“The Great Omission!”

A Sermon Based Upon Matthew 28: 16-20

Preached by Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

June 11th, 2017, Trinity Sunday, Year A

Perhaps you’ve heard about the small town that had four churches, a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Catholic, and a Baptist church.  Since the town was full of trees, all four churches had serious squirrel problems.   Following its own denominational traditions, each church developed its own approach to solving its own squirrel problem.   The Presbyterians decided that squirrels were ‘predestined’ to cause problems, so they would have to learn to live with them.   The Methodist decided they would deal with the squirrels like John Wesley, and they humanely, lovingly, but firmly, took action to trap them and take them to a park outside of town.   But within 3 days, all the squirrels came back.   The Catholics decided that they would serve the squirrels communion so they would leave.  Finally, the Baptists found the best solution.   The simply voted the squirrels in as members.   Now, they only see the squirrels at Christmas and Easter. 

We all know that ‘church’ does not mean what it once did in our society.   Today people are filled with mistrust and are much more committed to themselves and much less committed to their communities or their institutions---including church.   And even among those non-traditional, non-denominational, and atypical churches that are growing, there are lots of differences about what works and what doesn’t.   Today’s growing churches are high on celebration, excitement and self-help, but seem to be much less serious about building community or commitment.  

GO, MAKE DISCIPLES….

So, in light of all that has changed, and is still changing, what is it that church is supposed to mean, or is supposed to be?    Well, if we go back to the gospel, it can be determined that Jesus had three priorities or requirements for his followers:  (1) To Love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, (2) to love our neighbors as ourselves, and finally (3) ‘to make disciples’ of people from all the nations.   This third priority was so important,  that for the first time, Jesus invokes the name of God as Trinity; commissioning his disciples to ‘baptize…in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit’ (Matt. 28: 19).    

By naming God as Father, Son, and Spirit, Jesus underlined the vital importance the church’s mission in the world.  Thus, it was not named the Great Suggestion, but it is named the Great Commission---that is, the call of the church to come together to fulfill its mission.   What is the church’s primary mission?   The church supposed to be a people who come together to exist for people who are not yet inside it.   In other words, if a church wants to be a Great Commission Church, local or global, the church was never intended to be a ‘club’ for insiders and it was never intended to be a place where Christians only come to have Christian fellowship or to only have their own spiritual needs met.  Of course, the church should be that too, but a church cannot just be that, or it ceases to be the church Jesus called into being.  

Let’s make this clearer.  For the Church to be the church, the church must love God and love neighbor, but the church must also ‘go’ to ‘make disciples’, that is, make ‘Jesus followers’ out of people who are not of our type, not of our tribe, not of our nation, and not of our own group.   Notice that Jesus did not say, just before he ascended to the Father, for the disciples to all go home to get some and to make themselves comfortable, spending all their time and energy working out the details of community, faith or belief.  Also, Jesus did not say make yourself a place so you can ‘sing your favorite songs’, hear some good sermons, and ‘try to do something good once in a while’.  No, Jesus was very specific.  The mission of his church, which is its Great Commission (commission =  it’s mission as a people who come together) is to ‘go’, to ‘teach’ and show other people how and what it means to become faithful followers of Jesus Christ. 

Unfortunately,  this Great Commission has become the “Great Omission” in the last 30 or 40 years.   There is a lot of talk about it, but most churches, especially mainline churches, are in numerical decline, struggling to grow, and even fearful of closing church doors for good.  The main churches, who have all been primary fixtures in our American life,  Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and Catholic too, are not, for the most part replenishing themselves with a new generation of disciples.   Besides, even our own children are showing less interests in the church, and most of our grandchildren hardly care at all about church.

IN THE NAME OF ….THE HOLY SPIRIT

So, what has happened?   Can we figure it out?  Can we name the big problem that has led to the decline most traditional churches?   Is it the changes going on in our society?   Some. Maybe.  Is it the dominance of technology over human relationships?   Maybe. Is it social change, a political revolution, or could it be a growing spiritual problem rising up in the western world, that has traded it faith in God for a mess of secular pottage?    Why is the church not the powerhouse in our world like the church seemed to be in the early days of Christianity?  Have you read the book of Acts lately?   It tells of how it once was; people coming together in one accord to follow the Apostles teaching, a sermon being preached and 3,000 people are saved, and it also tells story after story of strangers becoming Christians, as folks are healed, miracles take place, and all kinds of social, religious, and geographical barriers being overcome.   Why can’t church be that kind of ‘interesting’ today?

I find it most interesting that when you consider what was happening then, when Jesus gave this commission and also what happened afterward, it could not be explained by mere humanly-inspired activity.    Look around at what is happening among the disciples just before the Great Commission is given.   We read how that the disciples saw the risen Lord, they worshiped, but still, ‘some doubted’ (Mt. 28:17).   Do you see?  The Christian community still had doubters, even as it was being born.  Another thing we see, especially in the book of Acts, is that the church had all kinds of ‘dreamers’ or ‘gazers’ (Acts 1:11); that is people who spent time ‘gazing into heaven’ always focusing on ‘when’ or ‘how’ Jesus would return.   And even though, most of the disciples themselves were doers of the word, and not hearers only, or gazers and thinkers, still, they went out into the world to be witnesses with great opposition, great resistance, and with constant threats being made against their lives (Acts 4:1ff).   Some of them, like Stephen, even early on, lost their lives for the sake of the gospel (Acts 7:59) as there was often, ‘great persecution’ that was against the church.  

No, the early days of the church were not ideal, the disciples were not perfect, and the world was most always against them, and eventually most of their first leaders, including Paul (Acts 21:27ff), Peter, James, Thomas, and all the others lost their lives.   This is how it really was.   The church was a group of people who followed Jesus and should not have succeeded to ‘go into the whole world’.   They should not have overcome and should not have been able to take their message to the world, besides being the greatest religious movement the world has ever known, lasting almost 2,000 years.   How did such an ordinary, even less than ordinary, very unsophisticated, untrained, and unpolished group of disciples (Acts 4:13ff) end up starting a movement, founding such a long lasting institution, or establishing an enduring organization like this? 

Also, how did they do it under such great opposition, and we don’t seem to be able to keep it going, and hold it together even in a free, wealthy, and relatively safe society like our own?   What is not happening now that did happen then?  Can we definitively say what our problem is?

Perhaps the most important part of the answer to why the church isn’t today, what it once was, and has been, found in something the late preacher and devotional writer, AW Tozer in the early 1900’s.   He made the interesting comment that “If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the early New Testament Church then,  95% of what they were doing would have stopped.”   Can’t you see this in the book of Acts?   The Holy Spirit is behind everything.  In fact,  when you read it, you will see that the book of Acts is not really about the Acts of the Apostles, but the Acts of the Holy Spirit.   The story in Acts begins with the Spirit being ‘poured out’ and person after person (Acts 10:45), not just being baptized with water, but being ‘baptized with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 11:16).  One of my favorite chapters in Acts, is Acts 8, where we read the ‘Spirit said to Philip, go near...this chariot’ (Acts 8: 29) and then, just after that ‘the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away’ (Acts 8:39). Then, only a couple chapters later Peter says, ‘The Spirit told me to go…’ (Acts 11:12) and not long afterward we read how it was ‘through the Spirit, Paul was told not to go to Jerusalem...’ (Acts 21:4).   All this means AW Tozer was right:  If the Holy Spirit had not been invited, obeyed and then followed,  95% the what church accomplished would not have happened.  

But isn’t the opposite happening today.   Isn’t it true today, that in the church, 95% of what the church is doing today does not require us to obey the Holy Spirit?   We don’t need the Holy Spirit to preach our sermons, to sing our songs, to lead our choirs, to conduct our meetings, to do our children’s or youth works, to have our fellowships,  raise our money, or to go on our mission trips, do we?   Could it be that the Great Omission is not simply the failure to obey, that is to not to ‘go’ or ‘to make’ disciples, but might our coming demise be more rightly linked to having little desire to be ‘led’, ‘directed’ or ‘controlled’ by the Holy Spirit?   Going in the Name of God the Father and God the Son, while getting to have our personal tastes or display our wonderful talents is fine,   but asking for, invoking, and actually listening to and allowing for the work of the Holy Spirit?   Who needs that in the church today?  Would we rather die than have the discomfort or deal with the disruption of having to obey the Spirit?

ALL POWER IS GIVEN….

Could the failure to have the desire to listen to, follow, or obey the Spirit, be our Great Omission?   Who needs the Holy Spirit anyway?   Can’t we have our Christianity, our beliefs,  our opinions, and our churches without the Spirit?   Besides, what does the church of today really need the Holy Spirit for?   

Well, let’s think about that.   In our text today, Jesus does not just say, “Go, make disciples...in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”, but just before that, Jesus said something even more empowering and also more challenging.   First of all, before he said ‘go’, he said:  “All power (or authority) is given to me in heaven and in earth….” (Matt. 28: 18).   Now, what kind of ‘power’ is this?  What could this mean for the life and the future of this church?

I find it interesting, very interesting, that most of the newer translations have moved away from older King James translation of Jesus having ‘power’ to Jesus having ‘authority.’    These translations are meant to help us get clearer about what this word for power specifically means.   In fact, the Greeks had, and still have, 4 words that could be translated power.  You already know the other two words, even if you don’t know Greek, because they carry over into our English,  dynamis, (Dynamite), and energeia (energy).   One of those Greek words for power, which you don’t know about, is right here in Matthew 28:18.  Here Jesus uses the word exousia, which is not dynamis---an explosive power, and not energeia---- an energy that causes something, and not isxus---the health or strength to work.   But the word Jesus uses here is the only Greek word for power that can means to have the ‘authority’,  the right, or the freedom to choose to do what you want to do.  Here, in the Great Commission is given when Jesus has earned the right and been given the authority by God to give a great mission to the disciples and to the church.   But the GREAT OMISSION is when we don’t give Jesus the same authority and right to command our lives or to commission us.   Specifically, we give Jesus the authority and right to ‘command’ and to ‘commission’ when we are willing to OBEY EVERYTHING he commands us.  This exactly what it means to be ‘led’ by, to be ‘filled with’ or to ‘receive’ or listen to the Spirit.   Because God is Father, Son and Spirit, there is no difference in obeying the Spirit of Jesus than obeying the Holy Spirit.  But still, what does this means, in the most practical terms which can have the most practical results---results that give the church both power it needs to thrive and to carry out its mission?

Well, since, obeying Jesus and listening to the Spirit is the same, let’s think again about what really happened at the church’s birth, the day we call Pentecost.    Before the Church could obey Jesus, it had to receive the power of the Spirit.  But how did this happen?    

If you turn to Acts 2:1, you see that first it says they were ‘all’ there ‘in one place’ (Acts 2ff. 1.  Now, that’s the first step of listening to the Spirit and really obeying Jesus, isn’t it?---all of them actually showed up together ‘in one place’.   Woody Allen, the writer and actor, once said that 80 percent of life is just, showing up.”   In the same vein, Thomas Edison said that success is 90 percent perspiration and only 10 percent inspiration.  The brilliant Einstein was quoted as saying that Genius is only 1 % talent, and 99 percent hard work.   The point of all these sayings is they help point us right back to what was actually going on among the early Christians when the Spirit, the power, and the mighty deeds came.   The church did not forget to do nor omit doing, the most simple, most basic, and sometimes the most difficult thing:  ‘they all showed up in one place.

What troubles me the most about church today, even some of them that are growing quite well, is that many of the Christians, the members, even some of the most committed ones, are part-time Christians.   Not long ago, I asked about some members of one of the churches, who had become quite delinquent.  They are very good people, and they have sweet children.   I asked the deacon,  “Where are so, and so?”  “I haven’t seen them in church lately.”  “Do you have any idea, why they don’t come to church much anymore?”   Well, the deacon guessed,  “I figure they must be burning the candle at both ends….”  He’s probably right.  With both parents working, and with young children, it’s hard to find them at church, in Sunday School, or at Bible Study?  But isn’t it amazing that are still able to go to school?   Isn’t it amazing that they still manage to take in a vacation or go on this trip, or find themselves in Disneyland?   I’m not asking anybody to Boycott Disney, but I’ve never even entertained the idea once, that Mickey Mouse could keep my children off drugs, or give them values that would last a lifetime!

And we wonder why things don’t happen?  Why society is getting dangerous?   People are losing empathy and compassion?  We wonder why our children are spoiled, don’t come to see us, or probably won’t care about us when we get old?   Why did society get so easily moved to the ‘wrong place’?  Could it not be that if forgot to be in the ‘right place’ and to be in the ‘one place’ that should matter most of all?

Second, the text also says they ‘were all with one accord.’   This doesn’t simply mean they were getting along with each other, maybe they were,  but it certainly means they were all united about and unified by the very same thing.   We read in the previous chapter, that ‘they’ (the first disciples, up to 500 of them) ‘all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication (1:14).   This means they were all praying the same kinds of prayers and asking God for the same kind of thing.   In other words, the first disciples and members of the church did not come together to get what they wanted, nor did they all come talk about their friends, family or their differing needs, no, the first disciples and Christians all were praying ‘to receive power’ through the “Holy Spirit” so they could be ‘witnessess… ’ in their own Jerusalem, their own Judea, and in their own… ‘parts of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).  

Perhaps here, we can see why it is so hard for churches today to be unified or to gain power and authority to do what we are commanded to do.   We who come to church, often come to church wanting different things, but not necessarily wanting the same thing.   We want to see people.   We want to be together.   We don’t want to be alone.   We want to be seen.  We want to make a good impression.   We want to keep our heads on straight or we want to do what makes us feel good, or what we’ve always done.   So, what is the right reason to come to church, or to be the church?

This reminds me of the old story about a hermit who was meditating by a river when a young man interrupted him. "Master, I wish to become your disciple," said the man. "Why?" replied the hermit. The young man thought for a moment. "Because I want to find God."

            The master jumped up, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, dragged him into the river, and plunged his head under water. After holding him there for a minute, with him kicking and struggling to free himself, the master finally pulled him up out of the river. The young man coughed up water and gasped to get his breath. When he eventually quieted down, the master spoke. "Tell me, what did you want most of all when you were under water."

          "Air!" answered the man.

           "Very well," said the master. "Go home and come back to me when you want God as much as you just wanted air."

Since fewer people come to church to have their lives changed, challenged, or commanded to do anything—or to really encounter God’s will that could be different from our own, sometimes I think it would be better to stop church for a while, and to tell everyone to come back when ‘we want God as much as we want air’.   Would it work?   Well, I guess we’re all afraid to try it, because we’re afraid that people would get so used to not coming, that when we got out of the habit, we wouldn’t come back.   But that might also prove something else:  It might prove that we come much more ‘out of habit’ rather than to seek, find, and draw closer to God and knowing his commanding, demanding, life-changing and life-challenging, will for our lives.

A few years ago, Will Willimon, a Methodist Bishop wrote: "To many people outside the church, the Church is like a football huddle. You know that something important is being said there, but you can't understand a word of it, and all you can see is their rear ends.”   How is it that the early church was able to cross all kinds of language, geographic, and cultural barriers to get the word out, but we have such a great communication problem?   The answer could be revealed through a humorous but painfully true cartoon that appeared in "Leadership Journal" some time ago:   The church secretary is holding the phone, hollering to the pastor in the adjoining room. She says, "A man from Ripley's Believe It or Not wants a picture of someone on fire for the Lord. Do we have one?"

A picture of “Someone on fire for the Lord”, do we have one?   Can you imagine one?   Would you know it if you saw it?   Do you want to see it?  Long to see someone like them?   Is there anyone in the church’s past that you admired as someone who was ‘on fire for the Lord’?  Is there anyone in the church’s present who you look up to, as ‘on fire for the Lord’?   Can you imagine anyone in this church’s future as becoming a person who is ‘on fire for the Lord?’

Now, I know this can be ‘spooky’ for some of you to think about.  We really like having everything under control, not having any kind of ‘strange’ explaining to do to our friends, our family or our neighbors.   But one of the things that made the church attractive to the world, was that it wasn’t like the rest of the world.   The church was filled with people that were a little different, often called weird, and always odd, and odd in a bad world was good.  It was good because even with the weirdness, oddness, and strangeness, came the wonderful reality that these people, without pretention, really were people who ‘were on fire for the Lord!’

Hawaiian Pastor Wayne Cordeiro tells about a bakery he knew about. It was located in a bad part of town. The bakery was small, rundown, and nondescript.  Yet, at 5am every morning, the aroma of delicious bread emanated from that bakery. People would line up around the block to get their hands on that bread.  Isn’t this a great picture a church ‘on fire for God’.   Being ‘on fire for God’ is not about appearances or gimmicks; it is simply about wanting and offering the bread of life. People are so spiritually hungry that all we have to do is offer the bread of life with passion and authenticity, and they will come to taste it.  But there is one catch.  We must be real.   People can easily smell the difference between fresh-baked bread, fresh out of the oven, and outdated, stale, dry old bread.

A pastor friend of mine is retired, but is currently the Interim pastor in a large church in Hickory.   Every Sunday he preaches on Radio and Television, just like he did for over 30 years when he was a pastor in Tennessee, years ago.   A couple of Sunday’s ago, I happened to turn on the TV and listen to what he was preaching on.   The title of his message was “Between the Bridge and the Steeple”.   He opened his message telling about a young woman who went down to the river out in the middle of the bridge and was contemplating taking her life.  As she stood up on bridge railing, she glanced down at the swirling water and then upward toward the horizon.  On the horizon, her eye caught a spire, a church steeple pointing up into the heavens.   After seeing the steeple, she decided to climb down and proceeded to walk into town and to find the church with the tall steeple.  After finding the church office, she asked to urgently see the pastor, who fortunately just happened to be there.   After sitting down in the chair in his study, she looked him straight in the eye with this haunting question:  “Is there anything in under this steeple that should keep me from jumping off that bridge and into that river?”  

I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS

Does the sweet smell of Christ emanate from our lives and this church? Are we sharing our witness? Are we letting our light shine?  I don’t know whether you can smell the bread or see what’s supposed to be under the steeple, but I will tell you that the reason we are supposed to ‘all’ be in ‘one place’ and be ‘in one accord’ is so that we can be empowered and gain the authority to ‘be witnesses’ for Christ as the ‘body of Jesus’ in the world.   This may be a world that believes much less, it needs Jesus as much now, as it ever has before.  

If we really have the ‘hope’ of Jesus within us, we must testify and tell people our truth---even to try to make Jesus followers of them.   We are to do this  because we are led by the Spirit, and under the authority of Jesus, not because we come to church to get what we want or do as we please.   Now, this may scare some of you, but listen closely:  By the grace of God, you are able to share your witness.  You don't do it on your own power.  This is why Jesus said, it’s my ‘authority’ and added "I am with you always, even unto the end of the age." Jesus is always with us, helping us and empowering us to share the good news. I know he is. As a pastor, I have heard many great sermons from the church, but I’ve never heard any greater sermon than those I’ve seen lived by the people who practice what they believe.

We live in a day of increasing addictions.    I heard about a woman who had a friend who was an addict.  The addiction was destroying everything that woman loved. Most people would have said, "Well, we need to pray the she gets the help he needs." But that is not what this woman did.  She wrote her friend a letter telling her that she was going to lose everything including her life unless she went into treatment and received the help she needed. And then she wrote in that letter that the only one who could make her whole is Jesus Christ.

Now, where did she get the power and courage to write a letter like that? Jesus said, "Go and make disciples ….I will be with you always."

A young man was still living at home.  He was rather quiet and kept to himself. One day his coworker found him in the restroom crying.  The coworker asked him if he could help. The young man confided in him. He told him that his girlfriend was pregnant, and he had just revealed this to his parents the night before. They are very strict and religious. They screamed at him and said that he had embarrassed them and shamed the family and told him that he should never set foot in their house again.

What did his coworker do? He reached out, put his arm around him and said, "I am sorry that happened to you. I am sure this is difficult for your parents, and I am certain this is difficult for you.  But I am a Christian, and I believe that God loves you, and God’s love will help you through the most difficult situations."  Now how was that coworker able to say something like that? Jesus said, "Go and make disciples….. and remember, I am with you always."

Not long ago, I was visiting in the Hospital and the patient said to me,  “I know I’m not going to live much longer.”  The nurse was in the room, at the time, and you could tell that she had not heard such direct talk much, even in the hospital.  She did a double-take and looked at me with a troubled look.   After the nurse left the room, I told the patient that I understood that she was going through a difficult time.   I agreed with her that it might not be long, but that she, nor I, nor the doctors, ever know something like this for sure.   Then I told her what we could be sure of is that no matter how bad we feel, or what difficult problem we are going through, we can be sure that God’s love and presence is here with us.   It may be late in our lives, and it may be dark, but to God, it is always just before dawn, because his love as promising as an eternal morning.  Go and make disciples….. and remember, I am with you always."

Charles Reeb, was preaching at a Methodist youth camp. The worship service went really late. He didn't get up to preach until about 11p.m.  It didn't help that he had the flu. But it was the last service of the week, and he had to finish. He doesn’t remember he said.  He was so sick. He was just trying to get through it. He thought it was the worst sermon he’d ever delivered.

After the service, a teenage girl approached him. She looked very angry. She said, "I have to find out if something is true." The pastor replied, "What's that?" She said, "You mentioned tonight that God loves me. Do you believe that? I don't believe anyone has ever loved me. My dad left me and my mother abused me, and I moved from one institution to another. I've been sexually abused, neglected, and you are telling me that God loves me?"

Pastor Reeb looked straight into her eyes, and said, "That's right. I know this for certain. God loves you. You want to know how I know?  God got up on a cross and said, 'This is how much I love you.'" She paused for a moment and tears began rolling down her cheeks. Then she said, "Well, if God loves me, then nothing else matters. If God loves me, that's all that matters."

Deep down you know there are people all around you who need the love, forgiveness, grace, power, strength and comfort of God in Jesus Christ. Give me one good reason why you wouldn't want to share it?  Give me a good reason not to obey the Great Commission and to commit the Great Omission.  You might give me all kinds of bad ones, but you can’t give me one good one.  Not even one.

I hope you always have time to speak about God to those around you.   I hope that no matter what is going on, what plans you are making, or what priorities you have, that at the top of your list, you have included your faith and you don’t forsake to assemble with your church, as some do.   Your church and faith should not be an afterthought, or seem like an additional burden put on your life, but it should be place where you focus on all the love that gives your life its purpose and its promise.   God’s love depends on you.  

Let us pray:   Dear Lord, give us new eyes to see those around us who need your love. Give us new hearts to be sensitive to those who need your love, and give us the courage to share your love and to make them your disciples.  Amen.