Act 5: The Mop-Up

This is the mop-up stage. The drama is concluded. Those who have been on the drama from the beginning - Creation, Fall, Israel, and Messiah - now have to watch how the loose ends are tied up. There has to be some conclusion to the drama, and the mop-up helps bring the story to a close. However, for the purposes of our discussion, it is essential to know that our story doesn’t end—it is eternal, and one generation tells it to the next. In fact, the mop-up is about your work and mine, your duty and mine, your responsibility and mine. 

The mop-up is about how we continue the story of creation in a way that makes new creation possible. I don’t think the mop-up is about rehashing the story. The drama is over, but the story continues because we have been given power to tell and retell the story of God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, we have been provided with the unique privilege of being called the children of God, and it is through this lens that we see all of God’s creation as being connected. It is this connection that gives meaning to our mop-up. 

It is interesting then to know that the mop us is much about us as it is about the other sheep. The mop-up is just as much about us as it is about the Great Commission. More importantly, the mop-up is about the renewal and transformation that is made possible by the sustaining presence and power of the Holy Eucharist. 

Ronald Knox, a Catholic priest and theologian, once said, “Almost all of Jesus’ commands have been dishonored. But there’s one which we have consistently honored, which is the Eucharist. Do this in remembrance of me. Despite all our sins, we still honor that command because of the insatiable value in it.” That value cannot be underestimated, nor can it be quantified. The joy of the Eucharist for me is that it is what gives us the power to go out and be co-creators with God. 

And we can do this because we know and believe that creation is ongoing in itself. Creation is good. However, it hasn’t reached its perfection, and even with our flawed selves, we strive towards the perfection of God’s creation. 

Centuries ago, a Christian mystic, Teresa of Avila, offered this prayer:

Christ has no body but yours

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world,

Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good

Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world

Yours are the hands, yours are the feet

Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

Christ has no body now but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,

Yours are the eyes with which he looks

Compassion on this world.

Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

In my view, these words by Teresa are a powerful description of what the Christian story of being co-creators with God is about. Teresa’s words sum up what the mop-up is about.

A few days ago, I joined with some of our parishioners on a Zoom call with our friends in Uganda. These friends are the students, teachers, and staff of the Sabina School. This school provides quality education for underprivileged children in rural Uganda. Christ Church has been involved in the life of this school and many students for years, and the relationship was made possible through the connection of Sonni and Teddy Aribiah.

Over the years, Christ Church has played a significant role in the life of this school. Parishioners have adopted and sponsored children in the school, and some have even visited and spent time there. While on the call, I learned that of the 34 students who have sponsors, fifteen of those sponsors are Christ Church parishioners.

I couldn’t help but be proud of this work. But what humbled me was the deep sense of appreciation of the students. Each of the students who spoke was immensely grateful for the relationship with the sponsor family.  Hearing the students talk about their academic joys and challenges, and most importantly, their hope for themselves, was a blessing to me.

To me, this is our mop-up. This is what a mop-up looks like. We are being the hands, feet, eyes, and body of Christ in the world because the story and work of redemption isn’t over. It is ongoing, and we are all a part of it. 

A few years ago, we launched a Refugee Ministry at Christ Church. It was a faithful but important response to an emerging crisis. Over the past several years, this ministry has grown in leaps and bounds. Ann Barnes, who presently heads the ministry, shared with me that we now have two Mormon congregations as part of our broader coalition partners. 

This ministry, which began as an uncertain step of faith, has evolved into an interfaith initiative. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Mormons, Hindus, and many others are helping do the mop-up work. This ministry currently supports approximately 40 refugees. 

In fact, the most uplifting of all these is the story that the first family we resettled is on course to purchase their own home. This is the story of hope. This is the story of transformation.  This is the story that deepens my faith in God and in you - my mop-up crew. We can never tell where God’s light will shine, but we are confident that God’s light shines in the crevices of our broken lives. But in spite of our own brokenness, we go out and mop up. 

This is what you have done: you have consistently proven that the human story isn’t over and that God’s work continues. For that reason, our mop-up work continues. You have never given up on that work, and I am so grateful to you and thankful to God for each of you. 

We are presently in the middle of our annual school supplies drive to support Lake Elkhorn Middle School. Christ Church has been very supportive of this school over many years. Christ Church has supported the students, their families, and the staff. Every now and then, a new dimension is added to our missional task. We are invited to help with the food pantry, provide help with gift cards, mentor students, tutor, and support the staff. 

A lot of work goes into our relationship with LEMS, but it is good work.  It is a life-transforming work. It is a healing work, and there’s nothing more gratifying and satisfying than the knowledge that life’s redeeming work still means a lot to God’s mop-up crew at Christ Church. 

I had a chat with a parishioner yesterday, and she shared a profound comment by her 5th-grade daughter: ‘Although I may not know that God exists, you can never be wrong in believing that God exists.’ (I hope I got the quote right.) Something about the 5th grader’s thought inspires me to not sell myself short with some rabid certainty that God doesn’t exist - when God’s only ask of me is to be a part of the creative process, to mop up. 

Fact is, we don’t have to believe in Parts I, II, III, or IV in order to be involved in Part V, the mop-up. This is because responding to human need, bearing a message of hope in distressing times, being a source of comfort and healing, even in our brokenness, is what the mop-up is all about.

A good story has a good ending, and the end of this beautiful story is also our moment to begin our mop-up. In a sense, the story never ends because the mop-up continues.

Manny+

(This is the end of the 5 Part series.)