Matthew 28: 16-20                                                                                                    Rev. Dr. Galen E. Russell III

                                                                                                                                                                     May 31, 2026

“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”Prayer: O Living Spirit of God, who lived in Jesus Christ, please live in us anew, so we may feel your inspiration, and others may feel it from us. Amen.

Last week, a friend of mine sent me an Instant Message. It was a video of country music star Eric Church offering a commencement speech to the graduates at University of North Carolina. Now this wasn’t your ordinary commencement speech where graduates are encouraged to embrace the unknown, learn from failure, and use their education to make a positive impact transforming the world. Yada, yada, yada.

My friend, I’m guessing, sent me this video because Eric Church brought his guitar on stage saying that there was no way he could do his speech without his guitar. Well, I play guitar so, that got my attention.

Mr. Church then went on to use the guitar as an object lesson, explaining that all the strings must be in tune so that the guitar can make a good sounding chord.

And he explained how each string represents a value that we have in life, with the lowest string, the foundational string, representing faith. That alone got me listening to the whole speech, and of course, was the main reason my friend sent me the video in the first place. 6 strings. Faith, family, spouse, ambition, community, self.

You can listen to the speech on your own for more on what each string represents, but Mr. Church urged the graduates to get up and go out into the world, making sure that all their strings are tuned up, but also having the humility and grace to keep tuning them when they go out of tune. Because they all will go out at some point. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good commencement speech, as those things go.

Seems to me that Jesus’ words as Matthew recorded them are kind of like a commencement speech that was to inspire his disciples to get up and going, too. Jesus uses a bunch of verbs. Go, make, baptize, teach, obey, command. In what we call the Great Commission, Jesus kind of gives the disciples their marching orders, to get up and go in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit and transform the world. 

And in Matthew’s version, the disciples received the Great Commission in Galilee. Not in Jerusalem, the seat of religious power. Certainly not in Rome, the seat of military and imperial power. No… it was Galilee.

Galilee was on the outskirts of all that power. Galilee was on the margins of life. It was where many poor people lived. Also, where diseased and sick people and outsiders lived. Galilee was the butt of jokes. And in John’s gospel, people could hardly believe that the Messiah would come from Galilee.

But from these humble beginnings, with a small group of 11 disciples, Jesus commissions them to get up and going to all nations, teaching them to obey everything that Jesus taught them.

Now, the word for nations in Greek is eqnos, (ethnos), from which we get our word ‘ethnic’ and ‘ethnicity.’  It refers to people all over the world, people of all ethnicities. People of different nationalities. Jews and non-Jews. In the Hebrew language, the word for ‘nations’ is Gentile. Or non-Jewish people.

You see? What God had in mind is that what Jesus taught was inclusive of all people. He taught about God’s love for the world. About justice and mercy for everyone. He taught about making peace and practicing reconciliation. He taught about having humility and grace. He taught that the foreign Samaritan was a neighbor. And that the lying, cheating tax collector could be redeemed. He taught about loving your enemy, praying for those who persecute you, and having mutuality and solidarity with those who are marginalized.

Jesus wanted his disciples to take what he taught them, to get up and going, starting from a place of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The Great Commission was God’s original DEI policy.

Sadly, Jesus’ words of the Great Commission have been weaponized by Christians all over. They’ve been used as theological justification for conquest, cultural domination, and forced assimilation.  For deportation. Even ethnic cleansing. Colonial powers often merge Christian mission with imperial expansion, treating the command to “make disciples of all nations” as permission to control lands and peoples rather than serve them. Whole cultures have been erased. Colonialism has committed atrocities in the name of Jesus. Christian nationalism has led to horrific acts of violence fueled by bigotry and racial hatred in the name of Jesus.

But thank God that these terrible acts do not have the last word on the Great Commission. Nor do these kinds of events define it. Because God’s story is much bigger than the abuse and misuse of Jesus’ words.

God’s story continues as we, you and I, embody what Jesus taught. The story continues as we get up and going for God’s purposes that show up in our circumstances.

This past week driving home, right before Hennigan’s bowling alley, I saw cars in front of me swerving left to avoid and go around a pulled over vehicle. As I approached, I did the same, but I could see that the driver was visibly upset. So, I pulled into the bowling alley parking lot and turned back to the driver. As he got out of his car, he put his hands on his head and said in anguish, “I hit a cat. It just ran out in front of me. I don’t know where it is.” Oh man… been there, done that.  That is traumatic. We looked for the cat. Couldn’t find it. After a few minutes, he was better. As we walked to our cars I said “I give you peace brother.” He shook my hand as we departed and said “Thanks for stopping.”

I didn’t do much, but somehow I think God’s story was continuing. Because God’s story becomes our story as we turn toward those whose lives have pain and anguish. God’s story becomes our story as we repent from waging war, not sticking to a ‘cease fire’ and turn toward diplomacy. Or, I believe, God’s story becomes our story as we turn away from assuming that life for the majority and the privileged should be good for everyone and turn toward listening to the voices of the marginalized and the diverse.

God’s story becomes our story as we challenge ourselves to see, not with tunnel vision which puts blinders on both eyes, but to see panoramically. To see our world and its people and its beauty with a wide-angled lens. Not to be colorblind when we see people, but to see all the colors of all people. 

Just as Jesus commissioned his 11 disciples, I believe he commissions us and all his followers to teach and practice the content of what he taught. He commissions all of us to be up and going, living our lives directly influenced by his love within us. Because if the risen Spirit of Jesus is with us always, then that means his Spirit is living in us. His love is within us.

And God’s love is never static. God’s love never is contained. It travels. God’s love is up and going. It’s the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.