Welcome In--Matthew 10:40-42. Sermon preached on June 28, 2026

            “The man was finally heading home. He ignored the noisy college kids on the bus and stared out the window anxiously/nervously. After a rest stop, a young woman sat down next to him, and they struck up a conversation. 

            He told her that he’d been in prison for four years and that his wife hadn’t written in three and a half. When he learned that he was being paroled, he wrote her again and said that he still loved her. He said that would understand, however, if she never wanted to see him again.

            To make it easier on them both, he suggested that his wife use a yellow handkerchief to communicate her feelings. If she wanted him back, she would tie the handkerchief on the old oak tree near their home. If there was no handkerchief hanging from the tree, then he would stay on the bus and keep going. If he saw the handkerchief, he could come home to her. [Perhaps you have heard the song with the same title as he suggestions.]

            Word of the arrangement spread through the bus as rumors/stories often do. As the bus came into town, those noisy college kids flocked to the windows hoping to witness something. . . When they saw the tree, a feverish cheering broke out among them before the man could come to the window himself.

            On the tree was not one but dozens of yellow handkerchiefs.”[1]

            As we consider this text from Matthew, I want you to remember this story, and consider it. . . But not from the point of view of the ex-con or his wife who welcomed him home.

            If someone told you that story and then asked you to speak about the sense of welcome and hospitality from the story, and how that action is mirrored in Matthew 10, you could do that. Instead, I wonder about the college kids, the woman, who witnessed this scene from the bus. 

            I wonder what happened to them? How were they impacted and changed by witnessing this level of welcome from our story?

            For in their practice of welcome, we learn the lesson that Jesus teaches his followers venture into their community. 

Move 1- Little Ones

            Working backwards through our text, Jesus focuses our attention, and our welcome on specific people. Without naming these people directly, Jesus calls each member of the church to care for the: Little Ones.

            And so, the first question that we must consider here is: who are the Little Ones that Jesus is speaking about? 

            Now the first answer could be literal. Children or the younger of age in the church. That would make sense. Here at Bethesda, as we just completed VBS, and cared for a number of children, the words of Matthew 10 would seem to align perfectly with this concept.

            But a second rendering, and perhaps a better application, could be those who we might define as having a smaller or lesser sense of dignity in this community. The marginalized. The forgotten. The folks that we might see who have their own yellow handkerchief tied around the tree because they do not know if others will welcome them home or their midst.

If you were to go to looking through your New Testament for examples of where these little ones are found, you would find Jesus using the same word when he meets a little man who climbed up in a sycamore fig tree to gain a better view. Marginalized by the community, welcomed by Jesus. And as that story goes, Jesus wanted to go to his house, and to have supper with Zacchaeus. 

            Another location of the idea of ‘little ones’ is in the parable of the Mustard Seed. Jesus again uses this concept to label something, little, small, but very important. The littlest of seeds that grows into the greatest bush he tells us in Matthew 13. 

            Finally, searching out one of the most important stories of our New Testament, Mark 15:40, the author tells us about a man names James the younger, who, along with Mary Magdalene was present as Jesus was crucified. And by now you know that he could also be ‘James the little one,’ present at the crucifixion—a witness to Jesus’ death—beside his mother Mary.

            People, items, that the world would, or could classify as little, insignificant, forgotten, brushed aside, but in God’s eyes and heart, they are important. Their stories further the will and purpose of God. These people are the subject of what Jesus is instructing the hearers in Matthew 10 to be attentive to.  

Move 2- welcome.

            And more than just being aware of them, for so many people in this world are aware of the presence of these people, and their role around us, Jesus repeatedly gives us direction as we find these Little Ones. Jesus tells us how to Welcome them In. 

Four times in verse 40, and then again 2 times in verse 41, Jesus teaches the church to welcome, or receive, these little ones into our midst.

            This welcome involves a high level of self-involvement and attention. Whenever we find this concept in the New Testament, regardless of the style, or the author who wrote it, the word describes a whole-hearted, welcoming response rather than a passive allowance. This is not tolerance of an individual. 

Whether it was Jesus in the gospel, or Paul in the epistles, or John the revelator at the end of the New Testament, when the welcome was given, there was a personal investment made and so we are told to follow that example. We are asked to invest ourselves in a like way and not to assume that someone else will do it for us. 

            At Bible School, from the director of the program, down to each group leader, to everyone who handed out food, and with each station leader who taught and instructed, it did not matter, we had to invest ourselves in the lives of each child. To welcome them in; to hear them when they questioned us--actively. And when that investment was made. . . oh the things we saw and we heard. 

            The children watched with rapt attention as the Bible stories were shared. They listened as the crafts were demonstrated and they danced passionately as the songs were sang. Together they played their games and fellowshipped and built relationship as a small community around the supper table. 

But that joyful work can only happen when we intentionally and consistently choose to be present with them. Even as we had a few families just walk in off the streets to see what this was all about, our focus had to shift and adapt to welcome the unexpected into our church and so by doing this… we again made a choice we welcome the little ones in. 

Another feature of this welcome is the idea of covenantal hospitality. This aspect of the welcome that Jesus teaches us encompasses ideas of lodging, protection, and listening is in this idea as well. It is all wrapped up in that simple directive by Jesus to welcome the little ones into your midst as a church. 

Back at Bible school that safety spoke for us again. There were some parents, who did not know us, and so they wondered if their child might cry and/or want to go home… but that never happened. And I believe that is because YOU welcomed them fully as Matthew 10 instructs. 

            Welcoming in this way can make us vulnerable as well. For when we extend ourselves in this manner, we let others see who we truly are rather than just giving them a piece of a small part of who we want to be. 

Move 3- 

            But Bible School ends. . . Yes, the work and the joy of that program ends. The easy places to practice this welcome stops. Then, as that realization sets in, our text calls us to work moving forward as the church this summer. Like the people on the bus from the beginning story, we have work to do long after the joy of the moment recedes and the singing and rejoicing ends. 

Every one of us can identify the Little Ones who live in our midst and cross our paths. As they cross our path, we have an opportunity to share the gospel with them and invite them into the relationship with the Lord that we have grown and fostered each day. Each of these same little ones also knows the feelings of judgement of being called ‘less than,’ but this is also an opportunity to live as Matthew 10 suggests. 

            Sometimes welcoming is done like the man who saw those yellow handkerchiefs on the oak trees that I shared when started, and sometimes, honestly, often times, welcoming, as Jesus talks about it, is done by finding space to allow others be drawn closer to us by God as we share what we have learned through testimony and the care of service. 

            Now we must be the light that shows others how welcoming in takes shape—even if that welcoming in is only offering a cup of cold water on a hot day. And we will have many hot days this summer. As the church we are called to make the constant, consistent choice, willingly to bring others into the presence of God and share the gospel. 

Conclusion

            But that final part of that welcoming in, is the aspect of testimony. For we can sit here and state how kind, how wonderful, and how active God is in this very space. But if we do not leave the space, with expressing how we have seen the Lord, felt the Lord’s welcome in each other’s lives, then the mission of Christ that we are called to share bears no fruit. 

            And so I wonder now, if you will join me in find people who this community defines as little ones, and show them how Jesus welcomes them in?

 

DM

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[1] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2008-06/unmerited-favor.  Accessed on June 28, 2023. 

 

Welcome Home--Jeremiah 20:7-13

            “Welcome.” I said, as warmly as I knew how. Extending my right hand, as I have seen done many times before by others, I continued, “Thank you for coming. The family is in on the left.” JonMark and I received nods of appreciation and support as we did our work of welcome that day. And as friends and families made their way through the entry way, and then on to the left, they found Jennifer and, eventually her sister, Jamie, waiting. 

            I tell this story because it can be an interesting experience, offering hope, offering the gospel, offering words of honesty, to people who may not know that they want or that they need it in that moment. And also, it is not that those words are unwelcome. . . it is just in moments of heightened emotion and suffering, sometimes we can forget that we need to hear the Lord. 

            And while some might be tempted to think that the message of our Biblical authors is not applicable to the suffering and struggles of our day, just as we might think that what they went through has so little to do with how we feel today as we struggle to be the faithful people of God, Jeremiah experienced this feeling as well. He intimately felt this way.  

            For God spoke to him. God revealed himself to his servant. 

Yet in the beginning of chapter 20, the prophet is beaten and put in stocks. His public suffering is made worse because it takes place in “the house of the Lord” (Jeremiah 20:2). The Lord God calls him to preach, to evangelize, but what do you say when the people who you are sent to do not yet know that they need to hear what God has placed upon you heart? How do you offer them a word when you are so beat, so broken, so wounded in the moment? 

            I can imagine tears in Jeremiah’s heart and on his face as he pondered that question himself—a question that we wrestle with ourselves. What could faithfulness look like to him? 

            He would leave the safety of his home and go out into the community once again and share the very same message that brought the ridicule, the separation, the abuse… even if he did not have the words as he started. 

Move 1- honest beginning

            Our text begins with honesty. Regardless of the translation you read; it’s in there. As verse 7 begins the prophet is with the Lord. 

We do not know if these words are spoken out loud or if they are a silent desperate prayer that lives in his heart; something seeping out when no one is around. Truthfully it does not matter. The words are honest. “You have deceived me. . . and I was deceived.”

I selected this translation today because of that stinging word. “Deceived.” While other translations say ‘enticed’ or ‘persuaded me,’ this rendering captures the full emotional struggle of the prophet. For there is a large gap between those words. 

            Jeremiah’s prayer stings of hurt and a feeling of being let go of by God; of being too far from the hand of God to be safe. And in Jeremiah’s life, and the very moment that he is dealing with, this prayer testifies on its own that the prophet has reasons to think and feel this way. If we walked up to him, we might affirm his feelings. And he honestly looks at God in this moment and uses strong language. Deceived… not enticed… and certainly persuaded. 

            I wonder when was the last time that you said that you felt God deceived you? When was the last time you used a similar sense of strong language before God? 

            You knew that God sent you in one direction, called you, empowered you, but as you arrived in the moment, it was only a moment that you could best describe as painful, and in a place that you should locate God, the Lord felt absent.

Move 2- Not deceived.

            But Jeremiah’s apparent deception. . . it is not exactly what we might think. For in Hebrew the context of the verb determines its full meaning and its implication. 

In this case, the ‘deception’ serves a greater purpose in the Lord and in Jeremiah’s relationship with God. And we are most certainly NOT boot-strapping ourselves to a blessing. His suffering is not about be a badge of honor that he can hold up against others as a sign that he is more holy or more worthy. 

As we read verse 7 in English, we might draw a conclusion that puts Jeremiah, and his faith and trust in God, on shaky ground. A first reading seems to support that the prophet has trusted God only to be let down; only to be beaten, put in stocks, and ridiculed. 

            But instead of just holding onto that conclusion solely, look deeper into the text with me. Let’s move further into the text. Go with me to verse 11. “But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior.” 

            In the previous four verses Jeremiah states that the people have tried to tempt him to either tone down his preaching or stop proclaiming the word of the Lord all together. And yet the prophet has remained faithful to his mission and message, as best as he can, that God gave him. Most certainly this would be hard. And of course, there would be tears involved both internally and externally. While Jeremiah dwelt in the stocks, and after he was ridiculed, and as he dealt with feelings of isolation from his community, Jeremiah remembers that God is with him.

            If that is hard for him, I wonder how hard it can be for you and for me?  

There is a burning fire in the prophet as verse 9 says. 

Jeremiah knows that God hears his prayers, his calling in chapter 1 would affirm this, and further that God is with him all the back before he was even born. The expression that Jeremiah gives us for this level of confidence is in the form of: The dread warrior. The person of God himself. 

This would be like Jeremiah using God’s personal name himself. But of course, that would be challenging for any Hebrew. So, in verse 11, in a way that only Jeremiah could, he says, “In moments such as this, when I could doubt, Yahweh is my personal champion.” For our purposes, He is not Bethesda’s champion, he is my personal champion! What a confession to make!

            Jeremiah is not deceived away from faith, but in his very moment of suffering, in his very moment where his faith could fall apart, Jeremiah stands stronger in that faith than we might think that he could. He is not enticed away; he is not persuaded to believe that God has heard someone else’s prayer. God heard his prayer in his most desperate moment when his very soul broke.

And in that moment, the prophet confesses who his champion is, who he places his faith him, who he trusts, and in verse 13, who he will sing praises to. He confesses that when his heart is broken and tears are his food, in the words of verse 11, Jeremiah says that he will sing praises to the God who is ever with him and did not leave him even as the evidence seems a bit shaky in that moment.

Move 3- the question

            This leads us then to the moment of question and challenge for ourselves and back to my initial story as an example of how this moment takes shape in our very lives. 

For while you may not have been in a valley like Jeremiah was in chapter 20 having been beaten and placed in stocks and ridiculed, and you may not have stood beside a loved one was last week and heard that soul cry tear at you, you know people, you work with people, you live beside people, who are living in that space every, single, day.

You know people who either have very little faith or who might define their faith as terribly fragile because their feel deceived by the Lord—as you might have thought Jeremiah was. 

Their prayer, their confession, could take on the same shape as the prophet’s. People who stand before us and say that in their moment of need, when they reached out to God, hope was lost and their prayers felt like they were going up to nowhere. No one was listening. 

They asked the question, much like I believe Jeremiah might have asked as the stocks rested down upon him: “Lord, why should I go? Why should I continue to preach? To be faithful? Why, Lord!!!”

            It is in that moment that we return once again to the words of verse 11. For the Lord is the presence that goes with us, and we will not be overcome. The Lord, in the words of verse 12, sees our hearts and minds and therefore is committed to us even if we think that we are terribly alone. 

            And so, again, we sing, as best as we can, even if it is a mumble that God is delivering us. And we teach others to do the same. 

Conclusion

            For Jeremiah’s life tells us, as a testimony that there is always space to hope, reason to hope, reason to share God’s message, IF, and AS, we stay close to God. God is always there to draw us back to his side, even if in that moment our hearts feel broken. For He is with us. 

 

 

DM

Not Giving up--Hoses 5:15-6:6. Sermon preached on June 7, 2026

            This is a world of sin; and it is everywhere. Sinful choices. Sinful leaders. Sinful teachers and sin-based practice. . . and, no, I am not speaking about today and the struggles associated with our current moment in history. You read and hear enough about that.

Rather, this is the context that the prophet Hosea lived and served the Lord in. As the end of the Northen Kingdom of Israel drew close, Hosea stood before God’s people with some of the harshest words recorded in the Old Testament. I once attempted to count the sins listed in Hosea’s prophecies against God’s people and I stopped at 44. . . 44 unique sins. Not 10. Like the 10 Commandments. 44 sins.

Hosea’s vivid imagery sets up a stark contrast for us, today. God is well-aware, well acquainted and familiar with the sins of His people and yet Hosea also offers us the rich imagery of our God who will not give up on the relationship He has with us. 

“This passage witnesses to God’s compassion toward a people who cannot even repent properly without God’s grace.”[1]

            In spite of all our sin, and in spite of the sins of the Israelites, God will not give up on His people. As you think about that today, I wonder how that feels in your life? 

Move 1- begging for favor

            While we know that God’s grace is the most important truth in this passage, it is not how the passage begins. 

Instead, as our passage begins in chapter 5. There in that one verse that I read, God seems aloof. Far off. Willing to walk away; walk back. And this is not a trait or a choice that we associate with God. For there are few hymns, and few confessional statements that affirm that farness of God. Or the aloofness of God. We do not celebrate a God who stands at a distance from us.  

            We all prefer to confess, and we can testify to how close God is to those who build, and nurture, a relationship with him. Last week I spent time reflecting on the relational nature of God in His Triune sense and I said that God wants us to mimic that relationship with each other. Here in Hosea, God seems to back away from that conclusion. 

            Verse 15, God is speaking, “I will return again to my place… until they beg for my favor.”

            And the place that God returns to, it is not close to His people. It feels, it reads, as far away from us. I wonder when was the last time that you felt God pulling away from you—by God’s choice? 

            While our world talks about the great pressure that we are under and spends great amounts of time talking about protection and security, or text today, leaves us feeling a bit… vulnerable. And in our vulnerable state, God withdraws.

 

            But even as he withdraws, there is a hint of our good news. 

            The NRSV uses the word ‘beg.’ Now your Bible might say something like, ‘earnestly seek me’ or ‘seek me early’ when it translates verse 15. As I often like to say, the word choice is important here—and Hosea’s word choice is very important to clear up what God is asking us to do. 

The word that I am focuses upon indicates a pre-dawn choice; something done early in the morning. And a task performed earnestly.

Like seeking God’s mercies which are fresh every day. New as we awaken. There is vigilance in this action. An undistracted heart is necessary for as we face each new day, and the challenges of these new days, we recognize that God has placed a redemptive summons right before us as our eyes as we open them and therefore there is but one response. 

            Just in that little phrase, as God has seemingly withdrawn, the Lord makes space for us press back towards him. To earnestly move towards God. 

Is that a choice that you are making, church family? To seek God . . . Not just today on Sunday, in worship for this time or during a time of Bible study at home? But is that a choice that you make each morning as your eyes open as you confront a new day. Hosea calls it ‘begging for God.’ 

            Do you seek the Lord in this way? 

            In Hosea chapter 5, God wonders if our hearts yearn for him, beg for him in our distress in this way. 

Move 2- our response

            For as we do. . . well. . . we read the people’s response as chapter 6 begins and this should get you excited. 

            Now there is a tendency when we ‘make our God’ to make the Lord in a safe, pleasant image. We tone God down a bit. Now this is done in response to how we read about God in the Word. So, an image, or a creation, that elevates this ‘begging’ imagery from chapter 15 that Hosea offers us, and frankly, we tend to tone it down a bit. This makes the message of the Lord a bit more palpable, easier to accept each day.

By doing this, we elevate grace above the reality of the God of Hosea; the God who expressed those 44 sins I began with a short time ago. 

Why would a God who wants us to earnestly, prayerfully, seek him, each morning? Why would this God not welcome us with open arms, offer us new mercies each morning, without though, the reality of purging us from sin. 

            Verse 1 holds this dichotomy up to the church and it asks us to think and to patiently reflect on what God is saying and asking of each person who finds chapter 6. 

For in verse 1 we are torn, and we yet healed. Struck down, and yet it is God who binds us up. In that one verse we find such strong language by the prophet that does not easily fit into the mold many have created for God. 

And why does this happen? Why are the wounds revealed, because sin is still in the picture—even as grace is also in the picture in Christ. 

            And it is only as we seek the Lord faithfully, it is only as we know this and accept this, that we are healed and revived as verse 3 tells us. 

            For once we find the Lord, once we are revived, the entire tone of this passage shifts, and we can respond faithfully to God. While the work in the text began with us… we had to find God. We had to beg; to earnestly seek the Lord each day. We had to confess our sins. The church finds that God’s faithfulness is speaking for the Lord. 

For God will not give us up.  

            Even if our combined behavior might mandate that God should give up on us. Even when 44 sins condemn our behavior and our lack of faith, God does not give up on us.

Move 3- to know God

            For in this moment God desires that His church, that you and I, in the words of verse 3, “press on to Know the Lord.”

            This idea does not encompass book knowledge. As a Hebrew it is not the ability to confess the Shama in public, or any other confessional statement of the church or society today. It is, instead, the deep ability to discern, to discover, and to know in your very core of being, where nothing can shake or touch you, that “I am the Lord your God.” 

            This is one of the most profound verbs in the entire Hebrew language. To know in this way stretches the people from a superficial level into a deep, covenantal awareness and intimacy. This knowledge is the place where we hear and feel God whisper our name and draw us close and He did to Moses before a bush that did not burn.

And while we think the Hebrews did not have a depth of relationship as we have with Jesus following his resurrection, to know, in this way, tells each of us, that they did. That they sought it. They longed to know God in this way. 

            To know God deeply in this way, alters the entire focus and reality of life and mission and ministry for us as the Church. Everything changes when we have sought God and know God. God is no longer living a distance from the people, but God is close and the pre-dawn seeking of God, is the pre-dawn reality of living with God. 

            For God, the God of Hosea who felt so cold and judgmental, the God who enumerated all those sins, was busy the whole time trying to stay close to his people hoping they could choose the same level of relationship with Him that he was trying to choose with them. 

Conclusion 

            Church family how does it feel to develop a relationship with the Lord who does not give up on you in this way? 

            For we all have that understanding in our lives as the Church. It should motivate our faith and our work here at Bethesda together. It should underpin all that we do each day for God. For while it might seem that God is pulling back from you, in fact, God has never given up on us. 

 

DM

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[1] https://wordandworld.luthersem.edu/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/28-2_Amos_and_Hosea/'Let%20us%20press%20on%20to%20know%20the%20Lord';%20Preaching%20the%20Knowledge%20of%20God%20in%20Hosea%205;15-6;6.pdf  accessed on June 2, 2026. 

 

Making Disciples--Matthew 28:16-20. Sermon preached on May 31, 2026

This is Trinity Sunday, but people who struggle and suffer from any form of a disease that ravages their body and mind, they probably do not care about the label of this weekend. "But this is Trinity Sunday," proclaims the church, “It is the Sunday immediately following Pentecost in the church calendar.” Even so, the family dealing with the wayward teenager, the person who has lost their job and the ability to provide for their family and feel the stability that comes in that, those people who we know intimately, I am not sure that they care that it is Trinity Sunday.

            Does it really matter to them that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit when they suffer vocally or silently like our neighbors who we work with? 

Many people just want to know that God is God and that God somehow, God knows who they are, where they are, what they are, and what they need. (Steven P. Eason)

 

            This is the basic affirmation of the Church—that God is with us.

 

            This is Trinity Sunday. This morning we consider a doctrine which has only been spoken about in pieces in Scripture, and never in the same place in totality as we find here in Matthew.

            Certainly, the scriptures speak of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit but where does it say that those three persons are 'three in one?' Where is the word "Trinity" found in the Bible?

 

            Today we hold up the Triune nature of the God who is—the God who is the Creator of heaven and earth, The God who is the Redeemer of the world, and the Illuminator of scripture and the giver of the Words of prayer when we suffer and cannot find a way forward. 

As we hold these three persons up, we go on to say that together they make up something we cannot completely conceive of in our human minds knowing that time is required to reflect on God and who God is as Jesus in Matthew calls us to a very specific task: make disciples. 

 

Move 1- Begin by working

            I believe, the doctrine of the Trinity is formed in this fashion, with all the mystery which surrounds it, to make us work a bit as we encounter the people of our world and community. Instead of sitting back and letting someone else explain in their words who God is, each of us is called to figure it out for ourselves—as best as we can. We are called to find our own definition of who is this Triune God who saved you? 

For just sitting in the pew, and participating in worship only, does not lead to a deeper understanding of who God is—we must enter the relationship—just as Jesus is in a relationship with His Father and the Spirit. 

 

            Further standing outside of who God is will also not help us ‘make disciples’ as Jesus tells his followers in Matthew 28 to do.

            For the doctrine of God's Person is essentially a relational doctrine [Feasting on the Word, Year A]. Jesus is not telling the disciples to share something intellectually-based only. He wants them to ‘make disciples;’ to create relationships. It must be entered into in a relational fashion- not only in a mental fashion. 

Remember what we know of the Trinity. . . The Father begets the Son at the Incarnation. The Son breaths the Spirit onto us at his Ascension. The Spirit opens our eyes so we can see the Father and give us the words to speak his truth on Pentecost. This is the traditional language.

            But the only way to begin working to understand it, the only way to locate ourselves in among the three persons of God, the only way to make it accessible, if that is even the right word, and if it is possible at all to understand, is to enter a relationship with the God who we define as Triune. We cannot stand outside of who God and use our concepts to explain him.  

            Maybe instead of standing outside of the Triune God and using human illusions and symbols to define him, we come close to him, and we begin to work hard at getting to know him so that we can ‘make disciples.’

 

Move 2- Mystery in our lives.

            But do not misunderstand, we do not work to unravel the mystery of God so as to become equal to God or above God. For that is not possible. Instead, we work to unravel our place in the mystery of God and God's will for our lives, and we call out to all people inviting them into the mystery we are processing and encountering on a daily basis.

            For what did Jesus do when he began his mission on earth, he called those first followers to what. . . follow him. In that first encounter, Jesus made disciples. He began the work of God in their lives. He asked them to enter the relationship. He was making disciples. Not brow beating them to follow God. Not talking down to them because they could not understand the Torah. Just sharing who he is with the very people that God sent him to be with be. That is our task as well. 

 

            You see, God reveals himself to us (T.F. Torrance) because God chooses to do so. God incarnates the Son because God chooses to do so in him. God sends the Spirit because, again, God chooses to pour a piece of himself out on us. 

I do not understand why, and you do not either. And even if you say, ‘Well, it is because he loves me and died on the cross for me.’ I truly wonder why the all-powerful God would choose to do this? We only understand as much as our human minds can. 

 

You see, God does not ask me to understand exactly how in totality. God asks me, and you, again, to make disciples by sharing what I know, and what I have experienced, and what I am learning about Him each day with the very people that God places in my path all the while knowing that my knowledge is partial—all the while confessing that I do not see fully what God knows.

But the relationship that I have with God, that I cultivate each day in my time with God, it fills in the rest as a witness. As I enter that relationship, I am able to live at peace with my sisters and brothers. Because I find myself in that type of relationship with God, and sense him with me, I can agree with others. I can trust them. I can listen to their words. I can serve them.

 

Move 3- Making Disciples

            We need to trust the power of a doctrine that we cannot fully understand as we work together in the Church to make disciples—which Jesus states in the imperative form. It is not a request that Jesus makes of his followers in Matthew 28, or us now, but a word of instruction; a word of call. 

The verb focuses on teaching often with a desired, or specific, goal in mind. To make disciples in Matthew’s context is to lead the readers of the gospel back to the words and deeds of Jesus, but that is a hard sell often. For who wants to follow someone just because their offer good words and lofty deeds? That is what the Pharisees sold to the people of Israel, and it did not translate into faithful followers of the Lord. 

            It is only when we look back at the wholeness of Jesus’ relationship with His Triune self that we see the call to Mercy which is situated in the call to make disciples. For as I have said, we do not fully understand what this mean in in the moment. And so, we need to have mercy on ourselves when we don’t truly understand who Jesus is in our lives, and offer mercy to those still trying to understand who Jesus is in their lives. 

 

            Just like our graduates who believe their lives are fully formed before them, and yet most of us know that a curve or two is still left to take shape before them. I do not say this to shame to, or to pour water on their dreams. Instead, it is a reminding for them that when life throws them a curve, we in the Body of Christ extend them grace right alongside of sound guidance because that is what God has done in each of our lives. We give them mercy, and continue to help make them into the disciples that the Lord asks us to become. 

            Mercy is necessary each day as we share who God is and work with people who learn who God will manifest himself in their lives. . . both inside and outside the church.  

 

Conclusion

            It is because God reveals himself to us and calls us to re-create relationships of trust as we have with him with others, that we are called to faithfully make disciples. 

            We will remember those who find themselves scared, sick, alienated from Him and we remind them of the saving grace of God. We will also remember in prayer who God asks us to make disciples of. 

 

            He is the Father who creates all in his image. He is the Son who redeems those who would harm him. He is the Spirit who calls us back to the Father. He is in relationship with himself and now invites us into relationship with him. 

 

 

 

 

DM