SATURDAY, MAY 21
READ MATTHEW 28:16-20
MATTHEW 28:16 So the eleven talmidim went to the hill in the Galil where Yeshua had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they prostrated themselves before him; but some hesitated. 18 Yeshua came and talked with them. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore, go and make people from all nations into talmidim, immersing them into the reality of the Father, the Son and the Ruach HaKodesh, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, yes, even until the end of the age.”
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I will never forget the day a bishop of the church laid his hands on my head and told me to “take authority to preach the Word of God and to administer the Holy Sacraments”—filling me with Spirit-confidence and courage in that moment. I felt equally overwhelmed with humility and a good measure of anxiety. I imagine the eleven disciples on that Galilean mountain experienced a combustible mixture of boldness and fear when Jesus gave them authority to go and make disciples of all nations.
It did not take me long to learn that the authority to “go” did not reside in the words or sign-act of the bishop. The authority came from going to the places where Jesus went.
Jesus went to where the wounds were and proclaimed healing. As students and practitioners of the gospel, we are charged to go with our loving presence to those forgotten ones. We are charged to go with our prophetic witness to those endangered ones for whom the gospel call to justice and mercy has seemed far removed from their lives.
We are charged to go with our pastoral care to those broken ones whose lives have been shattered by the storms and accidents of life or by poor choices made by others or themselves. We are charged to go with our joyful proclamation to those hopeless ones whose souls have been crushed by despair, doubt, depression and then to cry out for the Spirit of God to be born within them.
We go, therefore, to where the wounds are with our loving presence, our prophetic witness, our pastoral care, and our joyful proclamation because that is where Jesus went and that is where we are now called to go.
Gracious and loving God, help us always to go, as Jesus did, to where the wounds are. Amen.[Bruce R. Ough]
Our mailing address is:
The Upper Room Strategic Initiatives
PO Box 340007
I will never forget the day a bishop of the church laid his hands on my head and told me to “take authority to preach the Word of God and to administer the Holy Sacraments”—filling me with Spirit-confidence and courage in that moment. I felt equally overwhelmed with humility and a good measure of anxiety. I imagine the eleven disciples on that Galilean mountain experienced a combustible mixture of boldness and fear when Jesus gave them authority to go and make disciples of all nations.
It did not take me long to learn that the authority to “go” did not reside in the words or sign-act of the bishop. The authority came from going to the places where Jesus went.
Jesus went to where the wounds were and proclaimed healing. As students and practitioners of the gospel, we are charged to go with our loving presence to those forgotten ones. We are charged to go with our prophetic witness to those endangered ones for whom the gospel call to justice and mercy has seemed far removed from their lives.
We are charged to go with our pastoral care to those broken ones whose lives have been shattered by the storms and accidents of life or by poor choices made by others or themselves. We are charged to go with our joyful proclamation to those hopeless ones whose souls have been crushed by despair, doubt, depression and then to cry out for the Spirit of God to be born within them.
We go, therefore, to where the wounds are with our loving presence, our prophetic witness, our pastoral care, and our joyful proclamation because that is where Jesus went and that is where we are now called to go.
Gracious and loving God, help us always to go, as Jesus did, to where the wounds are. Amen.[Bruce R. Ough]
Our mailing address is:
The Upper Room Strategic Initiatives
PO Box 340007
Nashville, Tennessee 37203, United States
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