Trinity Sunday: The Commencement of the Great Commission

Fr. Morgan Reed "Trinity Sunday: The Commencement of the Great Commission"

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Matthew 28:16-20

Introduction

         Good morning dear friends. Welcome to Trinity Sunday, the Sunday that follows Pentecost, where we focus on life with our Triune God, and the Sunday that leads us into ordinary time. As I mentioned last Sunday, while the kids aren’t in CGS, I want to have a specific time for them during the sermon, so kids, please come and sit down front near me...

Kids sermon

         How many of you have been to a graduation? Have you had your own? What were these graduations like? What do you remember? I wonder why we do them. What do you think?

         Anyone know what another name is for a graduation?...A commencement ceremony. I remember our high school graduation a few decades ago. It was a sunny day in northern California, we wore green robes and funny hats. Music played and we walked around the track of our football field to get to where we were supposed to sit. Then they called each name individually. I cannot remember how many hundreds of kids were in my senior class, but it did feel like an eternity under the sun. Eventually, hearing my name, I walked across the stage, got my diploma, and went back to my seat. Eventually they had us all move the tassels on our hat from one side to the other to signify that we’ve made it across the finish line.

         Commencement is really a better word for what happened that day. We ought to celebrate accomplishments, and making it through high school was certainly an accomplishment! But it really was a beginning, not an end; Monday morning rolled around and everything was new again. I wouldn’t see my high school friends much anymore unless we saw each other at community college. I had to start making money to pay for gas and classes. Graduation really isn’t the end. It’s actually the beginning, the commencement of what is next.

         May and June always feel like big seasons of change. Maybe some of you are feeling nervous or scared about that. That is okay to feel that way. God is with you even when life changes and God brings us into new places and circumstances; into new schools and new friendships. Can I tell you something surprising? Adults still get nervous about that too. A little bit of that fear about new things is what the disciples feel in our Gospel passage today too. I want to look at that passage together with everyone. Before I head back to the lectern, can you all  pray with me: “Dear Father... thank you...for Jesus...coming to be with us... thank you... for the Holy Spirit.... living in us. Amen.” Okay, head on back to your seats.

I. Our Commission with a Promise (I will be with you)

         Today’s passage is very grounding for the seasons of change we find ourselves in. Several of you have visited friends or relatives who are graduating. Lots of you are graduating high school or junior high, or entering elementary school. In a season of change, excitement, and potentially anxiety, I’m so grateful that Trinity Sunday occurs this time of year. It is very grounding to focus on who God is and what he calls us to become.

         In Matthew 28, Jesus had risen from the dead and showed himself to his disciples in Jerusalem. They are told to meet Jesus in Galilee, so they make the trek north. They arrive in Galilee at the mountain Jesus told them to go to. Jesus says to them “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”[1] All of creation, visible and invisible, is now under the rule and reign of Christ. This was part one of his kingship, part two involves the disciples. The disciples’ commencement began with walking into the unfamiliar with trust in Jesus’ ongoing presence.

         Jesus commissions them and tells them that as they go along they are to make disciples. How are they to do this? By baptizing people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And by teaching them all that Jesus has commanded them. The command is not “to go”. We aren’t called to make special trips and then make disciples. In other words, this is not a commission for missions trips or becoming itinerate preachers. Those are good things — and they aren’t the totality of making disciples. This is a commission to live a certain way. As you go, wherever you go, make followers of Jesus. You might be a kid figuring out how to follow Jesus in the context of your friend group at school and helping your friends see what Jesus is doing in your life. Who are you praying for among your friends? Adults, what does it mean in our vocation to follow Jesus and help our coworkers learn what Jesus is doing in our lives? How do we do our jobs according to the ethical demands of the Gospel with compassion? Who are we praying for among our coworkers? If you’re raising little ones, how are we forming disciples in the household? This starts with our own work on ourselves and our own stories. You might be retired, but actually you’re only retired from one vocational calling because there is no such thing as retirement in the kingdom of God. How are you becoming like Christ and sharing his love with your new calling in retirement? Who are the people you responsible to now that one vocation has gone?

         The great commission is for all of us. We are all commissioned to help people become more like Jesus. Help people discover the life and work of the Triune God. Help others follow Jesus, to be baptized, and to live life in the Holy Spirit. Walk with others in instructing and helping them live out the commandments of Jesus.

         There are a five steps to consider in living out the great commission: 1) prayer, 2) our own growth, 3) knowing Christ’s commands, 4) seeing the needs of others, 5) invitation. This begins with praying for friends, relatives, acquaintances, neighbors, and coworkers who need Jesus and don’t know him yet. Get to know the people who live near you, both their name, and if possible, know something about them you can be praying for. Where are our spaces that we know others and are known by others?

         Second, we have to prioritize our own growth in Jesus. Jesus wants to deliver us from this present evil age into the age to come, which has broken in through his death and resurrection. Are we aware of the places we need to grow in holiness? Our inner critic and our besetting sins are often intimately related. We all have a strong inner critic who likes to lob bombs of self-contempt our way. Mine likes to attack me when I risk something and it doesn’t go well. I move very quickly from “I wish that turned out differently...” to “you failed,” then to “you are a failure”. I wonder what your inner critic says and whose voice it is? Prayerful journaling is such a helpful practice for me. I’d encourage you to do it too to learn how to bless the goodness of the longings we have, name the voices of the inner-critic, and come back to God and to ourselves as God sees us. Perhaps use questions like “what happened?”, “What did I feel? And where did I feel it?”, “When did I feel that before?”, “What was I longing for?”, “How does this point me to my image-bearing self?”, “What is true of God in this situation?”, and “How do I now see this knowing what I know of God and myself?”.

         Third, in becoming more like Christ, we have to know the Triune God and what Christ commands of us. We take in God’s truth in Scripture and in the Church, making space for prayer in the offices of the church, or in finding short and rhythmic prayers to reframe the day in the presence of Jesus. This grounds us for the turbulence of the world around us.

         As we come to know the commands of Christ, we need to enter with curiosity into the needs of others. Having created a capacity to hear well, we listen. As you’re listening to your coworker, what are the questions behind their questions? As you’re out with other parents on the playground, what kinds of fears do other parents have? Whose grass is really overgrown in your neighborhood and what is the reason for that? Is someone elderly, sick, or do they have a newborn? This world, for all its online connectivity, is more disconnected than ever. Just sit in a crowded coffee shop and note the percentage of people on a screen vs. in conversation. Enter into that reality with curiosity. Big societal problems and trends are too large for us to solve, so start with those close to you, one individual at a time. For example, I saw a woman cross the busy road outside our complex with a baby in arms and a car raced behind her. This is the only place to cross the street to get to the bus stop. It has a cross walk, but no flashing lights. I wonder what it would look like to gather my neighbors and petition the county for a flashing crosswalk signal. The ultimate end is that my neighborhood knows our deep concern for our neighbors of all walks of life and my hope is that through an effort like that we might build the relational capital needed to earn the right to be heard.

         Finally, we invite people into conversation and there is trust and shared vulnerability.  We earn the right to hear someone share their story with all of its goodness and brokenness and they are better able to hear about Jesus’ work in our lives and about the goodness that Jesus is inviting us and them into. This takes a long time, but it also aims at a life transformed by the love of Jesus and not just mental assent to a body of knowledge. The Great Commission involves all of who we are interacting with all of who someone else is and that process is slow; it moves at the pace of relationship.

Conclusion

         The life of someone becoming more like Jesus and helping others do the same is accompanied by, and empowered by the presence of God. The Gospel of Matthew began with the declaration that Jesus would be Immanuel, God with us.[2] Here, at the end of the Gospel, Jesus fulfills this and says “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[3] The promise is that the Great Commission is not done alone. Our commission is to continue the work of Jesus’ 12 disciples. We are bringing people into the life of our triune God; growing the kingdom through the lives of individuals, neighborhoods, workplaces, and our other spheres of influence — Wherever we go.

         The commencement ceremony that took place on a mountain in Galilee continues in 21st century Northern Virginia and as we look to the youngest in this church, continues in and through them. We need to become a church where this great commission is lived out and passed on. 1) pray, 2) work on your own growth in holiness, 3) know Christ’s commands, 4) notice the needs of others, 5) and invite others into life with Jesus. We cannot give what we ourselves have not received, so let’s do the hard work together of noticing and taking up God’s grace for ourselves so that we might share it with others, knowing that Jesus is with us and is bringing us all back into communion with our Triune God.

Let us pray:

Almighty God our Savior, you desire that none should perish, and you have taught us through your Son that there is great joy in heaven over every sinner who repents: Grant that our hearts may ache for a lost and broken world. May your Holy Spirit work through our words, deeds, and prayers, that the lost may be found and the dead made alive, and that all your redeemed may rejoice around your throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[1]                Matt 28:18.

[2]                Matthew 1:23.

[3]                Matthew 28:20.