Matthew 28:16-20
It is Trinity Sunday and the earliest ‘formula’ if you will,
for even thinking about the Trinity is in the Gospel of Matthew. But rather than focusing on what or how
the Trinity really works – that’s waaay too doctrinal for a sunny Sunday
morning after a busy Saturday, I want to focus on what is called the ‘Great
Commission’ which is also part of this morning’s scripture reading. Bryan’s music notes in the bulletin
does a fine synopsis of the Trinity, which is also important to our faith
because that’s what makes us uniquely Christian as opposed to being Unitarian,
Buddhist or Jews. But that’s
another discussion for another time.
Today’s scripture comes from the end of the Gospel of
Matthew. The women who followed
Jesus, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, have come to the empty tomb looking
for Jesus and after much rumbling of an earthquake they come to find an angel
parked there in his stead. The
angel tells them to run and tell the disciples that Jesus has been raised to
life and that he would meet them up in Galilee. And so following celestial orders they run back but are met
by Jesus himself who also lets them know that the disciples are to meet him up
in the Galilee region. Galilee was
home to these fisher men and I find it reassuring that Jesus wanted to meet
them up in their old familiar place. So let’s pick up the Gospel of Matthew,
the 28th chapter.
Now the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him,
they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have
commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
This is not a lot of passage but it packs a punch for its buck. After the disciples get themselves back
up to the Galilee and to the mountain Jesus directed them to…Godly things
always happen on mountains in the Bible….they finally saw Jesus and they
worshipped him. This was the first
time that they had seen their risen Lord and they were happy to see him and
probably fell to their knees and prayed.
Thank goodness, he’s alive, after all they saw him die and be buried.
But also scripture says, some doubted.
Funny how Matthew sticks this little bit of information in there. Some weren’t sure of all this, some,
and we don’t know how many, had reservations as to how this could be. Jesus was dead and now he is alive.
There are probably a few of us who have some uncertainty to as to this
resurrection story or any part of Jesus’ story. Right after college I went to talk with my pastor because I
thought that I was sensing a call to missionary work. Well after much soul searching I realized that I had some
doubts of my own about this whole Jesus thing and really didn’t want to tell
that ‘old, old story’, or be a witness in the world. Obviously that has changed, God brought me down few notches
and now I love to talk about, to preach and to live that ‘old, old story of
Jesus and his love’ because the truths that lie within and the hope for my life
and my living are all contained in them.
So doubt is ok, we can still tell our stories of faith, it may not be
as overt as a preacher woman does but any way you manage to live out Christ’s
story and then tell about it works.
The key is living it out, not keeping it in which is what Jesus says
next to his disciples. Go. Teach.
Baptize. Remember. These are
pretty basic instructions, we need to tell about it. He commissions them for
service in the world. If ever you wondered what God wants from you, remember
this. Go. Teach. Baptize. It is the ‘great commission’ for the
disciples and for us too.
But let’s admit it, fulfilling this great commission go, teach
baptize, might seem like just one more thing to do doesn’t it? Or if not that, it might just make some
of us downright uncomfortable to talk about our faith with others or even with
those inside of our four walls. Do
we really even know how to begin to share our faith? And what part of our faith do we share? The command is to go and immerse the
world in the Christian story and your faith.
‘Go’ seems to be the operative word here. Simply go. Not
stay put and get comfy in your cushioned pews, not stay within these beautiful
sanctuary walls and contemplate the deep meaning of life, but go.
Jesus didn’t say ‘If you build it, they will come.” Remember that line? That line was spoken by the character
Ray Kinsella played by Kevin Costner in the movie “Field of Dreams” way back in
1989. He was talking about a
vision and a voice he had heard urging him to build a baseball diamond in his
cornfield in Iowa. He follows that dream and Shoeless Joe Jackson appears as do
others for the windup and the pitch.
Hundreds of people stream to the cornfield baseball diamond all because
of the voice he heard, “If you build it, they will come”. But that is the movies where anything
can happen and usually does.Well we do not live on a movie set and ‘Jesus
didn’t say, if you build it they will come’[i]
.
White clabbered sanctuaries didn’t
even cross his mind as a carpenter in the first century! It’s the real unusual person who will
just come on a Sunday morning because we have a pretty bucolic footprint here
on the Green in Orange. No, we
need to go out and tell the story of our lives that intersects with our
faith. And you can do it without
going all doctrinal on people who might roll their eyes at the hint of
doctrine. Tertullian and
Athanasius wanted doctrine. We do
not. And yet our faith and the
tenets of it are very important to our lives. And so is witnessing, remember Go. Teach. Baptize.
So here’s how to witness your faith in public.
Let’s say we had a strawberry festival recently. And after
the sweet aroma of strawberry pies wears off from your clothing, after you’ve
had a chance to soak your feet, massage your lower back, that realization hits
you like a brick on the head that you have to go back to work, or your normal
routine. Monday happens. And people will inevitably ask about
your weekend.
What will you say?
A generic response….“Oh it was great, lots of funs, really busy, the
weather really turned out nice”.
Or might you say with all of the enthusiasm that you can possibly
muster, “It was fabulous. MY
CHURCH, the Orange Congregational Church (note the commercial here) had a strawberry
festival and I worked it. It was
great, I got to see old friends and work right along side someone that I hadn’t
see in ages. And it was so
wonderful to see those millennials (the twenty somethings) working so hard
together. They all came back to
help. But honestly, it wasn’t
work, it’s just something we do as a community of faith so that we can help
others in the area”!!!
Now this is witness.
This is Go. Teach. Baptize.
This is where your life’s story interests with Christ’s life story and
we must tell it. If you are not
excited about your faith and what your faith community does then chances are
others will not be interested and so why bother? To make money for our coffers? Everything we do at Orange Congregational whether it is make
jam, polish our red cars, hull strawberries ad nauseum, flip burgers is for
Christ and others, not ourselves.
This is living faith and witness to the miraculous power of
God’s love. All I can say is go
and tell. Be content. Be assured. Be confident that God is with you every step of the way
creating opportunity and growth for you, that Jesus the Christ will redeem you
from every ill that will consume your life, and that the Holy Spirit will
sustain you in God’s love, God’s grace and God’s abiding energy and affirmation
of your life.
Amen.
[i] Idea from
Jennifer Copeland, The Living Word from the Christian Century Magazine. p 20 June 11, 2014 issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment