Standing Under the Scriptures
May 25, 2008

Dear Fellow Voyagers,

Our readings for this week are:

I Corinthians 4.1-13: Paul warns the Corinthians against trusting in themselves, pointing out that that the lot of even of an apostle is of the lowliest.

Matthew 6.24-34: In the section of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus points to trusting wholly in God as the only alternative to enslavement to material things.

Turning to previous matters, I am glad to say that we have been given a nihil obstat to continue our class through the summer. I look forward to this. I hope that as far as you are able you will continue to come---though not out of obligation, as in support of good old Fr. Ted. On the other hand, if it is out of sloth that you stay away, you can expect the sloth itself to be detrimental.

Last Sunday our first reading was just the final three verses of 2 Corinthians. As indicated already in the previous notice, these are not fully intelligible without the rest of the letter. Indeed, 2 Corinthians itself is not fully intelligible apart from 1 Corinthians. For chapter 5 of the latter is a sharp reproof of the Corinthian Christians, perhaps originally separate, for tolerating sexual immorality in their midst. Apparently they were “cut to the heart” (Acts 2.37) by Paul’s admonition, for 2 Corinthians can be read as in large part his effort to reassure them in their contrition, as when he speaks in verse of having written them a “painful” letter. (There is more to 2 Corinthians than this, of course. Notably it contains Paul’s two cardinal verses: “Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation” [6.2] and “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” [12.9].)

I mention the foregoing in part because of last week’s notice. In its urging of seriousness in the reading as well as the writing of notices, it could perhaps be taken as implying that this was always the case. And last Sunday there were only four of us in the class---not that our discussion suffered thereby. Could it be that some, in the fashion of the Corinthians, were then too “cut to the heart” to come (just kidding)?

Our Gospel, the conclusion of Matthew (28.16-20), contains the Great Commission. Actually we found even more in it than that. When the risen Christ appears on the Galilee mountain, the disciples “worshiped him, but some doubted.” Two things were to be said about this. Firstly, it accords with experience. When the gospel is proclaimed, however truly, not all receive it. One has only to think of Judas among Jesus’ own disciples. Indeed, there is a part of ourselves that resists recognition. Secondly, the Bible’s candor is evident in that it does not shy away from this circumstance but instead recognizes it, showing thereby its willingness to deal with us as we are, in our human condition.

In the next verse Jesus says, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” a sweeping statement to say the least. We considered what the basis for it might be. We thought that in part it was the pre-existence of Christ, as the Son of God from all eternity, although this is not made explicit in Matthew or the other Synoptics the way it is in John. But we thought also that his pre-existence was per se a potential. The actualization of it came in his incarnation as the Son of Man, his passion, death, and resurrection. Thereby God in his overflowing love redeemed humanity from the sin into which it had fallen, setting the whole of history on a new course, on which it could have been set only in this way. If ever the phrase “mission accomplished” was justified, it was so in the instance of the risen Christ. And this completed the authority given to him.

Then comes the Great Commission itself (verse 19): “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 commanded you.” We pondered the basis of the missionary imperative, which is so central to the Church. We supposed that it lay in the following. If gospel is deeply meaningful to us, is indeed the basis of our own meaning, we will consider that it will be similarly meaningful to our fellow human beings, in that they share our humanity. And we will want to share what we have with them. Otherwise we would be denying their humanity, and our own too. In our class we may have a minor instance of this. As through it we discover the Scriptures, so that they live for us and we for them, surely we will want to share the fascination they have for us with others. At least this is my hope for it and for you.

As for what making disciples consists in, Jesus here tells us that it is in part trinitarian baptism, in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But it is also “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Obviously what he has commanded is not just a list of duties that we can tick off as we fulfill them. It is a matter of making Jesus known as a living presence, as he was for his original disciples and as they have made him, down through the ages, for us.

The carrying out of Christ’s command will not be automatic or easy. It will involve meeting with rejection on the part of many and the rising of questions even in our own hearts. This is foreshadowed in the above “But some doubted.” And it makes the final verse of the passage, and of Matthew’s Gospel, fully appropriate: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age.” This tells us that we will not be abandoned, left to our own devices. Instead we will be sustained and strengthened, enabling us to carry out our own commission, thereby ourselves becoming in some measure his disciples.

Faithfully, Fr. Ted