I’m delighted to be serving as Interim Pastor at Advent Lutheran Church in Arlington, Texas. This summer we are journeying together through the Jesus Priorities (based on a book with the same title by Christopher Maricle). Today’s priority was “spread the word.”
Sermon
My message, “Being and Making Disciples” was based on Matthew 28:16-20.
Spreading the Word
While I relied on this manuscript, I likely went a bit off script on a few occasions. You can watch a recording of the livestream here (the Gospel lesson begins at 22:24 and the message at 23:23).
Excerpt
Around twenty years ago this summer while serving a congregation here in the DFW area, I led an adventurous group of high school students on a mission trip to Mexico. For many of these young people this was their first time to leave our country.
The preparation for the experience was considerable. This was an outside of our comfort zone effort to live out our faith. And, it was an act of obedience that seemed to fulfill the first part of the instruction in this morning’s Gospel lesson, which is a passage that many call the Great Commission.
Go. Go and make disciples of all nations. The instruction begins with a call to leave our country of origin and travel to another.
The world has changed a great deal in the 2,000+ years since we received this guidance. And this means one no longer has to travel nearly as far to encounter a very different world.
A few years after that Mexico experience, while I was serving a congregation in Southwest Florida, I led a high energy group of middle school students on a summer mission trip to South Carolina. For many in our group this was the first time they ever traveled outside of Florida. This interstate experience stretched the participants just as much if not more as the international one.
In recent years, I’ve been on the receiving end. In my work as the CEO of White Rock Center of Hope, I welcome a number of students throughout the summer every summer who are away from home engaged in some form of an urban mission trip. While some participants are from other states, those traveling from within Texas who live in rural or suburban settings are more surprised by and far less familiar with the lived experiences and challenges of being economically poor in an urban context.
I wonder if Jesus were reissuing this part of the commission today how he might revise or update it. In authorizing disciples to carry on his ministry in the world what might he say? Perhaps 21st century Jesus would say “Whether you are staying put or going, wherever you find yourself, remember that you . . .
So What?
Spreading the word or carrying the good news of Jesus to the nations is no longer something that requires folks to travel around the world. Instead, it is an invitation to lead highly relational lives and to be open to all people in that cross your path.
- When you hear the term “Great Commission,” what comes to mind? In what way(s) does this message challenge your prior understanding?
- What is one way you could become more open to seeing and engaging with new to you people as you go about the everyday aspects of life?
- How did you come to belong to your current congregation or community of faith? What did you find helpful as a newcomer? What was off-putting?