April 25, 2010 Sermon

The Mission
Matthew 28:16-20

Baptism begins discipleship.  Here at the Northern Lakes Community Church we believe God has called us to make disciples, to make followers of Jesus Christ.  We celebrated a baptism this morning.  That makes a start.  Let us all keep going to become closer followers of Jesus

In 1867 John Muir walked over 1,000 miles from Indianapolis to the Gulf of Mexico.  “My plan,” he wrote, “was simply to push on in a general southward direction by the wildest, leafiest, and least trodden way I could find.”  He pushed on over the spines of the Appalachians and through snake-infested southern swamps.  He contracted influenza and malaria.  He catalogued new tree and plant species.  The trip inspired him to spend the rest of his life traversing wild places on foot.  Yosemite and Crater Lake National Parks received federal protection to a great extent because Muir had explored them and became a passionate advocate for their preservation.  But he started without any conscious understanding of why he was going.  I cannot remember why I planned to preach on this text.  I put together a preaching schedule months in advance.  I have been preaching on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.  Had I followed that pattern today we would be reading Matthew 6, not 28.  But in the Lord's plan I put this passage on my schedule.  Then, a couple of weeks ago, the Dennis family requested that we baptize their son Beckett today.
 
It turns out today is about baptism.  But baptism is about much more than first meets the eye.  As a sacrament, baptism stands for, it acts out, a deep spiritual mystery.  Its meaning has many facets.  Baptism symbolizes cleansing from sin, death and resurrection, new life in Christ and more.  Baptism also symbolizes the call of God upon our lives.  Baptism begins discipleship.  Baptism begins our following of Jesus.  We turn now to Matthew 28 to receive our marching orders from there.

We call this passage the Great Commission.  This chapter opens with Jesus' resurrection on Easter morning.  Now he tells them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”  All authority, he claims, has come to him.  He can make such a bold statement precisely because of his resurrection.  God the Father has completed the plan.  He has sent his Son to die for the sins of the world.  He sent him also to rise from the dead.  This shows his power, his authority.  On any team—in sports or in business—the strongest player generally leads.  If a bench warmer tries to lead in one direction while the best player leads in another, the team will almost always follow the star.  Jesus has just proven his power.  He has just proven his right to lead.  He has displayed his authority over even death. 

But where does he mean to lead us?  “Go,” he commands, “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”  Making disciples is his primary directive.  Go to all the world, Jesus says, and make disciples of every tribe and people.  Start by baptizing them in the name of the triune God.  But making disciples requires so much more than baptism.  When Europeans began to colonize Brazil in the 1600's, Christian missionaries arrived in the earliest ships.  They fanned out across the vast territory, preaching about Jesus and baptizing hundreds, even thousands at a time.  Sadly, the missionaries then tended to move on, in order to baptize more people.  Meanwhile, the soldiers and company men established slave labor operations to extract silver, spices and wood for sale to a ravenous Europe.  The colonizers enriched themselves by using native people like machines.  Even when missionaries stayed and tried to “Christianize” the slave labor practices, they could not.  The bad guys stood to gain too much money and power.

One Roman Catholic order, the Jesuits, fought the system.  They established schools for the native population.  Their primary motivation was to teach them how to understand their baptisms, but they also taught European languages, how to read and do math, and more.  The Jesuits were not perfect.  Their history is smeared with pride and politics, but their dedication to the education of all peoples everywhere is a shining light in the otherwise mostly dark history of colonization.  To this day some of the finest colleges around the world have Jesuit roots.  Here in America these institutions include Georgetown, Boston College and Loyola Marymount.

Jesus called us to baptize and to teach people so they could follow him.  “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you,” he continued.  Some translations substitute “observe” for “obey”.  This does not convey the full force of Jesus' idea.  He wants obedience.  He does not want slaves, yet he does want followers.  He commands us to teach ourselves and others to make the free-will decision to follow Him.  And his followers must follow his commands.  What does Jesus command?  Review his ministry and we find themes in his teaching.  He commands that we love God and our neighbors.  He commands that we do our best to live holy lives, but that we do so with humility and that we confess our sin when we fail.  He commands that we minister to the unloved.  When Jesus tells us to obey he means what he says.  Unfortunately, Christians far too often misinterpret what he says.

I received a call this week from a woman in Brooklyn, Michigan.  I have a soft spot for Brooklyn.  The state high school cross country finals take place there and I have wonderful memories of three visits to watch our son run.  I was probably a little more receptive, therefore, when this woman asked if I could perform her wedding.  But why, I wondered, did she ask a minister in Traverse City?  Oh, she answered, the ceremony will be up there, in Charlevoix.  I explained that is not exactly next door.  Perhaps I could connect her with a preacher in that area.  Then she poured out the real story.  Her fiancée is a Presbyterian.  She belongs to a Baptist church.  Her preacher refused to perform the wedding because they want to dance at the reception.  Her preacher believes God hates dancing because of the impure thoughts and feelings it creates.  I gave her the names and numbers of two Presbyterian ministers up there and urged her, after the wedding, to attend a church that tries to obey what Jesus actually said and did. 

Following Jesus is serious and demanding business.  Loving people like he loves us takes spiritual strength.  It is a marathon, not a sprint.  If we want to “obey all I have commanded you” we will need all the help we can get.  Turning people away because of human-generated rules is sinful.  But how have we turned people away from following Jesus?  If I might be so bold, the Baptists may have their habitual ways of turning people away from Jesus, but so do we Presbyterians.  And one of our favorites is never inviting them in the first place.

Invite people to follow Jesus.  Recently we have learned that Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, teaches that following him to the best of our own ability is a necessary first step in inviting others to follow him.  But this does not close the deal.  Follow Jesus humbly and tenaciously, then invite others to do the same.  The Northern Lakes Community Church exists to make disciples, followers of Jesus.  We do not exist to entertain people on Sunday morning.  We do not exist to avoid challenging people with the truth of the Gospel in order not to offend them.  We do not exist to be what the old Southern joke says about Presbyterians: a religious country club.  We are here to follow Jesus—and to invite others to do the same.

Many have rightly noted that we have a wonderful and huge youth group.  The primary reason it has gotten so large is our young people invite their friends to try it.  Baptism starts our discipleship.  Continue your discipleship by learning what Jesus calls us to do with our lives.  Read your Bible.  Read it in a group or a class so you can learn what it says more fully and more efficiently.  Serve the needs of your fellow human beings near and far.  And invite people to join us as we do these, and many other things in our best attempt to follow Jesus where he actually wants us to go.

The elders of this church and I long to help us get in front of the wave.  Far too often I hear people say, “But we’re just a small church.  We can’t do too much with so few people.”  In truth, we are an above-average sized congregation for America and for the Presbyterian denomination.  Half of all congregations in the USA have fewer than 100 members.  We have about 175.  Half of all congregations in the USA average less than sixty people in worship.  We average 137. 

This congregation has a more can-do attitude than any church I have served.  Just this week a bunch of volunteers slaved outside to beautify our grounds.  Two women essentially pulled off the rummage sale with guest-starring appearances from about a dozen others.  We do much good work in the name of Jesus.  We want to do more.  Your elders and I want to lead you in doing more.  We want this not so we can tell our friends how wonderful NLCC is, but because Jesus commands us to make disciples.  Invite your friends.  Invite them to worship, to mission projects, to youth group, to our church fun nights, to Vacation Bible School, to Hands Around the School when we pray at the start of the school year.  Help people follow Jesus alongside us.  It is why we are here.  Baptism begins discipleship.  Let’s keep moving with Jesus.