Trinity C June 7, 2023
Twelve-Step Eucharist St. Mark’s
Great Commission and the 12th step
Tonight, we hear the Great Commission from Matthew. On a mountaintop in Galilee, Jesus tells his disciples and us to go into the world and share the good news of God’s love reaching out to others. The last sentence is also crucial. He reminds us we will not be alone. He will be with us always to the end of the age. The resurrected Christ will always be beside, above, and inside us as we take this journey.
There is also a great commission in recovery. It is the 12th step: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.” I also like the way it is put in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions: “Our society has concluded that it has but one high mission---to carry the A.A. message to those who don't know there's a way out.” (page 151)
Neither the 12th step nor the Great Commission is optional. If we do not continue to learn from the experience of other Christians and share God’s love which we have received, we become stale and isolated and do not grow. We stay in recovery by practicing the lessons we have learned in all parts of our life, and by telling our stories. When we stop connecting the 12 steps to all aspects of our lives and reaching out to others, we lose our sobriety. Bill Wilson, one of the co-founders of AA, found out he could only stay sober by meeting with and sharing his story with others seeking recovery. One of the first persons he told his story to was a physician in Akron, Ohio, Dr. Bob Smith, on the Monday after Mother’s Day. I once visited Dr. Bob’s house and sat in the upstairs bedroom where the two men met in 1935 to begin a program that saved my life before I was born. Before any of you here were born. That afternoon in Akron in an upper room was a spiritual experience that could have some similarities to being on a mountaintop in Galilee.
Both the Great Commission and the 12th step call us to community. We are cared for and healed by staying connected and reaching out to others in our community. Those in recovery know we were not able to become clean and sober on our own will power after years of trying. Christians continue to learn about Jesus by hearing the message from the experience of others. Here again, we see one of the million ways God heals and cares for us as we reach out to heal and care for others, relating to others in community/ and simply telling our story.
Joanna Seibert