BISHOP PAUL’S LETTER

REV PAUL SMITH Bishop, Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand

especially in the formation of many church workers who have served at home and abroad.

It is significant that the text of Matthew 28 tells of the risen Lord sending ‘doubters’. Verse 17 reads, ‘When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted’. But our Lord does not divide the disciples into the ‘doubters’ and ‘the rest’ so that he can avoid sending the doubters. Verse 17 is followed by the command we know as the Great Commission, spoken to both the doubters and the rest.

The Lord gathers us into his mission with all our struggles and uncertainties. The people of Trinity Appila would gladly acknowledge that they are ordinary people caught up in the extraordinary mission of God.

In our modern Lutheran Church in New Zealand and Australia, we are seeing significant changes. Like many congregations, both Trinity Appila and Good Shepherd Toowoomba are no longer the size they were at the turn of this century. But this change in demography must not distract God’s people from the Great Commission. The mission field may have changed but the mission has not.

Matthew 28 commands us to go to all nations, making disciples and teaching them to obey everything that our Lord commanded. In our contemporary communities in New Zealand and Australia, we study Scripture with fervour and purpose, to discern what the Lord wants us to ‘teach’ in his name.

Matthew 28 commands us to go to all nations, making disciples and baptising. In our contemporary communities, we are called to cherish baptism in our own lives and in the lives of others. In public media and online, we rarely hear of the precious gift of baptism. We who are baptised into Christ declare to the world, with St Paul, that we were buried with Christ by baptism into his death and raised to walk in newness of life.

‘Go to all nations’, commands our risen Lord Jesus. In Christ,