"What does the Lord require of us?" -- the Senior Sermon of Reid Morgan, Class of 2005 from the Diocese of West Missouri, delivered on February 10, 2005, in Christ Chapel

Isaiah 49: 5-13 -- Ephesians 3:1-12 -- Matthew 28: 16-20

Let us pray. Come Holy One and be with us today. Open our hearts and minds that we may hear your word, see you in all of creation, and feel your presence with us. We ask this in the name of your Son who gave us the vocation of mission. Amen.

Yesterday we were invited into the observance of a Holy Lent. A time when we are to look inward, a time of preparation and introspection in which we are to consider are relationship with God and determine what we need to change. Lent is also a time in our lives as Christians when we "give something up" in order that we might, through that sacrifice, come into a closer relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is from within this context of introspection that I have approached the propers for The Mission of the Church.

I have struggled with these texts especially Matthew's Gospel, not only for myself but also in what God would say to you today. I considered the folk who have been on this campus recently and who are soon to depart this country to serve God and the church as missionaries. I considered their call and what they were to be about in the coming years. I thought to myself it would be an easy thing to talk about that and especially my friend Bob Blackwell, who along with his wife Kay are going to Damascus to serve an Anglican congregation in that city. And I thought if I did that I could avoid talking about the gospel or at least I could be anonymous in my sermon. But in all of my considering I could not do that, call it God, call it what you will, but something inside of me would not allow me to avoid the message of the "Great Commission".

In preparing for today I looked at the Matthaean community as we think that it was and I discovered a difference of opinion concerning that community. Most scholars are in agreement that this book was written to a community after the destruction of the Temple. Some believe that the gospel was written at a time when the need of the Jewish people to understand themselves was so strong that the leaders could not allow groups that saw themselves as different, groups that followed someone like Jesus to remain, they must be closed off from the people of Israel. Then there are others who see this as an internecine conflict, a heated discussion within the bounds of fraternal Judaism, a community that is discussing its understanding of itself but a community that is still together.

Whatever the case may be in that regard it is clear that the Jesus that is presented in the Gospel of Matthew is a thoroughly Jewish one. Matthew's gospel, it appears, is written to a mostly Jewish community, this would seem to be so, in no small measure, due to the amount of scripture that is used by Matthew in presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the one who will change the world. It is also true due to the prominent place that mountain has in this gospel, as we have heard this week and last.

This imperative of Jesus to the gathered disciples, minus one, is a widening of Jesus' mission that was prefigured in his interaction with the Canaanite woman in chapter 15. It is in this interaction that, I believe, Jesus begins to see the fuller implication of his mission on Earth, a mission that is to be carried out by those whom he empowers for that purpose.

The question that faces us as we consider Jesus' directive to "…make disciples of all nations…" is how and in what manner are we to do this. How are we to do this in a world that is religiously plural, how do we do this without perpetuating, what some would say, is the exclusivity that seems to be inherent in that imperative. It would appear that what Jesus is telling the disciples, and us to do, is to go out and convert the world……but I don't think that's the case.

I said earlier that I had struggled with this text of the "Great Commission". That struggle comes from deep inside of me. It comes from the very root and core of my being. It comes from where I was brought up and nurtured, it comes from my growing up in the Deep South. There is something deep down inside of me, that comes out of that experience, that would like to say that would like to say that the message of this gospel passage is about nothing more or less that "converting" everyone to faith in Jesus Christ. Think how easy that would be, at least from the belief stage, you wouldn't have to consider anyone's thoughts or their own deep rooted faith, you just go out to "win" souls for Jesus. John Claypool tells a story from his youth that illustrated what happens when you run up against this very thing.

John Claypool came from a long line of Southern Baptist preachers. The story he relates is of a new family that had just moved in next door to them in Nashville. This family had just left military service and settled down next door to the Claypool's and John had noticed that they did not go to church, not only that but John, who was a teenager, discovered that the family was Muslim. John and the son of the family had started a friendship and John decided that he was going to "win" this person for Christ.

One afternoon John went next door whipped his Soul Winners New Testament out of his back pocket and asked his friend if he believed that Jesus Christ had died for his sins, and his friend said no and asked him why he believed it. John's reply was "Because the Holy Bible tells me so." His friend then brought out a copy of the Koran and asked John if he believed that Allah was all-powerful and that Mohammed was his Prophet? To which John replied no and then he asked him why he believed it and his friend said, "Because The Holy Koran says so." John Claypool was brought face to face with something that he had never known before, not everyone in the world followed Jesus Christ and yet many of them had a faith that was every bit as real, and true, and sincere as that which infused the life of John Claypool and which infuses the lives of each and every one of us in this place. It is this faith that inhabits our very being that calls us to share our stories with those around us.

This story brings the gospel into sharp focus for us, that focus is on how we are to follow the imperative of Jesus in this passage from Matthew. John does not say how their friendship continued, but I like to envision it as a continuing conversation around their individual faith journeys that have a common element. We have a responsibility, as future leaders of the church, to understand this imperative of Jesus as one that we cannot shrug off. It is a hard thing to do to share our faith, it is made more difficult because we are called to share it in a manner that "…respects the dignity of every human being…" and we are particularly called to help those whom we serve to share their faith journey.

The key word for me in this passage is disciple. Jesus sent the eleven, the imperfect community out into the world to make disciples. The Greek word that we translate as disciple has the meaning of "being a learner or a pupil" which goes along with Jesus telling the eleven that they were to teach and baptize. The act of baptism goes along with teaching, as it is the initiatory rite into the community, a rite that is performed only after a request for admission. This final directive given by Jesus to the disciples is one that is inclusive of all creation as opposed to being exclusive. It seeks to bring all into the fold of the Holy One.

The idea is that we are not looking for numbers for numbers sake nor are we looking for money to pay the bills, we are looking for those who through our sharing of the gospel message will discover the light of Christ. In the sharing we are not called to be successful, but we are called to faithful, faithful in planting seeds that we may never see grow to fruition for that is not our job but God's.

I said earlier that in Lent we give something up to help us focus on God, but in this Lent I would challenge us to take something on instead of giving something up. John R. W. Stott, a priest of the Church of England, at the 1974 Congress on Evangelism said the following, "There is no Great Commission without the Great Commandment." There is no teaching or baptizing without first loving God with all your heart, and soul, and mind, with every fiber of your being. And then loving your neighbor as yourself, all of your neighbors, for Jesus said, "…on these two commandments hang all the law and prophets." They are both one and the same, equal. I would suggest that we each, especially those of us about assume the responsibility of ordained leadership in the church, ponder the meaning of that statement for it has implications not only for world mission but also for mission here in this place and the places to which we will go. It will be in the wrestling with the gospel text and this statement of John Stott's, where we will find the true meaning of mission and the manner in which we are to carry it out.
In the name of the God who created us, the Son who empowers us, and the Spirit who sustains us.

Amen