Living the Great Commission

Readings: Matthew 28:16-20, True Christianity 685 (see below)
See also on Youtube

Photo by Cristian Palmer on Unsplash

Today we end our church year with the last things that Jesus says and does in the book of Matthew. That last chapter in Matthew moves at lightning speed. Within twenty verses, Jesus is risen, appears to Mary Magdalene, the chief priests do a little spin control, and then the eleven remaining disciples gather to receive the Great Commission.

But the narrative implies that the reflection will continue for Jesus’ followers. They have shared news of the resurrection within their own circles. What responsibility do they now have beyond that? What might their new mission be? This is a fertile reflection for us as well, as we gather together before our summer hiatus. What of Jesus’ call, of Jesus’ mission, do we wish to take forward with us, into our break, into our life, and into our new church year when we reconvene again.

The gospels speak in different ways about that mission, most famously in our reading today from Matthew.

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Here are the commissions from the other gospels:

From Mark: 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 

From Luke: 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

From John: (20:21) As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And later to Peter: Take care of my sheep. (21:16)

Each gospel has a slightly different emphasis, but what we are seeing is a call to making disciples, to preaching, to witnessing, and to caring for one another. What might these things mean to us in our own lives?

The making of disciples and the preaching seem to go fairly naturally together. Mark’s commission is more general than Matthew’s; it calls for a dedication to preaching but no particular outcome from that preaching. Matthew (the later gospel of the two) gets a little more specific. It calls for a discipling, a path of learning that culminates in baptism.

Now, many traditions take this commission very literally, making it their mission to baptize as many people as possible. While not the topic for today, it is worth thinking about how this mission has traveled hand and hand with colonialism, with devastating results on the world stage. The Swedenborgian tradition, however, with its high respect for spiritual freedom, and its more universalist theology of salvation, has never placed a very high premium on proselytizing. 

What does it emphasize then? The discipling and teaching parts of the commission, and the reality of baptism as being part of a process, rather than an endpoint. Swedenborg talks about baptism being an inauguration rather than an endpoint, that it has several functions including being brought into community, into an opportunity for learning, and into a life of regeneration, with these three functions following on from each other and supporting each other. (TCR 677-684)

So whether we are talking about preaching, teaching, sharing, discipling, the emphasis is on living a good life, rather than saying the right words. From Secrets of Heaven 5006:

…when the Church fails to preach life, no one acquires any affection for good; and when there is no affection for good, neither is there any for truth.

The success and fidelity of the mission is measured in how the good news has affected, changed and supported lives, how it has grown in each heart an affection for goodness and wholeness and truthfulness.

Which leads us into Luke and John, whose commissions seem to go together as well, emphasizing witnessing and caring for others. While witnessing does have a sense of proclamation in Christian contexts, the word is not quite the same as simple preaching. It feels more experiential.

Swedenborg writes:

John [the Baptist] is said to have borne witness to the Word of God, but because John [represents] all people who possess goodness of life arising from charity and its accompanying faith…therefore all these are meant in the spiritual sense.(AR 6)

Witnessing implies being *in* an experience, really assimilating it, and then speaking from how that experience has changed us. It is living a good charitable life and letting that life produce its accompanying faith. And of course, the gospel that conceived the parable of The Good Samaritan, Luke, is the one that emphasizes really seeing what is around you and being present to it. Witnessing done fully and intentionally, naturally leads to care for others. 

Which brings us to John (the gospel writer) who characterizes those who are “sent” as extensions of God’s love: As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. Jesus tells Peter to take care of or feed his sheep three times in a row, a time-honored narrative strategy of amplification. To say something three times in the bible means that it is very important. Our most crucial and culminating mission is to take care of all of God’s children, to embody the love of God in this world. 

In these days, as we observe ever more chaos around us in our national sphere, it is worthwhile considering how the disciples transitioned from being followers to being apostles. It is upon us to explore that transition in ourselves too, in our own situations and contexts. We are commissioned to preach, teach, learn and intentionally inaugurate ourselves into a life of faith, and to support others doing so too. We are commissioned to witness the presence of God, to allow God to settle deeply into our hearts, lives, habits, and communication. We are commissioned to be those that God has sent, and to see others as those who God has sent, and to honor that in one another. And we are commissioned to feed God’s sheep, to care for all of God’s children, to be a source of nourishment, spiritually, emotionally, as well as physically, to all God’s creatures. 

Of course, that is a lot. But it is an authentic, faithful, loving and trusting path, and we have the honor of sorting out for ourselves. It is what our God left us with. Amen.


Readings:

Matthew 28:16-20

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

True Christianity 685

From all that has been said on this topic so far, it is possible to see that the three functions of baptism work together in unity as the first cause, the intermediate cause or means, and the last cause, which is the result and the ultimate purpose of all that went before. The first function is to identify us as a Christian; the second function, which is a consequence of the first, is to allow us to know and acknowledge the Lord as the Redeemer, Regenerator, and Savior; and the third function is to lead us to be regenerated by him. When that happens, we are redeemed and saved. 

Since these three functions follow each other and come together in the last, and since angels see all three together as forming one thing, therefore when baptism is performed or read about in the Word or mentioned in conversation, the angels who are present take it to mean regeneration rather than baptism.