Commissioned to Actively Love...

Jesus, in ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth... both parts of God's Kingdom... commanded the living of Agape Love in Grace...

Go - a command - do not sit and wait, open up church clubhouse doors and wait for people to pour in and be assimilated into the church culture, cult, social club and indoctrinated into a belief system mostly made up by humans who lead the church and participate in it, and into their biases and prejudices, their agendas and ulterior motives... go out into the world, where the people live, in their lives, in the pain, grit, dysfunction, joy, wisdom, poverty, sickness... realness of the world... not cloister and create a sanitized, perfectly manicured and quaffed, false façade place with false ideals to aspire to, but realness in order to live a real relationship with a real God with real people...

Jesus commanded them to Make Disciples... students of Jesus' Good News, followers who would follow Jesus' teachings, commands and examples... follow Jesus where Jesus went... to people that many in Jesus' church would not find desirable for conversation or life together - on the highways and bi-ways with the poor, the lame and maimed... all invited by Jesus to His banquet... student/followers who would obey what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled as Kingdom of God values, and not the quaffed who live a duplicitous life between spoken words and actions in the world around them which portray one set of values but exhibit a very different one based on their greed, lust for power and control and self-centered perspectives... disciples - student/followers who will not conform to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of their MINDS and hearts in and by the Good News of Jesus...

Jesus commanded them to Baptize them in the name of God, not indoctrinate them into the name of their sect or denomination and not force them to assimilate to customs, ideals, ideologies, philosophies or practices that run contrary to the Good News teachings of Jesus - but include them in Grace - even if the law would exclude them (like Gentiles, Ethiopians, Eunuchs, women, and even those who represent the oppressors like Romans and Pharisees)... welcome them into the community and help them to know that they belong and that they will help shape how the community is now, even with their different ethnicities, customs, sexualities, economic class or histories... by Grace in Agape Love.

This can only happen if Jesus' command to teach them to obey everything that I have commanded you is done.  In the teaching is a reminder for those who are teaching to live by the same principles, values and mission that Jesus commanded in the Good News.  In the learning is transformation that happens together as these Kingdom values are learned and actively lived.  In the agreement of what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for the living of Agape Love in Grace is the building of community based not on xenophobic homogenization, but identity with Jesus as Lord of our lives.  In the lifting up of what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in the Good News is the mission of the church to be the salt and light in the world - this part of God's Kingdom.

Remember, Jesus is with us to the end of the age (for a vision of that, see Matthew 25:31-46).  Remember that Jesus is in the midst of the two or three who dare to gather in His name to live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled.  Jesus in with us to comfort us in His Love, Grace and Peace.  Jesus is also with us because we are accountable to Jesus and what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled.  It is by that that we are judged in the end - in how we have lived or refused to live Agape Love and Grace in the world around us.

It is simple, really.  It is not easy, but it is simple.  Not easy to live but simple to understand.  Obedience is to be lived, not to the Law or Prophets, but with the Lord who fulfills both Law and Prophets in His Good News of Agape Love and Grace.

So, how are we doing with the Commission to be self-less, deny ourselves, take up the Cross and follow Jesus in living Agape Love (selfless, even self-sacrificing active commitment on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy) and Grace (undeserved loving mercy given freely)?  Are we following Jesus as the church?  Are we following Jesus as individuals?  Into what are YOU baptized?

Pastor Jamie