe our missional engagement of the world we live in is wedding-work, preparing ourselves and our world for the final chapter of God’s great story. Our wedding-work is lived out in this thin place of suffering, of injustices and sorrow, of sin and hostility against God and God’s Kingdom. Our thin place is a place where there are 9-year old sex slaves and 6-year old brick kiln workers; a world where children die from preventable diseases for a lack of clean drinking water, medicine or mosquito nets. God, nevertheless, invites us to live into the joy of tomorrow by missionally engaging the suffering of world today. Our wedding-work is a work to bind up the broken hearted, proclaim freedom to bonded laborers and release to sex slave. We are engaged wedding work to fill the world with the goodness Jesus Christ in preparation for the wedding of all time! God will make all things new, he will obliterate evil, he will substantiate justice, and he will draw all peoples around his throne.
R. York is a church leader, innovator, strategist, gifted writer and communicator who seeks to bring organizations together to do more for the Kingdom of God than they could otherwise do by themselves in the areas of evangelism and justice/compassion ministry. R. York was recently featured as a guest on Real Life with Beth & Rob. R. York Moore lives in Detroit, MI with his wife and three kids. For more information about R. York Moore and his ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, visit www.tellthestory.net or follow him on Facebook and Twitter at /yorkmoore.