www.gbcdecatur.org/files/GoTime.jpg
For more bulletin-type art, go to https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-1&type=c2pr_8002_CHW_US_tid132w&p=great%20commission%20clipart
Original liturgical resources (please state © Barbara Hedges-Goettl or, if adapting: adapted from resource © Barbara Hedges-Goettl)
Call to Worship (from Psalm 40 Good News version)
One: In the assembly of all your people, Lord,
Many: We tell the good news that you save us.
You know that we will never stop telling it.
One: We have not kept the news of salvation to ourselves.
Many: We have always spoken of your faithfulness and help
We have not been silent about your loyalty and constant love
One: In the assembly of all your people., Lord.
Psalm 4 in multiple versions (you can pick which versions you want to see)
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm40&version=NRSV;GNT;TLB;NIV;MSG
Opening prayer
Almighty and eternal God, you have called us together in this time and place. Call us again to disciple all peoples, baptizing them in your Triune name:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit; Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
Call us again to teach all [peoples/communities/neighbors/neighborhoods/tribes/races/multitudes*]
to follow everything that Jesus has commanded us.
Call us again to follow Jesus, who holds all authority in heaven and earth.
In the name of the One who is always with us we pray, Amen.
*These choices are from possible translations of ethnos, Matthew 28:19;
see exegetical resources below.
Prayer of Confession
O God, although you call us to witness to all peoples,
we interact mostly with those who are like us.
Broaden our understanding of who our neighbor is.
Enlarge our community. Empower us to see and hear the “Other.”
Make us ready to teach and also humble—ready to be taught.
Remind us that all authority is not ours, but yours.
In the name of Jesus, who served all peoples, Amen.
Assurance (adapted from Zephaniah 3:17)
The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who saves;
he rejoices over you with gladness; he quiets you by his love;
he exults over you with loud singing.
Thanks be to God for the Good News: In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
Confession of Faith:
We have varieties of gifts, 1 Cor. 12/Matthew 28
but it is the same Spirit who gives them.
We have different ways of serving God,
but it is the same Lord who is served.
God works through each of us in a unique way,
but it is God’s purpose that is accomplished.
To each of us is given a gift of the Spirit
to be used for the common good.
The body is one and has many members.
All the members, though many, are one body
So it is with Christ. In the one Spirit,
we are all baptized into one body.
As Christ’s body, we are commissioned
to go and disciple all nations,
teaching what Jesus taught,
and knowing he is with us always, to the end of the age.
Interrogative Apostles’ Creed (Roman Catholic International Commission on English in the Liturgy, 1974)
Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth? “I do.”
Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father? “I do.”
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting? “I do.”
This is our faith, the faith of the Church that we proclaim and share.
Offering prayer
By the presence of the risen Christ Jesus, empower this church and these gifts in discipleship to share and follow all that Jesus taught and did. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Prayer of Great Thanksgiving B
© 1993 Westminster/John Knox Press
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except as noted.
Brief portions of this Book of Common Worship may be reproduced without special permission
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is included: Reprinted by permission from Book of Common Worship, © 1993
Westminster/John Knox Press.
You are holy, O God of majesty,
and blessed is Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
You sent your only-begotten,
in whom your fullness dwells,
to be for us the way, the truth, and the life.
Revealing your love,
Jesus taught those who would hear him,
healed those who believed in him,
received all who sought him
and lifted the burden of their sin.
We glorify you for your great power and love at work in Christ.
By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection,
you gave birth to your church,
delivered us from slavery to sin and death,
and made us a new people by water and the Spirit
Gracious God,
pour out your Holy Spirit upon us
and upon these your gifts of bread and wine,
that the bread we break
and the cup we bless
may be the communion of the body and blood of Christ.
By your Spirit unite us with the living Christ
and with all who are baptized in his name,
that we may be one in ministry in every place.
As this bread is Christ’s body for us,
send us out to be the body of Christ in the world.
Intercessions for the church and the world may be included here.
Help us, O God, to love as Christ loved.
Knowing our own weakness,
may we stand with all who stumble.
Sharing in his suffering,
may we remember all who suffer.
Held in his love,
may we embrace all whom the world denies.
Rejoicing in his forgiveness,
may we forgive all who sin against us.
Give us strength to serve you faithfully
until the promised day of resurrection,
when with the redeemed of all the ages
we will feast with you at your table in glory.
Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
all glory and honor are yours, eternal God,
now and forever. Amen. [115]
Exegetical resources:
Matthew 28:16 This commentary contends that all the disciples both worshiped and doubted: http://dancingwiththeword.com/but-some-doubted/
BlueLetterBible interlinear word study; ones I found of interest are
v. 18: power https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1849&t=KJV
v. 19: teach; nations;
https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/28/18/t_conc_957019 Click on Strong’s number for info on a particular word
v. 20: observe; commanded https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/mat/28/18/t_conc_957020 Click on Strong’s number for info on a particular word
What is the Great Commission and Why Is It So Controversial?
http://theconversation.com/what-is-the-great-commission-and-why-is-it-so-controversial-111138
Along these lines, see this book, which is all about the Great Commission and colonialism; as summarized here:
That Christian missionary efforts have long gone hand-in-hand with European colonization and American imperialist expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries is well recognized. The linchpin role played in those efforts by the “Great Commission”–the risen Christ’s command to “go into all the world” and “teach all nations”–has more often been observed than analyzed, however. With the rise of European colonialism, the Great Commission was suddenly taken up with an eschatological urgency, often explicit in the founding statements of missionary societies; the differentiation of “teachers” and “nations” waiting to be “taught” proved a ready-made sacred sanction for the racialized and androcentric logics of conquest and “civilization.”
https://www.amazon.com/Teaching-All-Nations-Interrogating-Commission/dp/1451470495
Link from google.com/books to full Ebook for $37.72
A good foil for this could be various readings of the Ethiopian Eunuch story in which it is observed that the Eunuch’s questions revealed new things to Philip as well as vice-versa, and that their roles cannot be described unilaterally in terms of power/status, but only in terms of intersectionality. See https://wordpress.com/post/bjhlog.wordpress.com/168
Account of the guards blaming Jesus’ disappearance on the disciples (right before our passage) v. our passage as parallel narratives: https://www.onemansweb.org/theology/life-on-the-beach-matthew-24-36-44/trust-matthew-28-16-20-trinity-sunday.html.
Make disciples/discipling as the active verb in the passage; others are participles explaining/describing the making of disciples. See http://gluthermonson.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-great-calling-and-assurance.html
Wikipedia: The Great Commission. This description deals mostly with Matthew 28, but also discusses the other gospels (and Acts) versions of the Great Commission as well as other commissions given in Matthew. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Commission
The Great Commission: Ecclesiology
http://s3.amazonaws.com/tgc-documents/journal-issues/32.3_Castleman.pdf
This last addresses the role of the Trinity; this reading in the RCL is used on Trinity Sunday. For why, see http://www.textweek.com/mtlk/matt28b.htm
Commissioning v. Commandment; deals with passage from perspective of United Methodist mission statement: – “To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” https://www.pulpitfiction.com/notes/trinitya
Other ideas for themes/quotes
Preach the Gospel—Use Words When Necessary (attributed to St. Francis, but not substantiated)
Commission and Covenant: Go and I am with you always
Discipling v. Making Disciples (Calvinists, like me, would say the first is our job, the second is God’s job)
Music
Matthew 28:16-20
The great commissioning
http://lectionarysong.blogspot.com/2017/05/songs-hymns-music-for-trinity-sunday-11.html
“Go to the World,” is a new expression of the Great Commission set to a familiar Ralph Vaughn Williams tune (SINE NOMINE) often used in “For All the Saints.” Consider using this for the sending today. See https://hymnary.org/text/go_to_the_world_go_into_all_the_earth#media
| Verses | Title | Presby-terian Hymnal (1990) |
| v.16-17 | That Easter Day with Joy Was Bright |
121 |
| v. 18 | Alleluia! Sing to Jesus! |
144 |
| Rejoice, the Lord Is King! |
155 |
|
| v.19-20 | Eternal God, Whose Power Upholds |
412 |
| The Church of God in Every Age |
421 |
|
| God, Whose Giving Knows No Ending |
422 |
|
| Lord, Speak to Me, That I May Speak |
426 |
|
| Lord, You Give the Great Commission |
429 |
|
| Today We All Are Called to Be Disciples |
434 |
|
| We All Are One in Mission |
435 |
|
| O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing |
466 |
|
| Let Us Talents and Tongues Employ |
514 |
|
| v.20 | Abide with Me |
543 |
| Command | ||
| How Blest Are Those (Psalm 32) | 184 v.4 |
katyandtheword 
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