Pastor Thanael Certa-Werner
Matthew 28:16-20 (NIV)
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
June 20, 2021 is a special day in the life of our society. Anyone here able to tell me what today is? You probably said Father’s Day. I had National Hike with a Geek Day, National Vanilla Milkshake Day, and National Ice Cream Soda Day on the mind, but your answer is probably the better one – and depending on your father, you might also be celebrating National Hike with a Geek Day or any of the other national days as well!
Today, I wanted to share with you some memories I have with my father. The first thing I want to share with you has to do with a hammer. Now this isn’t a special hammer of any kind, but it represents all of the hard work my dad and I have done over my life. Together, we have done a multitude of projects around the house and around the church. I remember getting the wise idea that someone should redo the church basement men’s restroom and that someone should be my dad and myself.
We spent a lot of time down in that bathroom, painting, putting in new light fixtures and a new toilet, and putting down new flooring. By the end, the bathroom was beautiful – thanks more in part to my dad than myself – but more importantly, we had built this bathroom together. My dad had showed me how to do all of these different skills that I still know how to do today. Through the hard work of that project – through the long nights after full days of work – the bathroom was redone, but what really transformed was me.
The second thing I want to share with you is a picture of this book. My dad has the real thing on his dresser. The book was written in 1964 by Miriam Young and is called, Miss. Suzy. This was a story that my dad had listened to as a boy himself, and when my siblings and I were young, he used to tell us the story. At first, we started with the story as it was written. The book begins, “Miss. Suzy was a little gray squirrel who lived at the tip, tip, top of a tall oak tree.”
After a while, my dad began to make up new adventures for Miss. Suzy to go on. They got wilder and crazier as we kids began to add suggestions to the story. But the story always began and ended the same way. “Miss Suzy was a little squirrel who lived at the tippy, tippy top of the old oak tree.” would begin the story and “Miss Suzy returned to her nice, warm cozy bed in her little house on the tippy, tippy top of the old oak tree, and went to sleep.”
While I haven’t heard a Miss Suzy story for at least 12 years, I remember many of them and often think of them. As you might be able to tell, we’re looking a lot at the beginnings and ends of books today. In the children’s lesson, we looked at Sleeping Beauty from the Grim Brothers. It begins with “Once upon a time,” and ends with “and they lived happily ever after.” Miss Suzy always begins and ends in her little house on the tippy, tippy top of the old oak tree.
Today, we turn to our Gospel to find its beginning and ending too: Matthew begins this way, “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:” Our scripture passage for today is the end, “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
These two parts of Matthew function much in the same way that the beginnings and endings of our own stories do. Beginnings are built to signal that the story is beginning and that the listeners need to pay attention. They prepare the listeners for what is ahead – and Matthew does the same. He begins by telling the listener how Jesus is related to Adam by listing every single ancestor. This has an important purpose. By doing this, Matthew is reminding us of everything which has happened before this point: The creation and fall of humanity, our struggle to make things right, and God’s promises to deliver humanity from itself back into freedom.
What Matthew is doing is pointing to all of that and saying, here comes the resolution to the story. Get ready for the climax of the story, the most important part. Then, after 28 chapters, we come to the end. Endings are often the “So what?” of stories. For our fairy tale, we learn that despite everything that happened, everything ended well and that the people of the story found love and lived happily all of their days. For Miss Suzy, we can go to sleep knowing that no matter what crazy adventure she went on tonight, she is safely back in her bed sound asleep ready for her next adventure. The ending for Matthew’s Gospel tells us what we do in response to what has just happened.
Throughout the course of Matthew, we see that Jesus not only teaches us a new way to live, but then sacrifices His life that we may find not just an okay life, not just life for now, but abundant, amazing, and everlasting life. That’s all happened, so what? Jesus answers, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”
You and I are here, sitting in this church today because we, at some level, believe that what Jesus did matters. We believe that what Jesus taught and what Jesus did actually changed things. If you are sitting in this room or watching or reading this sermon, it is because Jesus has made a difference in the world, and people have acted differently because of it. Because of this story, this church has been built. Because of this story, billions of lives have been changed. But the question is, will your life change because of this story?
Jesus’ story is not like the ones we read in mother goose or fairy tales. His story has the power to truly change our lives, and that power resides in our living into the “so what?” Therefore go and make disciples of all nations and listen to everything that I have taught you. Our call, as Christians – what everything boils down to for Jesus – is that we might listen and obey what Jesus has taught and that we might share it with others.
My friends this is holy and wonderful work. It is hard, yet terribly important work. Fathers, think back to your dads. What was the most important lesson that you learned from him? What has been the most important lesson you have taught your children? We have been entrusted, as parents to our children, but also as bearers of the light in a dark world to pass on the knowledge of how to live a good life – one filled with joy, love, happiness, peace, kindness, patience, faithfulness and uprightness, gentleness, and self-control.
In many ways, the world is starving for a life like that and we hold the knowledge of how it is accomplished. We are commissioned – sent forth to share that knowledge with the world. To proclaim to the ends of the earth what God has done for us and what living for Jesus has changed in our lives. Making disciples isn’t about brainwashing the world into believing the same things you do – making disciples is about sharing what Jesus has done so that others may experience His life changing power.
My dad didn’t just let me figure things out the hard way as I grew up. He handed me a hammer and taught me how to drive a nail through the wood. He showed me how plumbing works so that in the future, I had the skill. The old saying goes, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” As Christians, we’re in the business of teaching people about life in Christ so that they may be fed for their lifetime. As parents, we share our faith with our children, not because we want them to be copies of us or because we don’t want them to choose the faith for themselves, but because we believe that it is the best way to live life and we want to share that with them.
We have the opportunity before us to truly change the world, to live into our call, and make disciples of all peoples. We have the right tools – all that is left is for us to say yes. So, the question is, will you say yes? It’s easy to do so here and now, but will you say yes tomorrow when you see that neighbor for the hundredth time and get to choose whether or not to create a relationship with them? Will you say yes next week when your child is struggling and you have the opportunity to pray with them? Will you say yes when the time comes to share your faith with someone else that they might find life too? My prayer is that you will. That you will live into our “so what?” and go forth, commissioned by Christ, to share the Good News to the ends of the earth. May it be so. Amen? Amen.