Introduction
Today we mark the end of Jesus' earthly ministry. The passage we heard in St Matthew's gospel does not explicitly speak of the ascension into Heaven, but passages in St Luke and in the Book of Acts note that he took his disciples out to the mountain, taught them for one last time, commissioned the to spread the gospel and then he rose to heaven. Today's passage puts some meat on what he actually taught them and, by extension, us.
Ascension completes Jesus' work on earth. He has become human and dignified our race beyond all measure. He has shown that it is possible for humanity to live in right relationship with God, he has taught us how to live loving both God and each other. All the earthly powers that reacted against him thought they had won a crushing victory by extinguishing his life on the cross - after all death is the last word.
Yet death wasn't the last word. Jesus died yet rose again. In doing so he paid the ransom and tricked those powers out of what they thought were rightfully theirs. After the resurrection he taught his followers some more finally convincing them to believe what he had taught before. But now he has to go. Why?
If Jesus had stayed the disciples would never have learnt to grow up and start to do the work they were created to do. They would have relied on Jesus all the time. But now he tells them that they have work to do - and work they will do without him actually being there. He tells them, and us, to do three things - to go, to grow and to give.
Go
Jesus tells the disciples to go - to the ends of the earth, to teach all peoples the things he has taught them and to baptise them making them into disciples. The Book of Acts and later Church tradition holds that those first disciples did all "go". Peter ended up in Rome, Thomas in India etc. They went and they told people of the love of God that reaches down to us. We would not be here today if it weren't for the willingness of those original disciples and countless others down the ages to "go". Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to evangelise these islands - only to be surprised to find that the Holy Spirit, and the Irish, had got here first. Someone came to each one of us to tell us of that news - whether that was our families or others. Someone made an effort to come to us and answer our questions. For me it was a mixture of my mother and my first priest who very carefully, and traditionally, taught me the faith.
We too are told to "go". We are told to go and make disciples of "all nations". The word in the Greek for "nation" is "ethnos" which means peoples. We are told to go to all peoples - in our case to have an especial care for our particular people. We go in a number of ways. We go via our website - we have thousands of hits a month on this as people explore and check us out. We go via media or other campaigning work. In the past two weeks I have written a brief for the High Court in London about gay marriage and have submitted responses on behalf of this church to the Women and Equality Unit on new regulations about discrimination against our people. In both roles I have represented MCC and have spoken up both for our people and of the positive role that Christianity can have. We go when Dan and his team put up posters and flyers in the Village. We go when we tell others of our faith and of our church. We go when we bring people along. We go when we warmly welcome those who are here and are new. If we came along and no one had talked to us or if we had been rebuffed we probably wouldn't have come back. One of the most important things we can do in response to this Great Commission is to welcome those who come here.
Grow
We are told to grow. Jesus' words about making disciples imply growth. Over the years I have had very mixed views about the Church Growth movement. So much of what is written about Church Growth comes from a US social model where around 50% of the population go to church at least once a month. In the UK only about 8% go to church - so growth here will never be as dramatic as it is in the US. Yet we are called to grow. We are the body of Christ and bodies grow. We are called to grow in a number of ways, and as a congregation we have grown in so many ways over the last few years.
The way we have become so involved in Moses' campaign for asylum, raising money, marching, signing petitions, getting people we know to sign, and supporting him financially has meant we have grown in service of others. At the same time we have become so enriched by Moses' presence amongst us.
We have grown financially. I pointed out last week that a congregation of 30-40 people is doing incredibly well to easily support a budget of £30,000 a year. I know of other congregations who are twice our size yet have less than half our income. We show growth when we deal directly with people. I have seen congregation after congregation poisoned by spiteful gossip and backbiting. Add to that poisonous mix so much of what is unhealthy behaviour in our community - if the gay games were truly culturally reflective bitching would be up there with the other sports - and you can see the potential of what can go wrong. A few years ago I was interviewed by a theological student looking at cross cultural ministry. He asked me how one can tell leaders in the lgbt community - and I responded that was easy - look for the knives in their backs! We have grown in maturity so much as we behave in quite a counter cultural way; we give generously and we refuse to behave here like so many of our people, and so many Christians, delight in behaving.
We grow spiritually. I loose patience with people who think that making a commitment to follow Jesus is the end rather than the beginning of the story. So many Christians seem to think they have nothing more to learn. Yet we know that attendance at worship, regular prayer, reading and discussion all help us grow spiritually allowing us to become a truly great church.
And of course we grow in numbers. This is the area of growth that is easiest to focus on, yet often the hardest to quantify. I am often asked how large my church is and I find it quite hard to find an answer. Each week we normally see around 30 people. Sometimes it is less, often it is more. Yet it is not the same 30 people each week! Over a month we will see around 60 people all of whom consider themselves to be regular attenders. We have grown as a church and as we continue to welcome people into our life and ministry and friendship circles we will continue to grow.
Give
The last point is that we have to give. This is a logical consequence of going and growing. The disciples gave of their time, their abilities and, ultimately, their lives. We too are called to give. We give of ourselves by simply being here, by getting to know new people, by opening our friendship circles. We give our talents by using them both in ministry here and in the rest of our lives. We give of our money and other resources in order to ensure that the work of God here is funded well.
Conclusion
At Ascensiontide we realise that Jesus has gone back to the Father, and, rather alarmingly, left us to continue his work! We don't need to panic or feel unduly daunted as he has left us his Spirit to be our strength and guide - something we will reflect on more fully next week and in our new sermon series that starts the week afterwards. Amen.
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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