SETTING THE
CONTEXT
- Paul had been struggling with the church in Corinth. His
letter speaks a lot about suffering. Twice in the previous chapter Paul
says “we do not lose heart.” Listen for what he says about being a
disciple.
- Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-20
- Jesus’ ministry was in full swing. The Gospel of Mark tells
the stories of people he healed including a Gentile woman’s child. A
Gentile is a non-Jew and according to their Jewish faith, beyond the
realm of God’s love. Mark tells of several miracles Jesus performed
walking on water, feeding 5,000 and then 4,000 people. As Jesus and his
disciples walked in Caesarea Philippi, he asked them the question, “Who
do people say that I am” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter makes
the confession of faith, “You are the Messiah.” Now this title,
Messiah, comes with some expectations. The Messiah was the person or
king who would come and liberate the Jewish people through military
power and might. They would be victorious. In the passage we are about
to read, Jesus rejects the conventional view for his messiahship means
exactly the opposite of “might makes right” power. Not only is his role
different from the expected view so is the true nature of discipleship.
-
- Read Mark 8:31-38
- THE SERMON
- Nancy:
Being like Jesus means being a disciple. In fact, Being Like Jesus s a
definition of discipleship. Jesus’ last command to his disciples was
the Great Commission to “Go and make disciples of all nations. . .
.teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” (Matthew
28:18) So this discipleship thing was to continue on and on. Our
denomination, the world-wide United Methodist Church, says that our
purpose as the Body of Christ is to “Make disciples for Jesus Christ
for the transformation of the world.” Our purpose as our own local
church shows how we will make disciples here at PUMC. We are here “to
help people know Christ and to fulfill the gospel in our church,
community and world.” Another image to use for this purpose is
breathing. We help people breath in faith in Christ and breath out
works of mercy and care in response to that faith. Someone asked, which
one should you do first. The answer is, it depends which one you did
last.
-
- George:
“Make disciples for Jesus Christ” so what is a disciple? An aspect of
being a disciple is that of being a pupil, a learner. The students in
Jesus’ day would sit at the feet of the Rabbi, the teacher, and learn
from him. They became the next generation of teachers, taking the
lessons back into their lives and sharing them with others. But, being
a disciple is kind of a paradox. We are called to be students and
teachers at the same time. We may never, in fact, I am sure we will
never fully be like Jesus no matter how hard we work at it, but we
strive to become more and more like him. Our Methodist heritage says we
are to strive toward perfection, which means strive to become the most
loving people we can become. And this heritage says that most do not
ever make it completely, but if we strive continuously in our lives, we
will at least become the most loving people we can become. Jesus
challenged us as his followers To love as he loved.”
- Nancy: I
searched the Scriptures to see what a disciple does. In Matthew 10
Jesus says that the disciple is to be like the teacher, so that fits
with our “being like Jesus” theme, but he goes on to say that they will
be persecuted and maligned just like he was-that doesn’t sound very
easy or pleasant. Then in three of the gospels Jesus sends out his
disciples which are the twelve plus other followers who also carry the
name disciple, he sends them out in twos and has them proclaim the good
news that the kingdom of God has come near. That doesn’t seem too bad,
I like to preach and share the message about God. He has them heal
people with varying afflictions. It is a joy to be the vessel to bring
God’s healing to another, but it is a little scary because what if you
pray for someone and it doesn’t happen or it doesn’t help? Then he
tells them to go out without any means of support and trust God to
provide for their needs. I am the clergy representative to the Finance
Committee and as I read this I thought about our many discussions on
our church’s financial sustainability. He can’t possibly mean that we
don’t plan for the future. How do we balance being good stewards or
managers of our gifts with Jesus’ direction?
- George:
That’s a great question and one Jesus, himself addressed. He said that
we, as his followers, often live from a mentality of scarcity rather
than trusting in God’s abundance. That when we commit ourselves and our
lives to do God’s will, then we have provided the doorway for God to
act as well. Jesus said it this way, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness and everything else will fall into place.” The
question is always, “Do we trust that the promise is true?
- The word disciple has a lot to say about trusting God and
living our Christian life. Maybe the very first understanding is that
being a disciple is a life style, not simply being a name on a
membership role. In the passages we heard this morning, Jesus said, “If
anyone wants to be my follower then they must take up their cross and
follow me.” This was literally true for the earliest disciples. One of
the words that is translated “disciple” comes from the Greek verb,
martureo, which is obviously a cognate for our word “martyr.” It means
“to witness unto death.” So I like the way Luke quotes Jesus better
when he said, “If anyone wants to be my follower then they must take up
their cross daily and follow me. “ Obviously you cannot literally die
everyday, so it seems very clear that to follow Jesus means how we live
in our day in, day out lives with each other and all of God’s creation.
Jesus’ last words before he ascended to heaven in the Book of Acts are,
“Go into all the world as my witnesses, from Jerusalem, to Judea, to
Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” Being a disciple means living
our daily lives in such a way that they may transform the world. I
don’t see how anyone can do that on their own.
-
- Nancy: I
think that is why the church is so important. We need a community of
faith where we are all heading toward the same goal, to be a disciple
of Jesus Christ, where we can challenge each other, support each other
and walk together. I heard a story about a pastor going to visit a
member of his congregation who had quit coming to church. It was a
chilly evening. The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before
a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his pastor’s visit, the man
welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and
waited. The pastor made himself at home but said nothing contemplating
the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes,
the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning
ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat
back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet
contemplation. As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished,
there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was
cold and dead. Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.
The Pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave. He
slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in
the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with
the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the pastor
reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his
cheek, "Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery
sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday." It is easy to let our
discipleship, our commitment to Christ and a life of faith slip without
the encouragement and accountability of the church community.
-
- George:
That’s why the Stewardship Committee decided to change its name and
their focus. The new name is the “Spiritual Growth and Development
Committee.” We take seriously our role as leaders. We seek to help
people become disciples by opening as many opportunities and providing
the encouragement we need to understand Jesus’ teachings so that we all
can be more like him. We want to be intentional about helping people
grow in their discipleship and strive toward their own perfected love.
That is why this committee sponsored a consultant last week named Dan
Dick to come and meet with a number of our Church Council leaders and
members of the Spiritual Growth Committee. Dan Dick has written a
number of books about Spiritual Growth and Development. They have
addressed the topics of spiritual gifts, giving and his latest one is
entitled Vital Faith Communities. He has studied thousands of churches
and discovered that there are some fundamental character traits of
vital churches that are essential to help the people of God grow in
their faith.
-
- Nancy: We
both know and it was confirmed last week that PUMC is vital in many
ways. In fact, Dan Dick said he is going to use us as an example, in
future presentations, of a church with a commitment to sharing Christ’s
love outside the church as well as within the church. But we also
discovered that we can be even better. And when it comes to serving
God, we have made the decision that we will always be seeking those
ways that we can be the most committed and dedicated church we can be.
God, who has given us so much, deserves our very best responses, both
individually and as a community. And we want to make disciples for the
transformation of the world. We want to help people know Christ as we
fulfill the gospel in our church, community and world. So what might
that realignment or adjustments toward greater vitality look like?
-
- George: To
say that we have it all laid out in just our three days of meetings
last week would be far, far from the truth. What I can tell you about
are some of the places we are beginning our discussions. Learning, as I
shared, is an important, maybe even the central part, of making
disciples. We are beginning to look at putting some structure to our
classes that hopefully will create a systemic approach to growing like
Jesus. For example, we know that because we are such a large church, we
have people who have just started their faith walk and others who have
been walking with Jesus for years that not everyone of us is at the
same place in deepening our relationship with Jesus. Some may still be
questioning whether this Jesus and his teachings even make sense.
Others want to wrestle with some of the deepest and most complex
questions of the faith, and there are many of us who are at various
stages in between. To just offer new classes on varying topics is
helpful, but can we do better? Dan Dick talked to us about a
comprehensive learning model. It had four tiers that allowed people to
find entry level classes to wrestle with some of the most basic of
questions, to offering college level classes for those who want to go
deeper. And then there are also small groups…
-
- Nancy:
Whoa, wait a minute we could go on and on, but I don’t think anyone
wants an hour long sermon. Can we just leave it that this will unfold
over the coming months?
- George and I wanted to share with you just a little about
some of the hopes and dreams we and the leadership of our church have
for our lives together as PUMC. Our church’s leadership is prayerfully
working on your behalf and we will continue to share with you. Making
disciples for the transformation of the world is Jesus’ commandment to
us all. We know its an ongoing journey. It is a life-long commitment to
learning, growing, and perfecting our love into a Christ-like
lifestyle. And it is going to take self-sacrifice in our day in day out
decisions. We have a cross at the front of the church that reminds us
of Jesus’ commitment of self-sacrificial love for all of us. We invite
you to remember your calling as disciples to take up your cross of love
daily and follow him. If we can do this, Scripture tells us that God
will use us to do more than we can even imagine. This week, when you
feel the cross hanging around your neck or in your pocket or remember
the cross made on your forehead when you were baptized, -- ask
yourself, “what sacrifices am I making for the transformation of the
world.” Am I being like Jesus living as his disciple? As Jesus said,
“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose
their life for my sake, and the sake of the gospel will save it.” Amen.
-
- George:
Amen.
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