Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Sunday, September 7, 2025

SOAP 21/21 - Into the World (Mt 28.16-20)

 

SOAP 21/21
Into the World
Matthew 28.16-20

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5

For the next 21 days, let's commit to feeding yourself spiritually by reading and reflecting on a passage of Scripture each day using the S.O.A.P. method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer). Keep a brief daily note of what you learn and how you might apply it, and at the end of the 21 days, share your biggest takeaway with someone else. 

Into the World
Matthew 28.16-20
The Great Sending
At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the risen Christ appears to His disciples and gives them their mission: make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching, under His abiding presence. This passage is both commission and promise: the Church of Jesus' beloved are sent, but are never alone.


Matthew 28.16-20 (ESV)

16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted.
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 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, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Greek Word Study

  • ἐξουσία (exousia) – “authority” (v. 18). Not domination, but rightful power, often tied to responsibility and relational legitimacy.
  • μαθητεύσατε (mathēteusate) – “make disciples” (v. 19). To form learners, apprentices in a way of life, not simply converts.
  • βαπτίζοντες (baptizontes) – “baptizing” (v. 19). Immersing into identity and community, not only ritual washing.
  • διδάσκοντες (didaskontes) – “teaching” (v. 20). Ongoing instruction, shaping character and practice.
  • συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος (synteleias tou aiōnos) – “end of the age” (v. 20). Not destruction of time, but fulfillment of history.


Historical Situation

Matthew’s Gospel (c. 80–90 CE) speaks to a community navigating the trauma of Jerusalem’s destruction, scattered Jewish-Christian identity, and growing Gentile mission.

The “Great Commission” marks a turning point: the Church’s life is not inward retreat but outward loving witness, grounded in baptism, merciful teaching, and the enduring presence of Christ and fidelity to him.


Observation through Three Lenses

1. Traditional (Catholic / Orthodox / Protestant Mainstream)

Tradition sees this text as the foundation of sacramental mission. The Trinitarian baptismal formula undergirds liturgy and creeds. The apostolic mission becomes the Church’s hierarchical structure of authority, ensuring continuity through bishops, priests, and sacramental practice. The danger: mission becomes institutional expansion, more about defending human authority than embodying Christ’s love.

2. Evangelical (Conservative Protestant)

Evangelicals emphasize the Great Commission as the marching orders for evangelism. The focus falls on conversion: bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Jesus. Discipleship is often reduced to decisions, numbers, or missionary campaigns. While this passion for outreach reflects obedience, it risks turning mission into colonial export or cultural dominance, rather than holistic witness to God’s kingdom.

3. Process Theological (Relational, Whiteheadian)

Process theology hears the Great Commission as a sending into co-creative partnership between God and man. Authority in Christ is not coercive command but relational empowerment and enrichment. “Make disciples” means nurturing communities that embody relational love and justice. Baptism is immersion into divine relationality; teaching is formation in God’s lure toward peace. Mission is not about control or conquest but participation in God’s renewing of the world. The promise “I am with you always” grounds mission not in fear or performance but in God’s abiding, persuasive presence as truth as well as teaching and acknowledgment: The Creating-Redeeming God is always with creation  in acts of creating and redeeming through it's willing structures.


Application through Three Lenses

1. Traditional

Am I faithful to the Church’s sacramental mission, joining in worship and service that continues Christ’s presence in the world?

2. Evangelical

Am I obedient to Christ’s call to witness, making disciples not by words alone but by living a life that points to Jesus?

3. Process Theological

Am I living as a co-creator with God, embodying relational love and forming communities of justice and peace? This passage heals by reframing mission not as conquest but as accompaniment, empowered by Christ’s abiding presence.


Prayer

Christ of all nations,

You send us into the world with authority rooted in love. Teach us to baptize not into fear but into freedom, not into empire but into communion. Make our teaching gentle, our witness humble, our service generous. And remind us always that You are with us — to the end of the age, and beyond. 

Amen



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