When You Have All Authority

When You Have All Authority

Matthew 28:16-20

When I was appointed to the Browning Church in 1982, I found a little church that at one time had added on an education building. It contained an office, a dingy little nursery that had become a storage room, and two rooms that had the doors locked. After finding the key to the doors, I discovered that the two rooms were filled with old Sunday school curriculum. From floor to ceiling, from wall to wall, there was curriculum that dated back to the mid 1950’s. It looked as if every flyer, every poster, and every student book ever purchased by that congregation had found a resting place in these two rooms that had once been divided by a folding wall.

At the next board meeting, I asked why that curriculum was in there. As good church members, you can predict their answer. They said that they thought there might come a time when, if they couldn’t afford to buy new curriculum, they could reuse the stuff they had already purchased.

That made a lot of sense to them. It sounded like good stewardship. It revealed their underlying belief that what there is to know about the Bible and our faith never changes. And it also showed their experience as farmers that you have to plan for lean years. The obviously right thing to do was to save all the curriculum they had ever purchased.

But when I suggested that we needed to start some children’s Sunday school classes, I was told that we couldn’t do that. Why? Because there was no room for the classes. Well, I asked, what about these two class rooms full of old curriculum – couldn’t we use those rooms? No, they replied, because these rooms were already being used to store the old curriculum, in case there would ever be a need for it.

This went on for a few months, this circular reasoning about wanting to offer classes but not being able to offer classes because the rooms were full of the curriculum that could be used to offer classes. The good of the curriculum took precedence over the good of the children.

One of the things we talked about at Annual Conference last week was that leaders are supposed to align resources in order to accomplish the vision. And in this case, the overwhelming resources were keeping us from accomplishing our vision of making disciples of Jesus Christ. This abundance of materials kept us from reaching out to the community and teaching a new generation of children.

So I did what a leader is supposed to do. Recruiting new teachers to teach the children was the easy part, but there was still this concern about where the classes would meet. I suggested to them that we already had the space – we simply needed to clean out the rooms by throwing away anything that couldn’t be reused. And based on the musty smells of mold and mildew, there was bound to be lots of curriculum that we could throw away. At the very least, we should be able to reclaim at least one of the rooms for the children.

That made sense to them, but then one of the teachers asked the important question: “Who has the authority to decide what we can throw away?” Remembering my ordination, and what they bishop said as I was ordained, I raised my hand towards the heavens, and said with all the seriousness I could muster, “In the name of Jesus Christ, take thou authority.”

The puzzled looks on their faces told me I had to say a little bit more about this. So, I assured them that I would help them go through all of it, and that we would keep everything we could imagine being used again, and everything that would be safe to use again. But the rest of it would be recycled or thrown away because it was a health hazard for everyone in the congregation.

That made sense to the teachers, and they thought the members of the board would understand this as well, so we got started on it. And when we were done, both the board and the congregation were amazed that we now had two large rooms for Sunday school. They were excited that we had two new classes of children. And they were surprised that we had a stack of posters, records, and film strips that we could actually use to support those new classes. The few salvageable adult Sunday school books that we recovered were either given to the adult classes or were stored in my office, until they could be used at a later time.

There are a lot of important things that we are called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be good stewards. We are called to plan ahead. We are called to share the good news with the next generations. Yet we reveal who we truly are by what we do that is most important to us, when we do what we are clear that we have the authority to do.

This raises the question: What is the most important thing we can do as a congregation? Our mission statement is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” Our vision for that transformation, as expressed in the Lord’s Prayer, is for the kingdom of God to come “on earth as it is in heaven.” And how we get from here to there – how we get from this world to the reign of God – isaddressed in our reading for today.

The context for our reading is that it is after the resurrection. In Matthew’s gospel, these are the last words Jesus said to his disciples. It doesn’t say this directly, but it is the moment before Jesus ascends into heaven, as described in Luke’s gospel.

Matthew tells us that, in this moment, the disciples worshiped Jesus, but some doubted. This doubt is simply the recognition that they still want to decide for themselves what it means to follow Jesus, instead of just doing what Jesus has taught them to do. Yes, they know all that Jesus has taught and done. Yes, they know there are consequences for doing what Jesus did, as the scars in his hands and feet visibly testified. Yes, they know that he has risen from the dead and the he is about to ascend into heaven. But still, there is this little voice, this doubt, nudging them to decide for themselves, rather than listening to Jesus.

Like the disciples, we have our doubts about some of this things Jesus asked his disciples to do. We might agree with Jesus on some things; we might disagree with Jesus on some other things. In any case, we want it to be our choice, our decision, as to what we do as disciples. We want it to be our choice because, after all, it may be our hands and our feet that will have to bear the scars of our decisions.

And this is when we can understand what it is that Jesus is telling us to do. We can understand feeding the hungry, for example, even if we disagree on the best ways to get food to hungry people. But when Jesus tells us to do something “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” when we are asked to invite people into a relationship with the mystery of the Trinity, this is when we have our doubts.

Sometimes, when we read the Bible, we only hear stained glass voices, indicating mysteries too wonderful for us to understand. We don’t expect to understand it, but at the same time we take it on faith that these mysteries assure us that God is holy and mysterious and greater than all we can imagine. Many of the commentaries on this passage for today are right there as well, assuring us that the concept of the Trinity, and the baptism of fire and the Holy Spirit, are mysteries to be lived into but not understood.

And while the mysteries of our faith are important things for us to struggle with, I think they can also keep us from hearing something much more basic that Jesus is saying to the disciples, and to us. So let me try to amplify, or to make plain, the message that is right there in what Jesus is commanding his disciples to do. And to help us remember what Jesus is telling us to do, I want you to do something with me. Raise your right hand, and repeat after me: “Take thou authority.” Let’s try it again: “Take thou authority.” Whenever I raise my hand, I want you to do the same, and say “take thou authority.”

Jesus said to his disciples, and to us, “I am the one who is in charge now. And this is what I want you to do.”

“Whenever you see someone who is dependent on something less than my grace and love, take thou authority, and invite them to become my disciple. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, so that they will know that they belong to me.”

“Whenever you see someone who models their life on another fallible human being,take thou authority, and model for them my life. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you, so that they will also grow in faith and love.”

“Whenever you see someone who has no confidence that God listens to them or cares about them, take thou authority, and work together to become the Body of Christ. That’s how they will first know that I am with you, and with them, always.”

The life of discipleship is not merely accepting some basic faith facts about the Bible and Jesus and the church. The life of discipleship is about knowing that we are called to “take thou authority,” revealing the basic truth that our lives are changed and empowered and directed by the Bible, which shares with us the Word of God. The life of discipleship is about knowing that when we “take thou authority,” we arerevealing the basic truth that our lives are changed and empowered and directed by Jesus, whose grace and power saves us. The life of discipleship is about knowing that when we “take thou authority,” we are revealing the basic truth that the church, that community that holds us accountable in love, is how we learn together to live into the kingdom of God.

That may sound harder to remember than it really is. So, let’s take a little test. To help you pass the test, I will tell you that there is only one answer, and it is the same answer each time. We are going to “fill in the blank” by shouting out the answer together. I will even give you a clue as to what the answer will be.

Whenever you see someone lost and alone, rejected by others, take thou authority, and show them hospitality.

Whenever you see someone who worships the things of this world, instead of God, take thou authority, and invite them to join you in worship.

Whenever you see someone who doesn’t know how to live in God’s kingdom, take thou authority, and invite them to join with you in a small group so you can both grow in faith.

Whenever you see someone who is holding grudges that tears families and communities apart, take thou authority, and show them the power of forgiveness.

Whenever you see someone who is in need of food, or clothing, or shelter, take thou authority, and practice the generosity God has entrusted to you.

There are lots of important things that we are called to do as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to be good stewards. We are called to plan ahead. Yet, as the Body of Christ, we have been given all authority to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We have been called totake thou authority, in the name of Jesus Christ, with the power of the Holy Spirit, for the glory of God the Father.

UM Hymn 571 “Go, Make of All Disciples”