“Doubts and All”
Matthew 28:16-20
I’ve
not seen the two “Mission Impossible” movies starring Tom Cruise, so I don’t
know how they begin. I am, however, old
enough to remember the TV series of the same name. Every one of those impossible missions began
after a tape containing these words was played: “Your mission is, if you choose to accept it…”
At
the last minute I almost changed the title of this sermon to “Mission
Possible.” Jesus commissioned those
first disciples to carry on his mission.
He told them what he wanted them to do.
Please note that he didn’t ask; he told.
It wasn’t a request; it was an order.
And it still is.
In
essence Jesus has said to those who would faithfully follow him, “Your mission – the mission for which I have chosen for you
– is to continue the work that I have begun by going out into the world around
you, making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. You are to train others in
the way of the cross. You are to teach
them the will of God as I have revealed it to you through my commandments. You
are to teach them the ethics and lifestyle demanded by a life lived in
accordance with the
Let’s go back to those first disciples standing before Jesus on that
mountaintop. Let’s hear his words with
their ears. Let’s feel, as they felt,
the full impact of those words. They
were hearing Jesus tell them to go on doing what they had observed him doing
for three years. They were feeling the
full weight of this commission, including its potential costs. Doing what Jesus did was a risky and mostly
misunderstood business. Although they
would be doing it within the context of his resurrection, and although they had
been promised the power, protection, and guidance of the Holy Spirit, they
would always be living and working under the shadow of the cross. It goes with the territory.
Furthermore,
they understood, in a way that we often forget, the context of Jesus’
commandments: the Sermon on the Mount.
Those were the commandments they were to live, model, obey, and
teach. They knew that if they were going
to take the Sermon on the Mount seriously enough to live it, then they, like
Jesus, were going to find themselves in conflict with the expectations,
assumptions, laws, and conventional wisdom of not only their culture, but also
every culture.
They
would be swimming against the tide of human sinfulness. They would be lighting candles that would
bring to light the darkness and corruption of the world. They would be taking on the insidious powers
and principalities of this world: corrupt and evil political and economic
systems, systems that, mostly unconsciously, took their marching orders from
the devil himself. They would be taking
on the demonic forces that ruled the dark side of the spiritual realm. All the while recruiting, so to speak, others
to join with them in the struggle.
No
wonder some of them doubted. Even as
they worshiped him they still had questions about why Jesus’ ministry ended the
way it did. They still had trouble
getting their minds around the notion of a kingdom that wasn’t political or
materialistic. They, like us, could see
no practical way to live out the teachings of their Lord. From their perspective and ours, it was
“Mission Impossible.”
Jesus
understood their doubts. He didn’t judge
or condemn them for having them. Instead
he gave them these words of encouragement: “God
authorized and commanded me to commission you.
These orders come from the top.
There is no higher authority: not on earth, not in heaven, and
definitely not in hell. You are
authorized and empowered to carry out your mission. The very gates of hell cannot prevail against
you.”
And
there was more: “I’ll be with you as you
do this, day after day, right up to the end of the age. You have God’s own authority. You’ll have my presence and the power of my
Spirit every step of the way. Your
God-given power and authority will exceed that of the powers and principalities
of earth and beyond. The Devil id
strong, but he’s already been whipped.
His demons can be disruptive, but only for a little while. Go do what I’ve commissioned you to do. I entrust you with it, doubts and all. Not only is it ‘Mission Possible,’ it is ‘
So it was, and so it is. Our
mission is Christ’s mission. Our
authority is God’s authority. Our power
source is no less than the Holy Spirit himself.
We go forth in the name of the Triune God: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. We, doubts and all, go forth to
carry out “Mission Possible.”
Let’s
hear that mission restated, this time in the words of the 1973 Proposed
Declaration of Faith: “God sends us to
proclaim the gospel… to tell all nations that Christ calls everyone to
repentance, faith and obedience. We are
to proclaim by word and deed that Christ gave himself to set people free from
sin and self-hatred, from ignorance and disease, from all forms of oppression,
and even from death. We are to offer
them in Christ’s name fullness of life now and forever.”
It
goes on: “We must not distort the gospel
by weakening its promises or demands, by identifying it with oppressive
structures, by pointing to ourselves instead of Christ. We must not restrict our proclamation to
persons just like ourselves. We invite
people everywhere to believe in Christ and become his followers. We urge them to join us in telling others the
good news…”
Do we hear all that? Do we
understand it? Do we feel its full impact? If not, we need some further exploration of
the topic. We cannot allow ourselves to
leave here today without further exploring just what our mission is.
Part of that involves knowing what it’s not. Our mission is not the recruitment of warm bodies
to fill up our sanctuary. Nor is it corralling
fresh volunteers to serve on committees.
It has absolutely nothing to do with making our annual statistical
report look more positive. It’s not
about getting more givers in order to balance the budget.
We are called to proclaim the gospel in its fullness: all of its
promises and all of its warnings and demands. We are called to make known the
Before we can make disciples we have to be disciples. We cannot learn discipleship without
discerning God’s will as revealed in Scripture and made known in Jesus Christ. We’ve got to take more seriously than ever
before our need to confess our sins and repent of them. We’ve got to get serious about obeying our
Lord’s commandments – all of them, not just the ones we like. We’ve got to get real about living lives of
Christ-like love: in the world, in our community, in this congregation, and
throughout our denomination.
We’ve got to start practicing among ourselves things like forgiveness,
reconciliation, understanding, and acceptance.
We need to get serious about becoming disciplined disciples, disciples who
practice the spiritual disciplines of prayer, meditation, bible study,
meaningful and passionate worship, and honest-to-goodness Christian
fellowship. And those are the easy
ones. There are also those disciplines
called stewardship and fasting. We need
to learn how to let go of what we have in order to receive what we need, to
learn how to empty ourselves in order that we might be filled.
Will we do these things perfectly?
No. Will we have our moments of
doubt, fear, and reluctance? Undoubtedly. Will such discipleship be impossible? We might think so, but we’ll be wrong. Discipleship, just like disciple making, is risky. It’s scary.
It isn’t always easy. It is
possible. We have the authority. We have the power. So, doubts and all, let’s use them. Amen.