there
a foot behind the laptop’s glass
the ghost of an older man
a thick callous of time
grown hard around a boy
but the eyes are the same
blue as the day he was born

“Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go 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 I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” Matthew 28:18-20 NIV

I like these verses. I went to Biblegateway.com because I wanted to write but there are no words and I was looking for inspiration and lo and behold I actually found some. 

These verses from Matthew make up the “Verse of the Day” and meant I didn’t even have to dig into the Bible because they were right there front and centre when I got to the website. They stopped me because the essence of these verses is action…the core is GO. This is a big coincidence. Of course you have no idea why it is a coincidence so I will explain.

I recently finished preparing the first of what promises to be a series of written pieces for a church’s website. They want content written about and around their varying sermon series and I was more than happy to oblige. In fact I just finished writing the content about their upcoming series, which is titled (if you have not guessed by now) GO.

How simple and yet how profoundly difficult a command (and make no mistake it is a command, not a suggestion). 

Christ makes three things abundantly clear:

1. I have ALL authority
2. GO and make disciples and baptize.
3. I AM with you always

Here is why you will GO; Here is who you will GO to; and here is how you will accomplish what you have been told to GO and do.

But GOing requires leaving.

Abram left and it was credited as faith to him. 

If we GO we leave…we leave our homes, our families, our friends, ourselves, our comforts, our belongings. This is the essence of GO.

Of course the world is not necessarily India. It is not necessarily Mexico or Africa or even Detroit. The world is right outside the door. But as the wise and faithful J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote:

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, GOing out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

To GO is a dangerous thing. You leave everything and everyone that makes you feel safe and comfortable and you GO naked into the world. 

Or do you? Do I?

When we GO (and we do) every day on the way to work, school, the coffee shop, travelling etc. do we GO with the mindset of obeying this one simple command? Do we GO knowing that the one with all authority, the one with the only authority, has sent us? Do we GO intending to make disciples? Do we even know what it is to make a disciple without taking a six week intense course written by the sharpest theological mind of the day?

I wonder.

I wonder if when we GO with a program in heart and in mind if we aren’t simply taking baggage with us? If we are, we aren’t really GOing are we? We are taking our comfort with us like a shelter. After all if we went with nothing we would have to rely more intentionally on the one who sent us. 

Maybe that is the point.

I want to GO. I don’t GO, but I want to. 

Maybe that is the prayer for the morning before I step out the door. 

“Lord help me to GO into the world today and take nothing with me. Lord thrust me naked into a fiery world that I might need and rely on you in every instance, for every word and every deed. Lord may the first disciple made this day be me. Baptize me afresh each morning that I might remember what it is you desire and GO and do it.”

break cold
each black wave is a moment
a second of the day
washing effortless
oily wet caresses over my stone being
wearing it down to nothing
a pale driftwood sculpture
of what once was a man

there,
there before the pale water
beneath which slips
this bright,
this brilliant daughter
one stands mesmerized
transfixed as she departs
then returns –
baptized
a beating heart
my heart
once stood alone
stood apart
now stands with her
and she with God
as the heavens roar
shake earth with hands
that boldly applaud
while she
she so small
she smiles
smiles at the promise of it all

I was given an enormous gift this weekend after my daughter asked me to be one of her encouragers at her baptism along with her mother. For those not familiar with the concept, an encourager is one chosen by the baptismal candidate to stand and speak words of (you guessed it) encouragement to them before the congregation and just prior to the moment of baptism.

The memory of a baptism is a powerful thing. It is a great statement before the church and the world of the promise of God in the life of the one being baptized, for the world and for those witnessing the event as well. It is a Gospel moment in the true sense of the Word if there ever was one. It is a reminder like stones gathered next to a river, of a moment of crossing, a place of significance in a life that one desires others to know about, to hear about. It can be a thin place.

Baptism is the first act of obedience in the Christian life…well, ideally it is. It is the first commandment of Christ after “Believe” but it is not taken as seriously as it should be in many places.

Acts 16:30-31 relate with wondrous simplicity the question that is, in one way or another, on the heart of every person everywhere:

[The jailer] “brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”

How simple. Deceptively simple? No…simply simple. An unvarnished, unencumbered, clear response to a question that has been the source of agony for many a person. Believe, and in response to this belief we are called to baptism be it the baptism of a believer’s household or the baptism of the believer, it is baptism that stands like the lighting of a new lighthouse upon an endless rocky shore both warning and attracting wary travelers along the way.

My daughter has joined many in setting up her lighthouse and as such is part of  great multitude of witnesses throughout history that have done the same – many at the cost of their very lives. It is enough to make a father sinfully proud.

At any rate it was a powerful moment and I was honoured to offer the following words of encouragement to my daughter:

Isabella – you are brilliant. You are a brightness that cannot be extinguished.

Always know that the light you shine is Christ’s light reflected in, and through you. The closer you remain to Him in his Word, in prayer, and in life, the brighter you will shine bringing God’s grace and hope into the lives of everyone you meet.

This baptism is your living confession to everyone here that you and Jesus are joined in a way that no one can ever change…not even you. This baptism tells everyone that you have joined Christ in his work to save the world and I am so very proud of you for this.

Isabella, one of the meanings of your name is “the promise of God” and I want you to remember that your baptism is the most powerful symbol of the most powerful promise God has ever made…the promise to rescue you…the promise to hold you…the promise to walk with you through every kind of joy and every kind of suffering and never let you go. It is the promise of his Holy Spirit already living in you to help you and strengthen you.

The apostle Paul understood this promise and I will leave you his words as God’s promise to you from the letter to the Romans, chapter 8 verses 38-39:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”