Praying is a dialog with God, an important part of our waiting for God to come again. This sermon especially delves into the Lord’s Prayer.
The first issue of the Telos Collective Intersection Journal is out! Read it here.
This first issue tackles the issue of Christian Nationalism, the confusion of Christianity with the political entity, or as Bishop Todd Hunter puts it:
“an effort to impose on a nation one’s understanding of Christianity and, given that view, its corresponding role in political, personal and social life. . . . It is a form of civil religion that makes one’s earthly, national citizenship, even if only inadvertently, equal to, or above, one’s citizenship in the global people of God.”
The Intersectional Journal, issue 1
The four articles in this first journal are:
The articles are acompanied by downloadable resources to allow further exploration of the topic.
Before Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father, He said to the disciples, “Go, make disciples of all the world, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them all I have taught you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of time, the end of the age.” (St. Matt 28:19-20) This was the final commandment, the mission that Jesus Christ gave to the Church. He expected us to obey. The 11 did. They grew the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit after the day of Pentecost.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his treatise on discipleship, opens with the hardest chapter to read since Job, in my opinion. He speaks of ‘cheap grace’. Without quoting the whole first chapters here, cheap grace is claiming the gifts of God while leaving the Lord out of our lives. “…preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline…. Cheap grace is (the Grace of God) without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
In the end, commenting on this passage, Pastor Bonhoeffer says, to obey is better than sacrifice. He says, “Christianity without Discipleship, is Christianity without Christ.” Pastor Bonheoffer is saying, he has found us with our hand in the cookie jar of God’s grace, and we are ready to offer what we have in our hand in return for the sacrifices we fashion to make God happy. We are called to obey the call of Jesus Christ.
Days before the birth of the Church, days before Pentecost, Jesus gave the Church a purpose, a mission. He said, go make disciples. Make them like I made you. Do what I did. Have them do what you have taught them. When you are doing that work, I will be there, right in the midst of you. I will always be there, even to the very end of time. The Church was born and the Church made disciples. There were miracles and gifts of the Spirit and courage in the face of extreme persecution.
When the Church is not making disciples, all of that goes away. There is no growth. The tree is judged by its fruit. If there is no fruit, then the tree gets judged accordingly. If we are not going out and finding the lost, then we are lost. If we don’t mature in our relationship with Jesus Christ, then we stop growing, and we die. If we misuse the resource of the Church, its time, its attention, its energy, its money, she stops growing. We corrupt the Church in using it for some other purpose than God’s purpose for the Bride of Christ.
There are many things that need to be done to do the work of Christ. By the same token, there are many things we as the church do that don’t have anything to do with getting this work of Jesus Christ done. The things that God has called to Himself for His Purpose are holy, sanctified. When we take the things God has called to Himself and we don’t use it to His purpose, we are agents of corruption. We are corrupting the thing that has been designated for God’s purpose. When we stand against God’s purpose we are corrupt, and we corrupt the thing we misuse.
Here are some examples of using something that for a purpose other than God’s purpose. When we use God’s tithe for a purpose other than what the tithe should be used for, we corrupt the money we misuse. When we use the trust that God has given us in our service to His people we corrupt trust itself. When we misuse the lives given into the care of the Church, we corrupt those lives. All can be redeemed through Jesus Christ, but in using something in a way contrary to God’s purpose, we are corrupting the thing and we become agents of corruption.
So it is in the Church itself. When the church engages in activities that are contrary to God’s purpose for the Church, we, her servants and her people, corrupt the Church, the bride of Christ.
Let us be careful and wakeful watchmen. If we are wandering from the purpose that God has given to the Church, let’s sound the alarm and look at what we are doing and return. As the Father in the Prodigal Son does, so God does when we return to His purpose. He runs to us as soon as we turn, and He embraces us, and He destroys the corruption and makes holy what He has called out. As He made His Church holy. As He makes us holy.
Standing in corruption is not an option for us. As the Holy Spirit reveals our errors we have to change. Change things in our churches. Change things in us. Like Peter, James and John, Jesus has called us to follow, not to stay where we are. And we must obey Christ’s call. We must change or we stand in hope that cheap grace is enough to cover all our sins. Our church mission cannot be, “Meeting our church member wherever they are, so they can stay comfortably where they are.” We must follow, be changed and do what we are commanded. That is the way to Christ.
AMEN!
Jesus Christ calls us to follow Him. He calls us to go where He goes, to do what He asks, and to move as He moves. The proper response to His call of love is to follow. We are not forced to follow, but we can choose not to follow.
If you think about the word, “follow” has a very specific meaning. We know the word from childhood. But we forget the meaning in its real intention as we grow up and exercise our own will. As a kid, you played, ‘Follow the Leader’. The idea of the game was to go over and through every obstacle that the leader threw in your way, but only after the leader conquered the obstacle themselves.
As we grow up, we think following the leader is figuring out where the leader is going, and seeing if we can get there before they arrive. In the real world that’s called initiative. We look for short cuts and ways to save effort and work. And that’s ok in the ‘real world’ examples of our lives. But then the word we use shouldn’t be ‘follow.’ I am not sure what word to use, but the meaning of ‘follow’ is not well defined by the illustration I just used.
When Jesus calls us to follow, He picks the path we will go. Following means that someone else is leading. In this case, it is Jesus! If someone is following, they don’t get to choose the way to go. The follower doesn’t get the benefit of following Jesus if he runs ahead to Jerusalem and skips the side trip to Bethany – he may miss the whole experience of Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb.
In the end, following is a choice we make every day. But in following, we don’t get to pick and choose the parts we follow and the parts we leave out. We don’t get to choose to take short cuts or the locations we skip all together. If we do, we aren’t following. And if we aren’t following, we will miss the things Jesus is doing. We will not be there when the stone rolls away and Jesus by the power of His love for His friend, calls out, “Lazarus, come here!” And we will miss the miracle that strengthens our faith.
As we follow, really follow, not taking a short cut or making a side trip, or missing a turn, then Jesus changes us!. Just like the clay in the hands of the potter. By following we learn trust. By following we learn the real meaning of love. By following Jesus we learn there are places we can go and learn there are events and storms we can make it through. But we have to follow.
It is the work of a disciple, lead by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of eternal and unconditional love. It is the obedience of moving over every obstacle that the world will set in our way, because the one who leads us has already conquered the obstacles.
At the end of the journey, we are friends of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters who were not even related before. We are joint heirs with Jesus. We become princes of the Church, children of light who shine our love into the darkness of the world. All because of the light that shines in us. All of that happens just by playing a child’s game and following our leader.
We aren’t orphans. Our sweet dreams are not prompted by a good night phrase that sets our sights above our current circumstances. We are not merely kings of New England, as loving as that sentiment from the movie may have be. We are Children of the Most High God. We are walking in the footsteps of the one who calls us and makes us into all that we were intended to be.
So here is Jesus’ encouragement. Don’t stop. The obstacle in front of you has been defeated by the one who leads you. He calls you to pray, so you pray. He calls you to learn what He has said, so you learn. He calls you to come together and become a real community, so you come. And together we follow. Amen.
Disciple-Making & Leadership Development 