Passion and Mission

A Church article with View Comments posted 23 March 2010.
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This article was written for the March 2010 issue of The Messenger, the newsletter of St. John Lutheran Church, Sterling, IL.

In the last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about passion. What is that we are truly passionate about? What motivates us? What gives us zeal for life and a willingness to serve?

The English word “passion” comes from the Greek word “pascho” (PASS-ko) meaning “to suffer” or “to endure.” Notably, when we refer to the sufferings of Jesus on the cross, we call that the “Passion of Christ.” In short, the word passion points us to what we are willing to suffer for. If we are passionate for something, we are willing to suffer or endure many things for it. Especially as we send this newsletter just around Easter, we ought to remember that the passion of Christ was for us – that Jesus was willing to suffer the cross for our sake. So my larger question is: since Jesus endured so much for us in his Passion, what will we be passionate about in thanks to God?

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