That not one of these little ones be lost
At the end of Matthew’s gospel, there are a series of words packed with meaning, which are used at every baptismal service and at other times as well.  Jesus said,
“All authority in heaven and of 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. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 
It has been pointed out that Jesus’ command to his disciples is, “Make disciples...”, rather than, “Go out and evanglelize the world...”  or “Go preach the gospel.”  It’s, “Go make disciples of all nations...”
Well, of course, discipleship relates to faith in God as revealed in Christ.  Jesus, as proclaimed in Matthew’s gospel, certainly makes known the one eternal God, who does not allow worship of any idol, beside him.  There is a consistency in that.  God, also, is worshipped in the Christian community represented by Matthew’s gospel, as God who forgives people.  The Forgiving One; also the one who calls people to repentance and faith in order that they may find that forgiveness.  And, certainly, part of the faith expressed in Matthew’s gospel is faith in God who is active in the world and calls to enter into that work.
So, certainly, the gospel ought to be proclaimed.  However, right at the end of Matthew’s gospel, we have, “Go and make disciples..”  So, what, in fact, does that mean?  How is that maybe different or more than simply preaching the gospel?
Making disciples, it would seem, has a connection with how people live together.  And the early Church was very insistent on how people ought to live.  For example, in Matthew’s gospel, there is this written,
But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students.  And call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father--the one in heaven.  Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Messiah.
There is a sense that, in the early Christian community—and Paul seems to emphasize that too, when he talks about the Church as the Body of Christ, with a variety of gifts, but one body; every gift is an essential component to it all—it would seem that in the earliest Church, there was a sense that there is an equality of all people [before God] in this Christian community.   Where there is an idolatry of money, there is going to be a difference between the rich and the poor.  When there is an idolatry of old versus young, perhaps, then children may be turned away, and so on.
So worship of the one God made known in Jesus Christ produces, or is to produce, an equality, and a certain egalitarianism, in the Church, before God.  There is a distinction, as Paul indicates, in our various gifts.  But all of us are essential to the Christian community.  And, in fact, those who exalt themselves, according to Jesus, will be humbled, whereas those who humble themselves will be exalted.
In our own day, we speak of human rights.  The whole movement for human rights is not that old.  It was part of the French Revolution, and the American Revolution.  It finally trickled down to affect the role of women, in the early part of the twentieth century.  But the practice of the upholding of human rights is something that honours, theoretically, each human being, and their part in society.  And we have various laws in the world to protect those human rights.  We have worldwide human rights watchdogs, which pay attention to what is happening in various parts of the world, where human rights are being denied, such as in places like Syria or Iran.
In its history, the Church has not always come out in favour of human rights—the equality of rights.  And, in fact, when this movement began, thanks to the Enlightenment of the 18th century, and the early 19th century, the Church balked at it, to some degree.  But it is an essential part of the earliest Church, that there are no “higher-ups” in the Church.  We have one Teacher, one Messiah, and we have no father other than our heavenly Father, in the Church community.
Of course, applying that requires effort on our part.  It requires removing those things, or the influence of those realities, which make some people “more equal” than others.
Now, in the earliest Christian community, it is surprising the extent to which a person’s behaviour was very important, and was taken note of, shall we say.  There is the belief in God who calls us to account, who calls us to repentance and faith, who makes known forgiveness.  But this ought to translate, according to the reading I read to you from Matthew’s gospel, in terms of a certain type of behaviour in the Church.  There is an accountability that church members have to one another:
“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone...”
And then the passage continues to describe the procedure—if you don’t get listened to, take one or two other persons with you, so that there can be witnesses to what is taking place.  And if you are not listened to then, tell it to the whole church; and if again there is no response from the person who is somehow erring, then let that person be to you “as a Gentile and tax-collector”, according to the words here in Matthew’s gospel.  Now, that manner of going about things is, shall we say, not as commonly practised as one might think should be the case, in the current Church.
Now, a parallel to the approach described in Matthew’s gospel is found in Paul’s letters.  Paul, for example, remarks on certain behaviour which is, in his view, damaging the Church.  And he says,
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?   If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person.  For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.
And, actually, in his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul does speak of a certain person who was singled out for attention, and who suffered great grief as a consequence.  But Paul affirms that what happened to this person was not intended to be a permanent “ousting” or “outing”, but in order that the person might come back and be part of the Christian community, having received forgiveness.
These ways of relating to people are perhaps somewhat foreign to us.  We don’t necessarily have an idea or conception of the Church whereby we call each other to account for our behaviour, for our actions.
On the other hand, of course, it’s a consistent theme in Matthew’s gospel that forgiveness is required.  And so, in Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus,
“Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
Discipling... Jesus said, “Make disciples of all nations...”  Well, the picture described here is not at all—shall we say—an easy task.  But, on the other hand, in the last part of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says, “Look, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me...  Go and make disciples... And see, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
Making disciples includes finding the rule of humility, whereby we see each other as equals before God, and hold to the one Messiah.  Discipling means also taking seriously our own actions, and how we are accountable to others, and also being open to the repeated practice of forgiveness.  There is making disciples, then—not simply having faith in the one God, or the one God who forgives our sins, but also living in a way that is humble before God, and accountable and forgiving as well, in connection to neighbour.
Now, one of the expressions that is part of this passage from Matthew’s gospel is as follows:
Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven.
And so, an essential part of Christian community is—not only equality and humility; not only  a standard of behaviour and forgiveness—it is also working together, praying for a common goal, in order that we may be able to achieve things for the gospel.  And so, that is another aspect of being disciples.  We not only believe in God who is active in the world.  We believe in God who calls us into that work and calls us into partnership with one another—to seek out partners in the work, in the dreams, the goals, that we have for ourselves; because it is only through partnership that, actually, the Church fulfils its mandate of making disciples, baptizing all nations, and teaching what Jesus has commanded.
We see in the world how some of these things work out.  But, in the Church, we are called not only to faith; we are called to be disciples in the ways I have indicated; and to make disciples—to help others learn the meaning of equality before God, of a standard of behaviour and yet of the practice of forgiveness, and also of the necessity of partnership in company with God who wishes to achieve great things through us.
Jesus 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. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
May God truly be with us as we endeavour to be the disciples of Christ, and also make disciples of others.