“…THAT THE WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED THROUGH HIM”: OPENING WORSHIP AND MEDITATION ON JOHN 3:17

Abstract

Salutation In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Sisters and brothers, we have come together to worship who offers us freedom through our Lord Jesus Christ. For the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of sin and death. For we did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but we have received the spirit of the children of God. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for having brought us together in your presence, to show us your love, and to subject us to your will. Silence in us all other voices than your own. Open by the Holy Spirit our minds and hearts to your truth in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Hymn Sun of justice, send your light Psalm 96 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar and all that fills it; Let the fields exult, and everything in it. Then shall the trees of the wood sing for joy before the Lord. For he comes to judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen. Meditation on John 3:17 God's mission today - that is the theme of our mission congress that is starting today. Fifty years after the world mission conference here in Willingen, it seems appropriate to come to a fresh agreement about the contents of our mission, and the effects of mission in the various cultural contexts represented by the participants here. I am grateful that a large number of guests from many countries and continents have responded to our invitation to come to Willingen. People from twenty nations are here, speaking different languages, but we are all united in the one faith in Jesus Christ. You are all most heartily welcome. Allow me to express a few thoughts to begin our deliberations on the theme of the congress. Let me begin by recalling a single verse from St John's Gospel: God did not send his son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17) These few words express everything that can be meant by missio Dei. This verse is like a nutshell, in which everything is contained and from which everything can develop. Let me draw your attention to three aspects that are very important to me. 1. The origin of mission is He acts by sending His son Jesus Christ. Before Christ gave us the mission commandment to baptize and be witnesses, He himself had been sent as a witness of to us. From this perspective, all mission is based on the sending of Jesus Christ by the Father. …