Matthew 28:16-20 “Mission Ablaze!”

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore 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 everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It’s good to be here, and I am truly grateful to have this opportunity to bring you greetings in behalf of the 200 plus other congregations, and all of the other church workers, who together with me form what is called the Southeastern District of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In saying this, I realize that the terms “Synod” or “District” are not exactly a “turn on” for most folks who make it to church on Sunday morning. In some circles, “judicatory body” is the term that substituted for “District.” And I have to admit that it strikes me as no more interesting, and that the sound of it is rather “stiff.”

However, what comes with membership in the LCMS and its Southeastern District are some truly exciting opportunities to be part of something as God’s people in this place that you might not be able to initiate all by yourself as a congregation. One of these is “ABLAZE.” How many of you have heard of it? “ABLAZE” is a movement involving a partnership between our church body and its partner churches around to world for the purpose of sharing Jesus Christ with 100 million people by October 31, 2017. That date was chosen because it will be the 500^th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. The commitment of the LCMS is for 50 million, and our partner churches will take the other 50 million.

“ABLAZE” also includes the planting of 2,000 new congregations. Equally important is the breathing of new life into 2,000 more because so many of our existing congregations are not growing, but are plateaued or in decline. In the Southeastern District, we hope that by 2017, God will provide us with the resources to start at least 100 new ministries and congregations. These additional resources will also include an army of 3,000 mission prayer partners and 60 outreach ministry teams working in and among congregations, both old and new.

None of this will happen, however, unless congregations yours get on board. In fact, ABLAZE is a commitment I hope that you will consider making, if you have not done so already. For in doing so, you will be strengthening your outreach to the people of this community.

Our text from Matthew 28 is called the “Great Commission.” It is often explained as the “marching orders” that Jesus gave to his disciples just before he left them and ascended into heaven. “We used to have twelve disciples. But now we are down to eleven. So you guys had better go and make of some more disciples for me,” or so we might imagine Jesus saying in effect.

But mission does not begin with us. It begins with God.

“God so loved the world,” it says in John 3:16. “God was reconciling the world to himself,” or so St. Paul tells us in II Corinthians 5, and in I Timothy 2, he says it’s God who “wants all (people) to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” Because of sin, the world and everybody in it is lost. We are headed toward a future that is not better, but worse. And in the meantime, our world remains a fallen world of sickness and death.

But God has made it his mission to come after us. This in fact is the good news, the “gospel” that we get to hear whenever we gather for worship. Out of his grace and mercy, God has chosen to send his own Son Jesus into our world. Jesus came from heaven to earth in order to bring us back home to God and back home to each other in the human family. Jesus not only was born in Bethlehem. He still comes to people like you and me, and he will come again at the end of all time so that we might share in his glory.

You remember how Jesus found each of his disciples. At their fishing boats and elsewhere, he said to each one, “Follow me,” and they did. For me, as perhaps for some of you, it happened at my baptism. My parents never made a “big deal” out of the actual day. I always knew the year and the month. Only later in my life did I find out that the day that year in the month of April was Easter Sunday. There couldn’t be a better day for Jesus to find me and to lead me to where I am today.

God’s mission also involved the death and the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. By dying on the cross, he released us from sin’s guilt and punishment, and by rising from the grave, he gave us the hope of new life every day, including the one on which we die. Most people in our society still go to funerals. Some of them want to grieve the loss. Others may wish to celebrate the life of the one who is deceased. Still others assert that he or she will live on in our memories. But we can speak of the better life beyond this one that is the hope of all who put their faith in Jesus Christ as the Risen Lord.

It’s also the reason God’s mission has become our mission. Take that word “commission” and draw a line between the two “m’s.” You get “com,” which is Latin for “with,” and “mission.” I’m not a linguist. But it tells me that the “Great Commission” is an invitation to join forces with God in carrying out the mission he began with Jesus Christ, and that by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit has created a wonderfully new faith relationship with him in my heart and yours that makes all the difference in the world for life right now and for eternity.

Perhaps you are too young. But within my lifetime, North America has become a mission field. The Southeastern District includes the five states of South and North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as Washington, D.C. and York County, Pennsylvania. Within this region are 27 million people, about a tenth of the population of our entire country. 12.7 million of that 27 million are unchurched -- not connected anything like your congregation. Some are in hiding from God. Others are resting on their own laurels. Still others are being held back by a “bad experience” of some kind with organized religion.

“Therefore,” Jesus is also saying to us today, “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 observe everything I have commanded you.” Within the ABLAZE movement, it’s called the “critical event.” It occurs whenever one of us as a Lutheran Christian testifies of the hope that is within us so that another person (not connected to him at present) may encounter Jesus Christ.

Jesus spoke the Great Commission to a grand total of eleven of his disciples. At the time, not all of them were fully “on board” with him. “Some doubted,” it says in our text from Matthew 28. Yet, it was those same eleven disciples who went out into a vast and less-than-hospitable Roman Empire, and within 150 years, Tertullian, the great church father, was able to taunt the Roman Emperor with these words:

“We are but of yesterday, yet we have filled every place among you -- cities, islands, fortresses, towns, marketplaces, camps, tribes, the senate, the forum; we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.”

How could this happen?

It happened not because there was anything special about these same eleven disciples. In fact, they were as common as most of us are. This happened because, as our text from Matthew 28 puts it, “all authority in heaven and on earth” belongs to God’s own Son. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. As such, he is more than “my Lord” or “your Lord” or the One whom some people regard as “Lord.” No, Jesus Christ is “Lord of all,” and his promise is to be with us “all-ways,” even to the close of the age.

At this juncture in time, therefore, I cannot think of a better moment for your congregation to be right where it is in this community. For your mission is very clear. It’s the same mission to reaching out to the lost and rescuing them that God began through his Son, Jesus Christ. It’s the mission for which I hope and pray that you will become truly and thoroughly ABLAZE. Amen.

Dr. Jon Diefenthaler, President

Southeastern District, LCMS