A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at Centenary United Methodist Church Metuchen, New Jersey May 18, 2008 (Trinity Sunday)

Text: Matthew 28:16-20
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 disci-ples 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.” —Matthew 28:16-20, NRSV

A few years ago a Sunday School teacher posed a rather intriguing question to his senior high school students. “If you could be any person in the Bible, which person would you most like to be?” There were a number of different responses: Moses, Noah, King David, Simon Peter, John, Mary of Nazareth, Paul, Mary of Magdala. You know the usual rogue’s gallery of biblical characters.

As he went around the class, the teacher finally got around to young Johnnie—here we go with Johnnie once again!—and Johnnie paused for a moment before saying, “I would most like to be Lo.”
“Lo?” asked the teacher. “I have to admit, Johnnie, I’m not familiar with a biblical char-acter named ‘Lo.’”

“Yeah, Lo,” Johnnie reiterated. “You know, he’s the guy at the end of Matthew where Je-sus says to him, ‘And Lo, I am with you always…even to the end of the age.’”

No doubt Johnnie was attracted to “Lo” because he thought it would be spectacular to have Jesus always with him…no matter his circumstances and no matter where he was in the world. Hopefully, as Johnnie grew and matured into young adulthood, he came to experience the reality of Jesus’ constant presence with him—and with all of us—no matter what our names may be.

That promise—“And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b, NRSV).—are the final words of Jesus to his remaining 11 disciples as recorded in the Gos-pel of Matthew. They have left the bustling and hostile streets of Jerusalem behind and traveled north to the small villages and verdant fields of Galilee, as the resurrected Christ directed them (See Matthew 28:7 & 10). The disciples have gathered on a mountain—perhaps the same mountain on which Jesus had much earlier shared his teachings with them in his “Sermon on the Mount”?

Matthew is extraordinarily revealing in this final passage of his Gospel, as he tells us that most of the disciples worshiped the risen Jesus; “but some doubted” (Matthew 28:17). Remember, this whole post-resurrection experience comes just prior to Jesus’ ascension into heaven, and some days before the remarkable empowering of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Given the human condition, so well described by St. Paul in his letter to the Corinthian Christians—“For now we see in a mirror, dimly,” (1 Corinthians 13:12a)—“it is reasonable for the [crucifixion-shocked] disciples to display both reverence and reservation… And even though the disciples’ reaction is mixed and demonstrates some level of unresolved inner conflict, Jesus does not rebuke them…. Instead, he ‘came and said to them, “All authority (???????) in heaven and on earth has been given to me’” (Matthew 28:18).”

During his final moments among them, Jesus speaks words to his followers that will for-ever change the world. He says to them, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptiz-ing 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” (Matthew 28:19-20a). Some of his last words were perhaps the most powerful ever spoken, transferring the authority of the King to the followers in the kingdom.

Webster tells us that the definition of power is “the capability of producing an effect, whether physical or moral.”

Jesus forever altered the world with his words in the Great Commission to his disciples. The argument can be made that his words possess the great “capability of producing an effect.”
So why are these words so powerful? The commission has power because of the Commis-sioner. When the disciples arrived at the mountain, they came to Christ as we all so often do—a mixed bag of worship and uncertainty (Matthew 28:16-17). Jesus confirms the one and calms the other by claiming his authority over everything (Matthew 28:18). Only the One who came from heaven and is returning to heaven has the ability to translate supernatural power into earthly power.

Imagine a Fortune 500 company. If a guy who sorts the mail in the basement tells some-one in middle management to pull the trigger on a multimillion dollar deal, everyone gathers at the water cooler for a good laugh. If the CEO of the company flies into town and walks in with the same order, the deal gets done yesterday.

It all comes down to authority—the power of the person.

Jesus’ commission to the 11—and therefore through them and on to the church—has power because all authority in the universe is on him. If Jesus told the 11 to expand the kingdom by planting palm trees and watering camels, you’d better believe we’d all be in the oasis-hospitality business today.
If the Great Commission has power because of the Commissioner, then the commission also has power because it’s purpose-driven. Over the last decade, a huge new business and per-sonal consulting sector has emerged—personal coaching. Somewhere between a therapist, a mentor, a parent, a friend and a consultant lies the “personal coach.” And coaching has exploded in popularity due in part to the coach’s ability to bring one sorely lacking element into people’s lives: intentionality.
A coach assists people with the simple yet elusive concept of living with purpose—developing and living around “life goals.” The intangible nature of purpose is the big reason why Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life camped on The New York Times’ best-seller list not too long ago for over three years!

Fishermen transformed into fishers of people found power when told their purpose. The Great Commission stands as marching orders for the kingdom. A purpose for the people.

Someone has suggested that the words of Jesus’ Great Commission can serve as a “tem-plate” to assess how “on purpose” our churches are. What might Jesus be wanting to empower within us, his contemporary disciples? We can take each piece of the Commission, in a sense, and turn these for-mission-statements of Jesus into some challenging and formative questions.

Go therefore. The Greek isn’t complex here—an imperative verb subject to a causative conjunction. Jesus has authority and translates it into power for his followers. The result is “go-ing”—authority breeding action. Or at least that’s what it’s supposed to breed—action!

A girl returning home from Sunday school expressed disappointment with the class’s re-action after the day’s lesson. “We were taught to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations,” she said, “but we just sat!” Can we point to specific places in our lives where our faith is being put into action? When is the last time that our faith has made us uncomfortable as we acted upon it?
Make disciples: We are called to be ever in the pursuit of growing more and more toward Christ-likeness—Sanctification. So we may want to ask ourselves how our spouses are more like Jesus because of us; how our children are more like Jesus because of us—our extended family, our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, the grocery store cashier, the Starbucks barista? Ex-ploring those questions ought to create more intention among us than weeks of sermons might.

On Thursday evening at our Raritan Valley District Conference we saw a powerful video presentation about the ministry of The United Methodist Church in North Katanga, in the Afri-can Congo. Weekly worship services there often include an hour of exuberant praise singing be-fore the “formal” parts of the service get underway. Reflecting on this joyful praise, a laywoman in one North Katanga congregation said, “I know there will be no sermons in heaven, just end-less singing.” That brought quite a laugh from the gathered congregation…and I noticed the laity were laughing the loudest! Yes, there are some aspects of our faith exploration and expression that may create more intention to go forth to make disciples than a bushel-full of sermons.

Of all nations: Jesus had as little room for Judea-centricity as he does for Ameri-centricity. Our budgets, prayers and perspective should reflect the reality that we are the world‘s privileged. You come here to church on Sunday morning and some of you are going to drive by as many as 10 churches before getting to ours. All nations don’t experience this, and Jesus’ pur-pose is to extend the gospel to every tribe, language, people and nation. Are we allowing this purpose to drive our lives together? Where and how?

Baptizing them: While the actual baptism of people is typically a pastoral function, it’s important for us all to explore the meaning behind baptism. Dipped, sprinkled or dunked, adults or infants—baptism communicates belonging. A tangible piece of that theology is extending be-longing and welcome within our worship and fellowship settings. No program can make a church warm and welcoming to the unconnected; only people can. How are we doing at making the church a community, and not just an event?

And teaching them. Let’s not allow ourselves to be removed from teaching the faith to others. If one’s spiritual gifts do not readily include mercy and giving, they aren’t excused from these aspects of discipleship. The same holds true for teaching. One does not need to know eve-rything to teach; only something that the taught does not yet know.

Christianity is an inherited faith, passed on from one generation of believers to the next. I encourage the people of our congregation to each find a Timothy to be Paul for. As a faithful community of disciples and disciple-makers, we desperately need the older to mentor the younger; the younger to develop our youth, and our youth to teach the children.

Finally, the Great Commission of Jesus has power because of its “hands-on” approach. Jesus says, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That promise might have seemed empty to the confused disciples when Jesus ascended to heaven shortly after making it. But for them and for us, Pentecost gave it the full meaning that Christ intended. As post-Pentecost believers, we possess the indwelling presence of the Com-forter Jesus promised to send.

To be true to our theology, we claim that the Spirit’s presence is our power. The whole work of the whole gospel is the whole work of the Holy Spirit. This means that God doesn’t ask us to go anywhere or do anything that God isn’t going to accompany by his Spirit with us.

It makes a great mission to talk about the Great Commission and the power of the words Jesus has given us. However, the apostle Paul reminds us that, “the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). So when we claim that words like the Great Commis-sion have power, it has nothing to do with the words themselves. The power of this commission-ing is from the Person, purpose and presence behind those words.

The kingdom of the Commission is expanding, and we’re invited to help create the ad-venture. And God will be with us, blessing all of us who through purpose-driven mission con-tinue to bear the light wherever we are.

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PRAYER
O gracious God of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob, Joseph and Ruben, Ruth and Naomi and Peter and Paul, Mary and Martha, Lazarus and Lydia, may you give us your precious peace. Lov-ing God, may you give us grace and give us courage and give us hope, as we move out in your world to live and serve. May the power and courage of your Holy Spirit be with us now and all of the time. Amen.
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