Genesis 1:1-2:4a • Psalm 8 • 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 • Matthew 28:16-20
Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 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."
Can you remember the last time you tried to learn something new--a skill, a hobby, a household chore, a musical instrument, or a new language? As an adult it can and most often is one of the most completely humiliating things that’s ever happened to us. I can remember taking dancing classes with my wife before we got married a few years ago, and how scared I was to do the waltz as our first dance in front of a room full of our closest friends and family members. That night, as I counted “one, two, three...one, two, three” while we danced, I could probably be heard in the whole room, even all the way into the kitchen, maybe, and I know even I could barely hear the bluegrass band’s beat that was playing the music to that first dance. I was so scared of stepping on this beautiful bride’s shoes and embarrassing myself that I was willing to do anything to avoid looking incompetent.
Perhaps that fear is why learning a new life skill is so challenging for adults. We build up so much of our identity in the areas of our lives where we are competent--our work, our home life, our volunteer activities and hobbies. So when we find ourselves in situations where we do not feel competent, our anxiety level goes through the roof!
And perhaps this is why, for many of us today, I am guessing that Jesus’ the words of the Great Commission to “Go and make disciples” doesn’t exactly serve to inspire us a great deal with confidence. More of us than not, I am guessing, hear this command and are reminded of our guilt, as I am, for not having done more to make more disciples...guilt for for not knowing how to...guilt for feeling powerless to...and guilt for simply never having done it. It’s not that we don’t want to go and make disciples. It’s that we don’t feel any competency to make disciples whatsoever. Maybe we’ve never had a chance to learn about it, practice it, reflect on it, or integrate it into a regular part of our own lives of faith and discipleship, and so we’ve never developed confidence in ourselves to follow through on this great co-mission that Jesus has entrusted to us.
But maybe that is to some extent Jesus’ point. After all the task of discipling that Jesus gives his disciples and us sounds nothing less than completely impossible! To make a disciple—followers of the way of Jesus?! The eleven remaining disciples don’t even have a very good or lengthy track record of being competent at doing it! And not even that, but Jesus gives us the command to make disciples of all nations, bringing the good news of Jesus’ power and love to peoples and cultures completely different from our own! This task may be so unbelievably impossible, in fact, that there is no way for us to fulfill it...except, that is, to completely and utterly throw ourselves into God’s mercy and strength. Making disciples in fact may be one of the few things that does not rest on the authority of our own competence, but rather rests upon Jesus, our Lord, who prefaces the Great Commission by declaring that all authority rests with him--not with the church, with our resources, or our abilities, but with the crucified and risen Jesus, to whom “all authority on heaven and on earth has been given.” (Mt. 28:18) (Long)
Could it be possible, then, for us to move out of our comfort zone of what we are competent in, to fulfill our purpose to witness and proclaim the gospel? It is possible, because God has given us all the competency we need, when God got out of God’s own comfort zone to send Jesus to redeem us. God got out of God’s comfort zone with the wildest of investments in, of all people, us--an investment that even went as far as Jesus being willing to promise he would always be present to us through the Spirit. It’s possible for us to move out of our comfort zones for the sake of sharing Jesus’ love and power because grace never comes to meet us and simply leave us where we are at. As spiritual memoirist Anne Lamott defines it, grace always meets us exactly where we are at in our lives with the life-changing graciousness of God in Jesus...but it never leaves us there. Grace, as the reality that God has chosen to believe in us, challenges us to grow--not just to consume grace, but to be strengthened by it so we can go and feed the world with God that it is so hungry to receive.
As we go into the world to follow the Great Commission, we go marked with the cross of Christ given to us in baptism. We go to make disciples as people clear about what kind of difference being a disciple makes for us. How can we expect to invite others to be disciples, after all, when we do not know how our lives have been transformed by God’s grace in Jesus Christ? See if any of these statements describes the difference God leaving God’s comfort zone to love us has made in your life. These could be examples of how you could talk to someone else about the difference Christ makes in your life:
I used to strive for everything...now I’m grateful.
I used to live so confused...now I have direction and purpose.
I was angry...now I’m grateful.
I was striving to prove myself...now I’m accepting of my limits.
I used to be self-destructive...now I’m making healthy choices.
I used to struggle with the meaning of my life...now it all seems to make sense.
When I’m in despair...faith is what keeps me going.
Start small. Try practicing talking about what difference being a disciple makes for you with those you love, and care about. Gradually, you will find you will build confidence, and be able to step out and say those words to someone you don’t know as well--someone who may hunger to hear about a gracious God; someone who is searching, lost, disconnected, alone or afraid. And you will be ready to move out of your comfort zone to bring God’s comfort to someone else’s life. You will be ready to “make disciples.”
There’s also an element of “going and making disciples” that has to do with our style of sharing our faith. Typically Lutherans are most comfortable with evangelism in the serving style of self-giving service, and in the invitational style of inviting someone to worship, a service project or class. Both of these styles can be effective, but both of them can also easily happen without our telling of the story of God’s love in Jesus. We don’t have to be restricted to one or two styles of making disciples, however. We can get out of our Lutheran “comfort zones” to share the good news in a variety of ways. There’s the confrontational style that speaks the truth of the gospel with love; there’s an intellectual style for the analytical, inquisitive type; there’s a testimonial style for those who are clear communicators who can connect their own story of faith to the life experiences of others; and there’s the interpersonal style for those of us oriented towards friendships, and who can share the truth of our faith even when it may put those friendships at risk. (Hybels) Sharing in these ways may be uncomfortable at first; but the more we move beyond our comfort zones, the more we will see that God’s grace is more than competent enough to work through our hands, heads and hearts to fulfill the Great Commission.
When Jesus meets the disciples on the mountaintop and gives this commission, it says that some of the disciples “doubted.” (28:17) They hesitated. It’s not all too unlike the disciples who see Jesus walking on water hesitating to believe that it’s Jesus. Jesus’ response to the disciples in the boat echoes his promise made on that post-resurrection mountaintop in Galilee to be with us to the end of the age. “Take heart,” Jesus says, “It is I; do not be afraid.” (Mt. 14:27) In handing over the Great Commission to us, Jesus gives us all the skills we need to fulfill our purpose as evangelists. We have his promise that we have a message to share, a world to love, and a faith that can’t be kept hidden. Like the disciples, Jesus will perceive our fulfillment of his commission not only by whether we recognize it is Jesus who gets out of his cozy Godliness to come walk on water to find us...but also by whether we have the courage to get out of the comfort of our boat, share the good news, and to trust his promise that the Spirit will always, always, go with us. Amen.
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