Tuesday, October 4, 2016

On Discipleship. Or “Drink up me hearties, yo ho!”

World Communion Sunday
October 2, 2016
Lamentations 1:1-6; Psalm 137; 2 Timothy 1:1-14; Luke 17:5-10


            At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, we read, “the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[1]
            This passage is often called the Great Commission, or the Commissioning of the Disciples. Jesus is entrusting his disciples with power and authority and sending them on one last mission. From this mission comes the mission statement of The United Methodist Church: to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. Today, on World Communion Sunday, we remember that God’s church isn’t just here, or just in our country, but all around the world! Yet it’s not only the world that will be transformed, but our community as well. However, that change doesn’t happen just by our being here. Can you imagine, if a church’s mere presence in a community transformed that community, we’d have so many problems solved! If our community was transformed and Christ’s love shown to all just by keeping our doors open and the lights on, we’d be set! But our mission is not to keep the doors open. Our mission is to make disciples. I’m going to say that again. Our goal is not to keep the doors open. Our goal is to make disciples, to create and to be people who follow Jesus. I saw a meme on Facebook recently that pointed out that discipleship is not a strategy to grow your church.[2] The end goal of making disciples isn’t to grow the church. The point of discipleship is to grow closer to God. We don’t make disciples to grow our church. We make disciples because Jesus told us to. We make disciples for the transformation of the world. So, let’s talk a little bit about discipleship.
            In 2nd Timothy we read that “the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control.”[3] Disciples are not timid or afraid. We are not afraid of failing at a new ministry. We are not afraid of numbers decreasing, or increasing! We are not shy or nervous about sharing our faith – or, at least, we shouldn’t be! A few weeks ago I took the kids to Gunpowder Park. AJ was wearing a hat from the Durham Bulls, a minor league baseball team in North Carolina. Another family recognized it and we got to talking. It turned out they also used to live in North Carolina. Then they mentioned that they had gone to Duke, and I said, oh, I went to Duke, too. Then, a couple minutes later, I mentioned that I’d gone to Duke’s Divinity School, for seminary, and that I’m a pastor. (You never know how people are going to react when you tell them you’re a pastor.) And they said they’d also gone to Duke Divinity School and were now professors of religion! We were both hesitant to admit that we’d gone to seminary, because we weren’t sure how the other would react. Yet Paul tells Timothy that “God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.” And so, disciples trust God, instead of being fearful and cowardly.
            After all, if you keep reading in 2 Timothy, Paul then tells Timothy, “I know the one in whom I’ve placed my trust. I’m convinced that God is powerful enough to protect what he has placed in my trust until that day.”[4] We are not afraid because we know the one in whom we have placed our trust. We trust and we remember that God gave us a spirit of power and of love and of self-control. We are to be bold, we are to be loving, and we are to show self-discipline. After all, the only way we can practice any spiritual discipline is to have self-discipline first. Otherwise, it’s like your average New Year’s resolution and it will fail. Yet, we’re also not afraid of failing. If we are about the work of making disciples, then whether we succeed or we fail is in God’s hands.
            The point is that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do. We can’t control other people or how they respond to us. Some discipleship ministries will do well, others will not. That’s just how life is. Yet when we do well, when we succeed, we also remember that we don’t deserve any special praise. Nor more than we deserve extra condemnation when we fail. If we’ve been doing the work God gave us to do, then we’ve been faithful, and that’s what God asks of us. That’s the point of the short story Jesus tells about the servant who just came in from the field. The master doesn’t throw a party for the servant or give him a break just because the servant did what he was supposed to do. The master gives him the next task to do. Jesus says, “In the same way, when you have done everything required of you, you should say, ‘We servants deserve no special praise. We have only done our duty.’” Disciples don’t seek or deserve special praise; we simply do what God called us to do. Whether we do well in that task or whether we fail, the point is we were faithful in carrying it out.
There’s been a trend for a while now to give a trophy to every kid on a sports team in the whole league. That’s how my sisters got so many soccer trophies, and I was jealous. I only ever earned one trophy, the year my softball team won the tournament. All these participation trophies cause all of us of all ages to expect to be thanked and appreciated just for showing up. Yet just showing up isn’t anything special. Yes, some days it is all you can do if you’re battling a major health issue. But for a normal, healthy person, you want extra appreciation just for being there? Jesus says no, you don’t get special praise just for doing what you’re supposed to do. You don’t get special recognition for being the highest donor, especially if what you’re giving is not generous giving in proportion to what you have. You don’t get special recognition for leading, if leadership skills are what you possess naturally. We are to do what God has called us to do. We are to share the gifts God has given us. We simply do it. Not for praise, not for fame, not to get our names in the newspaper or the bulletin. There was a contemporary Christian song that came out 25 years ago by Steven Curtis Chapman called “For the Sake of the Call.” The first verse says, “Nobody stood and applauded them /So they knew from the start /This road would not lead to fame /All they really knew for sure /Was Jesus had called to them /He said "come follow Me" and they came.”[5] Jesus calls, and we answer the call. Disciples just do what God calls them to do, and leave the outcome in God’s hands.
            After all, there’s that first line in today’s Gospel reading, where the disciples ask Jesus to increase… their… faith. It’s interesting listening to the different things the disciples ask of Jesus. In Luke 11, they ask Jesus to teach them to pray, and he teaches them what we now call the Lord’s Prayer. Here, they ask for Jesus to increase their faith. They don’t ask for him to increase the number of followers. They don’t ask for him to provide shelter for them that night, since, if you remember, they kinda wandered around the countryside. They don’t ask him for food. Disciples ask for their faith to be increased, not their numbers. Doing God’s work is all about faith. Faith that God will provide what we need, when we need it to do God’s work. Faith that we will make it through whatever trial or temptation has come our way. We pray that we will be saved from the time of trial, not that there won’t be trying times. Faith that God will see us answering God’s call, and will bless our efforts.
            Here’s the thing. Disciples don’t pray to attract other people, or for their numbers to be increased, because if they’re doing God’s work, if they’re letting their light shine, then others will be attracted. Faithful disciples attract others. A light on a hill attracts attention. And so we pray for faith to stay the course, to finish answering the call, to keep our trust in God. We know God is faithful. Our job is to stay faithful as we do his work, as we carry out that last mission given to the disciples to make disciples. Doing God's work is not something for which we should expect much attention and thanks. It is simply our job, as God's people. And we can do it boldly, lovingly, and with self-control. We don’t have to lose it when things don’t go our way, because we trust in God.
I had to be reminded of that this week. As I worked this week on papers, sermon, and bible study due for the Board of Ordained Ministry; getting two churches ready for Charge Conference; a grant evaluation; plus always getting ready for Sunday; Wednesday I found out that a classmate of AJ’s came down with hand, foot, and mouth. And while I have great sympathy toward that family, because Isabel had it three times, I also freaked out over the what if AJ gets it??? If I were to be home with a sick two year old, not much of that to-do list that’s been almost overwhelming me would get done. And that what if completely overwhelmed me. I texted my accountability group, who immediately sent up prayers of healing for the classmate and protection for AJ. And then I called my mom, because I needed someone to talk to me to calm me down. And my mom is good at not freaking out over the what if’s. She doesn’t function in that world. Her response is so what? You can’t control it. There’s nothing you can do about it. So put it in God’s hands and trust God and leave it there. You can’t control it. There’s nothing you can do about it. So quit worrying. There’s a bonus thing for disciples: we don’t worry. And that may be the hardest one of all. We do the work we have been given to do, and we don’t worry about what might or might not happen. We can’t control that part. All we can control is our part. Our mission is to make disciples. (Cowenton: to nurture the community). Are we doing that? That’s all we’re going to be graded on. Did we do the work God gave us to do? Did we make disciples? Did we become disciples and grow in our faith? The goal is the transformation of the world. It’s a lofty goal, that’s part of how we know it’s from God. There’s no way we could do it on our own, so it’s a good thing God’s on our side.

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