God sends us and goes with us

As I prepared for this sermon, I prayed in color the main passages I would be preaching on.  I've included a picture of the prayer at the end of each reading.

A reading from Jeremiah (29:10-14)

¹⁰For thus says the Lord:

       Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you,

              and I will fulfill to you my promise

              and bring you back to this place.

       ¹¹For surely I know the plans I have for you,

              says the Lord,

              plans for your welfare and not for harm,

                     to give you a future with hope.

       ¹²Then when you call upon me

              and come and pray to me,

                     I will hear you.

       ¹³When you search for me,

              you will find me;

                     if you seek me with all your heart,

       ¹⁴I will let you find me,

              says the Lord,

                     and I will restore your fortunes

                     and gather you from all the nations

                     and all the places where I have driven you,

                            says the Lord,

                                   and I will bring you back to the place

                                          from which I sent you into exile.

The word of the lord.

The psalm, which I don't really reference in the sermon was Psalm 80.

A reading from Romans (8:26-39)

²⁶Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness;

       for we do not know how to pray as we ought,

              but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.

       ²⁷And God, who searches the heart,

              knows what is the mind of the Spirit,

                     because the Spirit intercedes for the saints

                            according to the will of God.

²⁸We know that all things work together for good

       for those who love God,

              who are called according to God’s purpose.

²⁹For those whom God foreknew God also predestined

       to be conformed to the image of the Son of God,

              in order that the Son might be the firstborn within a large family.

       ³⁰And those whom God predestined God also called;

              and those whom God called God also justified;

                     and those whom God justified God also glorified.

³¹What then are we to say about these things?

       If God is for us,

              who is against us?

       ³²The very Son of God was not withheld,

              but was given up for all of us;

                     will God not along with the Son also give us everything else?

       ³³Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?

              It is God who justifies.

       ³⁴Who is to condemn?

              It is Christ Jesus, who died,

                     yes, who was raised,

                            who is at the right hand of God,

                                   who indeed intercedes for us.

       ³⁵Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

              Will hardship,

              or distress,

              or persecution,

              or famine,

              or nakedness,

              or peril,

              or sword?

                     ³⁶As it is written,

                            “For your sake we are being killed all day long;

                                   we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors

       through the one who loved us.

              ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,

                     nor angels, nor rulers,

                     nor things present, nor things to come,

                     nor powers,

                     ³⁹nor height, nor depth,

                     nor anything else in all creation,

                            will be able to separate us

                                   from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The word of the lord.

The holy gospel according to Matthew (28:16-20)

¹⁶Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee,

       to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

       ¹⁷When they saw Jesus,

              they worshiped him;

                     but some doubted.

¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them,

       “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

              ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

                     baptizing them

                            in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

                     ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.

              And remember,

                     I am with you always,

                            to the end of the age.”

The gospel of the lord.

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We are here today to celebrate God’s work through the witness of Christ the King over the last 8 and a half years.  To celebrate the ways that Christ the King has brought us closer to God and the ways that through Christ the King we have been able to share our faith with others.               And we are here to close Christ the King.  It is a complicated day, to say the least. 

Yet into this complication, God speaks words of assurance.  God has plans for us.  Those plans may no longer be tied to this particular congregation or maybe not to any congregation at all right now.  God’s plans for us are plans for goodness.  God’s hopes for us are hopes for love, for wonder, for generosity.

Some of you already know the community of faith that you will be a part of and some of you are unsure.  Even if you know where you are going, this will be a time of wandering, a time of searching.  As we wonder at where God is calling us and wander to other communities of faith, we search for God.  We search for where God is calling us and we wonder where God is, if we will even find God, if God will find us, if God will guide us to our new future.  We are stepping out of this box that has been comfort and challenge and support.

And God is outside of that box anyway.  God bursts through our walls of comfort, disturbing our security.  God brings us into the world and assures us, saying, “I know the plans I have for you, … plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  God is with us in this time of uncertainty.

And in this uncertainty, we hear from Paul, at great length, that nothing can separate us from God. “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹nor height, nor depth” nor closing nor leaving, nor hardship, nor doubt, nor despair, “nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God is with us and for us and for all of this creation.  God comes to us and the Holy Spirit breathes through us—in prayers of sighs too deep for words—candles lit and cranes folded for the sake of the world, in the joy and proclamation of love for all of God’s children.

Christ comes to us in the waters of baptism, the snow and showers that have cleansed this land over the years and the water poured out over Aria, Jordan, Sophia, Benjamin, Asher, Kaleb, Elsa, Sharon, Olivia, Deryck, Hayden, and Lukas in their baptisms, water and Word as God claims us all as beloved children.

Christ comes to us in communion—in broken bread for these, our broken bodies, this broken body of Christ, still yearning and working towards wholeness that will come when God’s reign really is on earth as it is in heaven.  The bread and wine that nourish and uplift us—that gather us in community around Tables here and in our homes.  Christ feeds us.

And it’s not that nothing in creation will separate us from God, it’s that Creation brings us together with God.  Creation brings us to God—to the wonder and mystery of God as we experience the change of seasons—summer to fall to winter to spring—the gross, the cool, and the scary of bugs and birds and bats.  Creation sings God’s praise and God’s glory, and points us toward our creative Creator, God who loves us always and continues to call us into the world.

However we may explore God’s call to us and God’s will for all of creation, God assures us, “You will find me” but more importantly, “I will let you find me.”  God hears our laments at losing Christ the King as we have known it, yet God is not hiding.  God is with us in our tears and sorrow, our anxiety and fears about where we will go—if they will like us, if we can participate as we want or rest as we need for a while.  And God walks with us in all of that.  We will find God because God will let us, because God is beside us, walking with us, even carrying us in our uncertainty.

And into that uncertainty we hear Jesus’ words, the Great Commission to his disciples.  After the Resurrection, the disciples gather and worship Jesus, and some of them doubt (I would reckon that     that some     was probably quite a large some of them).  They know that Jesus died on the cross, he was buried and yet now he lives!  These disciples are still wrestling with being a follower of Christ, a people of both death and resurrection.  They’re a bit unsure about Jesus and this whole resurrection thing and what they’re going to do.  

And so Jesus speaks to them.  And you know what?  Nowhere in the Great Commission does Jesus say, “Go start a church.  Establish a community of faith in which to worship me.  And then all will be well.” There is uncertainty and doubt, but that doesn’t stop Jesus. No.  Instead he says, “Go!  Get out of here!  Baptize and teach!  Make disciples!”

God, I think, is not quite as interested or invested in our institutions—our churches, denominations, or congregations—as we are.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love Christ the King and the ELCA and I also deeply value communities of faith with whom I can wrestle about the problems I see in the world, where God could be in it all; and who can know my struggles and support me in them.

But that’s not necessarily God’s focus—more of a side effect of God’s true focus—making disciples, teaching, and baptizing—sharing God’s love in and with the world.  That is what God, in Jesus, is about.

And we as humans have decided that churches are one of the better ways to do that.  They’re still never the purpose, though.  A church does not exist for itself.  It exists to make disciples of all nations.  Similarly, there are more ways to make disciples—to share the love of God and the Good News of God’s grace with the world—than just through churches or through the continuation of a congregation. 

Christ the King has been living out this Great Commission over the years.  We have baptized, we have affirmed baptisms.  We have learned and taught through Bible studies, conversations, and service opportunities: Project Linus, the CROP Walk, donation collections, and youth trips.

God has used Christ the King as a vessel for work and for proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News that God’s love is for everybody.  Now, as we lay this vessel to rest, we find that there are new ways to continue to follow Jesus.  There are other communities that we can join, fellowship and conversations—this community of people is not bound by the walls and official gatherings of Christ the King.

Because making disciples happens through you!  At work, in your neighborhood, at school, in service to others, in work for justice and peace, and yes, even in new communities of faith.  Jesus is still talking to you, still sending you out. 

The Great Commission is still your commission—to go, make disciples, baptize, and teach. Jesus’ last words assure us, “And remember, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

Thanks be to God.