Here's my sermon from May 18, 2008, Confirmation Sunday at Central Lutheran Church. I post because 1.) Only those at 9:45 service heard it. 2.) I apparently was talking so fast that most of 9:45 service didn't REALLY hear it. 3) I though it was pretty good.
It's based on Matthew 28: 16-20, the great commission
Thanks for reading! And now, the sermon....
It’s a typical Sunday afternoon Confirmation class at Central Lutheran Church. Gathered around a table in the upper fellowship hall, some students worship and some doubt. Some listen to the pastor, asking thoughtful questions, writing answers on worksheets, looking up passages in the Bible, really thinking about how faith matters in their life. But some are not listening. Some are doodling, some are coloring their arms with markers. Some are reading the sports scores in the Daily News when they think I’m not looking. Some think this whole God thing is baloney. Some wonder how this really helps when you’re getting picked on in math class or ignored by popular kids. Some worship, some doubt.
It’s a typical Sunday morning at Central. Some worship, some doubt. Some are singing the hymns, greeting their neighbors, listening to the message, noticing God’s presence, praying in thanksgiving and in supplication. Some sit like statues in the back row. Some of them are hurting, grieving, angry or resentful. Some of them wonder why they even came. Some think God has forgotten them. Some of them wonder where God was when a loved one died or when they heard the doctor’s diagnosis. Some worship, some doubt.
It was not a typical day when Jesus appeared to the disciples on a mountain in Galilee. Jesus had died and the disciples were left alone and hopeless. Then they heard the word from Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. Jesus was alive! And he wanted to meet the disciples in Galilee. So they went. When they saw Jesus, some worshipped him, some doubted. Even though they had gone to the trouble to show up, still, some worshipped and some doubted.
You’re finished with Confirmation. Done, done, done. No more class on Sunday evenings, no more sermon notes (except Donovan, you still owe me one). And it’s easy to see Confirmation as the ending. Show’s over, lights off, nothing to see here. Jesus’ disciples may have though the same thing when Jesus died and rose from the dead. Great, everything is finished. Except that Jesus’ goodbye message put them to work. He gave the Great Commission.
Sigh. Just when you thought you were finished. It wasn’t enough to learn the Lord’s Prayer and Apostle’s Creed? Jesus’ words: go and make disciples off all nations, baptizing…and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. It’s a tough assignment and one that seems more and more difficult in our world. Basically, Jesus is saying to GO, get outside your comfort zone, don’t just live for yourself. Form an alternate community with values that are different than the Roman empire (which valued success, power through violence, money). Rather, practice compassion, healing mercy, and inclusive community and life-giving words.
So basically, I’m encouraging you to live for others with Christ-like values at the very time in your life when teens put all their focus on themselves.
Some worship and some doubt.
Sounds like there was a mixed crew up on that mountain with Jesus, those worshippers and doubters. Yet they all got the same commission. Jesus didn’t say, you who are the faithful church attenders and ushers, go spread the good news. No, he instructed everyone to GO. Even those who doubt still got a commission.
Looking deeper into the Greek, one notices the word for “some” (as in some doubted) isn’t there. And the word “but” could also be translated as “and/on the other hand.” So another translation could be, “They worshipped him and on the other hand they doubted.” Those worshippers and doubters were the same people. Part of them worshipped and part doubted.
Which reminds us of one of our basic teachings about Lutheranism in Confirmation Class. Help me out here, Donovan and Emma. We are at the same time good and bad, we are ____ and ____ . Whew. I didn’t warn them there’d be a public quiz.
So even when we doubt, God still commissions us. We are still to go out and love others and tell about God’s love, even if we don’t really understand the Trinity or can’t remember the words to the Nicene Creed. This reminds me of when Martin Luther worried that he wasn’t holy enough to preside at the communion table. His mentor asked him, “Do you think this depends on you?” God has commanded us to GO and proclaim God’s love in word and deed. Do you think it really depends on how good YOU are? If God has commanded this, God will give you the strength to do it.
Consider this: Jesus trusts his entire earthly ministry to worshiping and doubting ones such as the disciples…and such as us!
And God gives presence. Matthew’s Gospel begins and ends with Emmanuel, God with us. In Matthew 1:23, the angel tells Joseph to call the child Emmanuel. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus tells the disciples (and all of us) he is with us always, to the end of the age. And this is for all of us, God’s presence, all the time, whether we worship or whether we doubt. God will be with us always, even to the end of the age.
So Jesus says GO and I say GO. When the disciples went out, they began their teaching and healing right there in Galilee. Only then did they spread farther into the world. So maybe your invitation is to GO and make disciples right where you are. Show Christ’s love in your corner of the world, in your family, home and school. Go and make a differenc. And may God go with you.
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