What Does It Mean to Be a Disciple of Jesus Christ?

The mission of The United Methodist Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. However, that begs the question, “What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ?”

At our church we illustrate the discipleship process to help us grow in our Christian faith by connecting with God, connecting with each other, connecting in ministry, and connecting with the world.

The foundation of that cycle is Connecting with God. How do we do that? Through prayer and worship. Prayer is talking to God. Is it that simple? Well, yes and no. Many people are familiar with The Lord's Prayer or the Our Father. While many memorize this prayer, what it is most useful for is as a guide of how to pray to God. It is a way to connection with God, and there are many other acceptable forms including just talking to him like you would your best friend.

The other vital aspect of connecting with God is through worship. Why is worship important? Why is it important to participate in it regularly? It gives us a chance to show our adoration to the Lord to express our thankfulness for creation, for our very lives, and for the forgiveness God provides through Jesus. We do it in song, in prayer, and as a group. There is a power in raising our voices together in praise of our God, a power that we can feel in the connection.

Worship is also a chance to hear back from God. As we get beaten down during the week, we can be refilled with the Holy Spirit. We can be inspired and reinvigorated. As forgiven children of God, we have a chance to feel the light of Christ within us to grow brighter.

In this Easter Season (which continues into May), I encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities to connect with God through worship, not as a duty but as a joy! It is an important step in being a disciple of Jesus Christ.

Peace be with you!

Come to the City of God

It's the new year, and towards the end of the book of Revelation, the Bible talks about God recreating a place for God and humans to live together. Let's look at it together, a sermon that I gave on New Year's Day.

Revelation 21:1-6

Happy New Year! We are entering a New Year, and our biblical reading tells us about a new creation.  Revelation is such a funny book of the Bible. Well, there aren’t a lot of laughs in it, but it is interesting. What’s interesting about it is more than the fact that it almost seems like a science-fiction movie.  There are epic battles between good and evil. There are enough fantastic creatures, symbols, and images to make your head spin. We are given glimpses into heaven and what it’s like. Evil reemerges again and again, but at last good achieves its final triumph.  What’s interesting to me is how everyday people, not to mention biblical scholars and theologians, run so hot and cold about it.

People, especially in the western world, either seem to avoid it entirely or they delve into it trying to figure out the code, thinking it will help them to predict about the end of the world.  Martin Luther didn’t really have any use for the book of Revelation. Yet, it was included in the Bible and has remained so through breaks between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox, through the Protestant Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation.

Strangely enough, after the Reformation, the Protestants stopped considering several books as part of the Bible, such as Sirach and 1st & 2nd Maccabees. It seems to me that if other books were going to be removed from the Bible, this would have been the time, but Revelation was not.

What is its value?  I said that it is in the western world where people usually either dismiss Revelation as too complicated or dig into the details trying to figure out when Jesus will return.  However, there is a group of people for whom this book is very important and popular.  That is where the Christian Church is severely persecuted and oppressed.

But Wait, There's More ...

And Throw Him into the Darkness

I heard a sermon yesterday by Pastor Craig based on a biblical text that I have always found disturbing, Matthew 25:14-30. It's a story that Jesus tells about a rich man who gives differing amounts of money to three of his servants to watch over while he's away. Then, what happens when he comes back.

The problem that I have with the text is how it ends. The servant who returned the money intact, no more and no less, is punished.

28‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ (Mt 25:28-30, NIV)

Quite frankly, it doesn't sound very "Christian" to me. It doesn't seem to match up with Jesus' mission statement in Luke 4:16-21.

16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
   18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
   because he has anointed me
   to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
   and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
   19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Isaiah 61:1,2)
 20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21 and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Jesus is talking about helping the poor and the oppressed, not rejecting people who don't make a lot of money or are less successful. It just doesn't mesh. The Matthew passage is what is sometimes referred to as a "difficult reading." No kidding.

The problem with difficult readings is that people tend to avoid or ignore them.  However, if we consider the Bible important or even a way for God to communicate with us, can we just pick and choose what we are going to accept in it and what we can safely ignore? The logical side of my brain says no, but the emotional side can not get past a passage that seems to say that it's okay to throw people away.

That was why I was so excited by the sermon I heard yesterday! It allowed me to see this Matthew passage in a whole new light.

It's not about money, success, or the lack thereof. It is about how we use our God given talents. At the time the passage was written a "talent" was a large sum of money, but we don't even think about it that way anymore. We think of talents as abilities that people have.  The important part of the story is that the third servant hid his talent in a hole. He buried it and did not share it with anyone. He horded his talent.

What happens when we don't share ourselves and our talents with others, the community, the world? We find ourselves isolated, lonely, and alone. We find ourselves in the darkness.  It is not a "punishment" from a ruler. It is a natural consequence of our actions.  What's more ... it's an invitation ... An invitation to participate in the community to help and give joy to others by sharing what we have.

Now, that sounds more like the Jesus I know.