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The Festival of the Holy Trinity, 06/19/2011
Sermon on Matthew 28:16-20, by David Zersen
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." (NRSV)
COMMISSIONED CALEBS
One of the rituals associated with the U.S. Navy's ships is the commissioning that takes place when a vessel is first placed in service. Since the time when John Adams first advocated the need for defense at sea as well as on land, the rituals have become quite extravagant. When the U.S.S. Nimitz was launched in 1975, 20,000 people were present, including the daughter of Admiral Nimitz and the President of the United States. The National Anthem was rousingly played, speeches were given and all gathered knew this was a time for the nation to move ahead with a commissioned ship of cutting-edge naval technology.
When Jesus spoke the words in today's text, there were only eleven people present and some were uncertain about the future. Nevertheless, as Jesus assured the eleven that he had God's full authority to send them baptizing and teaching people everything they had learned, he also let them know that his presence would accompany them. His commissioning may not have seemed like much at the time, but the result of that simple ritual accomplished more in the world than all the ships commissioned down through history. In every country of the world today there are people who call themselves Christian after this Jesus the Christ. And, in addition to all the things they do in their jobs and relationships, they know themselves to be commissioned to share the Good News about Jesus with anyone they meet. How could this have happened?
How Christians discover they are commissioned
It is all the more surprising that it happened because by all the accounts given of the experiences of Jesus' followers after his death, there was fear and uncertainty in all of them. Luke tells us that they were hiding (for fear of the authorities) together in a room. Mark ends his story of the empty tomb by saying that all were afraid. Even today's text tells us that of the eleven, some revered Jesus, and some were uncertain.
Something happened down at the very heart and core of those who had followed Jesus. In that very center where betrayal and disowning and abandonment had led them to be in league with the crucifiers, something reoriented them. As they understood that they were accepted and commissioned in spite of their failures as followers and friends, they were awakened to a new possibility within their heart of hearts. They came to know that they-useless followers who had turned on their master, were now second-hires. They were chosen again in spite of themselves because God is loving and merciful and gracious. They were empowered by the Spirit to let this self-knowledge fashion in them a new creation.
What resulted from this new commissioning had two dimensions to it. First, they came to realize that not only would this remarkable loving God accept them, but this God would accept everyone. This was the great discovery of the earliest church. When Peter and Paul confronted the church in Jerusalem with the conversions that were taking place among those who were not Jews, James, the brother of Jesus, spoke for the whole church in Jerusalem when he agreed to send them back with the blessings of the Jewish faithful. Of course they had some scruples at first, but ever so gradually Christians everywhere came to reach out to others offering Jesus' gifts of forgiveness, freedom and the blessings of baptism into the community of the faithful.
The second thing they came to realize was that with this new understanding that in Christ there was neither slave nor free, Jew nor Greek, male nor female, came an appreciation for unity and fellowship that was overpowering. Together they shared their belongings and gave to those in need from their common largesse.
We have often reflected on the loveliness of those descriptions of early Christian unity and fellowship in Acts with nostalgia. If only it could be that way today again? Is there something about us or about the church today that should make it impossible?
How Christians hear the Good News speaking personally to them
It is true on the one hand that as Christians accepted their commissions and went into the world to bring the Gospel and to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, rules and cultures were at times imposed on natives that had nothing to do with Christ's message of freeing love. As Stephen Neill, Anglican bishop in Ceylon, once put it, "Christians brought their Gospel in foreign pots and never planted it in native soil." Failing to accept the uniqueness of cultures foreign to missionaries, they often unnecessarily turned natives away. In fact, however, the native peoples were not rejecting the Gospel so much as they were rejecting the foreign pots in which it had been planted.
Today, those who feel called, compelled, or commissioned to share the Good News of God's love in Christ are more sensitive to the very legitimate differences in people which can be allowed to remain as a part of a uniquely diverse Christian community. I have noted myself where in mission fields now become independent churches that some have discovered the freedom to claim their cultural heritage and others have not. In Tanzania I have heard native choirs in the bush practicing German chorale tunes for Sunday worship and in Cairo I have heard ex-pats and native converts sing Anglican chant. But I have also seen Christians dance to the altar with their offerings to the beat of Ghanaian drums. Deep within all of us there is a need to allow the Spirit of Christ's love that has claimed us, express itself in cultural forms that make sense to us.
Sometimes this is difficult for us. We may know that as Jesus said, we are commissioned by God's own authority to reach out in love to all nations-to people of every race, culture, and orientation. Christians are unique in this sense. We are not baptized and commissioned so that we can merely rejoice in our status with hymns of praise and offerings of gratitude. We are "sent" people. We have a large "GO" tattooed on the t-shirts that contain our new creation! But like Peter after the dream in Joppa which encouraged him to eat pork, we may still say that we aren't comfortable reaching out to just anyone.
Recently my wife and I viewed a film that made this point in a touching way. In "The Weeping Camel," a mother camel rejects her offspring and won't have anything to do with it. The culture in Mongolia has a custom that asks a violinist to come and play music for the mother camel in a situation like this. First the violinist arrives, and rubs the instrument on the camel's side to get her to identify with it. Then, as the violinist plays, viewers of the film note that the camel's own plaintive crying sounds have a string-like quality to them much like those of the violin. And in the mournful sounds of the violin, the camel hears music speaking to its inner heart. While we don't understand the music, the Mongolian violinist apparently knows the psyche of the camel and knows how to speak to it in ways that words can't communicate. When the "session" is over, it is clear that something has spoken within the camel's heart of hearts and she knows that she is being called to be a mother to her offspring. Without being forced, she is moved to seek out her progeny and to want to nurse it like any mother should.
There is something in that story for us who wonder what it is that motivates us to reach out to people whom we are commissioned to call our brothers and sisters. Martin Luther liked to say that it was baptism, the knowledge that we had been made God's own children that energized and moved us to serve others. And when we felt unmoved or despondent, that we should do what he did, namely remind ourselves that we have been baptized! We are God's own. We are loved and affirmed. We have within us the very loving power which makes it possible for us to reach others who need to know this love as we do.
An experience of a few years ago when my wife and I bought a new helped me appreciate this message to me in a personal way. As we visited the home for the first time, a young boy with Asperger's Syndrome was in the bedroom that was to be my study. He was uncomfortable talking to me, but I knew his name was Caleb. I asked him if he knew what an important name he had. Caleb was, after all, the man who was commissioned along with Joshua, to explore the Promised Land and bring back the report about its potential as a homeland. Today, the symbol of Caleb and Joshua is found on all the tourist literature for the State of Israel. And I just happened to have an olivewood carving of Caleb and Joshua holding a huge cluster of grapes that was from the Holy Land. I gave him this as a gift and he discovered a new openness to me that we didn't have when we were just strangers. With a simple touch of kindness, I had commissioned him to be free to accept me as a friend-- and even later as a Christian friend.
In a way, we are all Commissioned Calebs. We have been graced with knowledge of God's forgiveness and love and dare to feel an openness and sense of belonging to others we don't know very well. We have been made God's own ambassadors through the washing waters of Baptism. And we can find things which allow us to share something of ourselves with others, perhaps a small trinket or a gift of food or a story that proves we have something in common. We can send a card with a word of support or encouragement. And at some point we can share with others that in these gifts of ourselves God loves them just as we do.