“Good morning, Mr. Phelps.” We hear a well-known voice above the whir of the old-fashioned tape player. It begins telling our protagonist about the difficult situation America has gotten herself into.
“Your mission Jim, should you choose to accept it…” the voice drones on, “is to fight your way into the heart of the Soviet Union and rescue the daughter of the highest ranking official from an arranged marriage that is meant to unify the Soviet Union and Europe (you will be disguised as a pizza delivery boy). As always, should you or any of your IM Force be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, Jim.”
Then, the theme song plays and viewers are thrown into the world of Mission Impossible. It’s a world much like the 1960s, except a hollywood punch can knock a full grown man unconscious and true-to-life masks can save the nation from a nuclear holocaust.
Unlike the American military and their commitment to never leave a fallen comrade, this little force of people must succeed, die trying, or be captured. Even under the horrifying circumstances of capture and torture, the American government promised no help would come. Not only that, they would disavow any knowledge of the team’s actions.
This leaves the force with only one option. They must accomplish their mission, and they must accomplish it alone.
As Christians, we have been given a high calling. This calling includes (but is not limited to):
- Being holy as God is holy (1 Peter 1:16)
- Loving your enemies (Matthew 5:44)
- Forgiving every offense that comes our way (Mark 11:25)
- Making disciples of the entire world (Matthew 28:19)
Any one of these items is downright impossible, some might say. And they’d be right. While we know that with Jesus, all things are possible, somehow, a little thing called flesh always gets in the way. And we fail. Sometimes it’s a little failure; sometimes it’s a big failure. Sometimes it’s private and no one knows; sometimes the whole world knows.
The cool thing is that God happens to forgive. In addition to this, God has not only instructed the Church to forgive, but to gently restore people when they fail–carrying their burden when they’re too weak to carry it themselves (Galatians 6:1-2).
It’s a very military-esque directive. Restore. Carry. Allow no one to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Like we already established, people fail. Things get especially messy when we fail to restore those who have failed. The effect is something like flesh on steroids: hurtful words cut through the air like bullets, tearing into people and leaving deep wounds and disfiguring scars.
For some reason, we can slip into the feeling that the Church is a Mission Impossible task force. That each must accomplish their own mission and that they must accomplish it alone. Any failure and it is the duty of the church to disavow that individual. This is so tragic. God has His church organized like an army of fellow-soldiers, all pressing for the same goal. The high calling is reachable when we have the Holy Spirit and the correct mindset. Restore. Carry. Allow no one to fall into the hands of the enemy.
Is it hard? Yes. Will we fail sometimes? Yes.
Nevertheless, I submit to you that your mission, should you choose to accept it, is possible. Good luck, Jim.
