Choices

Our Christian life is full of choices. In fact, God made us to have the ability of moral choice. I believe the image of God within us is the ability to choose and to be responsible for our choices and their consequences. The tree in the garden, with the command to not eat thereof, was the activation of our moral choice. Instead we made a consumer choice. Big mistake.

Jesus, second Adam and image of God, came along with the same ability to choose. He came not only to atone for our poor choice, but to show us how to make the right choice. First he faced the devil in a wilderness contest where the adversary presented Jesus, weakened from a forty-day fast, with tempting choices. Unlike the first Adam, he didn’t take the bait. Instead of taking the tantalizing consumer choice, he chose the more difficult path, and left the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit. He went on to embrace probably the most difficult choice of all: he chose to take up a Roman cross and give his life to atone for our poor choices.

It should be no surprise that Jesus leads us into the same situation. In today’s lectionary text, Jesus left the region of Perea after several testy confrontations with religious leaders. Healing on the Sabbath and hanging out with “sinners” appeared to them to be the wrong choice, and they told him so. Not one to be too concerned about the good opinion of the Pharisees, Jesus did what he needed to do. Of course the Pharisees were fit to be tied, but the crowds loved it.

So when Jesus decided to leave that area and continue the journey to Jerusalem, many of his new fans came after him. They wanted to follow a rabbi that stood up to the Pharisees on their behalf and did such wonderful things for people. But instead of the warm welcome they expected they got a stern warning … about their choices.

Stopping dead in his tracks, he turned to them and said, “If you come to me and you cannot choose between me and your family, you cannot be my disciple. If you cannot bear your own cross, you cannot be my disciple. If you cannot forsake all you have, you cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:25-26, 33).

That is strong language. A tough challenge full of difficult choices. Far from consumer choices, the decisions Jesus requires here are loaded with difficult, life-changing consequences.

Deciding between Jesus and family was a huge deal. In first-century Israel one’s first obligation was to one’s family. To breach that obligation was unthinkable, yet necessary in Jesus’ kingdom.

Luke tells of another time when Jesus invited a young man to follow him as disciple. The man replied, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” What he meant was, “Let me wait until my father dies and my obligation to him is finished.” Jesus replied tersely, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.” Another fellow signed up but asked for a few minutes to hug his mama goodbye. Jesus rudely said, “If you look back you are not fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:59-62). Jesus is serious that there is a price to pay for following him.

Taking up a cross was equally threatening. Everyone in the Roman-occupied world knew the horrors of the cross. It was state-of-the-art torture and execution reserved for those who would challenge the authority of the Roman state. Anyone caught resisting Caesar in any kind of uprising would be made an example of what happens when one resists the Caesar. Victims were forced to carry a heavy cross through a crowded street of jeering, spitting spectators toward the execution site. There they would be nailed to it and hung a few feet off the ground. Nails penetrated the main nerves of arms and feet, causing severe and unrelenting pain. After several days of hanging that way the victims would finally suffocate to death.

And Jesus said followers must be willing to take up the cross. Two things jump out at me. First, one must go against the grain of accepted thought and behavior for Jesus. We don’t follow Jesus the same way we follow a popular fad. Jesus is not a consumer choice, he is an against-the-grain lifestyle. Second, one must be willing to face painful consequences for following Jesus. Unfair treatment, brutal torture, jeering spectators, and slow agonizing demise.

Forsaking all is not a pleasant thought. It refers to the radical renunciation of all possessions. It means setting aside all things that would hinder from following Jesus. “You can’t serve God and mammon,” Jesus said several times. All must be surrendered.

All these things … family, life, and property … must be laid on the line to follow Jesus. It is a high cost to be carefully considered. Underestimating here brings heavy consequences in itself.

Jesus illustrates: A man plans to build a tower in his vineyard, but underestimates what he will need. The unfinished tower reduces him to the role of village idiot and brunt of all jokes. A king goes to expand his territory by declaring war on his neighbor, only to discover that his neighbor’s forces greatly outnumber his own. He winds up losing his kingdom to the one he hoped to supplant, and that without a fight.

There is no room for presumption in the serious matter of the kingdom. We cannot afford to be consumers, for we’ll wind up like Adam and Eve, considering the benefits of the fruit we’ve been offered. Following Jesus cannot be the latest fad, as it became in Perea when Jesus stood up to Pharisees and befriended common folk. It must be seriously considered, and seriously carried out.

The multitudes came after Jesus because it was the popular thing to do. It would be fun to follow him, they thought. Not so fast, said Jesus. Have you considered what this means? Are you ready for these consequences? Your choice …

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

Fishers of men

When Jesus began his earthly ministry he attracted a lot of attention fast. His first stop back in Galilee after his baptism and 40-day temptation in the wilderness was at his home town of Nazareth, where he spoke in the local synagogue and announced that he was the Messiah. The home town folks couldn’t get past their nostalgic memories of Jesus the son of Joseph the carpenter. They could not accept that he could be the Messiah foretold by the prophets, and they tried to stone him.

Evading the angry crowd Jesus moved on to Capernaum, a bustling lakeside community with lots of opportunity for preaching the Gospel. Dr. Luke implies that Jesus taught regularly in the synagogue there and quickly gained a large following of people who were “astonished at his doctrine.” My impression is that Jesus served at least a short time as one of the elders of the synagogue, which would have given him regular access to the pulpit and regular audience with the people.

As a popular speaker Jesus probably encountered a number of people who wanted to become his disciples. In Jesus’ time, a popular rabbi would be approached by would-be students asking to follow the master and learn from him. Rabbis almost never sought out students–the students always came to them. No doubt a few people had approached Jesus about this while he was at Capernaum.

The Greek word translated “disciple” literally means “one who directs his mind to something.” It referred to the special relationship between a teacher and student. In the Jewish context it always referred to someone who sought out and joined himself to a given teacher for some kind of training. The training could be in the form of a trade, where the student would serve as apprentice. It could also be in the study of the Scriptures, where the student aspired to become a rabbi. In either case the student would leave behind his family and livelihood for a period of time to learn from the master.

So when Jesus was ready to begin his itinerant ministry candidates for discipleship were already qualified and ready for the commission. Matthew records the day Jesus began taking on disciples: “And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him” (Matthew 4:18-20).

Simon Peter and Andrew might seem to be unlikely candidates for discipleship. As fishermen they were rough around the edges, both in appearance and manners. Galilean fishermen were known for crude behavior and foul language. There is no doubt they would have been turned away from the rabbinical schools in Jerusalem.

Yet Jesus saw in these rough fishermen qualities valuable for the ministry of the kingdom. Fishermen were middle class entrepreneurs who made a good living catching and selling fish from the lake. Their hard way of life taught them to be diligent workers, patiently and persistently toiling in hopes of making the big catch. And if a night’s work turned up nothing they would go at it again the next night, undaunted and undiscouraged. Rough and unpredictable weather on the lake made them fearless and hardy. They were ready for anything.

As Jesus walked by on this particular day the brothers were apparently stalking a school of talapia hovering above one of the warm springs that fed the Sea of Galilee. The strategy involved throwing a weighted cast net over the shoal. The net would sink to the bottom, trapping the fish inside. The net would then be pulled ashore and the fish salted down and readied for market.

“Time to become fishers of men,” Jesus said. Could it be that the two men had already discussed the matter with Jesus? They immediately left the net–and their lucrative fishing business–to follow Jesus in Christian discipleship. Both would devote the rest of their lives to the work of the kingdom, and both would be crucified because of it.

Discipleship involves more than going to church on Sundays. It has little to do with graded classes and family life centers. Splintered programs that divide families and create pointless busywork or provide “Christianized” worldly entertainment do not count as true discipleship.

Genuine discipleship requires commitment to the Master. It encompasses learning the principles of life that must be applied to one’s own life and then passed on to others. In a secular world it means a willingness to learn God’s ways and live against the grain of modern society. It also involves activities of genuine service that touch lives and point to the kingdom.

Jesus’ doctrine was radical in his time. He rocked the boat of those who had succumbed to the secular Greek lifestyle of the day. He shook the foundations of the stale religious tradition of the Pharisees and the foolish fundamentalism of the Sadducees. He taught God’s word as it was intended and expected life-changing application.

Today it is no different. The call to Scriptural living goes equally to those who live worldly lives and those who are trapped in religious bondage. Discipleship means we seek out and attach ourselves to Jesus and his words, diligently applying them to our lives. We then become fishers of people, looking for those who will commit their hearts and their ways to serving the Master.

Is this the king of the Jews?

Dr. Luke presents a brief but grim depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus, charged and convicted of the crime of being the king of the Jews. In fact, over his head, written in three languages, is the charge against him: “This is the king of the Jews.”

In a matter-of-fact way Luke simply notes that they came to the placed called Calvary, and crucified him with two insurrectionists whose plans for violently overthrowing the Roman government backfired. At this point condemned men usually confess their sins and ask God for forgiveness. Jesus prays, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

People stand around looking on. Some, like the remnant of his followers brave enough to stick around, are devastated. Others are bewildered, confused. Elders and priests, members of the clergy, look on with contempt and arrogant self-satisfaction for getting this deed done. “Let him save himself if he is the Messiah, the chosen of God!” they sneer. Is this the king of the Jews?

Jesus wears nothing but the crown of thorns fashioned for him by insolent and rude soldiers the night before. He watches them divide his clothes and shoot craps for certain ones. They don’t get too many rabbis on this detail so his rabbinic wear attracts a lot of attention. Most of the “messiah” figures they get are the rough violent type from the caves of upper Galilee. Not much of value from their raiment. As the soldiers offer the rabbi sour wine from their rations, they mock him as they do all the other “messiah” types: “If you are the king of the Jews save yourself.” Is this the king of the Jews?

Jesus hangs between two insurrectionists caught and convicted for attempts to overthrow the government. They are passionate, violent zealots, giving their lives for the Jewish nationalist cause. Some would regard them as patriots and heros. One of them begins to curse and slander Jesus. “If you are the Messiah save yourself . . . and us!” Is this the king of the Jews?

The apostle Paul tells us Jesus is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation” (Col. 1:15). All things, visible and invisible, were created by him and for him. He is the head of the church, the first-born from the dead, and preeminent in all things. He is not only the king of the Jews, but King of kings and Lord of lords.

Paul further tells us that it was through the blood of the cross that all things were reconciled to God. Clergymen who accuse, governments that victimize, and zealots who slander. All of creation, in and under the earth. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Somehow Jesus used the cross, the Roman instrument of shame and torture and example of what happens to those who oppose the government, as the means of coming into his kingdom. I think the other criminal beside Jesus saw a glimpse of this. After rebuking his rude compatriate, he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

We need occasions like Christ the King Sunday to remember that the cross is the gateway to God’s kingdom. We need to remember that we follow Jesus into the kingdom by way of a cross of our own, taken up at our baptism when we relinquish our own lives for the sake of living within his. Death to self, life to Christ. Remember, it is not about you, but about what God wants to do in and through you.

By your patience possess your souls

Before he died Rabbi Edwin Friedman described the American social system as in regression and in need of mature leadership. He described societal regression as “gridlock” and “anxiety,” evidenced by reactivity, herding, blame displacement, and looking for a quick-fix. In A Failure of Nerve: A Society in Regression Friedman explained that the only way a leader can survive and lead is to remain self-regulated and calm despite the pressures. Non-anxious, self-differentiated presence is essential for making it through the chaos.

Self-differentiated, non-anxious leadership is not new to Rabbi Friedman. Two thousand years ago another rabbi told his followers about the same thing, after warning them of seriously traumatic times to come. Speaking to folks marveling over the grandeur of Herod’s temple, Jesus foretold its utter destruction, accurately described the events, and then said, “By your patience possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).

Prophesying of catastrophic turmoil Jesus instructed his disciples to keep the presence of mind to not be deceived when troubling reports come, and to not be afraid when chronic anxiety of changing times involved them. We may not be able to control events, but we can control how we respond to them.

In no uncertain terms Jesus told horrified disciples . . .

• You will be arrested and persecuted,
• You will be brought before tribunals, both religious and civil,
• You will be betrayed by loved ones,
• You will be hated because of me.

Jesus vividly described days of great tribulation as the Roman armies advanced to utterly destroy Jerusalem and end the Jewish nation as they knew it.

Historians tell us the prophecies came to pass just as Jesus described them. Beginning in AD 63 a prophet named Jesus, son of Ananias, prophesied impending doom to a Jerusalem enjoying peace and prosperity. The next year conflict began in both religious and civil circles. For seven years the people experienced conflict, infighting, rapid changes in leadership, abuse from government authorities, civil war, insurrections, and lawless plunderers. A great tribulation. Caesar Nero sent armies to beseige the city. After his death emperor Vespasian finished the war, and totally destroyed the city and the temple in AD 70.

Keeping a cool head in anxious situations, Jesus reminded, would allow him to give his followers words to say to refute and diffuse baseless charges leveled by adversaries. “By your patience possess your souls” Unlocking the essence of meaning in these words will help us understand what non-anxious, self-differentiation means.

Patience means perseverance and endurance. In Hebrew thought it means “wait upon the Lord” and helps us to understand that God gives us grace and strength to exercise great faith and remain focused on God’s promised deliverance. It is a vision beyond the present circumstance and a hope of a better day. It is faith in the promises of God.

Possess means obtain, buy, or control. Self-regulation. Here Jesus uses it in the aorist imperative, indicating “from this time forward control.” Control what? Your soul, your inner being, your spirit. Your self.

Our disciple-making enterprise will be conducted in anxious times and situations. Those who need Jesus many times will not be open to him until they reach crisis points in their lives. That is when we need to be able to act decisively with great leadership.

The perplexities of our times have us stagnated and afraid, and non-anxious thoughtful leadership is necessary in helping us move decisively into bold new solutions.

That is all a part of our mission. Our conference challenges us to grow more disciples by “taking risks and changing lives.” So get a grip. It is by your determined, expectant hope and unwavering faith that you exercise the self-control to rise above the confusion and lead.

Children of the resurrection

The object of our disciple-making enterprise is to beget “children of the resurrection,” people “worthy to attain that age” (Luke 20:35). The mission of the gathering we call the Church is to advance against strongholds of death and release the captive to new life, both in the present time and in eternity. Like the kingdom of God, we have to view resurrection as both present reality and future hope.

This was a point missed by the short-sighted Sadducees. These rigid keepers of the temple and all things liturgical did not believe in a resurrection hope. Their narrow-minded fundamentalism restricted thier view to their version of the Torah, the books of Moses. Since they could not find a mention of life-after-death in Moses it didn’t exist, and they were not open to conversation. And don’t bother mentioning texts in Daniel chapter 12 and Isaiah chapters 26 and 65. No Moses, no cigar.

So when the self-assured Sadducees wanted to try to discredit Jesus as he taught in their temple, they trotted out their favorite old hypothetical about the one wife for seven brothers. It was designed to make Jesus look foolish. He used it to turn the tables on them.

“You deceive yourselves, not knowing the Scriptures.” He then described how the resurrection will make us different. We will never die again, and because of that there will be no need to reproduce through the marriage relationship. Our familial relationships of the present time will not extend to eternity. I know that flies in the face of most of the Southern Gospel songs we sing about going to heaven to see Mama one day, but that is what Jesus said.

As for the resurrection itself, Jesus made fools of the Sadducees using their precious Torah. Apparently no one else had ever done this, because it made the scribes sit up and declare, “Well done, rabbi!” It is also recorded that the Sadducees did not have a comeback. They were silenced; their oft-used tactic backfired. Badly.

Jesus’ argument? God is known as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living. The patriarchs continue to live in a resurrection state beyond their physical death. As do all the righteous dead. Even the Sadducees could not argue with that.

The important thing to remember is that in biblical thought resurrection means restoration. It means change. The metaphor is not restricted to life-after-death. Paul relates that when we become a follower of Jesus and submit to water baptism we die to the old and are resurrected, with Christ, to the new. The Hebrew Scriptures spoke of the return of the Jews from captivity as a “resurrection” of Israel.

With promised restoration and change comes hope. Hope makes living through difficult times possible because we have the reasonable expectation that we will be vindicated, restored, renewed, and justified by the grace of God through the saving acts of Jesus Christ. That happens now as well as in the age to come.

Our committment to mission means that we boldly and with confident hope assault strongholds of darkness, decay, and death to retreive any who will follow to a new life of hope and resurrection from the death. Both now and in the age to come. Let us be faithful in begetting children of the resurrection.

When Jesus barges in

Disciple-making sometimes requires intruding on other people’s plans. Jesus didn’t mind in the least barging in when it suited his cause.

Take for example Zacchaeus, the tax collector of the rich and famous in Jericho. Tax contractors in his time made a commission as they collected revenue for the Roman government, and if they could get away with charging more by false accusation it was even better. Zacchaeus took full advantage of the opportunity in the affluent “city of palms” built by Herod and winter home to the who’s who of Jerusalem. So much so that he was hated and reviled as “that sinner.” His name meant “righteous one” but he was anything but. Everyone thought of him as a greedy, powerful, ruthless traitor, a sort-of mafia don who didn’t really care what poeple thought of him.

Jesus passed through one day on the way to Jerusalem from Caesarea-Philippi, and barged into Zacchaeus’ life. Jericho was the last of a long list of whistle-stops before reaching Jerusalem. The road was busy with travelers enroute to Jerusalem for Passover celebrations, and Jericho was abuzz with excitement about the famous rabbi traveling through.

The streets in and around town were crowded with people. Crowds pressed on every side as people hoped to get a glimpse of the miracle-working prophet from Galilee. Zacchaeus, short in stature, wanted to see. So he decided to climb a tree along the street he thought Jesus would travel. In modern terms picture a powerful businessman in a $1,000 designer suit climbing a tree to see a celebrity. Lets you understand how interested Zacchaeus was.

Jesus wasn’t usually impressed by the rich and powerful, but he stopped right under Zacchaeus’ perch, called him by name, and invited himself over for lunch. “Hurry Zach, and get down from there! I want to go home with you for lunch!” Jesus barged in for the day, without invitation and without advance warning. What nerve!

I think the crowd was a little jealous. Someone said, “He’s going home with that sinner!” Most of them wouldn’t dare go into the home of a tax collector. They would be afraid of [gasp] eating food that had not been tithed! Heaven forbid!

Despite the criticism of the church folks, Jesus went home with Zacchaeus. He barged in, intruded, and changed his life. We don’t know what transpired between them, or what they talked about. But we do know that some time into the conversation Zacchaeus stood and said, “Look, Lord, I will give half my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I will restore four-fold.”

Zacchaeus’ life was changed. Transformed. He repented and vowed restitution in a manner that was beyond what both the law and the legalistic Pharisees would require. His center moved from gathering wealth to affecting restoration. Which is what Jesus’ kingdom is all about.

For his part Jesus was elated. “Today salvation has come to this house,” he said. “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus often comes to us at unexpected and unplanned times. It is seldom convenient for us to meet the risen Savior. Claiming, “Today is the day of salvation,” Jesus barges in and intrudes on our plans. He confronts us with his agenda.

How do we know when we have had an encounter with the living Jesus? He finds us where we are well-hidden, intrudes into our plans, and changes our lives. Abruptly. Our values change. Our lives change. Our motives change. Our relationships change. Our work changes from gathering for self-fulfillment to affecting restoration. The business of the kingdom.

Has Jesus barged in on you lately?

Baptism and covenant

We return to the concept of covenant commitment this week, with the church calendar and Lectionary taking us to the Baptism of the Lord. In Luke’s gospel, John sets up shop along the banks of the Jordan River, in the wilderness away from cities. People come to him by the droves, where he demands that they prepare for the Messiah by submitting to water baptism.

This is loaded with cultural and theological meaning. Jews understood baptism to be initiatory, the rite to be undertaken by Gentile newcomers into the Jewish faith. After a lengthy catechism the priests would initiate proselytes into Judaism through an immersion rite that signified death to the former -- religion, national ties, family ties -- and rebirth into a new new life in a new kingdom. For a Jew to hear he must be baptized to retain the favor of God was deeply revolting.

Luke tells us people began to wonder if John would turn out to be the Messiah, and he flatly denied it. “There is coming one after me mightier than I!” he thundered, “He will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire, and he will separate wheat from chaff!”

Jesus made the 70-mile journey from Nazareth in Galilee to the wilderness of Judea to meet up with John and be baptized into the kingdom of God. As he was praying the sky opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the bodily form of a dove, and rested upon him. God spoke, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

The church adopted baptism from the Jews to signify personal transformation, leaving the old and coming into the new. It signifies a deep commitment to leave the old pagan life, severing all ties with the past, dying to the old life, and being born anew into the kingdom of God. As with Judaism, the church historically carefully trained converts in the faith, fully told them the commitment they would have to make, and elicited covenant promises or vows at baptism. These involved renouncing spiritual forces of wickedness, accepting the freedom God gives to walk in the light, confessing Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and promising to remain faithful and committed to Christ through the church.

We approach baptism as a means of grace, or an act of obedience administered by the church wherein God does something wonderful within us. The Holy Spirit is present in the application of water, and his power begins in our lives to thoroughly purge us from the chaff of our old ways and to purify us to live in God’s kingdom.

Renewing our baptismal covenant means we remind ourselves of baptismal commitments we made (or made for us, if we were too young). Remembering our baptism means we place ourselves back at the point of entry into the kingdom, remember the work of grace God began in us, and renew our promise to live faithfully and holy before him.

This week remember your baptism, and be thankful.

Covenant with God

Sunday at my churches we will deviate from the Lectionary to observe a new year covenant service on the order of John Wesley’s covenant service. Wesley first celebrated a covenant service for Methodists in 1755, and repeated it often thereafter. They were most often conducted at the new year.

According to The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992), the heart of the service is focused in the Covenant Prayer which requires persons to commit themselves to God.

Here is the main part of the prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee, or laid aside for thee,
     exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
     thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
     let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

To mark the occasion, Charles Wesley wrote a hymn to be sung at Covenant services. Consider the deep words of Come, Let Us Use the Grace Divine:

Come, let us use the grace divine, and all with one accord,
In a perpetual covenant join ourselves to Christ the Lord;
Give up ourselves, through Jesus’ power, His Name to glorify;
And promise, in this sacred hour, for God to live and die.

The covenant we this moment make be ever kept in mind;
We will no more our God forsake, or cast these words behind.
We never will throw off the fear of God Who hears our vow;
And if Thou art well pleased to hear, come down and meet us now.

Thee, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, let all our hearts receive,
Present with Thy celestial host the peaceful answer give;
To each covenant the blood apply which takes our sins away,
And register our names on high and keep us to that day!

Our Western culture does not fully understand covenant. Covenant requires deep commitment and invokes a promise so binding that one would rather die than break that promise. Covenant is in some ways a death to self, preferring the covenant partner over one’s self and ensuring that covenant commitments are kept regardless of personal cost or inconvenience.

Christian discipleship is that kind of covenant. Just as Jesus called 12 young men from their chosen professions to follow him into life-changing discipleship, so he calls us away from the cares of this life to take up a cross to follow him.

Unfortunately, American Christianity more often teaches a religion of self-pampering. Jesus did it all for me, God is there waiting to answer my prayers for personal convenience and parking places and blessings of every kind. Too often we live reckless lives, and when we get ourselves into trouble we go to God to get him to bail us out.

Covenant means I set my own interests aside, and remember that it is not about me, but about what God wants to do in and through me.

Jesus did not go to youth group

The Lectionary text for Sunday gives us the only snapshot of Jesus as a young person. There Jesus joined his family and others on the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. As the family returned home, mom and dad assumed young Jesus was following along with the other young people, and did’t really miss him until evening. They were horrified when they couldn’t find him and rushed back to Jerusalem for a frantic three-day search.

When Joseph finally caught up with young Jesus he was in the temple, holding his own in serious debate with doctors of the law. All were amazed that this 12-year-old demonstrated such knowledge and spiritual depth. “Why did you do this to us?” Dad asked in a voice filled with both fright and anger. The precocious youngster quipped back, “Didn’t you know I had to be about my Father’s business?”

It is apparent Jesus did not go to one of those fun and games youth ministries I described in August. He didn’t demand a gym or softball field and wi-fi internet connection at church. He didn’t have repetitive motion injuries in his thumbs. He didn’t have body piercings and tatoos. He did not allow the culture to influence how he lived his life, even as a young person.

Modern youth ministry, as we like to do it, is terribly flawed. We are doing our kids a disservice when we have it, even if they enjoy it at the time. We are not training disciples we are creating consumers who need entertainment to stay with it. We are teaching them to let the culture drive the way they live.

Modern youth ministry rests squarely on the humanistic assumption, inherited from Darwin’s theory of evolution, that young people are under-developed, sub-humans. As such they don’t have the ability to be mature and responsible, and have to have an “age-appropriate” education delivery system. It is assumed they will be irresponsible, act like children, and not be interested in significant and meaningful study and application. I happen to believe that children and teenagers are not under-developed animals and would rather not treat them that way.

My experience as a home school father, now validated by empirical research, indicates that for proper spiritual development and maturity young people do not need to be isolated into groups their own age but they need regular interaction with mature adults, and they need to be included into the ongoing life of the church. They actually want this! Young people who attend public or private school already spend their entire week shunted away from the real world and isolated into artificial same-age peer groups. They don’t need more of it when they come to church! They need an intentional family life and they need interaction with responsible adults so they can learn to be adult. They need to be adequately socialized to live in a multi-generational world. They need to be challenged to do hard things.

Young Jesus could have tagged with the kids on the way home to Nazareth that day. It was expected that he would, and that is why he wasn’t missed until evening. But Jesus did not want to hang with the youth, playing games. He was fascinated with the things of God, and wanted to talk with the best biblical scholars of his time. More than a good time with friends, young Jesus wanted to be about the Father’s business.

Since we have them at church only a short time each week, shouldn’t we be more serious about ministry to young people. Shouldn’t we encourage them to be about the Father’s business?

A new concept for discipleship

At my churches we are working on a new concept for discipling people to maturity in Christ. It is called the Foundry, borrowing an image from Methodist history and a metaphor from the work of a foundry. John Wesley based his London ministry in an abandoned foundry. A foundry melts metals down to liquid form, pours them into molds with the desired shape, and then removes impurities and flaws.

The Foundry at Burnt Church has in mind the process of shaping and molding God’s people into the image and likeness of Christ, with the goal to bring us “to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).

Shaping experiences will do more than just pass along information. A three-part foundry-inspired process will be used. First, we will heat things up and melt preconceptions and misinformation that have solidified in our lives and hindered growth. Then we will look to Scripture, particularly what Jesus said and did, to find the truth, the mold, if you will, into which to pour our lives. Then we will chip away things that don’t look like the desired result with real experiences that put our faith to work. The thing about genuine old-time Methodist discipleship is that Scriptural and practical go together.

Shaping experiences will also have varied formats for optimal learning and transformation. Brief lecture, small-group conversation, multi-media, outside reading, and a supporting blogspot with links to resources like articles, videos, and commentary.

The quarterly cycle will have us studying and applying for ten weeks. Then we’ll break one week to have a “love feast” (fellowship meal with no agenda), one week to have a night of working on a mission project of some kind beyond helping ourselves, and one week to do all the church’s business (committees, church council, things like that).

I am convinced that true discipleship does not happen when people come on Sunday for an up-beat “worship service.” Jesus’ application of discipleship required commitment and worked for life-change. If we don’t have those components we are not making disciples, we are entertaining consumers.

Our goal is to apply Wesley’s general rules of discipleship, which call on us to do no harm, do good, and attend to the ordinances of God. It is to allow ourselves to be truly impacted and changed by God’s grace, to bring us to the place of maturity Paul describes in Ephesians chapter 4. The video below helps explain the balanced approach to spiritual formation we hope to achieve with the Foundry.

Jesus comes

Advent reminds us of the ways Jesus comes into our lives. Actually, the ways Jesus intrudes into our lives. He calls us from comfortable situations and leads us into the uncomfortable and uncertain. He expects us to live in both expectation and uncertainty, taking risks and knowing that life forever changes. Someone has said Jesus comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable.

The text for the first Sunday of Advent Nov. 29 took us to the Mount of Olives, where the country-boy disciples looked down with awe on the indescribably magnificent temple complex. Jesus said, in effect, “Don’t get too attached to it. The day is coming, in your lifetimes, when it will be completely destroyed and no stone will be left on top of the other!”

Of course the young men, now in their early 20s, were shocked out of their minds. The center of their religious universe was to be leveled and never restored. Jesus used strong, colorful language to describe the significance. Sun darkened, moon not shining, stars falling from the sky. In Hebraic metaphor he means the event will change their lives forever. Drastic, catastrophic.

Jesus told them that in the midst of that upheaval he would “come.” It would be the “day of the Lord.” He had already told the arrogant Sadducees, priests, elders, and keepers of the temple, “Today the kingdom of God is taken from you and given to a nation who will bear the fruit thereof” (Matt. 21:43).

Yanking stewardship of God’s kingdom from the Jewish temple hierarchy meant doing away with the Jewish temple. It would no longer be needed. The once-for-all sacrifice Jesus made of himself at the cross did away with the need for ongoing animal sacrifice. God would now dwell in a new kind of temple, a temple not made with hands (Acts 7:48; 17:24). The temple made up of those who follow Christ Jesus.

While we no longer worship with animal sacrifice, sacrifice as the center-piece of worship continues. Paul reminds us to present ourselves living sacrifice, untainted from the world (Rom. 12:1, 2). Through our baptismal covenant we follow Jesus into sacrifice by taking up our own cross and following him in discipleship (Matt. 16:24). We remind ourselves of his sacrifice -- and ours -- through frequent observance of Holy Communion.

While some are content to redefine discipleship as gathering a large number of people into a service they enjoy, discipleship described by Jesus involves forsaking personal enjoyments and living a life of total sacrifice, a continual expression of worship. Baptism and Holy Communion, sacraments of the church, remind us of these commitments.

Advent is a great discipleship tool because it gives us cause to hold back on excessive celebration we often see during the holidays. It calls on us to pause to reflect on how Jesus abruptly comes into our lives, changes our entire world, and sets us on the path of genuine worship through sacrifice and life-commitment.

A disciple-making church will keep this in mind as it seeks to win the world to Jesus.

A kingdom not of this world

Sunday we observed Christ the King Sunday, the end of the long season after Pentecost and transition into Advent. Christ the King is recent in origin, and lesser known of the feasts of the church. Yet its lessons are powerful to us in the work of making disciples. It asks us to pause and consider the lordship of Jesus Christ and the advance of his kingdom. It teaches us that God’s kingdom transcends the secular, civil, and circumstantial.

This is illustrated by the text in John chapter 18. Jesus was haled before Pilate under the trumped up charges of sedition against the Roman government. I think Pilate was incredulous that the Jews would actually be concerned that someone was plotting an attempt at overthrowing the Romans.

The real concern of the Sadducees was that Jesus had blasphemed their idol, the temple. They wanted Jesus dead, and since they couldn’t do it themselves, they had to manipulate the Roman government into doing it for them. A charge of sedition was the best way to get the government’s attention.

As Pilate interrogated Jesus he asked the question, “Are you king of the Jews?” Jesus replied that his kingdom is “not of this world.” and that is why no resistance was being offered. He went on to say that he was born for only one reason, and that is to “bear witness to the truth.”

Two things jump out of the situation that inform our disciple-making effort. First, the kingdom we advance is not of this world. It is not political, geographic, or national. It is not as interested in governmental affairs as it is hearts and lives. It realizes that we cannot force or legislate the kingdom agenda, but we influence it by letting its message change the hearts and lives of people. Discipleship does that for us.

A second thing I see is that its single purpose is to convey the truth. If we are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ we are the visible and unmistakable extension of the ministry of Jesus Christ. We take up where he left off, and do his good work as his ambassadors. The truth is not always popular or well received. It is not always pleasant and it does not always tickle our ears. But it must be told, and the apostle Paul tells us to speak the truth in love.

I fear that when we wave our American flags too much in church and shift the focus of attention from worshiping God to celebrating things national we forget we are not of this world. Veterans Day and the Fourth of July are real temptations to do this. When we allow the commercial Christmas season intrude and override the Church’s traditional emphasis on Advent and anticipation and hope we forget we are not of this world. When we are politically and legislatively involved but do not commit matters of national life to prayer we forget we are not of this world. When we let Hallmark Cards set our patterns and themes for worship at church we forget we are not of this world.

Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world. He offered no defense or argument to Pilate as to why he should not be executed. He did not complain against his accusers. He merely accepted the fact he was there to be executed and in the process turned the Roman symbol of torture, shame, and consequence for rebellion into a doorway through which we enter God’s kingdom. That is why we pick up our cross to follow Jesus, into a life of death to self and living unto God -- a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

The people around us cannot see the other-worldliness of God’s kingdom. They just see that they are sick or unemployed or worried about the future. They are disillusioned and doubtful and deeply in debt. It is for us, through acts of kindness and invitations to discipleship, to show them the transcendent kingdom, only observed through faith, by practical ways of making God’s love tangible and real. That is why we feed the hungry, minister to the sick, and clothe the naked. We want them to be able to look up from pitiful circumstance to see a kingdom not of this world.

Keep the main thing the main thing

When Jesus went to Jerusalem the last time he spent almost a week in the temple, teaching and contending for the faith. Mostly contending for the faith, because arrogant Pharisees and insolent Sadducees opposed him at every turn.

One particular day the Pharisees hit him with a trick question about Roman taxation. “Do we pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus asked to see the coin with which they would pay the tax and caught them in their hypocrisy. They had the filthy pagan currency on them in the holy temple! Jesus’ response revealed their foolishness: “Render to Caesar the things of Caesar, and render to God the things of God.” Jesus refused to be caught up in their petty arguments.

Next up were the Sadducees, keepers of the temple. Arrogant in their ignorance they refused to consider the likelihood of a resurrection because they couldn’t find specific reference to it in their version of the Torah. So they also posed the same foolish question they always used to trip up people who dared argue with them about it. In the resurrection, whose wife would the woman be who had been married to seven brothers through levirate marriages? Jesus wasted no time calling them errant, explained to them that marriage would not exist in the future resurrection, and let them know Abraham is living because God would never associate himself with the dead. Thus there is a resurrection! He shut them up.

But then a scribe, a lawyer for the Sanhedrin, filed an amicus brief. That is, he asked a friendly question. “What is the greatest commandment in the law?” I don’t think the man was trying to put Jesus on the spot; I think he was trying to let Jesus explain himself, and bring some order to the feeding frenzy going on at Jesus’ expense.

Of the 613 Jewish laws Jesus immediately turned to Deuteronomy chapter 6:

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

He then said there is a second like it, and referred to Leviticus chapter 19:

. . . you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.

The lawyer readily agreed and Jesus affirmed that he was not far from God’s kingdom.

I think the lawyer’s amicus brief brought the conversation from insignificant argument back to the main thing. The main thing is to love God with all within us, and then to live it out by expressing it to our neighbors.

When I researched how we might actually express love for God, the Scriptures repeatedly linked knowing and living his word with actually loving God. It seems to me this is the goal of discipleship, to sufficiently know God’s word enough to apply it as a matter of course in life situations. It is lived out by continuing to do the things Jesus said he came to do when he announced the coming of the kingdom.

Jesus spoke of things like proclaiming economic equity, healing the brokenhearted, releasing the oppressed from disadvantage, and restoring life in a manner of the anticipated resurrection. He spoke of them as current reality and indicated his church would be about that work, bringing glimpses of the hereafter into present reality while anticipating its arrival.

Discipleship is following Jesus into that work. It is sufficiently internalizing the Scriptures and living them out in practical ways so that the world is improved and God is glorified. The apostle James wrote of this and reminded us that faith without works is dead.

I am convinced the discipleship programs in our churches need to have more than an academic element. They must touch our hearts and transform them to love God with every ounce of our being, and then move us to live out our faith in tangible ways that give glimpses of heaven on earth. That seems to me to be the main thing. So let’s work to keep the main thing the main thing.

Discipleship is spiritual formation

As a Methodist pastor I am attracted to the account of Wesley and his disciple-making machine in the 18th century. It is said that Wesley, through his system of small groups and itinerant preachers, helped England address its cultural ills and avoid a massive revolt on the order of the bloody French revolution. He had a passion for discipling the people the organized church missed.

It is more than coincidence that Wesley’s London headquarters was an abandoned foundry. The industrial revolution in Britain and the huge cultural shifts it generated greatly contributed to the societal ills Wesley addressed. It is interesting that he based in a facility that had contributed to the problem to begin with.

But more important to me is the symbolism. A foundry takes a raw element like iron or steel and reduces it, through heat, into liquid form. That element is then poured into molds where it is left to solidify into the desired shape. Once the general shape is formed, the product is taken from the mold and perfected by having all the rough edges and imperfections chipped and sanded off.

It occurs to me that disciple-making is spiritual formation in the same way a foundry forms raw materials into useful products. The church or discipling body is the form into which God pours heated raw material for shaping. Over time the discipled people take shape. Then they are perfected by chipping here, sanding there, taking off all that doesn’t look like the intended shape. And what is that intended shape?

Read it from Ephesians chapter 4: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; . . .”

The primary spiritual formation tool we have used in the American church is Sunday school. It began as an educational outreach program, teaching uneducated children employed 18th century British sweatshops how to read and write, using the Scriptures. It evolved into an evangelistic outreach for the unchurched, and finally as a means of spiritually educating children of the churched. Countless children and adults have learned the Bible in these Sunday schools, including me! But the downside is two-fold: (1) its stress is educational, or assimilation of facts over touching the heart; and (2) it has had the unfortunate and unintended consequence of excusing parents from their responsibility to train their own children.

I am wondering if we need something else to supplement this old reliable tool. If we begin thinking in terms of formation, of setting up our own spiritual “foundry,” then I am wondering if we need to add components not addressed well by Sunday school. Things like community between persons in a variety of settings outside the classroom. Or service, where we actually put the biblical texts to work in practical ministry where we are shaped simply by thinking of and serving others. Or contemplation, were we revive and employ ancient practices like daily office and fixed prayers, meditation, fasting, lectio-divina, and living the church year. I’m also wondering if we don’t need to help parents regain their role as primary formation agent of their children, and allow church efforts to come alongside what parents already do as they obey the Lord.

While Wesley was an ardent supporter of Sunday school, the fact is that he helped shaped the lives of tens of thousands (and ultimately millions, I think) through informal groups meeting in homes and public places. That was his primary tool. Faith and practice go hand-in-hand and are part of our Methodist DNA. It was also the way of the early church.

In my churches I am advocating that we think in terms of spiritual formation instead of Christian education. I am also suggesting that we call our overall strategy for spiritual formation the Foundry. May God pour us all into the mold of Christ, that we might be shaped, formed, and perfected to resemble him.

Put your money where your mouth is

In Mark chapter 10 a man approached Jesus inquiring about “eternal life.” He wanted to know what to do to attain it.

Jesus responded with a recitation of five of the ten commandments: Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor father and mother. I have often wondered why Jesus named only five, and why he chose these particular ones. Anyway, the man was able to reply rather confidently that he qualified because he had observed all these from his youth. This is not such a noble achievement when you consider that there are “good people” out there who may not necessarily be followers of Jesus who follow these commands. These are just decent things to do, very attainable to decent folks, believing or not.

Apparently Jesus wasn’t all that impressed. “One thing you lack,” he replied. “Go and sell everything you have, and give the money to the poor. Then take up the cross and follow me.” In other words, Jesus said, “Put your money where your mouth is!” It was more than the man was willing to do. He sadly went away.

This was no ordinary young man, which is probably why Jesus was hard on him and why Jesus offered him a place with his disciples. Matthew lets us know he is young, and Luke identifies him as “a certain ruler.” Apparently he is a synagogue ruler. All three gospel writers describe him as rich, which Jesus saw not as a plus but as a stumbling block. He lamented to the disciples (to their utter amazement) that it is extremely hard, almost impossible, for a rich man to enter God’s kingdom.

In light of our day of cheap grace and “sloppy agape,” Jesus’ initiation requirement into discipleship seems harsh and severe. Sell everything you own, give it to the poor. Everything. The deceitfulness of riches is such a distraction for so many of us that the only way to relate properly to the kingdom is to cut loose from the allurements of the world.

The other part is downright intimidating. “Take up the cross and follow me.” No one had to tell this young man what this meant. Crosses and crucifixion were the constant reminder that the brutal occupying Roman government meant business against those who dared rise up against the state. A messiah-movement would certainly be considered insurrectionist and would be put down with the most heinous form of humiliation and torture imaginable. Victims were forced to carry the cross through crowded streets where an assembled mob would hurl both stones and curses. Then they would be executed on it to a slow, painful death by eventual suffocation.

To buy into Jesus’ discipleship meant to withdraw from participation in the world around and risk personal harm and humiliation for the choice to follow Jesus. While the young man was willing to follow a few commandments, he was unwilling to commit to discipleship to the level Jesus required. He walked away.

I’m wondering how much harm we do people when we offer grace so cheap that all you have to do is show up on Sunday morning, when you feel like it and when the weather suits you, of course. Denominations like mine tell me to make disciples, and then really put a lot of stock on the nickels and noses of apportionment-paying and Sunday attendance. For too many discipleship is coming to a glorified rock concert to hear pep talks about coping with the mean, cruel world around us, perhaps even living successfully in it. It occurs to me that while we might be able to measure success (from the world’s perspective) that way, we cannot measure obedience that way.

The first element of worship is sacrifice. Jesus demanded personal sacrifice and commitment that required seekers to abandon wealth and prestige and personal security to enter a lifestyle of continual risk. Something tells me he has not relaxed that requirement. It is like the baptismal covenant we inherited from our Jewish forebears which calls us to abandon a past life to be reborn in a new life in the kingdom. This is what Jesus was asking of the young man we call the rich young ruler.

Disciplemaking is not getting people to attend a service in which they are entertained, or even “blessed.” Disciplemaking involves getting people to make an informed commitment to follow Jesus even if it means losing both wealth and reputation. Baptized into the church and into the kingdom means going through the portal of death to self so that they emerge on the other side in a new way of life. Disciplemaking is encouraging spiritual formation, maturity and Christlikeness.

We let people get away with tough but insincere talk about following Jesus. Like Jesus we need to say, “Put your money where your mouth is!”

An army of disciple-makers

Some folks don’t like military imagery applied to the church. They tried to remove “Onward Christian Soldiers” from the hymnbook. They overlook the countless references to armed conflict in the Hebrew Scriptures. They try to make the case that Jesus never talked about or endorsed warfare of any kind. Straining a gnats and swallowing camels, indeed.

The fact is, that is precisely the language Jesus used. At Caesarea-Philippi he asked his young disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, Son of the living God!” That was a military declaration in itself. In the mind of these young Hebrew men, enslaved all their lives by brutal Roman overlords, the anticipated Messiah would be a military leader who would rally the militia and lead them to defeat the Romans and remove them from the country so that David’s kingdom could be re-established.

Jesus seems to encourage these lifetime dreams with his response. “You are right, Simon, son of Jonah! The Holy Spirit revealed this to you. Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it!”

The word church is a military term, but we miss it because we look at it with Western eyes. In Greek thought it referred to calling people together for debate and decision in a town council. But in Hebrew thought it means calling people together for war. Its Old Testament usage is indisputably military. This is why the young disciples heard mixed signals and could not understand why Jesus would go to Jerusalem to die when Messiah and warfare meant glorious victory. The reference to the gates of Hades to them meant the defences of Rome.

However, Jesus is using strong metaphor. He doesn’t mean for us to take up weapons and make disciples to Christianity by force. Far from it. Hades, hiding behind those strong fortresses, meant death and lifelessness and insignificance; decay and unproductivity and inaction. Hebrew life is active and vibrant, lived to the full with meaning and purpose. To go to Hades (Sheol, death) is abhorrent to the Hebrew mind.

Jesus uses Hades to describe the manner of life people get themselves into when they become enslaved by the devil. Self-defeating behaviors, habits, belief-systems, ways of living. Things like ignorance, grinding poverty, substance addictions, and chronic immorality. Dysfunctional family life and generations of living off the system. These are formidable strongholds holding people in bondage.

Jesus wants to gather a militant, well-armed, well-trained army of disciple-makers and send them to knock down these strongholds and set the captives therein free through relationship-based discipleship. We are to deliver them from the captivity of the death that ensnares them and introduce them to lives of meaning and purpose and accomplishment and contribution to others.

This should inform our disciple-making endeavors. Instead of trotting out another Bible study and trying to twist enough arms to get a respectable turnout, maybe we should look around at our community and identify the strongholds of Hades, and bring out weapons to tear down those walls and release those inside. If we listen closely enough, we’ll hear the captain of the Lord’s host dispatch us to take one of those strongholds, for the glory of the kingdom.

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war . . .

If not a democracy, then what?

My last entry opined that the church is not a democracy. That is, it is not to be governed by a majority vote of the people. A hard concept for people who believe themselves to live in a “democratic society” and think they just have to have a say.

So it is a fair question to ask, “If the church is not a democracy, then what is it? And how do you govern it?” Let me stab at answering these queries.

Obviously the church is Jesus’ church and should be considered a “Christocracy,” governed by Christ. He told the disciples he would build his church. Paul tells us Jesus is head of all things, including the church. Everything we do, everything, must be done not for our own benefit but because Jesus wants us to do it.

Luke chapter 4 gives us the what. Jesus said he was anointed and appointed to preach good news, to set captives free, to heal the brokenhearted and bring recovery of sight to the blind. This was the language of a conquering king who was setting up a new administration and setting right the corruption of the previous dictator. This is the stuff of kingdom business, bringing these qualities of resurrection life into the present, working by faith to materialize the kingdom.

Matthew chapter 28 gives us the how. Jesus told us that as we go we are to make disciples. We are to gather around ourselves people who will commit themselves to learning the ways of the kingdom and doing its work. Growing them in faith and maturity and Christ-like character so that they can join in the kingdom work described in Luke chapter 4. I have a feeling doing the stuff of Luke chapter 4 helps us attract folks so we can do Matthew chapter 28.

Let me emphasize to you that if we are not doing the what according to the how, we are not obedient to Christ. Period. It does not matter what we have always done, or what others are doing, or how well intentioned we are.

As for governing the church, for taking it in the direction Jesus wants it to go, I hearken back to a previous entry for the mechanics. What if we were to adopt the mindset that allows the pastor to lead, a board to govern, a staff to manage, and a congregation to minister? What if decision-making was streamlined and permission-giving so that more emphasis and resource could be placed on ministry? Perhaps I will deal with this in the next entry.

The Lectionary texts for the coming Sunday allude to this. In Mark chapter 9 Jesus’ disciples became alarmed when they noticed someone they didn’t know casting out demons in Jesus’ name. He said, “Let them alone! If they are not against us they are for us. If they do miracles they can’t soon criticize us.”

In Numbers chapter 11 Moses cried out to God for help. At God’s instruction he set aside 70 elders to be recognized before the people. The Holy Spirit fell, and they began to prophesy, always a sign that God is present. However, Joshua became alarmed that two men in the congregation were also prophesying, and warned Moses to make them stop. Moses said, “Are you worried about me? I wish everyone had God’s spirit and could prophesy!”

Democracy in the church is not in the deciding but in the doing. The Holy Spirit falls on some to give them direction for making decisions, and we call them elders. We owe them our respect and our cooperation. But the Holy Spirit falls on all of us to make us ministers, to anoint us to join into the kingdom work Jesus described in Luke chapter 4.

Making disciples by telling the Good News

While our mission is to make disciples, the method we use involves telling the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who don’t already know him. Evangelism is the activity of telling Good News by word, deed, and sign, so that unbelievers can become aquainted with Jesus and want to seek Christian discipleship.

But what exactly is the Good News? It is the story of God’ loving interaction with mankind. Eddie Fox and George Morris have developed an effective system for witnessing in a postmodern day with Faith Sharing. They offer practical guidance for both message and method for witness.

For one thing, we need to work our our thumbnail sketch of the Good News that can be related quickly and clearly in a brief encounter. Here is a brief synopsis:

God created us in his image to have a relationship with him. He designed us with the spiritual capacity to know him and love him and serve him.

We rebelled against God through disobedience and corrupted our ability to relate to him. That caused us to pursue beliefs and lifestyles that grieve God and bring harm and imbalance to God’s creation.

God initiated restoration of our severed relationship and damaged creation through a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, the Hebrews. Eventually God expressed himself in human form through Jesus Christ. Jesus prevailed where we failed and assumed the guilt of our rebellion by his death on the cross. Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection completely restored our ability to relate to God.

The Holy Spirit brings grace from God to draw us into restored relationship by showing us our need and facilitating our entry into the kingdom through faith. The result of the Spirit’s continuing work in our lives is a renewed relationship with God and the restoration of peace and balance in our lives.

The Good News is that simple. We needn’t make it complicated with the unbiblical methods of supposed “evangelism” we invented in the 19th and 20th centuries. We don’t make disciples in the same manner that we sell cars. The Good News is sufficiently capable of producing disciples on its own and without our enhancement. All we have to do is tell it.

Dr. Luke records in Acts chapter 2 that Peter told this simple story to thousands of religious Jews amazed by the power of the Holy Spirit. The result was phenominal. Two thousand people asked, “What must we do?”

Peter replied, “Change your manner of thinking and living (i.e., repent), and be initiated into the kingdom of God through baptism.” There were no booklets, no altar calls, and no canned “sinner’s prayers.” They didn’t even sing “Just As I Am.” The people just came to be baptized into a new life in the kingdom of God. They became disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Telling the Good News is not as complicated as we have made it out to be. It doesn’t take a “trained professional” whom we “pay to do that” It merely takes our faithfulness to tell the story. Now that is good news!

Mindful of the things of God

Today’s Gospel lectionary text follows Jesus to the region of Caesarea Philippi, at the north end of Israel, and home of several pagan shrines. With him are the twelve disciples and other unidentified people, possibly the 120 relatives and friends who followed Jesus around and identified themselves also as disciples.

Jesus asked the twelve, “Who do men say that I am?” They respond by reporting local gossip. They’ve heard him referred to as John the Baptist, as Elijah the prophet, and as one of the other prophets of old.

“Okay,” Jesus said. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answers that he believes Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus then begins to tell them how he will go to Jerusalem, be rejected by the priests and scribes (the Sadducees), suffer shame and torture, and be put to death. The graphic description refers to death by crucifixion. He also tells them that after three days he will rise again.

Peter is aghast. How can the Messiah be treated that way? Can’t be! Apparently he didn’t hear the “rise again” part because he was so upset about the suffering death part. So he pulled Jesus aside to help him out, to rebuke him.

“Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus returns. “You are not mindful of the things of God, but of the things of men.”

Peter was concerned because Jesus’ description of what would happen to him when he went to Jerusalem did not match with popular desire for the Messiah. The rabbis taught, and everybody believed, that Messiah would surely come into Jerusalem, probably one Passover, and run out the Romans and replace their brutal regime with the glorious kingdom of David. The temple and priesthood were in place, and all it would take would be the right man, anointed of God, to do the job.

Wrong. Jesus said these ideas, grand as they were, were the things of men. Things of God included sacrifice and death before resurrection. They meant suffering and being put to death on the most brutal form of torture ever devised, after carrying it through the streets naked, while organized mobs gathered to jeer and spit and hurl objects and insults. Those were the things of God.

We use the phrase things of God loosely these days. Usually it refers to something vague and is many times associated with things that give us warm fuzzies, just as Peter’s vision of Messianic victory over the Romans help him feel all warm inside.

But in this case Jesus gave specific examples. After rebuking Peter loudly and in full hearing of the other eleven, he called the people around to further humiliate Peter by making him a public example. “If you want to follow me,” Jesus said, “ you have to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.” The application is clear. Following Jesus as disciple means self-denial and sacrifice, along with the willingness to take up the instrument of torture and death, and be paraded through the streets in utter shame.

To find life you have to lose it, to be buried with Christ so that you can live in the hope of the resurrection. Disciple-making means bringing people, through committed learning relationships, into a life-commitment of selfless service to Jesus. Christian baptism is the entry point in this kingdom commitment of eternal life, beginning now and extending into the hereafter in the resurrection.

I am afraid that, for the sake of counting nickels and noses, we are attracting people to a “cheap grace” as Bonhoffer called it, where we deceive ourselves in finding glory when in reality we are being mindful of the things of men. Numbers of back-pew believers consuming “ministries” do not make disciples. They are not following Jesus to the cross of crucifixion of the flesh. They are gratifying the desires of their hearts with a “Christian” rubber stamp. We have sold our soul to make friends with the culture, but in the end what will we have accomplished?

I believe Jesus is calling us to be counter-cultural. He is calling us to build the resurrection kingdom of God in the present by making disciples and changing lives. We knowingly and willingly risk ridicule, resistance, and our own convenience to do God’s good work. It is a calculated risk. Disciple-making means calling others to work alongside us, allowing Jesus to rub off onto them until they are ready to take the plunge through baptism into a life of death to self, new life in Christ.

What’s that in your hand?

When God commissioned Moses to return to Egypt to bring the Israelites out from bondage, Moses naturally wondered how he would be able to pull off such a monumental task. He was intimidated by potential credibility issues. He feared his own people would not take him seriously.

“What’s that in your hand,” God asked.

“A rod,” Moses responded, referring to the crude implement he used for tending sheep.

“Throw it down,” God said. “I will use it to convince them you mean business.” Essentially God told Moses to use what he had at hand.

I believe that is good advice for us also as we go about the mission of making new disciples for the kingdom. While it is human to make excuses and moan about what we don’t have and what we can’t do, God is interested in how resourceful we are with what we have. Jesus underscores the idea with his parable of the talents. The moral is, “faithful in little, ruler over much.”

So what do we have in our hand? The story of Pentecost teaches us that we hae the presence of the Holy Spirit, manifested in specific God-breathed abilities, to provide the horsepower to accomplish the mission. Jesus promised the disciples at his ascension they would receive power to be witnesses. That promise was fulfilled on Pentecost Sunday.

Natural Church Development (NCD) has discovered that churches are most effective in making disciples when members discover and use their spiritual gifts in ministry. Not only are they more productive, but NCD says gift-oriented people are more fulfilled in their relationship with God.

NCD also notes that when we think institutionally, we create a list of job titles and then try to recruit people to fill them. This is what I call the “names-beside-titles” approach. We force a bureaucratic organizational structure, and then pressure people into taking organizational positions.

In my experience this has never been effective in making disciples. It has been great for filling out forms to send to the Conference and making every slot has a name written by it, but it has never helped us become more fruitful in kingdom building.

As a pastor, my job in ministry is to help people discover what is in their hand, and then coach them on how to use that. God has given us far more than is needed to get the job done. I’d rather have a slim organizational structure with lots of permission-giving, and emphasize an anything-goes ministry that encourages people to do what they are called and gifted to do.

Uneducated, lower-middle class Galileans turned Jerusalem upside down in just one day. A fugitive shepherd with low self-esteem, rough-hewn stick in hand, pulled off the greatest single management task ever accomplished. All this was done by the power of the Holy Spirit. The same Holy Spirit who now fills us and equips us to do good work in Jesus’ name.

So, what’s that in your hand?