That’s A Wrap - Matthew 28:18-20 - BREAKAWAY FRIDAY

Mr. Koreander:  The video arcade is down the street.  Here we just sell small rectangular objects, they’re called books.  They require a little effort on your part and make no be-be-be-be-beeps.  On your way boy.

Bastian: I know books, I have 186 of them at home.

Mr. Koreander: Ah, comic books.

Bastian: No, I've read Treasure Island, The Last of the Mohicans, Wizard of Oz, Lord of the Rings, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Tarzan.

Pause

Bastian:  What’s that book about?

Mr. Koleander:  Oh, this is something special.

Bastian:  Drawing closer to Mr. Koreander.  Well, what is it?

Mr. Koreander: Look.  Your books are safe. While you're reading them, you get to become Tarzan or Robinson Crusoe.

Bastian: But that's what I like about 'em.

Mr. Koreander: Ahh, but afterwards you get to be a little boy again.

Bastian: Wh-what do you mean?

Mr. Koreander: Listen. Have you ever been Captain Nemo, trapped inside your submarine while the giant squid is attacking you?

Bastian: Yes.

Mr. Koreander: Weren't you afraid you couldn't escape?

Bastian: But it's only a story.

Mr. Koreander: That's what I'm talking about. The ones you read are safe.

Bastian: And that one isn't?

A scene from the 1984 film, The Neverending Story.    In this live clip between Koreander and Bastian as they are discussing books, Koreander has a book different from all others, entitled The Neverending Story.  Koreander suggests that Bastian’s ability to visually enter and exit the novels he reads is safe—nothing is real about his encounter.  However, Koreander suggests, with this book, it’s different, it’s not safe.  Bastian finds out as he begins reading this book, that he actually becomes part of the story—and it is not completely safe—and even when the story comes to an end, it continues.

The disciples may have thought they had come to the end of their story—and they had truly entered the story…they had walked and talked and worked alongside the Living Word.  They had watched as He had been crucified, placed in a tomb, and then encountered Jesus after the resurrection.  They met him on that mountaintop and arrived there not knowing what was in store.  Two things stand out—these disciples, these followers of Jesus, like Bastian in The Neverending Story, had completely entered the story, had completely placed themselves under the direction of God through Jesus Christ, and their lives would never be the same.  They had been changed.  They had been transformed.  They would not be able to walk the streets of Jerusalem and throughout the region the same way they once did.  They would see people differently.  They would respond to needs differently.  They would allow God to direct their lives differently—for they had come to see that the way they had planned for the Messiah’s rule was all wrong.  However, God’s direction brought more than they could imagine, God’s direction resulted in the resurrection.

They also learned that even as Jesus prepared to ascend to the Father that the story was not over…in many ways it was just beginning again.  Jesus turned to them and said, “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.”  The work for the disciples had not come to an end because Jesus would not be physically in their presence any more.  They’re work was expanding.  They had grown close to Christ and become His disciples…they had learned how to let God direct their lives…and now, having been changed through their entrance into the presence of the Living Word…and now they were being sent into the world to bring others into a life where God would be their director…they were to go out and make disciples.

My brothers and sisters, we have entered into Christ’s story this week through “Lights…Camera…Action.” 

We began Monday by hearing God’s Invitation to join His Cast.  We heard that God’s invitation to join the cast, to become part of the Body of Christ, is open to us all.  God’s cast does not exclude on the basis of age, gender, skin color, or anything else, including our past.  He simply invites us to come, to give up trying to direct our own lives, and let Him direct our steps.

Tuesday we encountered a dual lesson.  Those of us that gathered for worship in the morning heard God’s Word remind us to shrug off the labels that the world tries to place on us.  We are to remember the only name that matters, that we are a “Child of the One True King.”  And as Children of the King, Members of His cast, God calls us together as the Body of Christ, and gives us each gifts, that under His direction, touch the pains of the world.  Later that night, we were reminded that as Children of the King, that we need not live in fear, as God walks with us, in fact carries us, through the storms of our lives.

On Wednesday, we uncovered the importance of truly coming to know the Word of God, letting it become the “apple of our eye,” the most important thing in our lives, and writing God’s Word upon our hearts, so that it courses through our bodies and is reflected in everything we do…realizing that it is there, with God’s Word fully in our lives, that we find the strength to overcome the temptations we encounter to walk away from God’s direction.

Yesterday, we came to terms with what happens in our relationship with God when we fail to heed God’s direction, and give in to the temptation to forget who we are.  When we stop trying to control our own paths, we can give thanks to God, that through Christ, we get a “take two,” “take three,” or more.

So what now? We have come to the end of the week…the end of the book…the end of the movie…so we’re done, right? It’s over.  We’ll go home tomorrow to life as usual.

That’s true only if we fail to let this entrance into God’s story transform us.  It is hope and has been prayed for, not just by the staff here, but by many of our churches back home, that this week may have touched each of our lives in such a way that we will newly allow God to take charge and direct our lives.  If we do that, we will hear Christ’s invitation back into the His Neverending Story.  With His Words to the disciples, He speaks to us as well.  He says to each of us, “if you have come to this place, to this point of letting me direct your lives, then it is just beginning, because I have something more for you—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.”

As we have grown in our discipleship here, as we have learned to walk closer with Christ, letting the Father direct our steps…so Christ calls us to go back to our communities to do the same.  God calls us to go into all the world to use our gifts to offer His inviting, welcoming, embracing presence.  He calls us to go into the world and let folks who are struggling with their identity, especially those that the world has labeled as “less than” or “outcast” to know that they are welcome Children of God.  Christ calls us to go into the world and make God’s Word such a part of our lives that folks look at us and see God’s Living Word.  He calls us to go into the world, to those who have stumbled and fallen away, to those that think they have messed up so bad they are unlovable, to those that the world has judged and cast out, and share with them the same second chance that God has offered us.

Just as when the filming of a movie wraps up sets the stage for the next step in the life of the movie, so to does the close of this week.  Christ looks upon us tonight and at our growth groups, LWG groups, and later tonight our dorm groups, and declares, “That’s a wrap.  Get some rest and then Go into all the world and make disciples…be part of my continuing story….”  The Neverending Story is just beginning for us.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.