Matthew 28:16-20
I heard about three men – a Baptist, a Catholic and a Presbyterian … they died on the same day and went to heaven.
St. Peter met them and said, “I’m sorry men, but you’re rooms are available yet.”
Peter didn’t quite know what to do, so he called Satan and asked if he’d keep the men for a little while.
Satan reluctantly agreed, but in a few hours later, called back.
“Peter, you’ve got to come and get these guys.”
“The Baptist man is saving everybody.”
The Catholic man is baptizing everybody.”
“And the Presbyterian has already raised enough money for air conditioning.”
Strategy … you’ve got to have strategy … a plan … an idea of where it’s going, what needs to happen, how to do it.
Jesus has strategy.
Jesus knows what to do to build His church.
For the last several weeks, we’ve been looking at JesusStrategy …
Choosing the leaders.
Training the leaders.
Inspiring the leaders.
Today: the Great Commission – Matthew 28
Sending the leaders.
To continue doing what Jesus does – build His church!
Let’s take a look at the Matthew reading …
The missionary heart of the church.
Mission is who we are, and mission is what we do [remember this phrase].
Covenant on the corner … looking up and down Sepulveda … along 80th to the west, and 79th to the east … our friends and neighbors, many of whom have little or no religious anchoring in their lives … living and wandering and wondering … trying their best to do good … and God loves them through and through, that’s for sure … and it’s up to us to share that love …
Love is action.
Love rolls up its sleeves and gets to work.
Love is focused and specific.
Love works for the wellbeing of our community.
Love reaches out to our unchurched neighbors.
Love invites them to go to church with us … and have lunch with them afterward …
Loves pays attention.
Love listens.
The church faces outward … mission is who we are, and mission is what we do.
What does Matthew 28 mean for Covenant on the Corner?
By the way, I like that description … Covenant on the Corner … where cross the crowded ways of life … intersection … things going and things coming … energy, traffic, noise, lots of people.
Covenant on the Corner.
What does Matthew 28 mean for Covenant on the Corner?
Let’s step back for a moment to the larger picture for American Presbyterians.
The big news for 40 years has been our decline in membership … what’s happened to Covenant has happened to thousands of Presbyterian congregations around the nation.
We enjoyed enormous success after WW 2: new members … new churches … new programs … we had it all, and it was grand.
But in the last four decades, things changed … the Presbyterian Church today is half the size we were 40 years ago … we have closed hundreds of congregations … we’ve cut back and reduced … we’ve downsized and made do with less.
That’s the pattern we’ve lived for the last 40 years.
It’s made us a little edgy … fearful.
We’ve turned inward.
We’re likely to grumble and argue with one another.
Presbyteries and General Assemblies … too often like the folks in the wilderness … grumbling against Moses, wanting to return to Egypt … hesitant and fearful.
When they came to the Promised Land, they sent in spies to check it … and what a land it was … flowing with milk and honey just like God said … opportunity unbound … there it was for the taking … but some of the spies said, “We can’t do it. The folks are giants. In their eyes we look like grasshoppers.”
They lost heart; they missed the opportunity; time passed them by.
In my 40 years of ministry, I’ve seen our churches turn inward, protective and cautious.
We try to hang on to the members we have.
Let’s not rock the boat.
Let’s not roil the waters.
Let’s not take any chances.
We stop reaching outward and start looking inward.
We settle for what we have and hope it doesn’t change.
We take care of what we have, and we hope that no one leaves.
But nothing stays the same.
Let’s say First Presbyterian in Crane Hill, ND has 50 active members.
They work hard to hang on to them … keep them happy … be sure no one leaves …
But what happens?
Fred gets ill and goes into a nursing home. Now they only have 49 active members
Three weeks later Ted and Sally move to Philadelphia to be near their children. Now they have 47 active members.
A month later, Joan is transferred to a bank in Chicago. Her husband and their three children move with her – so now they only have 45 active members, and three less children in their Sunday School.
Three months later, Jim dies and six months later his widow moves to Phoenix. Now they have only 43 active members.
And, of course, Randy and Jane leave in a snit: … they don’t like the music, and it seems that someone forgot to put their name in the bulletin. Now they have only 41 active members.
Charlene leaves because she wants more social action, and her two children go with her.
Now they have only 40 active members, and two less children in their Sunday School.
To hang on and hope that no one leaves doesn’t work … it doesn’t work for Wal-Mart or Macy’s or Trader Joe’s, and it doesn’t work for the church.
So what happens?
Why do churches turn inward?
Fear … fear is always the underlying issue …
Why did Israel fail to take the Promised Land?
Why did Peter begin to sink beneath the waves?
Why did the Temple officials plot against Jesus?
Why did Rome execute Him?
Fear!
We all get fearful when the world changes.
We remember the good old days …
We wonder why we can’t have them again.
We don’t like what’s happening … it’s confusing and confounding.
Nothing looks familiar … everything seems strange to us.
The world goes on, and we’re standing still.
The keys we once used to open doors don’t fit anymore.
Our children and grandchildren sing the strangest things … whatever happened to Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby?
We all get fearful when the world changes!
But listen to God’s Word:
Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32).
I will build my church, says Jesus!
Come and follow me.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.
On every hand, Jesus speaks encouragement … trust … faith … confidence … straight ahead … you can do it.
On every hand, Jesus says, “Go!”
You can do it.
You can climb the mountain.
You can cross the river.
You can manage the challenge.
You can come through the crisis.
I believe in you.
I have confidence in you.
I put my future into your hands.
Mission is who we are, and mission is what we do.
Do you have friends who are unchurched [turn to each other a moment – give a rough estimate, a number – 2, 4 10 unchurched folks you know].
Chances are they believe.
In the latest Pew poll, folks are very spiritual … folks believe … but 2/3 are disconnected from fellowship; they’re bowling alone, dancing by themselves …
They’re missing a key ingredient: connection!
Something vital is missing.
Like corn on the cob without butter and salt.
Like a burger without cheddar cheese.
Like hot apple pie without ice cream.
Donna’s father was a cattle dealer in Minnesota … next to the house, a cornfield … I learned something about corn … it has a shallow root system, and grows tall.
Grow a stalk of corn all by itself, and in the storm, it’ll blow right over … the roots don’t hold.
But plant acres of corn … thousands of corn stalks growing next to one another … and let the storms come.
The stalks support one another.
Folks trying to make it alone in the world are stalks of corn planted all by themselves … the root systems are shallow … when the storms come, it doesn’t take much to blow ‘em over.
The missing ingredient for millions of Americans – the people connection, and observers of the American scene all agree: it’s getting worse. The lonely-factor is growing larger in our lives; the lack of people-connection is telling in our growing edginess, our impatience with one another, our grumbling and our anger.
That’s why we have a work to do.
Our job … our mission … our purpose … to transplant people … from growing alone, to growing alongside of one another … with Christ in the center!
Mission is who we are, and mission is what we do.
But mission will change things …
Bring new folks into the life of the church, and the life of the church changes.
Back in Detroit, a new family in the church told me about their third visit … they found a pew and settled in.
A few moments later, in came Peg Kordenbrach – she looked at them, shook her head, and said, “You’re in my pew!”
The new family moved to the next pew … and thank God, when they told me, they laughed about it.
I think about Peg.
I wonder what went on in her mind that day?
Was she even thinking about it?
“This is my pew,” she said.
Whose pew?
Whose church?
Ten, twenty, thirty years from now, we’ll all be gone … and then whose pew, whose church?
Right now, today, we lay the foundations for tomorrow.
The corner stone for a 21st century church.
Covenant on the Corner.
With Jesus our Lord at the center”
We will face the future and find a way.
We will meet the challenge … we’ll be experimental, innovative, creative … we’ve nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
The promised land … not back there somewhere … but out there, ahead of us.
With Jesus our LORD at the center:
We’ll play our part, and play it well.
We’ll direct our energy outward.
We’ll tame our fears and build our faith.
We’ll stir the pot and roil the water …. Jesus did it all the time.
We’ll be progressive, and we’ll be open …
A 21st century church.
A place where everyone is welcome.
When it comes to members:
We’ll not worry about keeping the members we have; we’ll train the members we have to keep the faith.
Go … make disciples, said Jesus … baptize them … teach them … and I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Mission is who we are, and mission is what we do.
Amen!
