“Going Once, Twice, Three Times” – Sermon on June 19, 2011

June 19, 2011
Scripture Lesson: 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 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.”

Sermon: Going Once, Twice, Three Times
by Rev. Doreen Oughton

Today’s scripture reading is the very last passage in the gospel of Matthew. It is called “the great commission.” It is Jesus’ final instructions to his follower, and understood to be his instruction to all who choose to follow him. He claims his authority, then sends his followers out under that authority. “Go,” he tells them, “make disciples of all nations, baptize and teach obedience to my commands.” These instructions are the grounds for evangelizing, for sharing faith and working to get others to follow Christ. And since it says right there to make disciples of all nations, it was the grounds for missionaries to go out to convert people all around the world, to get them to abandon their religious beliefs and rituals, to stop worshiping the wrong God, stop making the wrong sacrifices, and instead follow Christ.
I remember hearing a sermon once that compared and contrasted the great commission with what is called the great commandment from Matthew 22: 36-40: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And I was so on board with the speaker’s assertion that she feels more called to focus on the commandment to love than the commandment to baptize, to convert, to save souls if you will. And while some Christian denominations and sects focus strongly on evangelizing, many mainline churches are pretty squeamish about it. Talk about evangelizing or mission work, and people say, “I don’t want to go knocking on doors asking if someone has accepted Christ. I don’t want to fly off to another country to tell people that their way of believing is wrong. I don’t want to take part in squashing a culture just because it isn’t Christian.” And I admit that my feeling is that missionary zealotry has earned a bad reputation by getting all tied up with colonialism. The missionaries that were so concerned with the condition of the foreigner’s soul set out with people who were concerned with the foreigner’s land and resources and labor. And even if the motives were spiritual, the results were often devastatingly destructive.
I love how the scripture tells us that when the disciples joined Jesus on the mountain, “some doubted.” I’m guessing they didn’t doubt that it was Jesus, but worried about his commission. I love the translation offered by Eugene Peterson in The Message. He says, “Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.” Just like me with this great commission, holding back, reluctant to push Jesus on anyone. Just like so many who are uncomfortable with the idea of evangelizing. It’s interesting too that though Jesus tells his followers to go and baptize, Christianity has in general removed that task from lay followers and made it a special duty of clergy, baptism as a sacrament administered only by those with special authority. Was this a way of holding back from Jesus’ commission?
Jesus told his followers to do both these things – to love God, neighbor and self; and to go out and make disciples. And if you remove the ugly distortion of colonizing mission crusades, there is nothing contradictory about these instructions. In fact, I can see how they quite easily hold together.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day set aside each year to reflect up the wonderful mystery of the Holy Three in One. The doctrine of God as Trinitarian in nature was first articulated in the third century, and fully accepted a creed in the fourth century. There is no such doctrine in the bible, in neither the Hebrew Scripture, nor the Gospels, nor any of the New Testament letters. The notion is a challenge to some degree to monotheism, the belief that there is but one God. Christianity holds that there is indeed but one God, but asserts that God’s nature consists of three distinct personas. It’s a very confusing idea, difficult to fully understand and difficult to explain, which is also true of God in general, I believe.
The reason this doctrine came about is that people in the early church had very real experiences of God in three distinct ways. They experienced God as separate from themselves, as wholly other, as beyond them. They experienced God as being with them, a companion whose will and grace and mercy could be found in their community or in connection with another. And they experienced God as being within them, a still small voice that guided them, or just a knowing of what was called for. And so language was developed to talk about the different ways of experiencing God, the one God. Each aspect of the Trinitarian God had been referred to in scripture for thousands of years – God the creator, the judge, the father, the mover and shaker, the mother hen; Jesus the son of God, referring to his Abba, Jesus the Word that was with God from the very beginning; and the Spirit that moved over the waters in the act of creation, who inspired the prophets, who came to the disciples on that first Pentecost.
And here in Matthew’s gospel Jesus himself gives the words of baptism – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus tells them to teach new disciples to obey his commandments. What were Jesus’ commandments? He summed them up himself in Matthew 22, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. I’ll add in that he constantly set forth the importance of serving. But hear the similarity between the commandment and the baptismal words – Love God – in the name of the Father; love your neighbor – and of the Son; as yourself – and of the Holy Spirit. Make disciples by demonstrating the three-fold way of experiencing God. Go forth and love something that transcends human beings. Love in a way that is humble and understands that we are but strands in a larger tapestry, that knows human vision is limited. Go forth and love the human being that is right beside you, that is in your home and in your church and at work. Love the brother or sister that is in prison or in another country. And again I say that love is not just a warm feeling, but positive regard matched with actions that uplift and build and strengthen the beloved. And finally, go forth and love your true self, the child of God, the image of God, the being created to glorify God. You are commissioned by the authority of Christ to go once, go twice, go three ways to teach Christ’s commandment to love. Teach it by living it. And remember, Jesus is with you to the end of the age. May it be so.

Scripture Lesson: Matthew 28: 16-20 June 19, 2011
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.”
Sermon: Going Once, Twice, Three Times by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Today’s scripture reading is the very last passage in the gospel of Matthew. It is called “the great commission.” It is Jesus’ final instructions to his follower, and understood to be his instruction to all who choose to follow him. He claims his authority, then sends his followers out under that authority. “Go,” he tells them, “make disciples of all nations, baptize and teach obedience to my commands.” These instructions are the grounds for evangelizing, for sharing faith and working to get others to follow Christ. And since it says right there to make disciples of all nations, it was the grounds for missionaries to go out to convert people all around the world, to get them to abandon their religious beliefs and rituals, to stop worshiping the wrong God, stop making the wrong sacrifices, and instead follow Christ.
I remember hearing a sermon once that compared and contrasted the great commission with what is called the great commandment from Matthew 22: 36-40: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. And I was so on board with the speaker’s assertion that she feels more called to focus on the commandment to love than the commandment to baptize, to convert, to save souls if you will. And while some Christian denominations and sects focus strongly on evangelizing, many mainline churches are pretty squeamish about it. Talk about evangelizing or mission work, and people say, “I don’t want to go knocking on doors asking if someone has accepted Christ. I don’t want to fly off to another country to tell people that their way of believing is wrong. I don’t want to take part in squashing a culture just because it isn’t Christian.” And I admit that my feeling is that missionary zealotry has earned a bad reputation by getting all tied up with colonialism. The missionaries that were so concerned with the condition of the foreigner’s soul set out with people who were concerned with the foreigner’s land and resources and labor. And even if the motives were spiritual, the results were often devastatingly destructive.
I love how the scripture tells us that when the disciples joined Jesus on the mountain, “some doubted.” I’m guessing they didn’t doubt that it was Jesus, but worried about his commission. I love the translation offered by Eugene Peterson in The Message. He says, “Some, though, held back, not sure about worship, about risking themselves totally.” Just like me with this great commission, holding back, reluctant to push Jesus on anyone. Just like so many who are uncomfortable with the idea of evangelizing. It’s interesting too that though Jesus tells his followers to go and baptize, Christianity has in general removed that task from lay followers and made it a special duty of clergy, baptism as a sacrament administered only by those with special authority. Was this a way of holding back from Jesus’ commission?
Jesus told his followers to do both these things – to love God, neighbor and self; and to go out and make disciples. And if you remove the ugly distortion of colonizing mission crusades, there is nothing contradictory about these instructions. In fact, I can see how they quite easily hold together.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day set aside each year to reflect up the wonderful mystery of the Holy Three in One. The doctrine of God as Trinitarian in nature was first articulated in the third century, and fully accepted a creed in the fourth century. There is no such doctrine in the bible, in neither the Hebrew Scripture, nor the Gospels, nor any of the New Testament letters. The notion is a challenge to some degree to monotheism, the belief that there is but one God. Christianity holds that there is indeed but one God, but asserts that God’s nature consists of three distinct personas. It’s a very confusing idea, difficult to fully understand and difficult to explain, which is also true of God in general, I believe.
The reason this doctrine came about is that people in the early church had very real experiences of God in three distinct ways. They experienced God as separate from themselves, as wholly other, as beyond them. They experienced God as being with them, a companion whose will and grace and mercy could be found in their community or in connection with another. And they experienced God as being within them, a still small voice that guided them, or just a knowing of what was called for. And so language was developed to talk about the different ways of experiencing God, the one God. Each aspect of the Trinitarian God had been referred to in scripture for thousands of years – God the creator, the judge, the father, the mover and shaker, the mother hen; Jesus the son of God, referring to his Abba, Jesus the Word that was with God from the very beginning; and the Spirit that moved over the waters in the act of creation, who inspired the prophets, who came to the disciples on that first Pentecost.
And here in Matthew’s gospel Jesus himself gives the words of baptism – in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And Jesus tells them to teach new disciples to obey his commandments. What were Jesus’ commandments? He summed them up himself in Matthew 22, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself. I’ll add in that he constantly set forth the importance of serving. But hear the similarity between the commandment and the baptismal words – Love God – in the name of the Father; love your neighbor – and of the Son; as yourself – and of the Holy Spirit. Make disciples by demonstrating the three-fold way of experiencing God. Go forth and love something that transcends human beings. Love in a way that is humble and understands that we are but strands in a larger tapestry, that knows human vision is limited. Go forth and love the human being that is right beside you, that is in your home and in your church and at work. Love the brother or sister that is in prison or in another country. And again I say that love is not just a warm feeling, but positive regard matched with actions that uplift and build and strengthen the beloved. And finally, go forth and love your true self, the child of God, the image of God, the being created to glorify God. You are commissioned by the authority of Christ to go once, go twice, go three ways to teach Christ’s commandment to love. Teach it by living it. And remember, Jesus is with you to the end of the age. May it be so.