Rev. Anton Lagoutine
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Newsletter Article "Go" July 06 - 2006/08/21 21:58
“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, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Thus ends the Gospel according to St. Matthew, with the command of Jesus: Go! As in depart, leave, proceed, as the original Greek indicates. Take off towards a direction, pursue a goal, reach a destination.
These words of Jesus Christ have been labeled The Great Commission. Such a title seems almost overwhelming. It must not apply to me, probably such great persons as the disciples are the more likely recipients, I mean they were the ones who literally changed their world when they decided to go with the Good News of Christ. Traveled all over the place, faced the hostility of the religious leaders of the day, encountered the animosity of the government, traversed the land and the sea on their lengthy journeys. I don’t suffer from any allusions of grandeur to imagine I could also be the one to heed the Word of Christ and go. May be people like Walter A. Maier or Billy Graham, those are the types of people that should go.
And so we don’t go. We sit, we remain, we wait, we let others go. Yet isn’t it this life about going, taking off and reaching for yet another destination, pursuing a goal? What if Christopher Columbus decided not to go looking for India, or Yuri Gagarin thought it’s not worth it to go and orbit the earth? What if Martin Luther decided not to go to the doors of the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nail his 95 these? What if the disciples decided not to go and just kept the Good News to themselves? For that matter, what if Jesus decided not to Golgotha?
Now, here we are, with all those great persons, who am I am to compare myself to them? But the point here is not about the grandeur of their accomplishments. It’s about their way of life. It’s about going. Having a goal in life and pursuing it. Staying focused and accomplishing the life’s ambition. Life is all about going. That’s why we have such expressions as “dead end job” or “dead end relationship.” They are pointless as you are not going anywhere. Life is meaningless unless you are going somewhere. Not remaining, waiting, getting stuck at a dead end.
That’s why Jesus summarized the purpose of our life in that imperative Go! “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Making disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them. That’s the purpose that we have. In it we find fulfillment. Moreover, this is how we know that the Lord is with us. “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” In English, we have a period splitting the two sentences. “Go and make disciples…” Then a period. Then “And behold, I am with you always.” In the Greek original, there is no periods. We get a sense of Jesus telling us to go, and as we go, he is with us always. “Go… and I am with you always [as you go].”
Right now, we are presented with an opportunity to go and make disciples of all nations. And we don’t have to go very far. In fact, all the nations are coming to us. In our particular case, those nations are from the Latin America that move to Catawba County in great numbers. We simply can’t sit and wait.
If you are ready to go, please talk to Pastor Lagoutine or watch for the announcements in the bulletin. Our next meeting is at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Newton on Sunday, July 16, at 3:00 p.m.
Go with God. Vaya con Dios.
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