16 Jesus’ eleven disciples went to a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus had told them to meet him. 17 They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.
18 Jesus came to them and said:
I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! 19 Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20 and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. (Contemporary English Version)
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17 They saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.
There is a lot of doubt in The Church.
The doubt about the wider Church is reflected in articles such as
“Christianity in the U.S. is quickly shrinking and may no longer be the majority religion within just a few decades, research finds” (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christianity-us-shrinking-pew-research/)
“Losing their religion: why US churches are on the decline” and “Decline of Christianity Shows No Signs of Stopping.”
Or more dramatic: “Is the Time of Religion Over?“
Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked that question 78 years ago, while he sat in a Nazi prison, waiting to be executed.*
17 [The disciples] saw him and worshiped him, but some of them doubted.
There is a lot of doubt in The Church.
Doubt about what?
Do we doubt that Jesus lived as a human, died as a human and arose as a human?
No.
Do we doubt that Jesus taught us how to be in relationship with God?
No.
Do we doubt that Jesus’s teachings are the answer to living a great life?
No.
And yet, there is doubt in The Church.
There is so much doubt that one denomination, the ELCA, has formed a “Commission for a Renewed Lutheran Church.’ I know because a friend of mine has been appointed to that commission.
I find the name of this group, this project to be somewhat ironic. The name given to today’s section of scripture is “The Great Commission.” That commission, given by Jesus, is simple:
19 Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20 and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.
50 words.
In contrast the Commission for a New Lutheran Church needs 411 words to state its purpose. Here is an excerpt:
Whereas, the Commission for a New Lutheran Church, envisioning stability and anticipating growth, developed a structure and polity with three interdependent entities, i.e., the churchwide organization, 65 synods, and 11,133 congregations, organized for the realities of the time; and Whereas, the leadership of the Commission for a New Lutheran Church expressed an eagerness to form “a new Lutheran church truly committed to the Gospel and organized for effective mission in today’s world; “and Whereas, over the last 34 years, the ELCA has decreased in size to 3.3 million members and 8,972 congregations; and…
Go no further. “65 synods” “11,133 congregations” “3.3 million members” 65 11,133 3,300,000
Numbers.
The doubt in our church is that we doubt ourselves because there are so many empty pews on Sunday.
Perhaps it is not that we do not have enough people, but that we have too many pews.
What did Jesus require of his disciples? Follow. Teach others to follow.
How many stained glass windows did he require? 0
How many pews did he require? 0
How many years of confirmation instruction did he require? 0
How many line items in a budget did he require? 0
What did Jesus require of his disciples? Follow. Teach others to follow.
And yet, what causes us to doubt The Church? What causes us to doubt our church? Numbers.
We believe so much in the power of numbers that we use numbers to measure our success. Only two in worship? Only six in worship? We talk among ourselves about how sad that is. We talk among ourselves to create strategies to entice people to join us. We are not the only ones. The temptation to measure oneself by numbers is strong. Every denomination, every congregation imposes this idolatrous philosophy on itself.
In a Facebook discussion with fellow pastors about this text, I found this explanation helpful: What Jesus didn’t say: Go! Make disciples! As if the going were the point.
[The grammatical relationship of go and make disciples in Greek is participle – imperative. And the way this verb translated as “go” works in Greek (and actually in some dialects of English) in this kind of construction actually means “Get started doing X” where X is the actual imperative.]
So, as in English, “Go get dressed” — the meaning isn’t at all about going somewhere. The meaning is “Get started getting dressed.”
So the larger context, in Jesus’s address to his disciples here, he’s saying something more like: “Look, I’ve been disciplling you all this time. Now it’s your turn to start doing the same among all the kinds of people groups you encounter.”
Another scholar has something similar to say:
First, the lordship of Jesus which authorizes this commission is not that of armies and force but is the authority of the crucified one. Second, making converts is not the goal of this commission per se, but rather teaching new disciples to live according to Jesus’ commands, such as those in the Sermon on the Mount that forbid violence or retribution, and that are summed up in the command to love neighbor as oneself. These commands are taught not only in words but by the deeds of Jesus’ missionaries, who convey Jesus’ commands by living them.
We look at these empty pews. We remember the voices of children raised in song and the classrooms buzzing with Bible Stories and we think we are failing somehow. We see what isn’t and here is where we do fail: we fail to see what is, what we have. We are blinded by our nostalgia.
We are not failing! We worship, we serve, we love our neighbor, we love God.
We are a forgiven people, a people who stumble and are lifted up again by the power of the Holy Spirit.
God forgive us for doubting the power of God. God forgive us for not worshiping. God forgive us for not serving. God forgive us for ignoring our neighbor, for ignoring our enemy. God forgive us for doubting the power of the resurrection. God forgive us for doubting the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are not in danger! The Church is not in danger! God is not in danger!
We could walk away from this building, not as zombies, not as ghosts, but as living breathing followers of Jesus Christ. This building can collapse and nothing about the Creator, nothing about the Savior, nothing about the Comforter will change. We could walk away from this building and have everything we need!
The doubt in our church is that we doubt ourselves because there are so many empty pews on Sunday. We are not the first to doubt. The disciples doubted. We aren’t told what they doubted or why. Did they doubt that Jesus was really resurrected in the flesh? Did they doubt his authority? Did they doubt their own authority? That makes we wonder: do we doubt our own authority?
That Commission was given, not just to the original walking-in-dust-next-to-Jesus disciples, but to every disciple who ever followed Jesus as both Savior and Teacher. Right down to us. We have been given that authority. That is the power of the pew: not the numbers of bodies in the pew, but the authority of every person sitting in the pew.
What authority do you have? Let me share a story:
A professor writes: When I was in college, a professor made some comments in one of my religion classes that prompted me to ask what he meant by the word “authority.” … the professor responded with a single word that brought a level of clarity I have never forgotten. He said, “Authority is followability.” Followability. He probably coined the word on the spot, but it did what it needed to do. True authority is what gives people the confidence to follow. And this is what Jesus says about himself.
Apply that thought to you. Your authority lies in your genuine following of the teachings of Jesus. When you live so that others follow you, when you live so that others know the love of Jesus through you, when you live so that your example inspires others, could it be that you are making disciples?
Are you following your great commission?
- .https://www.cbsnews.com/news/christianity-us-shrinking-pew-research/
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/22/us-churches-closing-religion-covid-christianity
- https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/christian-decline-inexorable-nones-rise-pew-study.html
- https://www.patheos.com/blogs/freelancechristianity/is-the-time-of-religion-over/
- Taylor Watson Burton-Edwards Facebook Narrative Lectionary
- https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/great-commission-2/commentary-on-matthew-2816-20-8 Ruthanna B. HookeAssociate Professor and Associate Dean of StudentsVirginia Theological Seminary
- https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/the-holy-trinity/commentary-on-matthew-2816-20-2
Some Kind of Faith 