Mission Impossible?

It’s a joy to be with you this morning for this service of baptism and confirmation. Thank you from me to this church community for the privilege of walking with you over the last ten years. I have learned so much from you, not least from Will and the team. Many blessings and good wishes for the future and the next part of the journey.

I thought I would mark my final service of confirmation by playing just a few bars of one of the best known theme tunes in the world.

It is of course the Mission Impossible theme to the MI film franchise which has run so far from 1996-2025 – and also the TV series which I’m old enough to remember which ran from 1966-1973.

Even if you haven’t seen all the films you will know the format. At the beginning of each film Ethan Hunt and his team of agents are given a new impossible mission. The instructions come on a tape left in a secure location and always end with the words: this tape will self destruct in five seconds.

The mission seems impossible but somehow through craft, ingenuity, teamwork, grit, courage, excellent disguises and good faith the team overcome all obstacles.

Why do I mention Mission Impossible today?

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus gives a seemingly impossible mission to eleven disciples on the mountaintop. There are just eleven of them. The global population at the time is estimated at around 250 million people. That’s a long way short of 8 billion people today. But even so: just eleven people according to Matthew – or 120 gathered in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost according to Luke.

And this is the great commission: make disciples of all the nations. The eleven are to continue Jesus own work of disciple making, drawing people into the fire of God’s love.

And this work of disciple making involves three things, expressed in other three verbs in the sentence which are all participles. They are do make disciples by going into all the world. They are to make disciples by baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit as we do today. They are to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

This must have seemed an impossible mission. And yet here we are today. By the end of the first century, the churches have been planted across the Roman Empire and beyond. Three hundred years later, and the Christian faith becomes the majority faith of that Empire. The Christian faith is carried to every continent and transforms society, in Europe, in the East, in the Americas, in Africa .

Today those eleven disciples have become an estimated 1.3 billion Christians in every nation on the earth. One in three people on the planet is a follower of Jesus Christ. One in three baptised, one in three seeking to keep everything Jesus commanded.

The impossible mission has become possible. How? There has been courage and ingenuity and love and teamwork of course. But most of all this has happened because of Jesus final words in Matthew’s gospel: and remember I am with you always to the end of the age.

And today that commission and this promise continue. Together we are witnessing the baptism and confirmation of those who are becoming followers of Jesus. In baptism the Lord is adding to our number those whom he is calling. We all share in this ministry.

We will join with the candidates in the great affirmation of faith in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit on this Trinity Sunday. God is revealed in creation, in the incarnation of Jesus, in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our candidates for baptism will be baptised in this threefold name as Jesus commands.

We will pray for each of the candidates at their confirmation, assuring them of God’s deep and personal love: God has called you by name and made you his own. And we will pray for them for God’s grace and filling and strengthening for the whole of their lives. Confirm O Lord your servant with your Holy Spirit.

And why do we pray for them? Because they will share with us now in this impossible mission. They join with us in the fight against sin, the world and the devil. They share the commission to make disciples, to love and serve all people, to safeguard the integrity of creation, to seek peace and justice.

And Christ’s presence is with them as Christ is with those first disciples and as Christ is with each of us. May God bless them and bless each of us this day in the way of Jesus.

Amen.