26th November 2023
Therefore Go…!
This coming Sunday, we reach the end of our autumn sermon series during which we have been exploring the three strands of our Vision statement, worship, welcome and witness. And we will be pulling together those strands at our 10:30am service in a celebration of all things mission at Holy Trinity with St John's. Instead of a formal sermon, we will write the sermon together, engaging with one another, listening to one another, asking questions, celebrating all the good things God is doing here and elsewhere in his world, and considering how we can join in.
On this Sunday where the Church celebrates Christ the King, it seems fitting that we should be hearing and reflecting on the royal commission Jesus gave to his first disciples, which has been passed down to us in the final verses of Matthew's gospel.
"Go," says Jesus, "and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
[Matthew 28:19-20]
The first disciples took their royal commission seriously. They travelled throughout the Roman world, witnessing with joy everywhere they went to the good news of Jesus their Saviour. Their witness included preaching and teaching, worshipping and praying, serving and healing, eating together and rejoicing. One of the hallmarks of the early church, commented upon by outsiders was that "there was not a needy person among them" [Acts 4:34]. Those who had much shared it with those who had little. There was particular care given to people whom first century society largely ignored - widows and orphans, for example. The historian Tom Holland, in his book "Dominion" argues that this countercultural witness has totally changed the mindset of western culture - we believe in the intrinsic worth of human beings, in the moral obligation to provide for the most vulnerable in society, in democracy and freedom of speech because the gospel of the Kingdom of God logically draws us to these conclusions.
So, as we celebrate all things mission this Sunday, I pray that each of us will, in the words of the Collect "hear the call of Christ the King" and "follow in his service", wherever that call might lead us.
