Go Therefore

Trinity Sunday

Text: Matthew 28:16-20

Title: Go Therefore

Theme: “Going” with a ‘posse’ of three

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.  And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What is it that defines a person?  Is it something external or internal?  Something objective or subjective?  Something all can agree on or something open to debate?  

To be honest, there are some elements of both wrapped up in what makes us who we are.  To a degree, each person can be - and hopefully IS - self-defined.  We each strive to reach a point of maturity where it is not so much what others think of us that makes us who we are as it is who we know ourselves to BE that gives us our sense of identity.  For a follower of Christ, that identity is wrapped up in how we understand God in Christ to consider us that gives us our core identity.    

There are multiple factors that must be taken into consideration when that sense of identity is being formed; race, family history, place of birth, language, culture, income, education, friendships, work, social networks ... and faith.  

The question I’d like to address here today is, what place does faith play in our sense of identity here, at Jerusalem, as a unique family of faith, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, striving to be Christ’s presence in Emmerton, on the Northern Neck and beyond.

Being a people who have historically been identified as Baptists, we bring into this sense of identity all the history of our faith tradition: our connection to a free church tradition that tells us that each congregation is independent, free to decide for ourselves what to believe and how to practice that belief.  Our belief in soul competency: that each individual soul is capable, through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to enter into engagement with God and to be transformed directly by the action of God in his or her life, with only Christ as mediator, no one else.  We believe in the inspiration of scripture as the word of God, applicable to every aspect of our lives, to be approached with reverence and honest questioning, to be studied intensely and deeply, and to be open to what God may have for us in different ways through the different seasons of our lives from the same text, never setting those words in stone because the word of God is a living thing, capable of speaking in different ways and times to different people and situations.  

We also, as a people born of a tradition called specifically Southern Baptist, acknowledge our own history in that we were formed as a denomination due in large part to the defense of slave-owning missionaries.  While we do not disavow our missiological heritage, we have come to an understanding of the abhorrent nature of the institution of slavery and are mindful of the destructive patterns it rooted in us in terms of racism, segregation and profound injustices that were carried out or allowed to be perpetuated simply because that was “the way things are.”  In owning that history, we also renounce any justification of those practices that set man-made barriers between us and fellow believers of different races and cultures simply because we ARE of different races or cultures.  

In his great commission, Christ’s command is for us to go and make disciples, baptize, and teach.  The Great Commission is most informed, best exemplified, by Jesus‘ metaphors found earlier in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 13 & 14:  for the Christian life as being one of salt and light.  Being salt and being light is ... just THAT ... a state of BEING.  It is not, strictly speaking, the act of DOING something, though that is not excluded, it is something that has to do more with who we ARE as Christ followers, we are to BE like salt -- seasoning and preserving, we are to BE light:  casting away darkness by simply BEING present.  

We do not all have the skills or stamina to mend broken lives in distant lands, or even in nearby cities and towns, but we ARE as are all followers of Christ, empowered to become like those first followers were - salt and light to the world immediately around them: devoid of a sense of taste that distinguishes right from wrong and sinking in sometimes seemingly ever-increasing darkness.  We see evidence of this lack of a sense of right and wrong at least once a week when the Northern Neck News comes out, and just inside the front page is the listing of reports from the county sheriff’s offices in Richmond County and the surrounding counties on the Neck.  

What does it mean to make someone a disciple of Christ?  For that, we need to look at what the original disciples did and were.  They were Jesus‘ constant companions.  For three years, they spent nearly every waking moment with Jesus, listening to him teach, watching him perform miracles, face down the purveyors of injustice and warped religion of the day, and they heard him interact with God in a way that was unheard of before.  They had front-row seats to the unfolding acts of God in the world as a present and accessible God.  And even with all that, they didn’t quite ‘get it‘ until AFTER the pivotal act of God in history had taken place.  

So if we, as followers of Christ, are supposed to go and make disciples of all nations, then we are even more burdened with the task of being Christ’s presence in the world.  If those first eleven disciples were disciples due in large part to their being exposed to Jesus nearly every waking hour of the day, then our charge is even clearer:  We are to be Christ’s representatives, models, emulators, emissaries, ambassadors every waking moment, and especially in the presence of new or potentially new believers ... not that we are to relax and let our guard down when we are NOT in the presence of those same fledgling believers, or even potential believers, it is simply another reference to the fact that we are not only talking about beliefs and a faith that demand action, but we are talking about a way of life, a state of being, an identity born of the spirit of God that infuses who we are, that redefines us into being children of God above and beyond all else that would lay claim to our allegiance.   

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?  It means that if we are to be seriously about the business of the Kingdom of God, whether that be right outside these doors, in the surrounding community or in one of the surrounding counties or beyond, we have to take to heart one three-letter word in our passage this morning:  ‘all’.  

Both in the sense that our call is to take it to all people -- all nations -- as well as everywhere -- our mandate is not simply geographical, it is universal.  And insofar as it is unrestricted we are to likewise seek to be unrestricted ourselves:  in our outreach, in our welcoming, in our interconnectedness, we are commanded by Jesus to set aside those things that separate us in favor of that which unites:  the Love of God in Christ, calling us to sacrifice, to service, to fellowship, to establish and maintain bonds of love and fraternity that transcend the things that the world considers insurmountable differences.  We are called to unite with our brothers and sisters in worshipping God through that living of our lives that is our true worship - not just that which is limited to an hour or so on a given Sunday morning, but that worship that informs, that marks, that BRANDS the living of our days and that touches the lives of everyone around us.  

Christ’s Great Commission is the ongoing work of the Kingdom that begins in each of our lives and continues throughout our environment -- that touches everything and everyone we know.              

Let’s pray.