God’s Mirror

Psalm 8; Matthew 28:16-20

The Great Commission is one of the most essential scripture of our faith, and today I want to explore Jesus’ triune statement.  It is one of the clearest places in the Bible where the Trinity is clear.  “…in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit…”  Jesus is clearly stating that they are one and yet unique.  The Trinity is not clearly defined by our Bible, but it is an important tradition of the church.  It allows us to know God by three “faces” and know God as one.  While it is not defined directly it is certainly Biblical.  There are a few verses in the Chapter 15 of the Gospel of John, that point to the meaning of the mystery of the Trinity.  I share them below:

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine-grower. (1)

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. (12-17)

 

‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. (26)

Each of these scriptures show that there are distinct manifestations of the Divine, yet what is clear is they work together in relationship.  We understand God as unified as One, yet demonstrates that God is in relationship with Godself.  It is not clear cut as it is a great mystery, but I will explore why this is an important tradition.

While I prayed about these scriptures in preparation, and realizing this Sunday was also Father’s day, I thought about my own father.  I had a great childhood, and I have a great relationship with my father today.  However, he was not as present as I would have liked, but when I reflected on the times I remembered my father as dad, that is positively and with parental love, there were a number of memories to pick from, but the three that kept coming to mind were three that happened in front of the bathroom sink.

I remember my father shaving in the hall bathroom and I created my own “razor” out of Legos.  I recall how he demonstrated the art of shaving and put some shaving cream on my hairless face so I could attempt to shave. 

I remember that my mom would tie my ties from standing in front of me, but one day she asked my dad to do it.  He attempted to the first time as she would have, but realized that he needed to do it from behind me and looking into a mirror.  Not only did he succeed in tying the tie, he also taught me how to do it myself. 

I remember cutting my finger in the woods and realizing it needed attention.  My dad was home and he carefully attended to it at the sink.  I recall seeing him in the mirror carefully and lovingly stopping the bleeding.

These three memories are understood greater by my recent time with my son in a mirror.  AJ is a child that we are trying to encourage more eye contact (and he continues to improve), so when we look into a mirror and he looks into my eyes in the mirror and then turns to look at me, I realized that what we see in the mirror is not simply the physical image, but rather the relationship.  It is why we treasure pictures of us with people, even if it is not the most flattering.  We see the relationship.

Psalm 8 reminds us that we are different from all other animals we are as it says in Genesis, made in God’s image.  We are set a little lower than God, so we can be a mirror of God.  We reflect the God, the Divine Light, which is itself a relationship.  Thus we are to reflect relationship through relationships. 

The Great Commission Begins

Matthew 4: 12-23

When I was in High School, my friends and I would “hang-out” in the library.  This was in part because we were generally nerds either on the debate team or National Honor Society, or both.  For fun we would scour the microfilms and microfiche for interesting articles or pictures.  It was our internet.  We would debate and make games on various information and thus for fun we would debate the meaning of certain words.  We would look them up in the various dictionaries and determine who had a better grasp of the meaning of the word in question.  I can clearly remember the time we were looking in the “W’s” and I saw the definition for woman.  I know we were not looking up the meaning of that word, for even though we certainly did not understand women, we were smart enough to know the dictionary would be of no value to us to understand.  What I did notice was the small “n” and small “v” in the definition.  I knew that woman was a noun, but I had never thought of the word as a verb.  I then looked around the library and realized it was womaned by great librarians.  (It is true that not every dictionary has woman as a verb, but it is clear that it was once a verb, meaning “to equip or staff with women” or “to put into the company of a woman” as per Dictionary.com)  The point of this, is not about inclusive language, but that a word can mean something to us today, and we lost part of the meaning, and specifically in this case a tense.

Today’s word is μαθητεύω (Matheteuo).  Which in the ancient Greek was a verb, yet it is often translated as a noun.  The word is disciple as a verb, or “to make disciples.” In today’s scripture, we learn of Jesus’ first call of His disciples, near the sea of Galilee.  This is actually really where the Great Commission begins, with Jesus’ preaching, teaching, and healing, and at the crossroads of Israel and the Gentile nations.  This was not understood in entirety until the resurrection, when Jesus asks his followers to go back to Galilee and He gives them the Great Commission.  Matthew 28: 16-20

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’

They and thus we were told to do exactly this, and we see the term make disciples and miss that it really is a verb.  Even in English the word disciple is a verb and a noun.  The noun is someone that follows the teachings of someone, generally assumed Jesus, capitalized it means a member of our denomination, but the verb tense is considered archaic and means to teach.  Thus the above highlighted text should just say “disciple” or “teach,” for the “make disciples” hints that the goal is to make more nouns and not do the verb.  Hope that makes some sense.

Let us return to the fishing metaphor Jesus used when He called the first disciples.  When one fishes even for a living it is about getting fish, but there is a lot of knowledge and preparation that must be mastered to allow for the full nets.  This is hinted at in the scripture, first of all that James and John sat with their father, implying that they learned the vocation of fishing from him, and they sat their mending their nets.  This reminds me of the adage, “watch the pennies and the dollars will follow.”  A good fisherman would know that there is a lot of preparation, knowledge, patience, and skill, to be awarded with the fish.  Even today when we successfully accomplish something that we did with preparation, knowledge, patience, and skill, we rightly thank God. 

When we try to fulfill the Great Commission we must remember that the first Disciples were told they would be fishing for people, and as fishermen, would understand the metaphor as the work they would do for God to provide the outcome.  The word, μαθητεύω, should be a verb to us and let the noun be for God.  Just as when I lower someone into the baptismal waters, it is God, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, who baptizes, not I the pastor, I am just there doing.  We are to teach, to disciple and as any good teachers will tell you when you teach you learn, and God will make disciples.