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.

The Holy Name of Jesus

This eighth day of Christmas we head back to Bethlehem, to the humble dwelling where Joseph and Mary took up temporary residence during the Roman taxation. Dr. Luke tells the story of excitement eight days before, among temple shepherds, who barged in uninvited into the tender moments following childbirth. The loud and precocious pre-teens came to check out a story of miraculous childbirth told them by a multitude of angels lighting up the night sky. Then they noisily went about telling others about their angelic visit. If they were around today they might describe it as “awesome” or even “epic.” I get the feeling they may have been more impressed with the messengers than the subject of the message.

Mary, on the other hand, quietly pondered the entire experience, keeping her thoughts close to her heart. All this pondering has my wife convinced Mary is a true introvert. For the previous eight days Mary has been quiet, pondering, and receiving the guests who would customarily visit every day until the traditional circumcision and naming ceremony. She has been on her child-bed, receiving constant attention from the midwife and women in the family. Her newborn has been picked up at the slightest whimper, passed around from one to the other, adored as the cutest baby ever seen, and kissed until his skin is raw.

On this eighth day Jewish custom permits Mary to get out of bed, to go into the mikveh bath for ritual cleansing, and to get ready for the circumcision and naming ceremony. As Jewish custom requires, the rabbi will be by today to circumcise the child into communion with the Jewish people, and inquire of the name he shall be called.

Circumcision was an initiation rite into Judaism going back to Genesis chapter 17. Since that time every male born to Jewish parents had to have the foreskin removed precisely on the eighth day. It could not be rescheduled at convenience. It was a sign of covenant with God, and a visible reminder of that covenant. Our time-honored Christian practice of infant baptism is inherited from this ancient rite of extending covenant to the newborn.

By the first century the official naming of a newborn was put off until circumcision eight days after birth. The rabbi would ask what the child would be called, and that statement, made in front of a house-full of guests, would be the birth certificate and legal record of the child’s name as he entered into covenant with the greater community. Normally first-born males were named after their father or grandfather. The infant’s father, as head of the house, had the final say and would pronounce the name. When the question was asked, Joseph did as the angel instructed. He told the rabbi, “He is to be called JESUS.”

From this the church gives us January 1, the eighth day of Christmas, to observe the Feast of the Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to think about significance of the name of Jesus. It must be important if God himself wanted to ensure the circumcising rabbi recorded that he would be called Jesus. So he directed Joseph to name him accordingly.

Of course, the name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew Yeshua, which means “Jehovah saves.” The very name Jesus means salvation and restoration, and he is named for what he will accomplish. The angel told Joseph he would save his people from their sins. His naming ceremony, full of joy and celebration at the time, is in reality a death sentence. He will become, as Paul explained, “obedient to death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).

But the Holy Name of Jesus means much more. Paul goes on to triumphantly declare, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11).

Now, as we carry out the work of God’s kingdom through the community called church, we are said to pray, preach, and work in Jesus’ name. That means we are diligent to discern what Jesus is doing among us, and to follow him in that work. Our words and deeds must always reflect him, honor him, promote him. We, like John the baptizer, learn to decrease so he can increase.

Following Christ as his disciples we are baptized into his name, forsaking the past and pressing forward into the kingdom. We join others in worship and thanksgiving through the name of Christ, remembering that as we gather in his name he is with us. We draw strength from Jesus’ name, knowing that everything we ask in his name and for his purpose is granted. We serve in his name, showing his love and pointing to his kingdom through acts of love and service to the world around us. The apostle Paul reminds us, “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Colossians 3:17).

The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, predestined at the foundation of the world, prophesied by angels and pronounced at his birth by Joseph among us. It was rejoiced and recorded by witnesses in that tiny home with little clue of what it all meant, except for Mary, who had pondered its meaning in hear heart. The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ has been preached and proclaimed by the church is the means of salvation and restoration to God’s love. As the psalmist declared, “O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1, 9).

Eternal Father, you gave to your incarnate Son the holy name of Jesus to be the sign of our salvation: Plant in every heart, we pray, the love of him who is the Savior of the world, our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (BCP)

The mystery of Epiphany: God with us

We do not know much about the mysterious magi from the east who looked into the night sky and discovered a message about the newly arrived king of the Jews. We don’t know who they were, how many there were, or exactly from where they came.

But we can know they were a proud priestly class who took the arrangements and movements of stars and planets seriously and saw them as effecting world events. We can gather they were magicians, and astrologers who made a good living off superstitious, self-absorbed, and insecure pagan kings. They were pompous and showy, and liked to attract a lot of attention wherever they went.

So when the night sky brought forth a new star in the Israelite constellation they knew something was up. The metaphor of sun, moon, and stars in the middle east is descriptive of governmental order and the balance of power. When something metaphorically happens in the sky it means to them something earth-changing is taking place on earth.

And so it was. With the new star on the horizon God revealed to these pagan flim-flam artists to the rich and famous that the king of kings was born. The Torah tells us God is not fond of astrology, but apparently he was not beyond using it to get his point across. The magi’s mastery of the superstitious arts, combined with perhaps a little knowledge of bits and pieces of ancient Hebrew prophecy, helped them figure out that a trip to Jerusalem would be worth the effort.

It was as if they were drawn to a distant light, to uncover the mystery of the heavens. Finally they arrived in Jerusalem with great fanfare only to find a befuddled and paranoid Herod, without a clue of the celestial sign and the newborn child to which it referred. I am intrigued with their statement to Herod: “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and we have come to worship him.” That is a strong word for these proud men to use. They were used to taking advantage of clueless sovereigns for a fee, not worshiping them. But the kind of worship they intended is serious falling down on one’s face and giving ultimate allegiance. Life-changing devotion.

The scribes were called and the Scriptures were consulted. “The child is in Bethlehem,” Herod reported. “Go there to worship him. Be sure to tell me where you find him, because I want to go too. Later.” They followed Herod’s instructions and newly reappeared star to the house in Bethlehem where mother and child were. True to their word they fell to the floor, prostrate in worship and homage. They presented costly gifts testifying to their revelation of the Christ child as prophet, priest, and king. Frankincense for the prophet, myrrh for the priest, and gold for the king. They testify to his royalty, his ministry, and his suffering and pain. They also remind us that genuine worship is not without sacrifice of both personal pride and material possessions.

Through a moving star in the night sky God manifested Jesus, the king of kings, to the pagan magi, and in the process changed their lives. They were compelled to acknowledge him with the sacrifice of worship and prophetic gifts.

The mystery of Epiphany remains for us. Jesus, if we will let him, will attract our attention to the mystery. He will lead us into the presence of God and allow us to see his glory. Christmas teaches us the mystery of incarnation, God with us. Epiphany goes further and teaches us the mystery of the manifestation of Christ as the king of kings and savior of the world. The king of glory is here, building his promised kingdom, and 

asking us to join him.

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

Epiphany 2011

Don’t lose sight of the Coming One

Our Lectionary text today is full of the sights and sounds of the Coming One. John the baptizer hears in prison about the eruption of miracles, signs, and wonders, and sends his disciples to inquire. Jesus responds by telling them to report what they hear and see. He asks the crowd what they went to see in the wilderness.

It was truly an incredible time. Matthew chapter 9 has an impressive list of things Jesus accomplished in villages around the countryside. He healed a paralytic, dried up a woman’s perpetual bleeding, and raised a dead little girl back to life. He restored sight to a blind man and speech to a man with a demon. Then in chapter 10 he sent his disciples on a mission to more towns to do more of the same.

As John heard about all this no doubt he thought, “But what about me? Isn’t he going to do anything for me?” Maybe this is why Jesus told John’s disciples as he dismissed them, “And tell John blessed is he who is not offended with me.” Essentially that meant there would be no release from prison for John and he would have to deal with it with a good attitude. He would have to live by the words he told his disciples: Jesus must increase, John must decrease, even if it means remaining in Herod’s prison.

All of this goes together to tell us it is not about us at all, but all about Jesus. He must be the focus of everything and the center of everything. The things he does for people are to call attention to Jesus. Paul reminds us that the whole of creation was made by him and for him.

When Jesus told John’s disciples to witness to the things they had heard and seen he was telling them to witness to Jesus as the Coming One. All these things were prophesied about the Coming One, possible only through the Coming One.

It is so easy for us to be distracted by nonessential things. We don’t like the music or the way the preacher does things. We place importance on trivial programs and issues and feelings that don’t really help anyone see Jesus. In the American South in particular we are masters on making the focus trivial things. Like football, boring Sunday evening services, and endless parties, fundraisers, and time-wasters. It seems we like to come to church to be at church, as if physical presence inside the church building is going to point us to Jesus.

None of the things Jesus did to let people recognize him were done in a church building. They were done out and among the people. They were done in ways that changed lives, and pointed to the unmistakable Coming One. It is only when we exchange the focus on Jesus for focus on ourselves and our trivial pursuits do we get confused.

Don’t lose sight of the Coming One. Jesus comes. Now, to tell what you hear and see.

3 Advent A (2010)

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.

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.

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.

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.

Getting their attention

Simon bar Jonah was not easily impressed. After all, he was a fisherman. He lived a hard, coarse life not known for social graces. As the saying goes, he would “just as soon cuss you as look at you.”

Every night Simon and his fellow fishers risked their lives trawling the lake for fish. Frequently, and without warning, a violent storm would erupt out of the darkness. Many a fishing boat and crew had been lost that way.

One morning Simon and his brother Andrew came in after a hard night on the lake. Their efforts had been in vain. No fish. Nothing to sell at market, no money to take home to the family. They just wanted to clean the nets, stow everything away, and go home for some sleep. The last thing they wanted that morning was to meet the new rabbi. Like most hard living men they weren’t too impressed with rabbis.

But the new rabbi knew just how to get Simon’s attention. He attracted a large, noisy crowd and headed straight for the lakeside, right were Simon and Andrew were finishing their chores.

“Excuse me, is this your boat?” the rabbi asked. “I need to borrow it. Could you do me a favor and push out a little?”

“What?” Simon protested. “I’m getting ready to go home. I’m whipped. Can’t you . . .”

“It won’t take long,” the rabbi insisted. “Come on, push me out a little.”

The rabbi taught. It seemed the rabbi would never finish. Simon was miserable. He didn’t hear a word. All he could think about was how tired he was. Finally the rabbi finished. “Good! Now we can go home,” Simon thought.

“Now,” the rabbi said to Simon, “put your nets in over here.”

“What?” an exasperated Simon demanded. “We’ve been out all night. Didn’t catch a thing. We’re exhausted. We just want to put everything up and go home. What do you know about fishing, anyway? You stick to the rabbi business, we’ll stick to the fishing business.”

“Put your nets in over here,” the rabbi insisted.

“Alright, alright! We won’t catch anything but we’ll humor you.” Simon threw the heavy nets into the water, where the rabbi pointed. “There. Satisfied?”

Suddenly the boat began to list to one side as the nets filled with fish. Now Simon had a new problem. The nets were breaking, and he and Andrew couldn’t pull them in. Simon called partners James and John to come help. Together they pulled in the largest catch they had ever made.

“Now I’ll teach you to fish for men,” the rabbi said. All four fishers left nets, boats, record catch, everything, to follow the rabbi.

He got their attention.

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 . . .

Is the church a democracy or not?

Well, I think I stepped in it Sunday. I said in my sermon that the church is not a democracy. It just came rolling out. I could feel everyone tense up in the room as I finished the thought with, “It’s just not in the Bible!” It was one of those moments where it momentarily becomes hard to breathe because all the oxygen was sucked out of the room because everyone gasped at one time.

I was talking about the fact that Jesus calls us to make disciples, not decisions, and how we are ineffectively organized to make disciples because we are so meticulously organized, through a plethora of boards and committees, to make decisions. Administration is top-heavy, ministry is almost non-existent. And where it does exist it is inverted and self-focused. I was talking about how I dislike this time of year, with the dreaded charge conference looming, and how we do the “names-beside-titles” routine every year.

The concept of democracy did not originate with Americans, but we have indeed latched onto it. Democracy is of ancient (pagan) Greek origin and it means “rule of the people.” People gathered into local assemblies to debate and vote on issues relative to the town. The Greek word εκκλησια (ekklesia, church) was unfortunately used in Greek translations to express what Jesus described when he said he would gather his people together (Matt. 16:18) to invade the gates of Hades. In the Greek (western) mind εκκλησια conjures up notions of gathering to discuss and vote; in the Hebrew frame of reference, from which Jesus speaks, the gathering is for organizing, preparing, and initiating war. A hierarchy of officers and chain of command is established. The mustered militia does not vote on these things. It follows designated leadership into battle. I have a really hard time believing that Jesus suddenly went pagan on the disciples.

There are two biblical references to an attempt to take a vote on action in Scripture. In Numbers chapter 14 the Israelites became anxious when they heard the promised land was full of giants too great to conquer. So they said to each other, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt” (v. 4). They took a vote to remove leadership appointed by God. Apparently it was a majority vote. But God did not ratify it. God was so angry that he wanted to destroy the entire nation and start over with Moses. Moses interceded for them, and God said he would preserve the nation but let the people who voted “no” die in the wilderness over a 40-year penalty for disobedience. Not a happy day. The kingdom was delayed 40 years because of a congregational vote.

In the Gospels Pilate stands the beaten Jesus before the people gathered at the Praetorium. He takes a democratic vote. “Do you want me to release Jesus or Barabbas?” The people, worked into a frenzy by the overactive priests and elders, vote for Pilate to release the insurrectionist Barabbas and to crucify the true Messiah, the Son of God. Democracy prevailed.

The problem with Greek-style democracy is that we get the impression that we can vote and by majority vote tell our authorities what and how to do. Many times we get the impression that we can vote to tell our authorities to do what we should be doing, and to wait on us hand and foot.

Another serious problem with democracy becomes obvious from the biblical examples. Simple democracy lends itself to government by those who vote from emotional reaction instead of informed thought and reason. Too often, we look to avoid controversy and satisfy the least mature so they won’t create more disturbance. Sometimes they simply outvote us. As with both the Israelites in the wilderness and the people in Pilate’s courtyard, the reactive emotion governs the day. The fact is that democracy is a short step away from mobocracy, or rule by mob. Is this what we want in the church?

But the major problem with Greek-style democracy is the simple fact that it is totally foreign to biblical thought and practice. The two times it appears it is presented to teach us from the negative consequences of applying it. We can call meetings to discuss and vote or we can do God’s work but I’m afraid we can’t do both.

We must remember that it is Jesus’ church, not our church. We must allow him to direct us, through divinely appointed authorities, into the mission of the church. We are still gathering to organize, prepare, and initate war against the strongholds of the devil. What we do at church is what they do in military briefings. We train, equip, encourage, give mission orders, and mobilize.

But there is a sense in which the church is democratic. We are the kingdom of priests each involved in ministry. Everyone needs to help lead worship. Everyone needs to be involved in outreach and witness, deployed to take down the defenses of Hades and transform lives for the kingdom. We don’t pay the preacher to do that! Hebrew democracy means we are all part of the militia, all part of the effort of making disciples.

Jesus called us to make disciples, not decisions. So let’s make one last decision. Let’s decide to make disciples. Together.

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.

Discipleship of hope

We live in times when people are losing hope. I am reading that the postmodern generation, generally the twenty-somethings in college and beginning adulthood, is a generation without hope. They look at the state of the world, with chronic anxiety, economic unrest, and world conflict, with little hope for a bright future.

Many of these people emerging into adulthood come from troubled homes. They have become all to accustomed to dysfunctional relationships, broken promises, and putting on a false front. They are used to a life where things are not what they seem. They note how the great institutions, including the church, the modern generations created in the 20th century have failed to keep promises and deliver the goods.

They view the world as not what it seems, and if they ever open up, will tell you they carry a lot of pain. They are discouraged. They are without hope.

That is not unlike Jesus’ time. By the time Messiah was supposed to come people were losing hope. Upon release from captivity the Hebrews experienced maybe 20 years out of 400 in complete freedom and safety. The rest of the time they suffered under one brutal world regime after another. By the time of Jesus there had been a cultural invasion of the Greeks followed by a military invasion of the Romans. The Hebrew way of life was all but gone.

Then came an obscure and eccentric prophet named John, who kept to himself in the wilderness and bellowed incessantly about the need for repentance before the Messiah came. In his own way he sparked hope. People began checking the prophecies, particularly in Daniel, and counted the days it said would lapse before Messiah’s coming. They were nearly complete! Prophecies and psalms were read, proclaimed, and prayed. Hope arose.

Hope was manifested in Jesus, a rabbi and prophet from Galilee. He seemed to pick up where John left off, speaking of a new kingdom spoken of by the prophets of old. His kingdom would be different from the Jewish nation. It would include anyone who would come. It would begin in the present but not be fully in place until after the resurrection. It would replace the religious and social institution that had been so carefully built in Jerusalem.

The method Jesus used to foster hope was to gather disciples to train for and rally around his message. Apparently there were several levels, from the greater following of multitudes who came to here him, to the 120 or so who followed him everywhere, to the twelve he specifically recruited, to the three he spent a good deal of time with. These circles had varying levels of commitment, and it was the most committed who were used to change the world with the message of hope.

During the 20th century we so institutionalized the church that it became more like a school and a club than the church Jesus described. It fit well into the industrially driven, institution-building culture of the last 100 years, reaching its peak in the 1950s and 1960s.

Now, at a major hinge or turning of history, industrialization and institutionalization are giving way to more relationship-oriented economies. We have shifted to a service-based economy and we are seeing more importance placed on relationships. Postmoderns emerging into today’s world crave relationships.

It seems like a great time to revive the relationship-based system of making disciples that Jesus used. Perhaps we need to think less in terms of institutionalized settings, like classes and clubs, and think more in less formal ways of making relationships and gaining the trust of skeptical people so they will open up and say what’s on their hearts, and so that we can speak into their lives. So that we can say something about hope.

It seems to me that if we can do what Jesus did . . . if we can somehow attract attention to the awe and majesty and mystery of God . . . we might could gain the trust and commitment of a few who will learn by example and precept, and be charged with the hope of changing this hopeless world, in the same way Jesus’ disciples, all barely twenty-somethings, bravely left Jerusalem to fan out into a hostile pagan world, and changed the world.

The search for true spirituality

I have read that today’s unchurched twenty-agers are looking for a dimension of spirituality for their lives. They know there is something beyond the material world, but they do not know what it is. They may describe it as a power or a mystery. They may try different ways to discover true spirituality, and they may conclude that “all paths lead to God.”

Why the interest in spiritual things? It really should come as no surprise. God created us in his image and likeness. This means we have a spiritual component within us that can only be fulfilled in relationship with God. When we disobeyed God in the garden we cut off that relationship and severely damaged the God-image on the inside. Now distorted, it seeks fulfillment in all the wrong places. That’s what causes the sense of guilt, restlessness, and hopelessness. All paths do not lead to God, after all.

What, then, is true spirituality? The apostle Paul testifies of his pursuit of spirituality through prestigious social connections, good education, and religious zealousness. But one day he met the crucified and risen Jesus, and his life forever changed. He wrote to his Philippian friends, “I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me” (Phil. 3:12). Robert Webber described Christian spirituality as “God’s passionate embrace of us; our passionate embrace of God.”

In Luke chapter 7 the unnamed woman, passionately seeking the divine embrace, interrupts the dinner party given for Jesus. We are told she is a “sinner” and that she honors Jesus in a very crude way. She pours on Jesus’ feet two very precious things -- her bottle of tears (representing her prayers poured out before God) and her expensive funeral ointment. Obviously Jesus’ religious hosts are annoyed, and indignantly wonder why Jesus puts up with her outrageous behavior.

The woman is so intent in her spiritual quest that she ignores the Pharisees’ intimidating resistence. Another time she might back away from their glares, but not today. The spiritual vacuum within has driven her to her shameful behaviors. But now, within Jesus, she recognizes the incarnation of God himself, there to restore wholeness and reach out for divine embrace. Jesus does not disappoint. All those misdirected efforts to find fulfillment, he says, are forgiven.

Misguided twenty-somethings seeking spiritual fulfillment in the wrong places need to hear this story. They need to hear that the void within is filled, not with drugs or Yoga or philosophy, but with the real Jesus who became flesh and blood and now lives within our flesh and blood. Jesus is indeed the only path to God.

It seems our discipleship efforts need to include ways to help people fulfill the spiritual hunger within which point to the saving embrace of Jesus Christ. Our system of providing committed learning relationships needs to go beyond educating the mind (classes) and touch the heart.

I love this collect from the Book of Common Prayer. It helps me focus on what I need to do to extend spirituality to others through discipleship. It is my prayer for today.

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

Do You See Process or Product?

As we think about vision, I note that it is easy to confuse process with product. By that I mean that too many times we think in terms of the how instead of thinking about desired results. I wonder if it should be the other way around.

Jeremiah gives us some guidance through a prophecy to the captive Israelites: “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11). When Jeremiah cast this vision he spoke of results. He spoke of the end product.

When we think in terms of product we envision wonderful things that will have already happened as a result of our ministry. Problems will have been solved, lives will have been restored. These should be tangible things.

Jesus spoke in similar terms. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,” he said, “because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18, 19). These are very specific results. In fact, the Lord’s stated outcomes should inform our own objectives since we are building his kingdom.

Too often I think we start with process before asking the Lord what result he wants to accomplish through us. “We need a revival!” and “Let’s start a class of some kind” are examples of this thinking. Is our desire just to have a good meeting before the end of the year? Do we just want another class going? Are these really our objectives?

Thinking product first is important because it helps us design the process more clearly so that we don’t waste resources on projects that don’t work. After we identify the desired product we may discover that the meeting or class we thought about is not the best way to go about it. There may be an entirely different approach that better reaches those we seek to bring into the kingdom.

So, which do you see first – process or product?

Planning for a Preferred Future

The church development people refer to vision as seeing God’s preferred future for the church. That means, as we have faithfully worked at our mission to make disciples, certain preferred outcomes will take place as God leads and blesses. With that in mind, here are a few thoughts about vision for the future:

Vision interprets our mission. Unquestionably our mission is to make new disciples for the kingdom of God. That means we work together in love and cooperation to seek undiscipled people in our community and include them somehow in meaningful learning relationships. That is our sole purpose for existence. Vision asks the question, “Who does not know Jesus in our community?”

Vision determines our work. Once we identify our mission field, then we can determine how best to reach the people in it. Vision asks, “What are the main problems the unchurched in our community face? What are their most pressing needs? What will communicate with them?” Only after we have a clear vision for our community can we begin to plan and implement strategies to make disciples in it.

Vision identifies our capabilities. Jesus teaches us the importance of understanding our capabilities before starting a project. Vision honestly and soberly identifies the resources at hand and helps us to use them wisely. We have at our disposal a unique array of spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities – all to be used in disciple-making. Vision asks, “How can we match what we have to the problems and needs we have discovered?”

Vision foresees outcomes. Vision focuses on the people who do not yet know Jesus and devises a customized process of moving them from non-discipleship to mature Christianity. It looks deeply and lovingly into the lives of hurting people without Jesus and seeks to gather them into the community of the believing, showing them how God has helped us and how God can help them. It does not emphasize building an organization and getting people to participate in programs.

I have discovered that vision is much more than hoping more people will show up at church next Sunday. Vision means getting actively involved with what the Lord wants us to accomplish in making disciples. It is cooperating with God to bring about his preferred future in our community.