16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
I don't know what really started my love for this passage, but I think it may have begun during a class I had with Laceye Warner at Duke. We talked about this passage a lot, and what it means to be disciples in our current time. This passage is the very last thing we hear in the Gospel of Matthew. It is the final, parting words of Jesus that we are given, according to Matthew's account at least.
Why are these words so important? These words are not just a simple request from Jesus, but they are perhaps some of the most important words he ever uttered. "Go and make disciples of ALL nations." But do we take this seriously? Do we really take this command to heart?
These are some of Jesus' famous last words.
Those of you who know me know that I really love John Wesley. Wesleyan history is one of my favorite topics of conversation and it's where my nerd flag really flies high (almost as much as my love for Star Wars). But as John Wesley died, he held the hands of all the people around them, told them how much he loved them, and as he took his final breath he said, "The best of all is, God is with us." Every time I hear those words I get chills. I only hope that I could be so profound, so prophetic, at any point in my life, let alone in my dying moments.
Famous. Last. Words.
What message is so important to you that you would want it to be the words you left your family and friends with? I think for me, I would want it to be something like, "Love one another". Or maybe "If you want to be a disciple, you have to remember that it's not about you."
It's NOT about you. It's not about me. It's not about any of us. The best news is that God is with us. The GOOD news is that Christ came to show us how to make disciples so that the world could see that God is with us. I think this is a hard message in our consumerist society.
It's a hard message for those of us who are believers to realize that none of this is about us. Yet we make it all about us. What can the church do for me? What ministries can you offer for me? How can you appeal to me and the needs of MY family? And if the small church that has been begging for young families can't offer those things, we leave and go somewhere else that can. And that's not to shame or say that those are inherently bad things to want, but do we want it to truly build up our faith? Or is it a social need? What if we stayed in those small churches and built ministries where we land and were a part of the community?
This past week we had our North Carolina Conference United Methodist Church Annual Conference in Greenville, NC. And for the first time in my 32 years (preacher's kid, youth delegate, then preacher myself) of going to conferences I didn't leave feeling absolutely frustrated. And that's a good thing. We talked about climate change. We talked about issues that matter. We lifted a resolution from our youth to tackle the poor road conditions in Johnston county. We were taking social action on issues that MATTER, and it was a glorious thing to see. (I feel like the youth are really a beacon that we should be looking to in the church for direction, but I digress...)
We talked about what mattered...
I mean sure, when you put several thousand church people in a room together, we're going to get side tracked, but we truly talked about issues that matter. One of my biggest sorrows about the church today is that we spend so much time getting caught up in minutiae that only tears us apart, and it kills me. It makes me weary... and I know that I'm not alone. Every time it happens I find myself going back to this Great Commission text:
Is what we're doing helping to make disciples of ALL the nations? Does what we're doing right now show that God is with us?
There's a lot of talk about split and division in the United Methodist Church, and I'll be honest it terrifies me. I don't know where we'll end up. I don't know what will happen. I don't honestly know what the best decision is for the church. We have this commission on A Way Forward (and as the bishop pointed out this week it's A way forward not necessarily THE way forward, because we know we are human and we know that there are many different options for how this can go) that is set to talk about where the church needs to go in the next few years.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do believe in resurrection. I believe in renewal. I don't believe that the church has to die. But I do believe that the church has to die to what it is. We've done a lot of damage to our society by forgetting what our Great Commission is. We've done a lot of damage by forgetting this call to create disciples. It is not a call to show everyone that we're right. It is not a call to affirm our politics. It is not a call to divide. It is not a call to cast aside some people as worthy while we pick and choose who we think God came for. It is not a call to build walls and destroy communities. It IS a call to love our neighbor, to love them so much that they see that God is with us. It IS a call to bear evidence of God's love in this world. It is a call to teach others who God IS, and not what we've made God to be in our own image.
It's not about us...
I wonder what the famous last words of the church would be. It scares me to think what some of us might say. If the church were to end RIGHT now, what would our last impression be on the world around us. Would it be that we don't like LGBTQ people? Would it be that we don't want our black neighbors showing up at church on Sunday? Would it be that we don't want people asking for help because it scares us? If it's anything other than LOVE, we're doing it wrong.
We need to decide what impression we would want to leave. We need to decide what parting words we would want to share and we need to start living into it right now.
I don't want to the church to die. I don't want it to split. Because in my heart, I know that the best news of all is that God is with us, and there's not a single person on this earth I don't want to share that with.
Blessings <><
Pastor Laura
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