Gathered and Sent
Holy Trinity Sunday - June 15, 2014
I recently heard a story about a woman whose husband died, and while that was sad – they were both in their young 50s - what really caught my attention was hearing that the widow began receiving cold calls from a dating service, inviting her to sign up – only a month after he died! I was shocked. It's hard to imagine the chutzpah required to make that kind of phone call, what kind of person can be that pushy and insensitive and so totally lacking in empathy that they would invade her life, rather than letting her mourn in peace.
I got to thinking about that story as I thought about the gospel for today and how we hear Jesus' words in this passage. These are his final words to his 11 remaining disciples, as the author of Matthew records them anyway, and in them, we hear Jesus tell them that they are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus had commanded them. And we who consider ourselves disciples of Jesus know that these words are meant for us too. We know that if we are disciples, we should be reproducing that discipleship in the lives of others. And it's not news that most of us are not comfortable with that role. We can feel our heart rates getting faster, our blood pressure rising, our palms starting to sweat at the mere idea of sharing our faith with someone, let alone helping them walk along the path of discipleship!
There are lots of reasons for that, but one of them, I think, is that we are afraid we'll come across like that dating service salesmen, that people will find us intrusive, rude, insensitive, overbearing, or maybe just plain weird for trying to foist our faith on them.
But then I thought of another story, another way of viewing this scenario. Some of you may know that for years before I became a pastor, I lived and worked in Rhode Island. I moved there fresh out of college with my college roommate and her then fiance (now husband), and outside of Heather and Mike, I knew no one. And wouldn't you know it, in less than 2 years, they both up and moved back to Pennsylvania to be closer to their families, and there I stayed. But I'm not sure how long I would have stayed there if it hadn't been for Joan and Vaughn. Joan and Vaughn and I all worked at the same place. Joan actually was my boss for the first year or so that I was there. And knowing that I was mostly alone, Joan had started inviting me to come along to different things – concerts, pow-wows – and eventually Thanksgiving dinner with her large family (she was the youngest of 8 siblings!). I was kind of the adopted stray – it became tradition that every year I'd join them around the big table, filled with immediate family and in-laws and the kids, and Joan’s boyfriend, then fiancé, then (and still) husband Vaughn (I had a good 3rd wheel vibe going on back then!). Vaughn and I also became good friends, and he too, took me in, asking me to tag along on camping and hiking adventures, movies, cookouts. During the 8 years I lived there, we became like family to each other – in a completely organic, natural way. We weren't pressuring each other to be friends. No one was trying to sell anyone anything. We just liked each other and wanted to spend time together.
Today in the church we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday – which I'm pretty sure is why this passage is assigned to this day, since Jesus says in it, “baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit...” I'll be honest, there are times that I felt it was a stretch to use this Great Commission story as a link to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. But recently I began to realize what a great connection is really there – not that the Great Commission helps us understand the mystery of the Trinity – God as three-in-one – so much, but that in thinking about the Trinity, we begin to understand better this call Jesus gives to his disciples, then and now. Because we tend to think that this commissioning is for individual people to be sent out into the world on God's mission – and then we feel guilty as individuals when we don't live this out in our lives, or if our attempts don't bear much fruit. But even Jesus never went out solo to do God's work. From the very beginning of his ministry, we see the Trinity at work, together; as Jesus is baptized in the Jordan River, the skies are ripped open, and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove on Jesus, as God the Father declares from heaven, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased...” From the very beginning, Jesus is sent from a family to represent a family. Relationship is at the very core of who God is – and Jesus is sent to make that relationship known – and then to grow God's family. You all know Sprint's latest campaign – to get people to join the Framily Plan? Their commercials have this odd assortment of folks who seemingly have nothing in common – they run the gamut of ages and races and interests and even species (there's a talking hamster in that exercise ball)! But the point is that family isn't just who you are related to by blood or marriage – and we see that in Jesus' life too, as he goes out, gathering disciples to himself, an odd assortment of men and women, who leave behind their biological families to follow. They eat and travel and worship and pray together until they become part of Jesus' family. They gather to learn the family traditions, the stories shared around a meal, the memories shared and passed down through the generations – and now, today in this passage, we see Jesus sending them to invite the world to become part of God's family, to join them at Christ's table. And while we certainly have the amazing stories of the Billy Graham revival-style events where many become disciples in one fell swoop in the New Testament, we know that that is not the predominate way that the church spreads down through the ages. It happens instead as the disciples are sent into the world and make relationships with the people they meet, and those people invite them into their homes and lives – and as they invest their time and energy in each others’ lives, more and more find themselves drawn into God's family.
That's good news on this Holy Trinity Sunday – that the root of discipleship is found in relationship – God's relationship within the divine self, and that love over flowing into the world, into our lives, and through us to the people around us. And so we gather together in this place at God’s invitation. We tell the family stories, we share a meal, we relive our history together – and then we are sent, not to do the hard sell or try to close the deal, but to be open to others, sharing our time, our lives, our interests, opening the way for what God is already doing in the world to operate in us, so that others will hear and experience the invitation of God to come join the family at the table. It's open to everyone. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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