Things Get Worse Fast - Cain and Abel

May 28, 2017              7^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 4

            One day Adam was walking along with his sons Cain and Abel.  They came across the ruins of the Garden of Eden.  His sons asked, “Dad, what is that place?”  And Adam replied, “That boys, is where your mother ate us out of house and home.”

            It’s a silly quip but it points to just how fast things fall apart for us humans.  In one scene Adam and Eve get expelled from the garden.  In the very next scene we have the first murder.

            Biblical scholars don’t know what exactly how to interpret the story of Cain and Abel.  What was wrong with Cain’s offering?  Did he have the wrong attitude?  Was his offering given grudgingly while Abel’s was willingly?  If Abel was a herder and Cain was a farmer is this the first instance of battle between farmers and ranchers?

            Most of them realize that these are the wrong questions to ask the text.  It wants us to come at it from a different direction.  But before we get to that, let’s note that this is the first story we’ve encountered in Genesis that is actually just a straightforward story.  As far as I can tell there’s no symmetry, and no patterns, and nothing fancy.  However, interpreting it from the direction the author intended does tell us how to interpret the whole of Genesis.

            If you were here last week you may remember that the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy, form a literary structure of nested parallels.  Like those little Russian dolls that fit one inside another and inside another and another until you can barely believe there’s something left in the middle.

            So it is with Genesis through Deuteronomy.  Jews call these books the Torah and they are the heart of Jewish scripture.  The rest of the prophets, the psalms, proverbs and all the other stories are secondary.  And what is the core of the Torah?  Leviticus 16 where God gives Moses instructions for the Day of Atonement.  These were instructions for how people were to be restored to right relationship with God – or returning to at-one-ment with God.

            I suggest you use that as a lens to interpret everything you read in Genesis through Deuteronomy.  I don’t promise that everything will make perfect sense if you do that.  But you will pick up on the overarching theme of how to be in right relationship with God.

            The story of Cain and Abel is not about the two brothers so much as it’s about God.  It is about what God does and how God acts in light of human brokenness.

            You know the story.  As the story goes Cain is the firstborn, the first human to actually come about by birth.  Adam and Eve are crafted by God.  Cain can point to who is father and mother are.  Let your mind dwell on that thought for a moment.  God has instructed Adam and Eve to populate the world.  Their offspring are the height of creativity.  Adam and Eve are the first ones given the power to create beings in the image of God.  From the story’s perspective it is quite an honor.

But is Cain going to live in an honorable way?  The first thing we learn about this man is that he is a farmer.  The second thing we learn about him is that he makes an offering to God from what he has raised.  The third thing we learn is that he is jealous of God’s preference to his younger brother.  And of course the fourth thing is that he kills his brother.  So much for human creativity!  As the story goes Cain is not only a murderer, he brings about the first death ever. 

Now let’s look at it from the point of view of God’s actions.  When Adam and Eve mess up does God kill them – the punishment they are supposed to receive for their disobedience?  No. 

I was never a good sculptor.  In art class I groaned every time the teacher brought out the clay.  Oh, it was fun to squish it around and make shapes, but my talents were at their limits when I made a snake.  That’s about all the more complicated I could get.  Everything I ever tried to do ended up a non-descript lump.  Or a few times I did actually make something it usually collapsed.

Of course the good thing about clay is that when you mess up you can smash it and start over.  But easy as that is, does God do that with Adam and Eve?  Why not just smash these two messed up lumps of clay and start over?  Keep trying until you get it right and have something worthwhile!

But that is not what God does.  God does not kill them.  God is merciful and lets these messed up lumps of clay live.  It is Cain, a human, who exercises the power that causes death first. 

If I was in art class and I finally came up with a clay sculpture that looked like something and didn’t collapse under its own weight and then someone else came along and smashed it, I would not be a happy camper!  I’m not sure what I’d do, but it might involve taking my clay and making a highly accurate impression of the person’s face with it!

Is that what God does?  Does God then smash Cain?  No, God is merciful once again.

We’re going to discover that as we read through Genesis.  God is merciful over and over again.  I know it is easy to look at the Bible and think that the Old Testament is all about God being wrathful and the New Testament is about God being gracious, but not so.  The Old Testament is full of God’s mercy and grace too.

Now, does God say, “It’s alright Cain.  I know you were jealous.  You acted in fear and ignorance.  I forgive you.  Let’s try again.”  No.  There are consequences, there is accountability.  God tells Cain, “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.  When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.”

And there is also mercy.  When Cain says, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!  Today you have driven me away from the soil, and I shall be hidden from your face; I shall be a fugitive an a wanderer on the earth, and anyone who meets me may kill me.”

The story goes on to say that God puts a mark on Cain for his safety.  I wouldn’t spend too much time thinking about what this sort of mark would be.  The idea is that God provides protection for Cain.

We find again this story lacks credibility.  For by the story line there are only Adam, Eve and Cain at this point, yet Cain is worried about non-existent people killing him.  But as before, do not take these stories as literal historical accounts.  They never were intended to be.  They are intended to teach you about God and being in relationship with God.

So, what do you learn?  If you mess up, even messing up really big time, like deliberately killing another person who is created in the image of God, God responds.  God responds with both mercy and accountability.  If there weren’t accountability God would be nothing but a big puff ball.  Evil would run rampant.  God brings about accountability but the final word is mercy.  God does not kill Cain for his sins either.  God acts mercifully to him and even provides for his protection.

In your life of faith may you find God’s mercy.  And when accountability comes may you learn from it so as not to repeat mistakes.  Ultimately God does desire to gather us all up into his kingdom where the brokenness and sin and evil will be no more.  When we can be united and fully be as God intended always.

God Creativity - Near and Far

May 14, 2017              5^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 2:14-25

            Last Monday the radio talk show by WXXI, Connections with Evan Dawson, featured a debate over faith and science.  Guests were Dan Courtney, an atheist activist in Rochester and The Rev. Eric Thompson, pastor of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Dansville.  Overall I felt the conversation went poorly, and it started off with the question that to have faith, or to believe something without (or in spite of) evidence, do we risk raising kids to be poor reasoners?   Dan Courtney agreed whole heartedly.  Rev. Thompson had a very articulate defense.  He made a number of points that I found myself thinking, “I wish I could come up with stuff like that!”  And yet when all was said and done I felt like Rev. Thompson was apologizing for faith and the Bible in light of the scientific method; essentially conceding that it is a product of the limited world view of ancient people. 

I say use the scientific method in the natural sciences.  And use the scientific method in your faith, especially in Bible study.  The Bible is a tough old book.  It can take anything and everything you want to throw at it.  Please, I beg you, please use the scientific method in your scripture studies, because along the way you’re sure to uncover many profound truths.

In a few weeks we’ll get to the Noah’s Ark story in Genesis.  I think that will be a good point to show a full behind the scenes view of the creation of the book of Genesis.  But for today, let’s use some scientific thought processes to open this writing to something more than its surface depth.

Last week we looked at Genesis 1.  It is the famous creation in six days account that sparks the evolution vs. creation debates.  Why people insist on Genesis 1 giving science is beyond me.  It is written in a poetic form and it lacks internal consistency, but people overlook those facts and insist on literal interpretation.  Then many people with good intentions unknowingly compound those mistakes by thinking Genesis 2, where we meet Adam and Eve, is a detailed continuation of Genesis 1.  But it isn’t.  Genesis 2 is an entirely different account of creation. 

If we open our minds we don’t have to get far into it to pick up that we’re in a different story.  Forget using fancy literary critical methods, the text tells us straight off:  How many days does creation take in Genesis 2?  One day.  Verse 4b reads, “In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens…”  Then there’s the fact that things are created in a different order.

In Genesis 1 God creates land and seas, then plants, animals, and finally humans.  What is the order of Genesis 2?  God forms man, “Adam”, which means of dust, or of earth.  Perhaps we could call him Earthling or Earth Dweller.  Then God plants a garden in the east, in Eden.  Then God creates animals.  Finally, since this is Mother’s Day I’ll say, “Saving the best for last,” God creates a woman, or Eve.  Eve literally means “womb”.

So, the order of creation in Genesis 1 and its timeframe cannot be synchronized with Genesis 2.  Many people look at this and come to a very logical, but erroneous, conclusion.  Their logical, but erroneous, conclusion is that the author of Genesis is an idiot.

This is where you need to employ your critical thought processes rather than start apologizing for the Bible.  When we get to the Noah’s Ark story we’re going to see clear evidence that Genesis is not the work of one author.  It is a composite work by at least three authors.

When we read Matthew’s gospel I said repeatedly that we were reading the work of someone trained in the teaching techniques of the ancient Hebrews.  We discovered the ancient Hebrews often wrote with complex structures and patterns.  We also discovered that the ancient Hebrews would use contradictions in order to teach a deeper truth.

It goes without saying that Genesis comes from the ancient Hebrews.  We should expect to find the same techniques employed there too.  Next week I’ll show you that the entire Garden of Eden story is not a linear storyline but actually symmetrical; a collection of nested parallels.

Make no mistake.  The creator of Genesis was not an idiot!  He was brilliant.  And I believe God was inspiring him to share God’s actions in creation.  But how to do it?  He’s going to do it the way he knows how.  He clearly and deliberately put Genesis 1 and 2 side by side.  I know full well they contradict each other.  The creator of Genesis knew that too!  But he knew we needed both if we’re going to grasp God’s creative work.

 Take Genesis 1.  You find that God is this majestic and powerful creator.  God speaks.  Things happen on a cosmic scale.  God is big.  God is bigger than big!  Have you ever stared up at the stars on a cloudless night and been in awe of how big it all is?  Does it make you feel tiny and insignificant?  Leave Genesis 1 as the only account of God’s creative activity and we are left with a cold, distant, and impersonal God.  We are left seeing God as imperious and demanding, and we are but a speck of insignificance.

Enter Genesis 2.  Does God speak from a cosmic distance and command?  No.  If you can, vividly picture Genesis 2:7.  “Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground…”  I imagine God kneeling down in the dirt and with God’s own hands deliberately and caringly shaping a man from the dirt.  Verse 7 continues, “…and [God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.”

Can you feel how close, personal and intimate this portrayal of God is?  God might be big and vast and cosmic.  But God carefully and deliberately crafted you.  And God crafted the person sitting beside you too.

God does not leave this human in a vast desolate earth.  God plants a garden.  God puts the man in the garden.  God sees that man is lonely and so God seeks to create a community for the man.  In partnership with the man God crafts all the creatures and names them.  None of them suffice for partnership.  So God also crafts another human, a woman.  And God, the man, and the woman share community in the garden.

I love scientific thought and exploring the origins of things.  As I said last week, don’t try to force Genesis to give you science.  You’re asking it to give you nonsense.  But it will give you truth that you need.  Science can’t tell you that you’re worthwhile.  Science can’t tell you that someone cares.

Genesis 1 teaches that God is majestic and powerful.  Genesis 2 teaches that God is careful, personal and loving.

Other biblical authors knew of the contrast between Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.  What are the first words of Genesis?  You know them well: “In the beginning…”  What are the first words of the Gospel of John?  “In the beginning…”  And then John goes on to describe the God we discover in Genesis 1:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.”

Now let’s swing to John’s account of the resurrection, close to the end of the gospel.  We read it as our gospel reading.  What was the setting?  A garden.  And we meet a man who is mistaken for the gardener.  And we meet a woman, a woman with a dubious past.

You know the story of Adam and Eve.  They mess up and God the gardener chucks them out of the garden.  It is no mistake on John’s part that, as he describes the resurrection, the garden is back.  The gardener is back too.  And this time, the woman with a messed up past is not chucked out.  Did she earn her way back into the garden?  Nope.  The gardener earned the way back for her.

I feel like a broken record as I repeat it, but the biblical authors aren’t idiots.  They’re brilliant.  Our problem is to let them speak on their terms, rather than demanding they speak on our terms.

When left to speak on their terms their voices are clear, powerful, and coherent.  And you are wise to use logic and rational thinking to meet them there.  God is big – Genesis 1.  God is tender and caring – Genesis 2.  God is forgiving – John 20.  Our ancestors messed up.  We mess up too.  But by Christ we are invited back in the garden anyway, only as a foretaste now, the fullness will come in the resurrection.  And along the way God’s Spirit is always with us.  

Creation Accounts on Their Own Terms

May 7, 2017    4^th Sunday of Easter                Genesis 1:1-2:4a

            As you may know there are lots of things that happened that didn’t make it into the Bible.  Here’s something about creation that didn’t:

God created the donkey and told him: you will work tireless from sun up to sun down, carrying heavy bags on your back, you'll eat grass, you will not have intelligence and you will live 50 years. You will be a DONKEY!
      
      The donkey answered: I'll be a donkey, but living 50 years is too much, give me only 20 years. And God gave him 20 years.
      
      God created the dog and told him: You will look after the man's house, you will be his best friend, you will eat whatever they give you and you will live 25 years. You will be a DOG!
      
      The dog answered: God, living 25 years is too much, give only 10. God gave him 10 years.
      
      God created the monkey and told him: You will jump from branch to branch, you will do silly things, you will be amusing and you will live 20 years.
      
      The monkey answered: God, living 20 years is too much, give me only 10 years. And God agreed.
      
      Finally, God created man, and told him: You will be Man, the only rational being on this earth, you will use your intelligence to control other animals, you will dominate the world and you will live for 20 years.
      
      The man answered: God, I'll be man, but living 20 years is not enough, why don't you give me the 30 years that the donkey refused, the 20 years that the dog did not want and the 10 years that the monkey refused.
      
      That was what God did, and since then, Men live 20 years like a man, then he enters adulthood and spends 30 years like a donkey, working and carrying the load on his back, then when his children leave home, spends 15 years like a dog, looking after the house and eating whatever is given to him, then he gets into retirement, and spends 10 years like a monkey, jumping from house to house or from children to children, doing silly things to amuse the grandchildren.

Of course the creation account of Genesis 1 is far more serious and significant than that.  If ever a part of the Bible caused Christians serious problems in recent decades it is Genesis 1.  All too often it creates debates of creation vs. evolution.  Some Christians insist that God created the world in 6 days just like Genesis 1 literally says.  At the other extreme are scientifically minded skeptics who say Genesis 1 is a creation myth from the ignorant past, and anyone who believes its truth is laughably stupid.

            Of course there are many in between who attempt to reconcile the extremes.  They point out that Genesis 1 does go from greater chaos to more and more order, just like evolution.  They say that days don’t have to be taken as literal time periods, but they can be any length of time.

            Indeed this approach has its appeals, but as for me I reject both extremes and the middle!  To think it is literally true is to insult your intelligence.  At the other extreme, if you chalk this up as just a creation myth from the ancient world you do so at your own peril.  And if you take the appealing middle of the road approach you rob this story of its profound meaning and what it reveals about God and the world you live in.

            Never try to take a literal approach to Genesis 1.  Don’t do it because the text doesn’t want you to!  Notice it lacks internal logic.  There is light and darkness, days and nights, but the sun and moon aren’t created until Day 4.  I’ve seen footnotes in Bibles trying to wiggle out of this, but their arguments are nonsense.  And then there is the bigger logical problem of Genesis 2.  Genesis 2 is a different creation account which contradicts Genesis 1 in many places.  The biggest one is that in Genesis 1 it takes six days.  In Genesis 2 creation takes one day.

            We’re going to look at Genesis 2 next week, but for today just note that the creator of the book of Genesis was not blind to the fact that he put two contradictory stories side by side!  As we read through Genesis we’re going to discover that it is a finely and expertly crafted piece of literature.  The author wasn’t ignorant and he didn’t make mistakes.

            I say we need to let Genesis 1 speak on its own terms, not someone else’s.  We can’t use it to support our agenda.  It wants to create our agenda.

            What is it then?  It is an ancient Hebrew account of God’s power and activities.  It teaches you about God, about yourself, and about how you are to live in creation.  Learn from it and you will be blessed.  Balk against it and you will suffer.

            It is impossible to know this for sure, but the best a scientific study of the Bible can tell you is that Genesis 1 was probably created by a Jewish priest some 2600 years ago.  Unfortunately we do not have time to look at creation accounts from other middle eastern religions at the same time period.  If we did though, we’d discover the backdrop of thought this text is speaking to.

            Other cultures say there are multiple gods.  Other cultures have good gods and bad gods.  Some gods make mistakes.  Some do stupid and destructive things.  There are all sorts of mythical creatures and tales. 

What is the truth that Genesis 1 points to? 

-There is one God and only one God. 

-When this one God speaks things happen.  You know the phrase, “Talk is cheap”?  Well not with our God.  God’s word delivers results.

-What God creates is deliberate, thoughtful, and good.  Genesis 1 is in poetic form.  That’s why we read it the way we did.  You’ll notice the refrain after each day, “And God saw that it was good.”

-Another truth is that it is God who creates order out of chaos.  If you follow astrophysics and creation sciences you may have heard the phrase, “goldilocks conditions.”  The idea is that in an infinite universe there will be places where it is neither too hot nor too cold – things are just right – and in those places molecules can cluster and energy can become concentrated, and if things get even more perfect there can be complex chemical reactions and maybe even complex enough to be called life.

            I say that is pure nonsense!  I don’t say that from a faith point of view I say that from a scientific point of view.  I’ll never forget my college thermodynamics professor saying, “We let the biologists have their little creation myths, but we know it can’t work.”  In the natural world things always go from forms of higher order and energy to lower forms of energy and order.  Never ever the other way around.

            Where there is order and concentrated energy there is the creative hand of God at work… always.  The author of Genesis 1 recognized that.

-Genesis 1 warns us that if you mess with God’s created order you do so at your own risk.  Even very simply, you know never to mix bleach with ammonia.  It gives off a poisonous gas.  Ruth Halvorson told me that Knute would often come home from working in quarries and excavation sites and his clothes were filthy and stained.  She’d dump bleach and ammonia together in the washing machine to get the dirt out.  She did it because it worked.  When she told me that I looked aghast and said she’s lucky she didn’t kill herself and Knute.  She said when she found out she immediately stopped, but she didn’t know.

            Bleach and ammonia are a simple mix, but it speaks to much larger issues.  I grew up at the edge of anthracite coal mining territory.  Don’t process mine waste properly and you have an environmental disaster on your hands.  Handle radioactive materials wrongly and you’ve got an even bigger mess on your hands.

            God created a certain order to things.  We are smart creatures and can tinker with God’s created order.  That’s okay, but we must use care lest we unleash a disaster of chaos.

            I could go on and on about what Genesis 1 teaches but I want to end with one more thing.

            In Genesis 1 God creates in six days.  Then God rests.  If God rests we need to too.  If we live life working constantly and rushing from place to place we’ll burn out fast.  Rest is important.  It is in the created order of things.

            And along with that.  God creates in six days.  God rests on the seventh.  What does God do on the eighth?  God goes right back to the creative process.  God’s creative work continues even into today.

            Genesis 1 wants you to look at the world around you in awe and wonder.  God is so big that even the forces of nature obey him.  Everywhere you look, from your own body to the farthest of stars, you see the fingerprint of God’s action.

            Reject Genesis 1 and you’re living in a cold heartless universe.  Accept it and discover that God invites you to be a part of his creative enterprise.  Be bold, but be careful.  Genesis 1 tells you to enjoy creation and be in awe of God.

            Unshackle Genesis 1 from the creation vs. evolution debate we humans have bogged it down in and let it make your imagination soar; as it was intended to do.

            The universe is big.  Your God is bigger. 

The Great Commission

April 30, 2017             3rd Sunday of Easter   Matthew 28:16-20

            Here we are, the end of Matthew’s gospel.  We’ve read all the way through.  These five short verses a jam packed with key words.  They pull together just about every major theme in the gospel, and they point us to what we should do now that we’re here.

            Verse 16 starts off with some very basic math.  The eleven disciples…  We know there used to be twelve.  We’re down by one.  In Chapter 27, the climax of the gospel that we read on Good Friday, we learn that Judas kills himself.  His remorse is too great.  He goes to the religious leaders to return the money but they reject him.  It’s impossible to get inside the mind of Judas, but imagine the desperate depression of seeing that a friend is going to be executed wrongly.  You had a hand in it.  You try to undo your mistake but it is too late.  You turn to your faith but the religious leaders reject you.  What Judas does is not defendable, but he was in a situation where it felt like the whole world was crashing in on him.

            Judas wasn’t the only disciple who failed.  In 26:35 all of the eleven other disciples promised they would never desert Jesus.  Peter was the most vehement of them.  Yet every last one of them fled at Jesus arrest.  But before that they all fall asleep while Jesus is praying and greatly agitated.  After they flee Peter does manage to pluck up enough courage to follow at a distance, but you know the story well.  He denies that he even knows Jesus three times over before the rooster crows.

            Put yourself in the situation of Matthew’s original readers.  Times are tough and many are persecuted for their Christian faith.  It’s not at all unusual for someone to renounce their faith in fear or pain.  It is good for them to know that even Jesus’ closest disciples also failed.

            Then look at what the eleven do in contrast to Judas.  Despite their failings they obey Jesus.  He tells them to meet them on a mountain in Galilee and so indeed they do.  Jesus doesn’t condemn them for their failures, but accepts them and we’ll see in a couple minutes that he even empowers them.

            But first, there is what I think is a translation mistake.  That mistake has a huge impact on how we understand Matthew’s entire gospel.  Our English reads, “When they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted.”  There’s no word “some” in the original Greek.  So it should read, “When they saw him they worshipped him but doubted.”  All of them worshipped, and all of them doubted.  The resurrected Lord is there right in front of them: real, solid, tangible; yet they doubt!

            The whole scene with the disciples is shaky.  They’re struggling to understand.  They’re struggling with their forgiveness.  And they’re struggling with their beliefs.  Matthews wants us to know that doubts go hand and hand with faith.  All too often I’ve heard pastors proclaim that if you believe thoroughly enough and have absolutely no doubts then your faith will be stronger.  Then you’ll be able to pray with certainty.  Then you’ll know God better.  But all of this ignores the truth Matthew presents.  While he wants faith to win the day he knows that doubts are going to be part and parcel with it.  Ultimately Matthew teaches that the opposite of faith is fear, not doubt.  And while a certain amount of fear is healthy, fear can lead to paralysis.  That is what Matthew wants to avoid.

            So, despite the disciples numerous shortcomings Jesus gives them what we call the “Great Commission:  “All authority…”  Remember back to the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry.  What does the Satan say to Jesus, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” (4:9)  But look who really has authority now!  And again, consider Matthew’s original readers in their lives of persecution.  If all authority has been given to Jesus then they need not fear anything else claiming to have authority.

            Anyway, moving on: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.  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 I have commanded you.”

            This shaky bunch of eleven disciples fresh from their failures is commissioned to spread the gospel throughout the world.  How could Jesus entrust something so important to a bunch of so woefully unqualified people?!?  If it were me I’d do a marketing study first – who am I trying to reach, how do they think, what will I have to do to connect with them?  Then I’d form a search committee of industry experts.  They’d scour the land, maybe employ ‘head hunters’, to identify and recruit potential candidates.  Then I’d interview them.  I’d see if I liked them and if they fit with my ideals.  Then I’d offer contracts and we’d negotiate.  They’d need to be relocated too. 

            But that’s not what Jesus does: fishermen, a tax collector, and a bunch of other ordinary tradesmen are the people he trusts.

            There’s no way to prove the authenticity of Christianity, but with this bunch there is no logical reason why Christianity should have survived if it weren’t for the serious support and ongoing nourishment of the Holy Spirit.  Judaism was started with a nation.  Islam was started by a charismatic leader and an army.  Buddhism was begun by a wealthy aristocrat.  Christianity?  One itinerant preacher and eleven first-century nobodies.

            At the end of the Great Commission Jesus promises the key thing, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  More closely translated it is, “Behold, I with you, I Am, to the end of the age.”  Of course “I Am” is the name of God.  So, I Am is with you until the completion is with you.

            This is good news for the first people who read Matthew’s gospel.  In their fearful state of persecution they know that Jesus is with them always.  They need not fear.  They also can be bold to spread the gospel in the uncertain world around them.

This is also good news for us.  The Great Commission has never really been easy to fulfill.  It has always been challenging.  And it is growing harder every day.  Though we aren’t persecuted for our faith, the world around us is certainly uncertain.

At the church council retreat a few weeks ago we talked a lot about the future and direction of this church.  We noted the difficulty of engaging the Millennial Generation in church activities.  This generation often identifies itself as spiritual but not religious.  Some find Christian faith to be an outright turnoff.  Many find Christian faith to be an interesting faith expression, but not something to commit to; certainly not the core commitment to build life around. 

At best we could say that evangelism in America today is trying to present Christian faith in the least offensive light.  There seems to be no interest in its strengths, and no willingness to make a significant long-term commitment.  For those who love the church and want to see it flourish in the future, the future looks bleak.

But let’s take a lesson from our Lord in Matthew’s gospel.  We’re no better equipped to evangelize in this world than the original disciples were.  But we do it anyway.  The Church is God’s; yesterday, today, and tomorrow.  God is with us always, until God brings all things to completion.  And so we should not fear the future.  We should not worry about the Church.  God will do what God wants to get done.  Our job is the same as the disciples – to always authentically let the love of God show in our lives.  Sometimes that’s easy.  Sometimes it’s hard.  Our job is to share.  God’s job is to do the rest.

            So, I’ll end with Matthew’s final words from Jesus, “Go therefore to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you to the end of the age.