2017 NW MN Synod
Assembly
“Risky
Business: Always Reforming”
June 10, 2017
(Trinity Sunday texts)
Matthew 28:16-20
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
“I bind unto myself today the strong name of
the Trinity by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.”
This ancient creed from the pen of the great
missionary who brought Christ to Ireland has been wed to a tune that’s entitled
St Patrick’s Breastplate….thus
reminding us that the “strong name of the Trinity” is meant to be worn like a
garment all the days of our lives.
But this isn’t just any garment. A breastplate is always more than a “fashion
statement!”
You wear a breastplate only when you’re doing something so dangerous, so
risky you could lose your life doing it.
When knights of old were thrust into battle their breastplates
were the parts of their armor that protected their “innards”--their heart,
lungs and other vital organs.
So when Patrick-who wasn’t sailing in “tourist
class”—made his way from Great Britain to Ireland, he did so fully intending to
take on the pagans who ruled the roost—paving the way for the Greatest Good
News about the One and Only God: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
And when Patrick made that 5th century mission probe into
Ireland—believe me!--he was dressed for the occasion. Patrick put on the whole armor of God,
including the center-piece, the breastplate that protected his life: the strong name of the Trinity bestowed on
Patrick with the sign of the Cross in his baptism.
Patrick the missionary bishop thus literally “wore”
God on his body—the Three in One and One in Three true God—Father, Son and Holy
Spirit.
Now I realize that talking about armor and spiritual
warfare is out of vogue these days. Enlightened,
gentle souls have tried to scrub out all that outdated militaristic language
from our hymns and liturgies.
But this “cleansing” has not been complete —thank God!—because
it’s hard to escape the sneaking suspicion that the Evil One has yet to
surrender the field.
The Word of the Gospel--we still realize--always,
always, always confronts resistance in this world.
…which is why serving God’s mission in the world is always
more than a “walk in the park.”
It is still, it has always been, and it shall always
be risky business—a reckless, audacious venture undertaken in the face of stiff
opposition…some of the worst of it arising from right inside of us, from the
old Adam, the ancient Eve, who has yet to fully surrender.
These twin realities, of resistance “out there” and resistance
“In here” bleed through this gospel lesson as we join the eleven surviving
disciples, climbing that mountain in
Galilee, where the Risen Christ met them.
Heavens to Betsy--what a motley crew those eleven
fellows were—what a mixed bag of believers and skeptics—who, as Matthew takes
pains to observe, “worshiped [Jesus], but some doubted”
Did you catch that?
Here they were, beholding the One who was crucified and resurrected, standing
right before them—but if Mr. Gallup had been conducting a poll that day, Jesus
wouldn’t have received a 100% approval rating even from those who knew him best!
And yet, this same Jesus insisted on commissioning them--sending them
out to take on the whole world….with nothing but his commands and his promises.
Can you imagine a more risky business than that? Did those eleven rag-tag guys have a ghost of
a chance, making good on Jesus’ Great Commission?
Apparently, though, this was the Risen Christ’s only
plan. He had no “Plan B” to fall back
on. Christ simply issued his marching
orders: “go…make
disciples…baptize…teach!”
And then, like a big red ribbon tied up in a bow, Jesus
wrapped those audacious commands inside an even more amazing promise: “And remember, I am with you always, to the
end of the age."
You can do this, Jesus told them. You can handle this risky business, because
I’ll always have your back.
So they went out--those eleven perplexed,
not-too-sure-of-themselves guys….
And because they went out in the strong name of the
Trinity, you and I are gathered here this morning….being fed by Word and
Sacrament at the start of this new day so that we can be commissioned to
venture out, always under the protection of the strong name of the Trinity.
It’s what we do—even we lumpy, pasty Lutherans who are
so often written off as bland, milquetoast, inconsequential folks.
Even we “militantly modest” Lutherans who’re hardly
ever 100% sure of ourselves, even we somehow keep on keeping on.
It’s what we do, we risk-taking Lutheran followers of
the Risen Christ.
Blame it on a feisty German monk named Martin who 500 years ago
took on the entire Church and the whole world—just because he’d been taken
captive by God’s sin-forgiving, barrier-breaking, future-opening Word in Jesus
Christ.
Not that even feisty brother Martin never had his
doubts about the whole enterprise we now call the Reformation! Hardly!
More than once Martin was wracked by doubt, looking in the mirror and asking
himself “Just who do I think I am—defying the Pope in Rome?”
When Martin Luther wrestled with his own doubting
heart, though, he remembered who he was and Whose he was: “I am baptized!” he shouted! And in the strength of that confession
Luther changed the church and the world.
But that’s just what Lutherans do, don’t you know?
It’s why young Katie, a cloistered nun, hid with her
sisters in a bunch of empty herring barrels to escape from their convent and
make their way to Wittenberg to feel firsthand the refreshing breeze of freedom
in Christ. It’s why Katie, sworn to celibacy
for life, broke that vow in order to make another vow, a marriage vow to Martin
in 1525—just to “spite the devil” as her
husband colorfully put it.
But that’s the kind of things Lutherans do.
It’s
why two centuries later Johann
Sebastian Bach, baptismally bound to the strong name of the Trinity,
poured himself into matching Gospel promises with heavenly music, always
initialing his compositions with SDG--soli
Deo gloria, “Glory to God alone!”
It's why Henry Melchior
Muhlenberg, cross-marked in his baptism, set sail from Halle, Germany in
1742 for the wilds of life on the North American mission field…
It’s
why J. C. F. Heyer,
American Lutherans’ first global missionary journeyed to far-off India three
times, the last time in 1869
when he was 77—to found our companion synod, the Andhra Evangelical
Lutheran Church.
It’s
why Sister Elizabeth Fedde
left Tromso, Norway in 1883 to bring the Lutheran deaconess movement to North
American…a movement that produced a host of Lutheran hospitals, nursing homes
and other social ministries.
It’s
why Dietrich Bonhoeffer
forsook the safety of London to return in 1935 to his homeland, Germany, and to
resist the Nazis to the point of dying a martyr’s death ten years later.
It’s
why Leymah Gbowee,
striding in the strength of her baptism, organized other strong women to say
“Enough!” to the men of their country who had kept Liberia locked in a civil
war fifteen years ago.
That’s the kind of risky stuff that Lutherans who bear
the cross of Christ on their brows….it’s what we do!
And I’m not just talking about famous or semi-famous
Lutherans either!
You and I, ordinary, garden-variety Lutherans also
make choices, take stands, and embark on risky adventures--because that’s who
we are as baptized ones, bound to the strong name of the Trinity.
I know this, because I’ve seen you in action….
I’ve seen congregational presidents who shun the easy
way out and speak uncomfortable truths to their fellow Lutherans.
I’ve met youth who can’t wait to give a year of their
life to Christ as YAGMS,
Young Adults in Global Mission of the ELCA.
I’ve witnessed young parents and other caring adults,
who are passionate about forming Christ in the next generations of Lutheran
disciples.
I’ve heard Lutherans standing up for their neighbors
who happen to be refugees or immigrants or adherents to other faiths or
indigenous folks who lived on this continent long before many of our ancestors
showed up.
All of that is risky business—and it’s what we
Lutherans do!
Better yet:
it’s what Christ, who promised never to leave us, does in and through us
who are baptized into the strong name of the Trinity.
“ I have been crucified with Christ,” wrote the great proto-Lutheran, St Paul, “and it is no longer I who live, but it is
Christ who lives in me.”
Lutherans love that kind of stuff—sends shivers down
our spines.
Because we know that it’s always Jesus who gets us
into this risky business….and it’s God who is always reforming, reshaping and
renewing us in the strong name of the Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
