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NRS Matthew 28:16 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."
I believe that the thing that separates us the furthest from our brothers
and sisters of faith in the first century is that we have forgotten our
purpose. I believe that they accepted their commission and never wavered from
it. I believe that they understood the message that it gave and what message
they were supposed to send. And I believe that when we accept our commission
and understand the message we can do great things. George Sweeting, in his book The
No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing, tells of a man by the name of John Currier who
in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he
was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee. In
1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was
sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it.
Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept
doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died. Ten
years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight,
found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free
man. Sweeting concluded that story by asking, "Would it matter to you if
someone sent you an important message -- the most important in your life -- and
year after year the urgent message was never delivered?"
I believe that
the nature and mission of the church continues to be centered on Jesus Christ,
offering Jesus to all persons that they may know him as the Son of God and
through him enter into the Kingdom of God growing in the image of Christ and
witnessing to the world. The nature of the church is to be the sign of the reign
of God, exists to be a redemptive community and to be the instrument of God’s
presence by providing the means of grace in the offering of the sacraments,
Word, order and service. The church is a foretaste, an appetizer of the Kingdom
of God which will be fulfilled completely in the feast at the table of God on
the mountain of God. The church through its worship brings the Word of God to
the world and proclaims the message of grace, love and salvation. The church
is, “a community of believers brought
together by the profession of the same faith and conjoined in the communion of
the same sacraments.”[i]
When someone
comes into our worship service, from the moment they enter the doors, they need
feel the very presence of God and the Kingdom of God.
We do that and
we do it well. But what if we did it seven days a week and we did it everywhere
we live? What if we gave hugs, showed genuine concern and showered people with
love every day and every place in the world? You see the church is not the
building as the song says, it is the people. That means that it is you that is
the church. So we can share the very essence of the church, the very essence of
God’s love with the world by reaching out into the world and loving one
another. That is what is meant by the Go therefore in the scripture. In other
words, do not stay where you are but go into the world. We are to be the
message carriers of God’s love and we cannot do that if we spend all our energy
in these walls. Jesus wanted us to know that we are being tasked by God to Go.
The mission of
the church includes leading a meaningful, relevant worship within the church
which relates to the community both inside and out through the use of a
scripture based interactive and uplifting service. And in that worship we proclaim
the WORD of God through the message and the grace of God with the Clergy
presiding over the giving and taking of the sacraments. In addition to the
worship service, the church builds disciples for the transformation of the
world through Sunday school and small group study where we continue the study,
discussion and understanding of Christ together in fellowship with one another.
We are told that we need to baptize. But this baptism is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit that Jesus described to Nicodemus. It is more than just pouring or
immersing oneself in water. It is the immersion of the Holy Spirit within us
that we might share in the total relationship with God that God desires of us.
Notice that it does not say go out and baptize. Rather it says, go and baptize
in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, this is a total
immersion of God surrounding us, cleansing us, and filling us up with the power
and love of God. Don’t get this total immersion confused with total immersion
in water. They are not the same. One gets us wet, this one gets us well. Jesus
tells us this so that we know what is being asked of us in our own lives as
well what we are to do with others. Anything less is unacceptable. If you give
yourself to God, it must be a complete giving. Do you stand at the plate in
baseball and give less than all. If you do you cheat yourself and your team. So
it is also true in our Christian faith.
We are to teach ourselves and those who come to know Christ the
commandments of Christ. Do we know what they are? How can we teach what we do
not know ourselves? Jesus commanded us to Love God with all our hearts, our
minds and our souls. That is that total immersion of God that we talked about.
And then to love our neighbors in the same way with a total immersion of love
that they might feel and experience the love of God. Bishop Cho has a saying
that he says at every prayer and in most of his sermons. “God’s will be done,
nothing less, nothing more, nothing else.” I think that sums up pretty well the
idea of God filling us up so that there is nothing else but God within us. Jesus
wants us to know that the church is about love. Our central focus needs to be
love. Love for God and love for one another. Jesus did not exclude anyone in
that message. He wants us to love one another unconditionally as God loves us
first. That is the central message of the Gospel and the whole Bible. What
Jesus taught about loving God and loving neighbor is integrated in the stories
of the Old and New Testament. We are to be a loving people, caring and
nurturing our fellow human beings.
In addition,
the church is responsible for outreach and nurturing ministries to the
community and the world. We do this through service ministries aimed at
providing for those who are in need with an emphasis on eliminating poverty
where we are able to do so, standing against social injustice wherever we find
it and reaching out with love to those we encounter. The church has lost its
focus as the center of the community and we as clergy should work to
reestablish this within our appointed communities.
Our primary task is completed by
receiving, relating, equipping and sending disciples in the world, found in our
missional statement in (Matthew 28:19) “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." I believe that the nature and mission of the
church is summed up in those words, that we are tasked with finding those who
are searching wherever they may be, building relationships with them in order
to win them to Christ, building disciples through our instruction on the Word
and then sending them out in mission to the world.
A young man
enlisted, and was sent to his regiment. The first night he was in the barracks
with about fifteen other young men, who passed the time playing cards and
gambling. Before retiring, he fell on his knees and prayed, and they began to
curse him and jeer at him and throw boots at him. So it went on the next night
and the next, and finally the young man went and told the chaplain what had
taken place, and asked what he should do. "Well," said the
chaplain, "you are not at home now, and the other men have just as much
right to the barracks as you have. It makes them mad to hear you pray, and the
Lord will hear you just as well if you say your prayers in bed and don’t
provoke them." For weeks after the chaplain did not see the young man
again, but one day he met him, and asked -- "By the way, did you take my
advice?" "How did it work?" "Well," said the young
man, "I felt like a whipped hound and the third night I got out of bed,
knelt down and prayed." "Well," asked the chaplain, "How
did that work?" The young soldier answered: "We have a prayer meeting
there now every night, and three have been converted, and we are praying for
the rest." The young man knew better than the so called “man of God”
about what his purpose was.
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