God is With Us Always

Dear reader,

I am leaving on Sunday, June 18, to begin a Doctor of Ministry degree in Chicago. I will be in residence there for three weeks and will be back at ORLC on Sunday, July 9. The sermon that follows is what I preached on my final Sunday at ORLC before leaving town for school.

I am not sure what - if anything - I will post here during my time in Chicago. Rest assured that I'll be back here in July, if not before!

Blessings!

Kathi

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The Rev. Kathi Johnson

Trinity Sunday – 11 June 2017

Text: Matthew 28:16-20

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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This gospel lesson appointed for Trinity Sunday comes from the very end of the gospel of Matthew. This chapter – chapter 28 - begins with the resurrection of Jesus, and includes what we call the Great Commission: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” And then the chapter and the gospel conclude with Jesus telling the disciples: “…remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

"...remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

So the Gospel of Matthew ends much the way it begins. The first chapter of Matthew is where we find his birth narrative about the birth of Jesus – his version of the Christmas story. It is here where Matthew says that Jesus will be “God with us” – Immanuel - which is certainly true throughout the life and ministry of Jesus on earth.

But – fast forwarding to the end of Matthew again – Jesus wants his disciples to know that God will still be with them - always, to the very end of the age.

And as for us in our 21^st-Century lives - we haven’t eaten with Jesus or traveled with him in the way his disciples did. We’re not sure what his voice sounded like or how he laughed. So this word of Jesus – this promise that God will be with us to the very end of the age - this is an important word for us, too, especially since we have never seen Jesus in the flesh

And each year, this Sunday that we call Trinity Sunday helps us remember that our faith is not only in Jesus. Don’t get me wrong – Jesus is great! But Jesus isn’t all there is.

Pick up a piece of paper and make a “telescope” out of it. Look through the telescope at one thing or person in the room.

Now put down the telescope and look at the same thing or person.

When all we do is look through a small tube, our vision is limited. That’s how our faith is if we only focus on Jesus. Trinity Sunday helps us to see more of God – to see and remember that God is much bigger than our limited vision sometimes allows. But God is not only a Redeemer, but also a Creator and a Sustainer. God is not only a Creator, but also a Redeemer and a Sustainer. God is not only a Sustainer, but is also a Creator and Redeemer. Thinking of God as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - is important for our faith.

When we are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we are connected to God in all of God’s fullness. As one author said, when we are baptized, “we are immersed into the whole being of God, whether we understand it or not.”[1] This is a great comfort, for it means that we don’t have to understand God completely in order for us to be loved by God. Put another way: God’s complete love for us doesn’t depend on us understanding God completely.

Even those who lived, walked, and talked with Jesus during his earthly ministry had doubts. Look again at our Gospel story for today: at the very beginning, it says that “the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him;

…but some doubted.”

So the comfort here for us is that we don’t have to have it all figured out.

But there is challenge in Jesus’ words, too – he says we are to go and make disciples. The first challenge is to go – to get out there, outside our box, outside our walls – go! Don’t keep our faith and love only here in this place – but take it out there, with us, everywhere we go.

Jesus’ second challenge is to make disciples – note that he doesn’t say “church members” – but “disciples.” Jesus wants followers who are students, those who are willing to learn, and not just those of a certain age – but Jesus wants all of us to be learning more and more about God, no matter our age, no matter our station in life.

For the next three weeks, I will be absent from you. I’m not sure that being a student in a Doctor of Ministry program is exactly the kind of student that Jesus had in mind, but I do feel certain that this program will make me a better disciple.

Together, you and I are commissioned to keep the ministry going here at Our Redeemer, but your ministry will be all the more important while I am gone. You are commissioned to meet together for worship, learning, service, fellowship, and mutual support – in other words – you are commissioned to keep on living as disciples. You are commissioned also, then, to go and live out your discipleship in your daily lives.

The God who created you and who continues to provide for you, daily –

The God who saved you and who continues to forgive sins, daily –

The God who keeps you in faith, sustaining you in every way, daily –

That God is with you always, even to the very end of the age.

Amen.

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[1] Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 3 – essay by Steven P. Eason