SPEAKER_00: The Holy Gospel according to Matthew the twenty-eighth chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_00: When they saw him, they worshipped him, but they doubted.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Go therefore 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 everything that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I got off easy today with the length of the Gospel text in comparison to what Rod had to read for the first reading, our Genesis text, as well as chanting the beautiful psalm, and thankfully a shorter second reading.
SPEAKER_00: We find ourselves on this day.
SPEAKER_00: It's Trinity Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: If you notice, you'll see some white banners up front that recognize the three-in-one Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in celebration of how God comes to us in that way.
SPEAKER_00: So peace to you from the one who was, is, and is to come.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm amazed by the work of artists, by their creativity and the vision that they have, whatever form that takes, where some may know what the outcome will be, and then they create it, while others simply have a spark of interest and they begin creating and it works out into this beautiful piece of art.
SPEAKER_00: All I know when I look at art is whether I like it or not.
SPEAKER_00: I am not an artist myself, and yet I am so amazed by what they can do.
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, there was an artist who worked with a school in Box Elder, Douglas High School, and they were going to create an art piece that recognized their friendship that they had with their sister city in Germany.
SPEAKER_00: And this artist had a vision and knew what the final piece would sort of look like.
SPEAKER_00: And this artist worked with students, not from the art class, but from the German language class.
SPEAKER_00: And each of those 90 students was given a canvas.
SPEAKER_00: And they knew that the theme was celebrating culture and friendship between them and between the sister city in Germany.
SPEAKER_00: And then they simply got to create upon their own canvas piece.
SPEAKER_00: Now the students didn't know what the final outcome would be.
SPEAKER_00: Only the artist knew how they were going to be put together.
SPEAKER_00: And each of those students, not all of them were artists themselves or had wonderful creative ability.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure some of them had doubt.
SPEAKER_00: I know I would have.
SPEAKER_00: I would have been like, oh my goodness, I hope they can hide my canvas amongst all the other beautiful pieces of creativity and artwork within that.
SPEAKER_00: But the artist wasn't concerned about that.
SPEAKER_00: Each of those 90 canvases were then put together in a beautiful display that is up at Douglas High School.
SPEAKER_00: And you can even Google it and see what the final piece looks like.
SPEAKER_00: When it all came together and it created this beautiful piece based on all their different abilities and their ideas of how to interpret the theme that they were given.
SPEAKER_00: It was united together in one piece.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I think of that canvas, and I think of that art project on this day, a Trinity Sunday, where we celebrate God coming together to us in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and yet united as one.
SPEAKER_00: This passage for today that we read from Matthew 28 is often called the Great Commission, given to all of the disciples and given to us as well.
SPEAKER_00: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: Now that does not sound like a very small task to be able to accomplish.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't sound like it can be given to one individual, and then they have to simply figure it out.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like it would take many, many hands and many, many people to receive the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: And not all those people that receive it, the disciples that day, or us as well, all over, those who receive that commission, are the same.
SPEAKER_00: We're all different, creative, and have different gifts and different ways in which we would go about following that commission.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gave that commission to the disciples when they had gone to Galilee to find him after his resurrection, to the mountain that Jesus had directed them.
SPEAKER_00: And we are told that when the disciples saw him, they responded by worshiping him.
SPEAKER_00: And we are also told that they doubted.
SPEAKER_00: And I find that very interesting, and I hate to read through it too quickly, that they worshiped him, but they doubted.
SPEAKER_00: Now he's there right before them.
SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting how often this comes up hand in hand, this faith and this doubt together.
SPEAKER_00: It might seem a bit odd that they had worship time with him as well as they doubted.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were about to receive instructions about what they were to go and do in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be very easy to point fingers at the disciples and say, What are you thinking?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you have doubt within you when the very Jesus is before you and present with you?
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to play the wulda-coulda-sulda game.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to say, well, now that I know the story, I can pass judgment upon the disciples and their doubt.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to do that from the outside looking in.
SPEAKER_00: But often, as we've seen in the stories that we hear on Sunday morning, and the stories that we read in our Bibles during the week, there's faith and there's doubt that often goes together.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not simply that it's this massive doubt, this disbelief in who Jesus is, but doubt sometimes just brings a bit of wavering, a bit of losing our confidence in what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And we try our best to swim through that doubt, to get on the other side of it when we realize that it's not just us that is there, but it's us together, and Jesus is there as well.
SPEAKER_00: We may find ourselves among those disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We may recognize times that we too have wavered, where we've had faith, and then we might think too long about something, and suddenly we also have doubt when we're called to go and be the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: But as Lutherans, I want to remind you, and we were reminded of this at Synod Assembly as well.
SPEAKER_00: As Lutherans, we are people that often understand faith in Jesus with a both and attitude.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus is both human and divine.
SPEAKER_00: When we go up to have communion, we eat the bread and the body of Christ, both the wine and the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As followers of Jesus, we are both saint and sinner.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how can we be both?
SPEAKER_00: How can bread be both?
SPEAKER_00: How can wine be both?
SPEAKER_00: How can Jesus be both human and divine?
SPEAKER_00: The mystery of God is at work.
SPEAKER_00: Both and we are called to be God's hands and feet in the world, and thankfully, God is in charge, and we are not.
SPEAKER_00: You see, among the swirling lives and feelings that the disciples had with faith and doubt, Jesus showed up through them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus still commissioned them, and Jesus still commissions us as well when we're worshiping and when we're doubting.
SPEAKER_00: That commission is given to go, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In the announcements, we said that we had Synod Assembly, and there were four of us from Luther Memorial that were there.
SPEAKER_00: We gathered together to worship and build relationships with one another.
SPEAKER_00: We gathered together to learn about the ministries of the synod and the church, and we prayed together.
SPEAKER_00: We had a very creative Bible study and we laughed together.
SPEAKER_00: We sang songs and we voted on some business of the church.
SPEAKER_00: We gathered together as rostered leaders and lay leaders from all across the synod.
SPEAKER_00: And while we were there, we were reminded that we are God's people together.
SPEAKER_00: We are the disciples of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean it's easy.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean everything always goes according to plan.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that sometimes we have to have changes or restarts.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean that we all think alike on everything that is discussed.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we come together because we are called to be commissioned by Jesus to be God's people and to be his church in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Unity does not mean that we think the same or that we're all the same.
SPEAKER_00: It does mean that we do come together for the sake of the good news of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And in our differences, we are also united in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The mural project that those students worked on that's displayed at Douglas High School, all of those young people and their different abilities and perspectives, it was brought together, united into one piece.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not that they knew what it was going to be, and yet that artist had a vision that when it came together, no matter what, it would be beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that that is how God is with us.
SPEAKER_00: Because God has a much bigger perspective.
SPEAKER_00: God holds this vision for us as God's community, and we might not understand it, and we might not, sometimes we might think, what in the world are you thinking, God, that we're all supposed to come together and be one?
SPEAKER_00: And yet God chooses each one of us and commissions us and sends us out together because we have this one named Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, who commissions us and cares for us and shares the good news of God's love with us and feeds us at his table before we go out to be commissioned in the world.
SPEAKER_00: You are called as God's beloved one.
SPEAKER_00: You receive the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit with you, not just on Trinity Sunday, but on every Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So when you are among the people worshiping, and when you are among the people doubting, simply do this.
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself that you belong to God.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You are God's, no matter what.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.