All the way to suffering...

 In An Unlikely Lent , Rachel Billups writes:

As Jesus hung on the cross, most of his followers had scattered. Gripped by fear they had fled to the shadows, unwilling to risk their lives for the man they once called Lord. But not the women. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the mother of Joseph and Joses, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Salome, stood at the foot of the cross, refusing to turn away. They had followed Jesus not just when it was easy...these women followed when it cost them everything. Their presence at the cross was an act of defiance against fear, a declaration that their love for Jesus was greater than their need for safety....they risked following him all the way to suffering, to sorrow, to the place where hope seemed lost.

I think about Jesus' male disciples who fled, I think about Peter who betrayed Jesus, I think about all of the times that I and others around me limit how far we will go. What are the limits of your discipleship? What stops you from following Jesus not only near the cross but to the cross? Fear? Selfishness? Desire for control? Laziness? Other commitments? What stops us from truly being the disciples that these women were?

Two Things about Mary

I couple of Sundays ago, I was at Suncrest UMC in Morgantown to speak about the Foundation.  Rev. Matt Johnson preached using the Luke 1:26-38, 46-56 scripture.  This is the story of Mary - the angel speaking to her, and the Magnificat.  Two things about Mary that I wrote in my bulletin to share with you.

1. Mary says yes to God, but this couldn't have been an easy yes.  What the angel proposed would have been scandal.  To follow through would mean that she could or would lose the respect of her family and friends, her fiance and the life they would have together, any ability to have the life she would have expected.  And yet she says yes.  Yes to the loss and yes to the scandal.  This was a high-priced decision.
2. Mary, through-out her life, was a disciple.  We don't often think of her like that, but she was a follower of Christ.  A loyal one who never abandoned him, who followed him to death and beyond.  She was a witness to who he was and what he was to do.  Don't believe it? Read the Magnificat. Sounds like she "got it" more than the 12 did.

All in

Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume (John 12:3).

I was reading the chapter in Searching for Sunday called Perfume. In it, Rachel Held Evans says, "Rather than measuring out a small amount of oil Mary breaks the jar and lets it all pour out. She's all-in, fully committed, sparing no expense. The oil she may have been reserving for her own burial, or the burial of a loved one, has been poured out generously, without thought of the future."

She's "all in." She is giving generously, with a prodigal nature, with no thought to the implications of what she is doing on her future. 

Imagine for a moment, what it would look like if the church saw Mary as a role model of a way to be a disciple. 

It's a dangerous way to live. It's a radical way to live. This "all in" nature of what Mary does is rare to see. Can you think of people who are "all in" as disciples? I can think of some. They are blessed in their service and their faith, don't you think?

Imagine for a moment how your life would be different if you were "all in."  I imagine that is what it means to pick up your cross and follow.

Expectation

Having written yesterday's post about volunteer vs servant, I think we need to face a problem that I
think the church often has:  low expectations.  As church leaders, what are our expectations of members?  Of volunteers or servants (whatever you call them)?

Do we ask people to serve on a committee and tell them, "You won't have to do much - the committee only meets once a year."?

Do we say, "Nobody will volunteer to do this" when the problem really is that we haven't asked anyone?

Do we not want to bother someone with a task because we think it will be too much or that it will be an imposition?

Believe me, I hate to ask people to take on a task in the church (or anywhere else).  Having said that, I think we need to ask people to serve.  I think we need to expect that they will serve - not out of guilt or duty, but because they have found that service is when they are closest to God.  And if they haven't yet discovered that, then we need to make sure they have the opportunity to find out - it's part of "making disciples."

Trust and Become

The seminar I went to a couple of weekends ago featured presenters from a United Methodist Church in Brunswick called The Chapel.  This church is very intentional about discipleship.  Their summary statement for their intentional process is trust and become.  (If you want to read more about it, you might want to go to The Chapel website.)  The idea is that those who do not know Christ come to the church, and are welcomed with open arms.  They are invited to enter into Trust - trust of God, trust of the church and trust of each other.  Once that trust is developed, the person can transition to being a "partner," which is what many of us call members.  Members continue with development through discipleship by becoming - a worshiper, a community and a missionary.

It made me think about the unintentional process that a church might have for discipleship.  We say we are welcoming to whoever might come to our church, but I'm not sure we evaluate our welcomeness.  We feel welcome, so we assume everyone else feels that way, too.  If someone new comes, we hope they stay, and if they join the church, we feel as if we have won a victory.  They chose us!

The difference - or at least one of the differences, to me - seems to be the intentionality of the process.  Do we expect people to become disciples without nurturing them?  Do we have any expectations of members to become anything at all?

Who is Called?

Photo Credit:  S. Grant Matthews
Location:  Methodist Theological School in Ohio

The following devotional was my submission to the Annual Conference Lenten Devotional.

Scripture: Mark 2:13-17

Mark 2:13-14:  Jesus went out again beside the lake; the whole crowd gathered around him, and he taught them. As he was walking along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him.

Can you imagine it?  Jesus is walking near Levi, the tax collector and calls him into discipleship.  In Jesus’ time, tax collectors were seen as corrupt symbols of Roman occupation.  As we walk with Jesus in our imagination, we can hear the whispers of not only the Pharisees and scribes, but also of Jesus’ disciples.  Why would Jesus call this man into service?  Why would he call a tax collector?  Perhaps one of those in Jesus’ inner circle said, “I don’t want to follow Jesus if it means I have to work with that man – that tax collector.”

Who does God call into discipleship?  Surely God invites you and me, but who else?  Does God call the person who has lied to us?  Does God invite the one who votes for the “wrong” candidate?  Does God invite the homeless person, the teenager we will never understand, and the neighbor who loves jazz music and plays it all night long?  God certainly calls the alto who sings with us in the choir, but does God want the person who has never been to church to become a disciple?  Does God even call the one who has ridiculed us and our habit of speaking about Christ?

Who does God call into discipleship?  I believe we can safely answer that God calls everyone.  If that is the case, how will they be called?  Who will invite them?  Who is the next person we will invite to follow Christ?  It can’t just be the person who is exactly like us; it has to also be the person we would never invite on our own.  God chooses; not us.

Go out today and find the person who God loves so much that God would call him or her into discipleship.  Go out today and offer God’s invitation.

Prayer:  Creator God, help me to fish for people, and help me to cast your net in the direction of your choice, not mine.  Amen.

Child of God

Yesterday I talked about Wading in the Water.  Check out that chorus again:

Wade in the WaterWater in the Water, children.Wade in the Water,God's a-gonna trouble the water.

I was at a meeting last night.  The leader of the committee said that, "It is easy to be a child of God."  Is that really true?

It has been said that when my older sons prays, it is as if he his crawling into God's lap and talking to him. To me, that is a great image of one of the aspects of being a child of God.  We are pulled into the Creator's "lap" and loved.  That aspect might have been what the leader of the committee was talking about last night.

But consider again the verse from yesterday's post:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  (Romans 6:3-4).  

We are children of God - we are children who have been buried with Christ and have been baptized not only into new life, but into Christ's death - into the suffering of Christ.

To be a child of God isn't just the time spent in God's lap, loved.  It is also the time spent seeing other children of God with the Father's eyes.  Our lives are not made easy by our adoption.  God stirs up the water and as God's children, we are called to wade in.  To be a child means that, like Jesus' disciples after the Transfiguration, we have to leave the mountain.

Kermit says, "It's not easy being green."  Kermit can't escape being green - he IS green, and it's not easy. We can't escape being children of God (if we would want to), and I don't think it's easy.

Go Deep

Jack's sermon a few Sunday's ago was based on Luke 5:1-5.  In it, Jesus tells Peter to cast his nets on the other side of the boat -- to try again for a catch, even when Peter didn't think it was wise.  Jack said, "It is about depth.  Go deep."

Do we need to go deep in our spiritual disciplines?  Why do we not?

• Is it a lack of time?  I think I fall into this trap sometimes.  I was at a table in church several years ago.  A church member was talking about something he had read, and another person at the table said, "I wish I had time to do that kind of reading."  I was a smart aleck, and said, "Everyone has the same amount of time."  That's true, but we all prioritize it different -- whether from necessity or preference.  It takes intentional effort to go deep.
• Is it lack of interest?  As I mentioned earlier this week, I can sometimes get bored with what I am doing.  We need to be willing to change what we are doing so as to stay interested.
• Is it fear?  Are we afraid to go deep?  In the depth live truths we might not want to face.  Going deep can require courage.
• Is it unwillingness to let go of our past understandings?  Going deep can challenge what we have been taught or what we think we know - sometimes we don't want to do that.

God's sanctifying grace is always present.  God will give us the desire, the courage and the strength to go deep.

A Life-transforming Decision

What difference has Jesus made in the lives of women?  In the way women are seen?  Treated?  These questions came to my mind as I read the next chapter of Orberg's book, Who is this man?.

Consider the story of Mary and Martha in the Gospel.  Martha was doing all of the work while Mary sat at Jesus' feet, listening.  Martha gets upset, but Jesus tells her that Mary has chosen the better way.

We read this story and make it about busyness versus learning from Jesus.  We make it a comparison of a woman who is doing housework versus one who is stretching her faith, and we nod wisely and say, "Yes, one must take time to sit at Jesus' feet."  In our interpretation, we see it as some kind of balancing act, certain that when Mary is finished with her daily devotions, she'll go back in the kitchen and cook.  We don't see Mary's choice as life changing; instead we see it as wise time management.

But that's not what it's about.  Mary's decision was radical.  Mary decides to not be who she was and to be someone else -- to be a disciple, sitting at Jesus' feet and learning from him.  Ortberg writes, "Marthda did what the culture valued in women: cleaned the house and cooked the food.  Mary did what the culture valued in men: became a disciple".

It's a life transforming decision.  And Jesus approved.

Source of our Silence

I was in a meeting this past Saturday.  The leader of the group began an opening prayer with a moment of silence.  As we sank into the silence of the prayer, the room was filled with traffic noise from outside.  She began her prayer with the recognition that our silence doesn't come from the world around us.

What is the source of our silence? 

It is the habit of our church and of my Emmaus Community to sing as a congregation during Communion.  I have found that I can't compose a silent prayer at the altar rail because my mind can't ignore the world of the song long enough to pray.

I have also found that when I am in a group praying together, I can't pray very well -- string sentences together -- if there is a person in the group who comments during the prayer (Yes, Lord....etc). 

What is the source of our silence?

The world is not a place of silence.  It can be difficult to find quiet -- to quiet our minds and hearts to reach toward God, even when we are trying.  And when we are not trying-- when we are distracted and separated from God, then the silence is even more difficult to find.

What is the source of our silence?

How Far?

Think about Zebedee.  He stood in his boat while his two sons, James and John, left everything they knew, including their father, to follow Jesus.

What would you have thought?  What would you think if your child did something radical like that?

Would you be supportive if your child told you he or she was following the call of God and going to the Philippines to be a missionary?  Going to seminary?  Doing something even more radical to follow God's call?  How would I react?

Could I stand in the boat?  And watch?  How far would I let my children go in their discipleship? Would I risk my children's futures as they follow God?

Radical

I attended a webcast on Wednesday.  As I was listening to the talk, I noticed that one of the presenters said, "God may not be calling you to go to a foreign country...."

God may not be calling us to go to a foreign country, but sometimes I hear that sentence as a reassurance.  "You probably don't need to take a step out of your house..."

Don't get me wrong -- you can certainly do ministry in your own neighborhood.  And we are called to do that.

Sometimes, though, I think we hear sentences like that, and what we actually hear is that nothing radical is required of us.  Sometimes, I think, people tell us that nothing radical is required of us because they think we don't want to answer a call to radical discipleship.

Really, though, we know God is calling us to something radical (even if it is in our own neighborhood -- our own church).   God pursues us until we answer that call.  We won't find joy until we make the radical move, so we want it.  We will answer the call, and yet, sometimes, we aren't expected to do so.

We should expect disciples to want to answer that radical call.

A rut

Rut. Can one be in a discipline rut?
I find that I am not getting up early enough to read the devotional book that I use, the scripture that goes with it, or to pray.

I'm not in a class, I'm not teaching a class, and I'm not volunteering to teach Sunday school very often. The past two times I have taught, it's been an annual conference report -- not something that required study on my part.

I'm reading two books, and one of them is actually good, but I don't seem interested enough to pick either of them up to read them.

I am still writing for the blog, which I think is a discipline, but without devotions, study or reading, I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job at this, either.

What do you do when you feel like you are in a discipline rut? How do I motivate myself to get up earlier, to read, to study, to pray? I know myself, and I know that if I am interested enough, and feel like it is important enough, I'll make time for it, whatever it is.

Does a life of spiritual discipline have natural dips and crests? Should I expect this? Or should I worry? Do I force it to happen, or do I just wait in this time of quiet?

Are ruts to be expected or to be fought against? Both? Neither?

Image: Altar from opening worship of the School of Christian Mission

Who is the one touched?

Our Sunday school lesson today was called The Cost of Discipleship. It was based on the scripture Luke 14:25-35.

Several members of the class shared stories about how they are stepped out of their comforts zone in order to reach out in love to a stranger, or how a stranger how shared the love of Christ with them. None of the class members said that their actions had been what they would have normally chosen to do, but all of them reported that they had been more blessed by their actions than the stranger had been.

The class member who handed the street woman money, the couple that had fed a stranger and asked him to eat with them, the husabnd and wife who continually found themselves in situations where they had been asked to gives strangers rides, and the couple who had accepted a ride from a stranger when their car was broken down -- all of the church members had found joy in what they had done.

It occurred to me in class that God calls us to reach out and share his love with other people -- even those we have never met, who don't have a home, who might look different, smell different or think different than us. Even more than that, though, I wonder if God calls us to these actions also because he knows that we will be tranformed ourselves. Perhaps we are the poor one -- perhaps we are the one who needs the help the most.

Image: We had a baptism in worship today.

Go and Make Disciples

I was reading the blog 42: My Life, the Universe and Everything by Dave Warncock. Dave is a Methodist minister in the UK whose blog I often enjoy. This morning, I found this quote in one of his posts, written by Sam Norton. The quote is taken from Sam's blog. The link I reference is a post called the Nature of Discipleship, in case you want to go read more.

So the key, the core point for the church is precisely this formation of character, what we can call the making of disciples. Because we are not actually in the business of converting people. We are not in the business of saving souls. Does that seem surprising? Jesus says, "Go and make disciples." He doesn't say, "Go and work out who is saved and who isn't" He says, "Go and make disciples." The salvation of someone's soul is something which is utterly unknowable to us. We cannot know who is saved and who isn't. What we can do and what we are commanded to do is make disciples. That is the business of the church. The salvation of someone's soul is something belonging to God. We are not in that business, we are in a very related and closely attached business, but it is different.

What do you think of that quote? I had some thoughts I wanted to share:

1. I'm not sure that I like the distinction between salvation being God's business and the making of disciples being our business. I think both of them are God's business. He partners with us -- he could do it all on his own, but he chooses to involve us in his business. Using the terms for grace that are so often found in Emmaus walks, at times we are asked by God to be the means by which people are touched by God's justifying grace and other times the means by which people are touched by God's sanctifying grace.
2. I do agree with the idea that salvation -- or that moment of recreation when a relationship begins between God and one of his children -- is God at work, and that we can't really understand it. I also think, though, that God is involved in the creation of disciples in just the same way. I wonder if perhaps this quote paints the picture of the church as God recruiting and enrolling members, and those in the church as the teachers, training new students without the need of God's involvement.
3. I really like the emphasis in the quote on what happens after a person is brought to God -- Jesus told us to "go and make disciples." Once a commitment to God is made, the job of the church is just beginning. We don't get to stop at that point.
4. Do you think that the making of disciples equates to the formation of character? I'm not sure that I do. I think that a Christ-like character is formed as a person becomes a disciple, but there is more to it than that. It's bigger than that.

I think that the making of disciples isn't us teaching people how to live more like Christ. Discipleship-making is sharing God's grace with each other so that we are transformed by God from what we were to what he wants us to become. If we act nicer, if we are kinder, if we live our lives loving our neighbors and if the love defined in Corinthians is seen in what we do, then all of that is fruit of a transformation to becoming more Christ-like, and God is the one who enables the transformation to occur.