Deuteronomy: 4:32-34, 39-40
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20
If we were together for the Sunday Eucharist, I would use the optional baptismal profession of faith till this Sunday. It is a reminder to us of our initiation into the life of the Trinity which took place at our baptism. As the life of God is relational, so is ours to God and one another.
This Sunday’s gospel is known as the “Great Commission” – the sending of the disciples out with Jesus. They go forward in faith; yes they believed but also doubted. Does that not hit home to us as the Lord’s disciples? Faith must be coupled with hope. As the letter to the Hebrews tells us, faith is evidence of things hoped for and not seen. It is reaching for the improbable and then graduating to the impossible. The key in this great sending off is the re-assurance by Jesus, “And behold I am with you always. This tells us that wherever doubt takes us, our faith won’t be far behind.
The setting of the “mountain” is important – it is often a privileged place in the Bible where revelation happens. Galilee is important – this is where Jesus called the disciples – now he sends them. They are sent to proclaim God’s love for all creation.
One of the takeaways of the pandemic is what I call the “spiritually of communion” – we move through this most effectively with our eyes not fixed on ourselves but the under community, especially those with very little. As we the world, are one community, “the Father is a sun with the Son as rays and the Holy Spirit the heat.” (Pope Francis).