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May 26, 2002 - Memorial Day
Sermon: "Clandestine Commandos
Scripture: Matthew 28:16-20
Reverend Larry Gerber
Christ calls us to be clandestine commandos - not fighters, but people who leave
places of comfort and light to do the hard work of mission in the shadows.
They're the "snake eaters."
The "night stalkers."
The super-secret Delta Force.
Together, they're a nightmare for enemies of the United States - a wake-up-screaming, bed-sheet-soaking, bone-chilling nightmare. They're clandestine commandos.
Also known as Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, Green Berets, Marines and Air Force Special Operations teams, these elite military personnel are trained to launch small-scale attacks from aboard Navy ships.
Call them Special Ops, for short. Special operations troops offer much of what it may take to root out a network of terrorists in places like Afghanistan, Somalia or Sudan.
You rarely hear much about the military's elite forces, and that's by design. They operate in the dark of night, behind enemy lines, below the radar, on missions that regular troops might think border on madness.
"They are a hammer in the kisser," said Andy Messing, a retired major from the Army special forces. "They're directed like light coming out of the magnifying glass. The beam of light that fries the ant."
If we think of Christians as Special Ops agents, we hardly want to think of ourselves as the "beam of light that fries the ant."
Still, the concept seems to work. Here's Jesus, gathering a small group of elite, hand-picked, trained and tested followers giving them their final instructions and the details of their mission: "Go and make disciples."
Some of you may shake your heads "no," and recoil at the comparison. After all, you know you'll never ferry ground combat teams behind enemy lines with MH-60 Blackhawk and CH-47 Chinook helicopters. You won't fly AC-130 Spectre gunships, MH-53 Pave Low helicopters and MC-130 Combat Talon planes designed for long-range, low-level, nighttime penetration of radar defenses. You don't have skills in underwater demolition, reconnaissance and unconventional warfare.
You're not a hammer in anyone's kisser. But you can be a kisser on the hammer - of injustice, ignorance, racism, unbelief, bitterness, despair, and lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Think about it. In a very real sense, Jesus calls us to perform special operations. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations," he orders in Matthew 28, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (vv. 19-20). You've got to have guts to accept this mission, to leave the comfort and light of a beautiful sanctuary and go out to do mission in the shadows, where people really need to hear the gospel. Like clandestine commandos, we are challenged to operate in the dark of night, behind enemy lines, below the radar, on missions that regular religious folks might think border on madness.
Special Ops.
In fact, the early disciples operated very much like this, functioning anonymously in secret house churches, worshiping in graveyards and catacombs, linked together by secret symbols and gathering for secret rituals and ordinances. And the church grew phenomenally when forced to work covertly in a hostile environment.
The original commandos were commissioned by Jesus on a mountain in Galilee, after the resurrection. Matthew tells us that when they saw Jesus, "they worshiped him; but some doubted" (28:17) - a reminder that there has never, no never, been a time in human history when the followers of Christ have been completely united in their faith and their determination. On the eve of an important mission, someone is always going to have cold feet, someone is going to fear "seeing the elephant" - an old Civil War expression for the experience of battle.
But Jesus rallies the troops, barking out the assurance, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me" (v. 18). And then he gives the order to make disciples, baptize and teach, closing with the call to "remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (v. 20).
Christians and commandos. Maybe the link between the two is really more of a contrast than a comparison. After all, Jesus challenges us to make disciples, baptize and teach - not to launch attacks with high-tech weaponry. And while the military's clandestine commandos are typically dropped off in a war zone and left there, Jesus promises to accompany us always, wherever we go, "to the end of the age."
We're never left alone, never cut off from the greatest power and protection in the universe.
Still, to be a Christian today, you gotta have the courage of a commando.
Consider the case of Heather Mercer, a 24-year-old woman from Vienna, Virginia. Her deep religious faith took her to Afghanistan, where she was held captive for over three months as the United States waged war with Osama bin Laden and his forces.
The opening pages of this drama begin in Vienna, where Heather grew up attending Sunday school at a Presbyterian church, learning at James Madison High School and competing on the town's athletic fields. Religion was always an important part of her life.
According to a high-school classmate and friend, "She wasn't a Bible-pusher or anything. She didn't preach at lunch. She used religion as a moral compass. Through the way she lived, she was the personification of Christian values."
She headed to Baylor University, a Baptist institution in Waco, Texas, where she majored in German and graduated in 1999. While in Waco, she joined the Antioch Community Church and became active in the college ministry of the nondenominational congregation.
"She was active not only with the college ministry but also with an inner-city ministry for children," says the senior pastor at Antioch. "She has a real heart for the poor. She was a tremendous blessing for this community."
In Waco, she learned about Shelter Now, a German-based international aid group that has worked in Afghanistan for several years. In March of last year, Heather joined their efforts, providing street children with food and giving nourishment and shelter to families impoverished by the Taliban regime.
Then in early August, Heather was arrested with seven other foreign-aid workers, on charges of trying to convert citizens of the Muslim nation to Christianity. Were they acting as missionaries? That's debatable. They were certainly not preaching on street corners, but at the same time they were probably bold enough to talk about their faith in private conversations. But the result of their work was that they were jailed in Kabul and guarded by Taliban soldiers, until their release in mid-November during the U.S. bombing campaign.
This kind of courage is so rare in the church today. We'd rather debate welfare reform than dirty our hands providing street children with food. We'd prefer to protest low-income housing in our neighborhoods - it hurts property values, after all - over picking up a hammer and helping to build a home for a poor family on the other side of town. We're ready to talk openly about most any issue that confronts us, from political positions to prostate treatments ... anything except our faith in Jesus Christ.
After reading Heather's story, I now understand a little more about the mission that Jane's cousin and his family went on, when they left the comfort of America, and went to Pakistan: to feed the hungry, to nurture them, and to love them, and to teach them the love of Jesus Christ. They weren't arrested, but they were among those who were worshipping in the church when it was bombed. If they had not been injured and air lifted out of Pakistan, they most likely would have been arrested for teaching Christ.
Chris Adsit, the director of Disciplemakers International, observes that the church today is like a "mighty river" - a mile wide and an inch deep.
We need to rethink the discipleship river. We need to deepen the shallows and speed up the current.
We can be helped in this by the late Richard Halverson, the former chaplain of the United States Senate, who offers a fresh take on the command of Jesus to "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (v. 19). Digging into the Greek of the New Testament, he discovered that what Jesus was really saying in this verse was, "As you go, make learners everywhere."
Don't make disciples, he insists - make learners. Don't try to drag people into Sunday school, or into youth programs, or into the sanctuary. Don't try to lure them into church at all. Instead, try to show them something of the power of Christ in your own life. Monday through Friday, show them some of what you have personally experienced of Jesus, and help them to learn about Christ through the joy and the hope and the love you are feeling.
Then, as the people around you are influenced by your faith, they will find their way into a community of believers somewhere. It may be here, it may be someplace else.
The work of the church isn't what we're doing in church, but "While we're here," concludes Halverson, "we're being equipped" - equipped to do the work of the church that lies out in the world and is to be done between Sundays.
So, make learners. Personify Christian values.
Preach the gospel constantly, using words if necessary. Be Commandos for Christ!!
be Clandestine Commandos!!
That's a special operation.
Let us pray..................
Let us stand and sing another of our patriotic songs; let's sing with a sense of pride and conviction; and wave your flag proudly. Be, if jsut for the moment, a clandestine commando in your heart!
Sources:
Adsit, Chris. "Why should we make
disciples?" Disciplemakers International,
ccci.org/disciplemakers/why.html.
Retrieved September 26, 2001.
Burns, Robert. "Special forces needed in
attack." Associated Press, October 1,
2001.
Dart, Bob. "Religious faith leads to captivity
in Afghanistan." Detroit Free Press,
September 20, 2001.
Halverson, Richard C. "The essentials of
discipleship: Make disciples."
Discipleship Series, gospelcom.net.
Retrieved November 8, 2001
Let us pray..........
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: SLUMC@att.net, Phone: 480.895.8766