Sermon January 23 2011

Isaiah 9:1-4

Psalm 27:1, 4-9

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Matthew 4:12-23

“Discovering Discipleship”

I grew up attending church—from the time I was an infant. I was nurtured by different adults in the congregation during worship because my mother played the piano. With various adults, I played with and sung out of the hymnals or played with the bible and I know there were snacks. I also remember crying a few times and being taken out to calm down—or be scolded pretty severely by my mother when I wouldn’t quiet down. My experience of worship was pretty pleasant, but I was also a lone child in worship much of the time. And I learned what church was in that place as I participated. Some of that might sound familiar to many of you—but not all of us grew up knowing church as a norm.

Some of us gathered here have come to the church later in life—for various reasons, at various ages and from various places or perspectives. And as older children, youth and adults we see church from different perspective. Maybe church habits didn’t begin until adolescence or adulthood—some for personal fulfillment of needs or seeking faith within the needs of family in mind. Each of us brings a different set of experiences to this place, though we may find common areas, too. We are different in age, perspective, experience and need. But daily, each of us is a student of Jesus Christ and his life at different stages and places. Wherever we decide to follow Jesus, with that decision to be a disciples, we are then called to make more disciples—again, not just members or recruits into our particular set of beliefs, but “people who will join a learning community and carry on learning – lifelong, to the end of the age.”[1]

I’ve often had conversations about the validity of proselytizing or attempting to convert somebody to a religious faith, our own for example—which might seem to be a good idea or even the purpose of the gospel according to some perspectives. But to me, Jesus’ own purpose looks less like conversion to his faith tradition and more about strengthening a relationship with God and with other human beings and creation. The gospels themselves have particular perspectives—so we get some urgings toward conversion there. But within the message of Jesus, as I understand it, we hear more emphases toward participating in the household (or kingdom) that God was and is revealing.

We are disciples, not because we are members of a church or because we believe in a particular set of denominational values, but because we follow Jesus Christ as active participants and lifelong learners in the household of God that he was revealing in his life. We participate in a discipleship of learning—not only conversion. And as a church who claims the name disciple, don’t just offer possibilities for the answer, but we offer place where questions and answers can be explored in a lifetime of following Jesus. With that model of learning, we can see the difference between lifelong discovery of purpose and understanding and recruitment or one-time conversion. That may seem like a technicality in some ways—the difference between a recruit or convert and a student or follower, but there are some significant differences.

Discipleship as a lifelong learning process and journey of discovery is exactly that—it takes a lifetime to be a disciple. If making disciples means just getting someone to convert, then once that goal is reached, the discipleship is done. It seems to me that making disciples means creating and sustaining opportunities to continue walking toward a faithful life which takes a community of people willing to create that process for and with one another as well as for others who want to be lifelong learners. And we will be, at times, more and less faithful to that goal.

This morning’s gospel text sets Jesus in the context of his home, Galilee, out of which he seems to conduct his ministry, often going back there after times of travel. And in Galilee he calls his first disciples, his followers, students, and eventual carriers of the message that he brings in his life. Today, we begin a look at discipleship and over the next few weeks, with texts from the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll continue to explore what it means to learn, to follow and to carry the message of Jesus as disciples throughout our lives.

In the gospel of Matthew Jesus’ life is described within the model of prophet and leader that Moses had been as he led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt. From the beginning—as Jesus reentered the Promised Land of Israel from Egypt—after his infant life was threatened by Herod powerful king, who like Pharaoh, threatened Moses’ life. The main outcome of the Moses’ leadership of the Hebrew people—though there were many—was the uniting of the nation of Israel under the law given to them by God at Mt. Sinai. They were united under a set of ethical standards concerning how they related to God or Yahweh (as their sole focus of worship) and how they related to other people (as a community without threat of death, deception and the desire to take things from others), in other words, to love God and how to love neighbor. Over time and with explanation, the definition of neighbor changed and broadened—but it was always understood that one could not love God without loving neighbor and one could not love neighbor, either without loving God.

So, with that explanation given, we can understand Jesus as the leader, prophet, and symbol and sign of a kingdom of heaven (in Matthew’s terms) made up of those who were lifelong learners and pursuers of the ethical standards that Jesus’ life revealed. In the broader view, Jesus’ identity as a new Moses/law-giver and prophet fits into a model of lifelong learning as we understand that Moses was the guide for a generation (40 years) in which the Hebrew people (a motley assortment of people) learned what it meant to be one people, even before they arrived at their homeland.

Using Moses as a model for his community, Matthew reveal his understanding of Jesus, and he established a credibility for Jesus in this way, because Matthew’s community was Jewish and revered Moses as exemplary. We can follow this model because we, too, as disciples, need establish credibility with those to whom we tell the story, not necessarily with words but with the way that we live our lives.

According to one commentary, Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah to explain why Jesus goes to the land of the two tribes (Zebulun and Napthali, in Galilee) that had first experienced "the wrath of God" in the form of Assyrian oppression. In fact, at the crossroads of international trade routes, Galilee knew the heel of foreign armies as they marched through, or stopped to occupy the land. There were many Jews there, mixed with the Gentiles, hungry for good news, and it's a wonderful image—again—of what is to come as the gospel spreads to the whole world, for all of God's children. Out of that place of Gentiles—another author calls it "the land of contempt"—comes light for the world in the person of Jesus, and that light is experienced as compassion for the suffering and hungers (both physical and spiritual) of the people.

Sometimes help comes from the most unexpected of places and the most unlikely of people. [2] Sometimes we feel like we are sitting in darkness waiting for light to break forth, perhaps because we remember more joy-filled times. As we have sat in those times, some of us have received an inspiring word from an unexpected place. God has sent help to me in the words of someone I have visited to bring care—I’ve heard a word of encouragement from a long-time resident of a nursing home sharing their experiences and gratitude for life. Or I’ve heard real wisdom in the authentic answer of a child, given to a worn-out cliché of a question was asked because I think I am supposed to ask it. Each one of us has those moments where we need the light that someone has to offer and also the times when we have a glimmer to share with someone who is in need. And we can continue to share those times for our whole lives—sometimes not even realizing how much our words, actions and lives mean to someone else. And we continue to receive light and hope from folks who are sharing their lives with us, but sometime we have to open our eyes to see it. Both of these are ways in which we continue to be disciples of Jesus Christ throughout our whole lives. Discipleship is partly being aware of the world around us—seeking understanding instead of waiting for it to fall into our laps.

As we move into and out of times of when we can’t see the light—as disciples, we are called to be persistent in seeking or just paying attention to the possibilities of light. Our particular authenticity can come as we acknowledge our occasional doubt and confusion within our walk. Being authentic means remembering and realizing that those times of darkness and doubts have been important parts of the disciples we are—that they made us realize the reality, the truth and the love that is in our lives. Light can come from painful times—times we would not expect to be grateful for.

And when we sometimes get too caught up in the details of our faith, we can look to Jesus’ inaugural message of repentance and pay attention to the truth that God’s kingdom is near and always has been. Whatever ignorance, darkness, sorrow or loss seems threatening to overwhelm the faith, we can look to the experiences of the people within our history of faith—from Abraham and Sarah to Moses and Miriam to Isaiah and Esther to Jesus to Mary Magdalene and to Paul and other examples famous and personal to us and know that God’s light and love are and never will be defeated by hatred and evil. Whatever seems to defeat God’s people doesn’t do it for long. All of us are offered and can receive, in sometimes unexpected ways, resurrection from the deaths that seem to be defeating. All of us can continue throughout our lives, according to our particular gifts and abilities to learn, to teach, to minister and to be encouraged through our discipleship and our shared discipleship with others.

At whatever age we find ourselves, let us continue to embrace and discover opportunities for learning what discipleship means.

As we continue in the gospels over the next few weeks, as we hear Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (like the law God gave to Moses on the mountain) we learn more of what discipleship looks like then and now. I invite you to look over these familiar texts again as we read and proclaim them in worship.

Jesus said: Follow me and live the ways of God.

To you who feel secure in faith

and you who have doubts and skepticisms,

Jesus says, follow me.

To you who feel capable and unencumbered by responsibilities

and you who are insecure and overwhelmed,

Jesus says, follow me.

To you who have been faithful in your commitments

and you have failed or been failed,

Jesus says, follow me.

This is a time for new starts and renewed starts;

a time to follow more deeply the loving ways of God.

O God of the universe,

Christ of incarnated wisdom,

Spirit of the green-blue earth,

you illumine us with your great light of love

and, in this time, we pledge our love to you.

May we be strong in our resolve

and may our bodies be filled with your passion

as we commit ourselves to being

your healing love in this world. [3]

To the glory of God, savior, companion and light. Amen.

[1] From “Reading Matthew from the End” p. 99 in Seasons of the Spirit, ACE 2011-2011.

[2] http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/january-27-2011-i-third.html F. Dean Lueking, The Lectionary Commentary and New Proclamation 2008, Herman C. Waetjen.

[3] Seasons of the Spirit, ACE 2010-2011, January 23 2011.