Thoughts for the Day

And he said to them, ‘Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: by using my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes in their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.’

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

'Wilson Carlile was born in 1847 in Britain. He suffered from a spinal weakness all his life, which hampered his education. After a serious illness, he began to treat his religion more seriously and became confirmed in the Church of England. He acted as organist to Ira D. Sankey during the Moody and Sankey missions and in 1881, was ordained priest, serving his curacy at St Mary Abbots in Kensington. The lack of contact between the Church and the working classes was a cause of real concern to him and he began outdoor preaching. In 1882, he resigned his curacy and founded the Church Army, four years after the founding of the Salvation Army. Under his influence it thrived and he continued to take part in its administration until a few weeks before his death on this day in 1942.' ('Exciting Holiness: Collects and Readings for the Festivals and Lesser Festivals of the Church of England').

A number of Church Army members have certainly been important to me in my ministry. Basically they are trained evangelists sent to "the margins of society" in Great Britain and Ireland, often living and working on the toughest of estates where existing models of church can struggle. Sometimes they work in towns and cities among the homeless, or with those suffering from drink or drug addictions. As one Church Army Captain said "Part of sharing God's love is listening to the needs and the aspirations of the community where they live and work."

Mark's account of the sending out of the disciples comes in the last section of his Gospel, just before Jesus' ascension into heaven. Note the instruction is to proclaim the good news to "the whole of creation". Wilson Carlile lived to spread the gospel to the very poorest of people in his time, and to share God's love with them.

Collect for Missionaries

Everlasting God,
whose servant Wilson Carlile carried the good news of your Son
to those on the margins of society,
that we who commemorate his service
may know the hope of the gospel in our hearts
and manifest its light in all our ways;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen