It’s summer, a time for picnics and family reunions.  And you know that sometimes when you are part of a family…things can get pretty wild.  People make irrational decisions, they say things they shouldn’t.  Once in awhile we might even feel embarrassed: 

Oh, man, can you believe what Uncle Fred did this year?!

So this week…the national governing body of the Presbyterian Church, the General Assembly, met in Birmingham, AL.  I wrote about this meeting in the June copy of the Bethany Briefs.  As anticipated, they made the national news. As anticipated, the media did a less than accurate job of reporting it. And I know a lot of you heard about it…because my email box was piled significantly higher than usual!

This morning, I’m going to take two minutes to talk a little bit about what went on.  If you want more background, you can go back and read the June Briefs, or in the August issue when I’ll write more.  So, two minutes. 

For the last 30 years, our denomination (and most others) has argued about sexuality, in a number of ways.  Usually it has revolved around the question of homosexual behavior.  The essential question has been: 

Is homosexuality a gift from God to be celebrated, or brokenness and sin that needs healing and forgiveness? 

In recent years, the conversation has centered on ordination… who can be ordained to leadership in the Presbyterian Church?

For the last ten years, our constitution (Book of Order) has had an extremely specific paragraph in it which says that sexual intimacy is intended for a marriage relationship only between a man and a woman.  Folks choosing to live in other ways are welcomed into community, but not invited into leadership. Bethany has affirmed a similar position for many years.

What the General Assembly did last week will actually not change the Book of Order in any way.  But instead they opted for a political maneuver which gives local presbyteries or churches the right to interpret that extremely specific paragraph in the Book of Order however they choose.  “Local option” allows for 11,000 different viewpoints. That gets pretty confusing, and it will get more confusing. 

Nothing about General Assembly’s action does anything to change our Leadership Statement or practice at Bethany Presbyterian Church.   But what makes me sad is that in a culture that I perceive as totally confused about sexuality, rather than speak any kind of clear message it simply muddles things even more. 

The other piece that made the news of the General Assembly was a task force report on The Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  That is the way in which the church has read and heard scripture describing God for nearly 2,000 years.  The report offers not a replacement but additional possibilities for Trinitarian language, like

“Rock, Redeemer, Friend” or “Mother, child, womb.”   

That report was “received,” which means the church can read it or study it.  It changes nothing.  We won’t be changing the words of the Bible, the Apostles Creed or the name into which we baptize people.

I’m happy to talk more about these things later, and I’ll write a bit more on it.  But I told you two minutes for a reason.  And the reason is that if I talk more right now about our Presbyterian family, we’ll be guilty of doing exactly what the denomination has done for the last 30 years:  get sidetracked with sex, language, gender…and take our eyes off of Jesus Christ and His mission in this world.  And I am unwilling to do that.

So this morning we continue to talk about Following Jesus Together; what it means to be the community of faith.   One of the characteristics of Christ’s church is that it is “a community of outreach.”  Our scripture text this morning is the last four verses of Matthew 28, the passage we often call “The Great Commission.”   One Bible scholar (Von Harnack) said of Jesus’ words here:

“One cannot say anything greater or more in forty words.” 

Let’s listen for the word of God.          

Let me tell you a story of the very first missionary.  Two people were walking together one day.  But not just walking.  Their eyes were on the ground, and they sort of skulked from one place to the next, averting looking at each other, guilt and shame keeping them apart.  Someone Else came along…someone who loved the two people very much.  Who was so committed to them, so bent towards them that He would do anything to see them, to embrace them.  But the shame and guilt of the two weighed so heavily on them that they hid.  Still the One would not quit looking.  He called to them.  And eventually, at great cost to Himself…he found them.  He loved them.

It was the first mission.  It took place in a garden, as God went looking for His people, Adam and Eve, in this case.  You or me, in different times and places.  The reason I start here is that any time we talk about “mission,”  about “outreach,” we have to talk about God…first.  Anything that humans might do is a reflection of God, the Missionary.  God is still like that.

When God came looking for us in the person of Jesus Christ, it cost Him everything.  It put Him on a cross.  It took His life.  This story from Matthew 28 occurs just after the story of Jesus’ dying and death, and then resurrection.  Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, meets the women outside the tomb and gives them a message for his disciples:

“Tell them to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

And in these disciples we see such a great picture of the church, in all its richness and its poverty.  The disciples, we are told, go to Galilee.  They take a trip, they in fact take a huge leap of faith to go because they know, they saw Jesus dead and buried.  So the idea that they will leave Jerusalem to go see Jesus…is pretty extraordinary.  It takes great trust, the church acting on faith.  Wonderful picture.

But notice that there are only eleven disciples that went to Galilee.  Of course.  Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, had killed himself.  There had been twelve disciples.  Twelve is a biblical number. There were twelve sons of Jacob.  There were twelve tribes of Israel.  There were twelve disciples Jesus called.  Whole, complete, healthy.

But not now.  One had disappointed, one had fallen away, broken the fellowship, conspired and betrayed Jesus.  So there are only eleven, not what was originally intended.  A suddenly defective and imperfect eleven.  As Dale Bruner says,  in this passage

“the number eleven…limps.”  

The church…is pretty fallible.

And further, when this imperfect eleven got to Galilee, on top of a mountain (which is where God is often revealed in scripture), and they saw Jesus, they worshipped Him…and some doubted.   This fragile community of faith falls at its feet before Jesus Christ…and sometimes doubts.

So why is it that we think that on this journey of faith…we will never doubt, never wonder?  Have you never found yourself in this place, wondering if you can even call yourself a Christian because you can’t conjure up the faith to believe in some situation, or to trust the scriptures in some way or to see the presence of God on a day or week or month?   “Doubt-free” was not the mark of this community of faith.  But neither did the existence of doubt keep them from worshipping.  Apparently they knew enough, they had experienced enough, they had felt enough…to worship. 

Incidentally, this is a pretty bold statement about the identity of Jesus, just tucked into this story.  If they worshipped Jesus…then either

1. they had just committed the most hated sin of all in the Jewish faith, idolatry, blasphemy, worshipping something… someone other than the living God.  Or…
2. Jesus was truly the Missionary God who came looking and the only response was to fall to the ground in worship.

So Jesus, knowing the imperfection of the Church of Eleven, sensing the doubt that existed in the group even when He, the Resurrected One showed Himself to them...and does what? “Stopped right there and sat them down and spoke to the fears and insecurities of each one and totally answered all of their questions and doubts before taking another step”?  Of course not.  He immediately commissions them!  He sends them out.  He unleashes this limping, ugly, imperfect church on an unsuspecting world.  My God!  Were there no other candidates?  Could He have not found someone else?!  No…he had already sought and found His own.

So Jesus commissions them. 

“ALL authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, so GO and make disciples of ALL nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey ALL THE THINGS that I have commanded you.”

The call is to extreme evangelism. My kids talk about “extreme sports”; this is extreme evangelism!  Jesus says in essence: “Go make disciples!  Not just converts, but followers, apprentices.  Give them a new name in baptism, give them my name, give them not the names they are so often called: failure, loser, victim, ordinary.  But wash them with my name, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are not their own.  They belong to Me.  Tell them!  Tell them!  All of them! Go, make, baptize, teach.”   There has never been a stronger call to evangelism, to sharing the good news.

We’re a little reluctant to do that sometimes. I’ll never forget being in college, working in Young Life and agonizing for two years over a high school student I’d been praying for.  And when I finally mustered up the courage to ask if he was ready to follow Jesus, he siged and said,

“I thought you’d never ask!” 

Who do we go to? Those in other countries.  Those next door.  Those in your family.  Those in Little League, and at school.  Tell them.  Go, make, baptize, teach. 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, Jesus says, so go…go to coffee shops, PTA’s, Go on the days you doubt, go on the days you believe beyond question.  Move out! AND don’t forget, Jesus says.  One more thing. I MYSELF will be with you.  You don’t go alone.”

But wait a minute.  This is what Jesus says in Matthew 28, “reach out, evangelize!”   But what about the Jesus of Matthew 25, that Dave read earlier?  What about the Jesus who says “reach out and meet human need?”  Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the prisoner.  Not very glamorous or spectacular or miraculous ministry.  It just has to be done.  And Jesus said,

“Even as you do it to the least of these, you do it to me.”

The call is to extreme social justice, meeting human need.  And, Jesus says, “THIS is what will decide sheep and goats, heaven and hell.  Neglect it at your peril.” 

So which is the call? Some say,

“win converts, this earth is only for awhile but eternity is a long time.  Tell people about the kingdom of God.” 

Others say,

“meet human need, fight discrimination, improve the physical needs for the many, show a glimpse of the kingdom of God to the world. 

Evangelists on the one hand, and social justice proponents on the other. 

Over the centuries, this battle has raged within the broken and limping church. Part of the church says,

“Put out your left hand, offer them the gospel of salvation, call people to faith.” 

The other part says,

“Put out your right hand, give them food and water and self-worth before you talk faith.”  

One says,

“How will they know unless you tell them?”  

The other says,

“Actions speak louder than words.” 

Which is right?  What are we commissioned to?  It’s a false separation, of course.  It is not a separation that exists in God.  God is so much better than we are at holding two things together.  God can hold both judgment and mercy.  He can speak the truth but do it in love.  He can love people without loving what people may do.  We tend to have to go all one way or the other.  But God does not extend just one hand or the other. 

I once told you about a friend of ours who lived in France, his name was Jacques.  He died a few years ago.  When I knew him, he was about 70 years old, short, with long white hair.   He was the father of a dear friend of ours.  From the first time I met him, I noticed instantly that Jacques did things two-handed.  None of those single-handed American handshakes for Jacques.  Never. 

When we saw each other, and especially when we said goodbye, Jacques took my head like this, with both hands, and stared intently into my eyes, almost as though he were trying to ask,

“Is everything okay with you?  Are you all right?”   

Then he would kiss me on both cheeks, mmwah-mmwah, and put this big bear hug embrace around me with both arms that practically took my breath away.  It’s almost as though he was thinking,

“In case we don’t see each other again…you have to know I love you.” 

I think God is like that.  God is two-handed.  Feed the hungry.  Tell people the good news.  That’s reaching out.  That’s our mission.  No one can do it all, no one church can…it’s why we are together.  Jesus said do them both.  And what God has joined together, let no human try to separate.

We could stop right here. But if I do, I’ve done nothing but complicate our lives.   If we stop here, we say,

“Well, Christ has given us one more thing to do.  Where am I going to fit that in? Where will I find time to reach out? What if I can’t answer every question? What if I have doubts?” 

And if we can’t do it all, we’ll feel guilty.  We’re just adding one more little compartment to our lives.

I don’t think that’s good enough.  Not because it’s not doing enough, but because it comes from the wrong place.  For the community of faith to be a community of outreach, it has to be who we are.  Darrell Guder from Princeton Seminary says,

“mission is not a program of the church, but a definition of God’s sent people.” 

Outreach is not something we do, it’s who we are.   We are commissioned to be God’s people.  The God of outreach.  The God we fell in love with.  The God who came looking for us.  And we live into that.

• So we try hosting an immigrant family through World Relief.  “All the nations” are coming here to Seattle!
• Or we end up in a conversation about Christ with a family member over coffee.  
• We help someone build a house. 
• We go to Kenya to understand the tragedy of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and how we might walk with brothers and sisters. 
• We build a friendship with someone in our office, and two years later they say:  “Tell me about this Jesus.” 
• We grab someone we meet at church and say, “We’re starting a homegroup.  Why don’t you join us?” 

We reach out, we go not because we have to, need to, should, but because we’ve gotten these glimpses, these tastes of the goodness of God and it has changed us.

Once there was a young man in college who was totally confused about where his life was going.  He thought he had God all figured out, but then everything fell apart and he was reeling for months and months and God seemed silent.  One day in sheer frustration he yelled out,

“God, are you even there?  Do you even care that I’m in pain?” 

And God answered:

“I love you.  And that will be enough for you.” 

And it was.  It is.  God had walked in the garden again, found another person.  That’s part of my story. 

Each of you has a story, but sometimes we’ve let the stuff of life cover it over and we’ve forgotten who we are.  So of course “reaching out” seems like just one more thing to do.  But if we are going to follow Jesus together…then we’ll need to remind each other that outreach isn’t something we do…it’s part of who we are. 

And remember, Jesus said…I myself will be with you…until the completion of time.