Sermons for the Month
Mission Impossible Transformed
DATE: May 22nd, 2005
SERVICE: The Holy Trinity
TEXT: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13; Matthew 28:16-20“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
Every Sunday I offer words that I have always thought of as a greeting. "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all." Many people have learned to respond, "And also with you."
I remember being taught to think of these liturgical responses as the church's version of a friendly greeting on the street when one person says, "Hello, how are you?" and the other individual responds, "I'm fine, thanks. How are you?" Neither one really wants to know - at that moment - the status of the other's well-being. It's a social nicety.
I would guess that in many cases the greeting that begins worship has become that too - a nicety - rather than a prayer that grace, love and community would be a part of our lives. What about when we exchanged in that greeting today? Did we think of it as a prayer?
In fact, it's a bit ironic that this phrase has become a greeting in worship because it actually is a closing that was placed at the end of a letter that was very difficult to write. We do not write letters much any more; when is the last time you really struggled to compose one?
As I reflected on that I recalled two times when I really agonized over the letters I was creating; I cried, paced and rewrote sentence after sentence. And in both cases the pain reflected the importance of the letter's purpose, which was to bring about reconciliation.
Well, that's what the Apostle Paul was striving for as he wrote the letter we call Second Corinthians, which he closed with the words we use to begin worship.
In this letter Paul is defending himself. The Christian church in Corinth took a turn for the worse after, having established this community, he left them. Every issue under the sun plagued these new followers of Jesus. There was immorality, lawsuits against each other and doctrinal arguments. And, to make matters worse, other teachers had come in and Paul was being criticized and discredited.
He loves these people, but they are really messing up. So, he writes a letter that theologian Dr. N. T. Wright says is "choked with emotional intensity", the goal of which is to achieve reconciliation.
Paul warns and corrects the new Christians in Corinth, but also defends his position and denounces those who are twisting the truth. In the closing of his letter he appeals to his readers to get all the conflict sorted out and to learn to support one another. He compels them to find a common mind (which, incidentally, does not mean that they must agree on everything, but that they should focus on their common purpose) and to he urges them to be in community with one another.
If they accomplish this, he says, the God of love and peace will be with them. (I would add that the God of love and peace was always with them, but they could not sense that reality in the midst of all the power plays and critical interactions.)
Please note that this is not any old god - there are a multitude of gods in Corinth. It is the God who is at the same time creator, redeemer and sustainer. Paul fondest hope is that this God would be with them, with all of them, and they would be transformed.
Just like that Paul introduces one of the pivotal doctrines of the Christian faith, the Trinity. God is made known to us in three ways as the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Creator God and as the Holy Spirit who offer grace, love and fellowship to believers. Those are the very things that were lacking in Corinth, and that may still be lacking in the church and in the lives of Christians today.
For we who struggle the Trinity is, to quote Dr. Wright, "the creator who, having created the drama that we call world history, has himself come to play the leading part in the play; the passionate God who has placed his own life-giving breath in the innermost beings of all who trust him and follow him." (1)
WOW … just pause for a moment to think about what that implies. God's own life-giving breath is placed in the innermost being of all who trust him and follow him? It is in us?!
Think about that and then consider this - if anything is annoying us about what's happening here at Faith Lutheran Church, or in our homes, or at our jobs - if there are power plays, division and critical attitudes, as was true in Corinth - then are we taking seriously the power of the Trinity in our midst?
This is the power that took a little band of people in Galilee and used them to change the world. Jesus said, "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 they did it! Can't the grace, love and sustaining fellowship of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that transformed and empowered them transform and empower us?
We shake our heads "yes" in response to that question, but somehow the "yes" needs to move from our head to our hearts and then to our hands and feet as we live out our faith. The theme for Explorers' Club - which is the children's Sunday School - this year was, "Mission Possible: Living Gods Word Everyday."
That theme makes me think of the original Mission Impossible television show. (Yes, I am old enough to remember it.) Some of you may recall that mission was always communicated via a reel-to-reel tape recording that self-destructed after the message was conveyed. It was always some outlandish, seemingly impossible task that the agents accomplished using a combination of disguises, gadgets, cunning and luck.
Well, Jesus asked his followers to accomplish a mission that was outlandish and seemingly impossible, and then he disappeared into the clouds. How in the world would they turn people from all over the world, who spoke languages they had never heard of, into followers of Jesus Christ?
They did not have disguises or gadgets, and cunning and luck played only a minor role. The thing that turned this Mission Impossible into Mission Possible was the promise that Jesus offered as he left. He would not self-destruct, but instead would be with them always.
About 25 years later Paul took that promise to heart and called on the Trinity to make its presence known and to bless the people of Corinth with grace, love and fellowship … all of which they certainly needed. And, from what we know of what happened next, it seems as if that mission impossible was transformed into the realm of possibility, reconciliation occurred and the Christian church thrived.
It should be clear, then, that the words Paul uses to close his letter are much more than a social nicety. They are a prayer, a blessing, a reminder of the mystery that God who is utterly beyond us is at the same time richly present with us … always … to make what seems impossible possible. And so I join Paul in his closing prayer, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
AMEN
(1) "The God of Love and Peace", a sermon by Dr. N.T. Wright, Trinity Sermon, May 26, 2002, westminster-abbey.org