| April 27, 2008
You are welcome to reflect on this message “God Save us from the Christians”* (Matthew 28:16-20) Dr. Dan Ivins, preaching
The final chapter of the Gospel of Matthew closes by looking two ways at once. It not only tells how the gospel ended, but also the way the church started. The final appearance of the Risen Lord is on a mountain in the Galilee, instructing the eleven disciples. There are no longer twelve. Judas didn’t make it because ambition got the best of him. And his absence reminds us that anytime you get even a dozen people together, there’s always gonna be somebody.
So the twelve are reduced to eleven. And when Jesus showed up this time, “They worshiped him. But some doubted.” In the original it doesn’t say “but.” It says “They worshiped him AND some doubted.” How could they doubt? Face-to-face with Jesus and still they wonder? There’s always a Judas, and there’s always uncertainty. Its human nature: worship and doubt properly go together. I’ve never met anyone with – absolute, 100% faith.
You’ve seen that simplistic bumper-sticker: “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” Anybody who buys that is better than Jesus. Even he had 2nd thoughts in Gethsemane. And on the Friday we call “good,” his questions were met with silence. Anybody who hasn’t experienced something like that hasn’t lived long enough. Which is worse, unanswered questions or unquestioned answers?
Yeah“they worshiped AND doubted.” But don’t hold it against them. Even the best of us are mixtures. And nobody has unequivocal, perfect faith, devoid of all questions. While they’re “worshiping and doubting,” Jesus is confident. “I have all authority from God, over heaven and on earth to give you these instructions. First, I want you to go into the whole world and while you’re at it ... make disciples.” Oh boy! Big problems have come when the church misread that word “make.” I wish he had said something other than “make,” being as how we’re always trying to “make” somebody do something we want done. Even if it’s “for their own good,” that still doesn’t justify it.
“Make” doesn’t mean “control or manipulate.” It sure doesn’t mean forcing people to believe like we do. It’s not about gimmicky revivals, but winsomeness. When Jesus said “make disciples” he meant “disciple everybody you can.” And that’s something you can’t compel others to do. They have to want it. So Jesus just said do it, he didn’t say how. Couldn’t it also be a gracious guidance not a repulsive rule? But it’s a verb, which we don’t have in English. “Disciple people.” Different churches and individuals disciples others differently. There is no canned plan or singular method. Some are aggressive, others are laid back. Some are pushy, others let their deeds do the discipling. That’s why there are so many churches. Some feel more at home the way one church disciples and not how another does. We’re on good ground when we disciple people the way Jesus did. He was truthful rather than tactful, when it was impossible to be both. He accepted outcasts, loved the unlovable, like Zacchaeus. He even allowed them the freedom to refuse to be his disciples, like the rich young ruler, who went away sad, rather than become Jesus’ follower.
We have to be free to say no; otherwise saying yes doesn’t mean anything. But those who’ve said “yes” don’t like it when others say “no.” So the church persists in perfecting strategies, trying to “make” disciples. Down through the centuries the church has been at its worst when it reverted to forceful tactics. People have been emotionally constrained, socially coerced, and militantly intimidated into following Jesus. When Cortez conquered Mexico they demanded that all the natives be Christian. If any refused, they were burned at the stake. Just before torching one tribal leader, he was asked “Don’t you want to go to heaven when you die?” He said, “No. I’m afraid Christians will be there! God save us from the Christians!
There was a couple in a former church who were not baptized. Bill was a Vietnam War vet, still struggling with faith in God. His wife was raised Catholic. And I got along fine with both. But there were certain members who constantly pressured them to “get baptized.” And you know, they wanted to be baptized. But they didn’t like being shoved into it. Like ol’ Churchill, said “I don’t mind learning. I just don’t like being taught. So they requested a private service before we moved. And obliged them because there was no doubt why: “to get these Baptists off our backs! Maybe then we can come to worship in peace!” God save us from the Baptists! Ah I guess we shouldn’t blame the Baptists for wanting something good for others. It’s how they go about it that ruins it. All this -- because somebody misunderstood what Jesus meant when he said “make ... disciples.”
I did a funeral once for a man who was not baptized. But he had a high school classmate, who was a Southern Baptist evangelist who wanted to participate in the funeral with me. A red flag went up. And sure enough the preacher was evangelistic and told the audience they were “going to hell like this guy unless they got saved before they die.” Then he offered an “altar call” and I was embarrassed. Not at a funeral! People are grieving. It calls for pastoral care not threats. This man used a funeral to extort a conversion. And I can’t think of anything more un-Christian for a Christian. God save us from the evangelists. God doesn’t want the church to alienate people. The idea is to turn people on, not off! The church is to create, develop, grow disciples by “Lifting him up and all will be drawn to him.” And as always some won’t.
It’s in the military. The Air Force Academy was called on the carpet for it last year. And yesterday’s news reported how a young U.S. soldier in Iraq had to be sent home to Kansas, to protect him from his superiors because he was an atheist. Evangelical Christians were threatened by his lack of belief. All because of that little word “make.” Religious freedom means allowing others not to believe. Why does that bother the god-squad? No arm-twisting. No unethical pressure. Jesus expected the church to cut people some slack. And he said we’re to be like this with “everybody in the world.” Not just our kind. I’m guessing that got the disciples’ attention. It’s that word: “Everybody?” Does it mean everybody? Including some folks we don’t like. Jesus said “Everybody.” “But it’ll just create problems! You’re liable to get anything!” Jesus said “A house of prayer for all nations.”
And for those who are ready and willing -- baptize them. That’s what God wants the church to do. Baptism is a public acknowledgment that an individual wants to be one of Jesus’ followers. Some people feel they don’t need that. What can water do for you? Like those “with-it” couples who “live together” think they don’t need a marriage certificate. What does a piece of paper do? It’s “just a piece of paper.” Now we have people who want the piece of paper and who is it that doesen’t want ‘em to have it? God save us from the Christians! But it’s not just a “piece of paper.” No more than this wedding band is just a “piece of metal.” And baptism is not “just water.” It’s pledging your loyalty to God, openly declaring to the world: “This is the kind of person I want to be. I want to be like Jesus.” Baptize them! Only the church can do that.
Then “Teach them what I have taught you.” Folks that takes time. It’s why we have Sunday School. You can’t just teach once and that’s it. Teaching is ongoing because we are ever-learning, or oughta be. Those who quit learning are the ones who think they know it all. Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road, had an emotional experience and seemed to get it all at once. But God doesn’t expect Paul’s dramatic conversion to be the model for everybody. Two of Jesus’ disciples on the road to Emmaus got an eye-opening Bible lesson by Jesus himself. The thief on Jesus’ right hand died on crucifixion day, but made it to Paradise by the skin of his teeth. Because he happened to be at the right place at the right time, to get the only education he could from the best Teacher there was.
But most of us live a long time after our baptism. We need continual education. That’s the role of the church. “Teach them what I taught you.” Most churches I’ve seen go overboard on the baptism part, but seem to care less about the teaching part. Very large congregations that measure a church’s success by how many they baptize. All the religious “bells and whistles”: youth, staff, a gymnasium. Budgets in the millions. Nice parking lots like the shopping malls. We keep reducing Jesus’ universal mission to our cultural, consumer-oriented, market-driven, materialistic societey. Anybody out there who thinks they know how to market a cross, I’d like to hear it. Come and die? Sacrifice for somebody? Who wants to do that?
God doesn’t care about having a successful crusade. Just teach them about Jesus. That’s what God wants the church to do. You can’t make them be Christians. But people want to know about Jesus. After he stuck his neck out at Passover, and cleansed the temple, John said some Greeks were impressed with that and said, “Sirs, we want to see Jesus.” It’s interesting who they didn’t want to see. Neither Pilate nor Caiaphas. Not the President or the Pope. Nah, they want to see Jesus, because everybody in the world wants to know something about God. There’s something on the inside of us that sees to that.
Jesus said “make disciples of all nations. Baptize them. And teach them what I’ve taught you.” And if you can think of anything else, I’d like to hear it. And the best part is “he will be with us always, even to the end of the age.” *Credit Craddock for his creativity underlying this message.
Pastoral Prayer (4-27-04) Lord, what we know about you is far beyond what we can say. Because He who is the Word, lies beyond all words; offering a hope, beyond all wisdom, and a love from which none of us can be separated. Center our lives in this worship, that we might carry your Spirit to those whose lives are falling apart. Surrounded by the chaos of our world, we’re grateful for all the clues that point to you. For modest victories over big sins; the wisdom of the scriptures to make us better, for our church, not yet without is spots & wrinkles.
Show us what’s negotiable and what is not; so that our worship won’t be stripped of its transcendence, or the gospel reduced to simplistic principles, its witness be nothing more than a prayed-over version of public relations techniques, an obsession with statistics, fearing more for its own life and reputation than following Jesus.
Grant us a mastery over our moodiness, the ability to laugh even on our bad days, the stamina to keep on going when life makes no sense, the courage to resume life alone, when a loved one’s no longer around, the faith to believe you’re there when we it doesn’t seem like it, the grace to admit guilt and the humility to accept forgiveness. In the name of the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world and never leads astray, even our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of all life, who never runs out of life. Amen. Back |
