Let’s play word association. I’ll say a word and you shout out the first word or phrase that comes to mind. I’ll start with an easy one – Peanut Butter. [I repeat their responses: jelly, bread, honey…] Great! What about faith? [hope, love, belief] How about Discipline? [hard, rules, study] Last one – Discipleship. [follow, student] That was great, thanks! I was wondering if we would make it back to peanut butter on that last one, because of the practice of collecting peanut butter for the UCO, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. Maybe that’ll come later.
Discipleship is the theme for the day, and it will be again next Sunday according to our readings, so I’d like to come back to that word for a minute and see how it makes you feel. By the word “feel” I am referring to core emotions. According to the late Robert Plutchick, Psychologist and researcher, there are 8 core emotions – each with its opposite – including joy and sadness, trust and disgust, anger and fear, anticipation and surprise. Think about those for a minute and consider what your emotional response is when I say the word “discipleship.”
This may not be the time or place to tell me what you feel or why, but I’m glad to hear from you about it later. For now, I will make a broad assumption that we have a lot of different experiences in this room with the words “disciple” and “discipline.” Most likely these experiences are tied to people and places and events, even if your idea of discipline is purely academic. I’m also going to assume that none of our experiences are the same as those of first-century Christians – both Jew and Gentile – who first received the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even for those that first received this gospel, the paradigms of Rabbi and Disciple as described in the gospels may have been foreign, or in flux. After years of occupation and relocation through foreign powers, the Rabbinic tradition had developed in communities that were cut off from the Temple or who only had access through pilgrimage.
God’s people had questions about how to be God’s people. They had stories of a God who was active and present and delivered them from Egypt. They had laws and traditions that celebrated this God, centered around a temple and the customs that allowed them to atone for the sin that separated them from God.
After the first Temple was destroyed, and during other such times of separation, the tradition of the Rabbis began. Some were local community leaders, and some taught and encouraged debate around the best way to follow God’s laws in household congregations that later became synagogues. Then some were like John the baptizer – raising a ruckus, speaking truth to power, and calling for repentance!
We talked last week about Jesus’ baptism in Mathew 3 as a means of recognizing that Jesus was the one to follow, and today we find some of John’s disciples taking off to do just that!
Now, there’s that word again – disciple. Near as I can tell, there were disciples that followed certain Rabbis in a sort of apprenticeship fashion. If the Rabbi was an itinerant teacher like Jesus they left home and family to follow him. Regardless, these Rabbis gave interpretations for the application of the Torah, which their disciples argued over but generally followed.
I don’t want to get too far in the weeds on this, but it strikes me that the first interaction Jesus had came from John saying, “Jesus is the one who will take away the sin of the world.” Jesus is not just the one who keeps you from doing the bad thing or loves you even though you did. Jesus is the one who takes sin out of the equation between us and God.
After hearing that, John’s disciples follow Jesus. They leave John to follow Jesus, which John seems to have encouraged, and they call him Rabbi and ask where he is staying. Then Jesus says, “Come and see.” The first thing Jesus does is to invite them to stay with him.
Discipleship is the theme for the day, and it will be again next Sunday according to our readings, so I’d like to come back to that word for a minute and see how it makes you feel. By the word “feel” I am referring to core emotions. According to the late Robert Plutchick, Psychologist and researcher, there are 8 core emotions – each with its opposite – including joy and sadness, trust and disgust, anger and fear, anticipation and surprise. Think about those for a minute and consider what your emotional response is when I say the word “discipleship.”
This may not be the time or place to tell me what you feel or why, but I’m glad to hear from you about it later. For now, I will make a broad assumption that we have a lot of different experiences in this room with the words “disciple” and “discipline.” Most likely these experiences are tied to people and places and events, even if your idea of discipline is purely academic. I’m also going to assume that none of our experiences are the same as those of first-century Christians – both Jew and Gentile – who first received the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Even for those that first received this gospel, the paradigms of Rabbi and Disciple as described in the gospels may have been foreign, or in flux. After years of occupation and relocation through foreign powers, the Rabbinic tradition had developed in communities that were cut off from the Temple or who only had access through pilgrimage.
God’s people had questions about how to be God’s people. They had stories of a God who was active and present and delivered them from Egypt. They had laws and traditions that celebrated this God, centered around a temple and the customs that allowed them to atone for the sin that separated them from God.
After the first Temple was destroyed, and during other such times of separation, the tradition of the Rabbis began. Some were local community leaders, and some taught and encouraged debate around the best way to follow God’s laws in household congregations that later became synagogues. Then some were like John the baptizer – raising a ruckus, speaking truth to power, and calling for repentance!
We talked last week about Jesus’ baptism in Mathew 3 as a means of recognizing that Jesus was the one to follow, and today we find some of John’s disciples taking off to do just that!
Now, there’s that word again – disciple. Near as I can tell, there were disciples that followed certain Rabbis in a sort of apprenticeship fashion. If the Rabbi was an itinerant teacher like Jesus they left home and family to follow him. Regardless, these Rabbis gave interpretations for the application of the Torah, which their disciples argued over but generally followed.
I don’t want to get too far in the weeds on this, but it strikes me that the first interaction Jesus had came from John saying, “Jesus is the one who will take away the sin of the world.” Jesus is not just the one who keeps you from doing the bad thing or loves you even though you did. Jesus is the one who takes sin out of the equation between us and God.
After hearing that, John’s disciples follow Jesus. They leave John to follow Jesus, which John seems to have encouraged, and they call him Rabbi and ask where he is staying. Then Jesus says, “Come and see.” The first thing Jesus does is to invite them to stay with him.
John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” and the first thing Jesus does as Rabbi is to invite the disciples to stay with him. One of the two goes and gets his brother, Simon, who Jesus renames as “Peter,” and next week we will see how the story continues in Matthew’s Gospel with the call for repentance.
John’s gospel, on the other hand, is really more about relationships – and belief – and the active presence of God. Let’s sit with that for a minute in relation to the invitation of discipleship. First off, what does that even mean to us today? We all know the great commission at the end of Mathew’s gospel 28:19 “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,” but what does it mean to us to be disciples? Does it mean to be good church members? Tithe? Show up every time the doors are open? Bring Peanut Butter and Pasta? Is it activism? Is it speaking the truth in love? Sometimes, yes, but maybe not just that.
Going back to the first century, being a disciple means following the teachings and the way of being in the world of a Rabbi or a spiritual leader, and thanks be to God that in our reformed tradition we cut that off at Jesus. Sure, I am supposed to be above reproach and offer guidance in accordance with the Word of God, but I fall short just like everyone else! That’s why I confess sins right along with you every Sunday, and that is why I consider myself, as Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15, “a chief among sinners.”
I say that because I think that one of the offputting things about the invitation to discipleship is that it sounds like something you have to be good enough to do. On the other hand, it also sounds like something that requires change. The word itself implies some form of discipline; some practice; some level of conformity to a rule or a way of being in the world.
It’s probably no coincidence that the lectionary has us encountering this invitation to a new way of being in the world at the beginning of the year. Yet, unlike all the resolutions that we make and break, this one is not particularly dependent on us. Sure, we have a role in fulfilling as we follow the way of being in the world set by Jesus, but we are not talking about a weight loss system or a commitment to learning a new skill that is dependent on our initiative alone.
We are talking about the invitation of God to come and see what life might be like if it were more centered around grace and mercy than achievement and guilt. The first part of the invitation of discipleship is to hear someone say, “Jesus is the real deal. He’s the one that takes sin out of the equation.” The next part is to receive the invitation of God to abide with God and then invite others to do the same.
As we go along with God, there will be things that change. As we go along with God, we will experience new practices, new relationships, and new priorities. The good news is that we are not alone. We have this community of believers to experience the hospitality of God with and through. We have this lens of grace and mercy to look through, where we see others in the same light that God sees us; or maybe the church is like the telescope that you look through at national parks or the tops of buildings.
For a brief moment, that which is miles away becomes close. So it is with the church and the Kingdom of God. Our sacred fellowship, if it is based on our ability to follow the way of being in the world established by Jesus, becomes the lens by which we see the Kingdom of God as though it were right here in our midst.
Sometimes that looks like peanut butter, or pasta, or one of you says to someone, “I experienced the presence of God in church. Come and see!” More than that, though, it means becoming the lens through which they may see the Kingdom of God in our midst. May it be that others see Jesus in the way we seek him together, in the way we follow him together, and in the way we refer to him as our teacher in our words and actions as we seek to be God’s people together. Amen!
John’s gospel, on the other hand, is really more about relationships – and belief – and the active presence of God. Let’s sit with that for a minute in relation to the invitation of discipleship. First off, what does that even mean to us today? We all know the great commission at the end of Mathew’s gospel 28:19 “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,” but what does it mean to us to be disciples? Does it mean to be good church members? Tithe? Show up every time the doors are open? Bring Peanut Butter and Pasta? Is it activism? Is it speaking the truth in love? Sometimes, yes, but maybe not just that.
Going back to the first century, being a disciple means following the teachings and the way of being in the world of a Rabbi or a spiritual leader, and thanks be to God that in our reformed tradition we cut that off at Jesus. Sure, I am supposed to be above reproach and offer guidance in accordance with the Word of God, but I fall short just like everyone else! That’s why I confess sins right along with you every Sunday, and that is why I consider myself, as Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:15, “a chief among sinners.”
I say that because I think that one of the offputting things about the invitation to discipleship is that it sounds like something you have to be good enough to do. On the other hand, it also sounds like something that requires change. The word itself implies some form of discipline; some practice; some level of conformity to a rule or a way of being in the world.
It’s probably no coincidence that the lectionary has us encountering this invitation to a new way of being in the world at the beginning of the year. Yet, unlike all the resolutions that we make and break, this one is not particularly dependent on us. Sure, we have a role in fulfilling as we follow the way of being in the world set by Jesus, but we are not talking about a weight loss system or a commitment to learning a new skill that is dependent on our initiative alone.
We are talking about the invitation of God to come and see what life might be like if it were more centered around grace and mercy than achievement and guilt. The first part of the invitation of discipleship is to hear someone say, “Jesus is the real deal. He’s the one that takes sin out of the equation.” The next part is to receive the invitation of God to abide with God and then invite others to do the same.
As we go along with God, there will be things that change. As we go along with God, we will experience new practices, new relationships, and new priorities. The good news is that we are not alone. We have this community of believers to experience the hospitality of God with and through. We have this lens of grace and mercy to look through, where we see others in the same light that God sees us; or maybe the church is like the telescope that you look through at national parks or the tops of buildings.
For a brief moment, that which is miles away becomes close. So it is with the church and the Kingdom of God. Our sacred fellowship, if it is based on our ability to follow the way of being in the world established by Jesus, becomes the lens by which we see the Kingdom of God as though it were right here in our midst.
Sometimes that looks like peanut butter, or pasta, or one of you says to someone, “I experienced the presence of God in church. Come and see!” More than that, though, it means becoming the lens through which they may see the Kingdom of God in our midst. May it be that others see Jesus in the way we seek him together, in the way we follow him together, and in the way we refer to him as our teacher in our words and actions as we seek to be God’s people together. Amen!
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