WHAT IS DISCIPLESHIP?

Do you believe the words you are hearing, from this book, are the living Words of God?  “I chose you for the world, to go and bear fruit that will last, says the Lord.” (Jn 15:16)

This week we’ve already heard Luke’s characteristic emphasis on discipleship, purity of intent, and justice for the poor.  And I would say many claim faith in Jesus, but fewer are discipled.  With vocations awareness week approaching let’s explore just what is discipleship really?

Discipleship is more than getting folks to church.  It’s a process in how we mature in Christ, how Christ is formed in us—our thoughts, our actions, our life.  Discipleship is not church attendance, Bible study, canned programs, nor the weekend retreat experience.  These are good starting points but I’m convinced there are many folks who have gone to church their entire life, had retreat experiences and yet they’ve never been discipled.  

Discipleship usually happens in pairs or small groups of 12 or less (if you get my drift) wherein at least one person, having already been discipled, guides the others.  Discipleship is a relationship, it’s walking together in the way of Christ, learning to die, learning how to leave who you were, and learning who you are now because of who God has called us to be.

Here’s the challenge.  Many of the programs the Church uses like the RCIA, Beloved, and other retreat programs, when the program reaches its completion date all too often so ends the walking with relationship.  Let’s face the facts, we are all just to busy with other things or recruiting for the next group for the program to continue walking with, discipling an individual.  Did you catch the sarcasm in the last sentence?

True discipleship takes time. It’s personal, challenging, and often inconvenient.  Learning to follow Jesus, becoming his disciple, means walking alongside someone further in the Christian faith for a significant period, beyond the program. Jesus walked with his disciples for three years and over time his disciples, discipled others, and they in turn still others.  Some lived up to the challenge, others abandoned Paul and I’ve seen far to many newly receive catechumen leave the church when they discovered just how human she can be. 

As if the commitment of time wasn’t challenging enough, the work of a disciple becomes even more challenging when we have to walk the talk among the wolves of the world; in family matters, school, the work place, even our social settings.  If we, who are professed believers, won’t make the commitment to disciple family members, each other, and especially those beyond the walls of the church, then the parishes could find themselves in grave danger of extinction.

Discipleship is about taking the risk to be vulnerable with a person seeking mercy, seeking compassion in need, seeking hope for something better.  They are seeking God, will you disciple them in the way of Christ?

WHERE IS GOD?

My heart wrestled with the today’s scriptures.  There was a terrible temptation to go on a rant of all that is wrong with the world, our nation, our Church and even within myself!  Maybe it was the military language used by the prophet Joel as he describes the natural disaster descending upon the city, anticipating no effective defense or Jesus’ depiction of two opposing forces confronting one another and the tension is building in Gospel of Luke as the gathering force opposing Jesus will soon conspire to put him to death.

Luke’s emphasis is on the hierarchical structure that makes a kingdom work.  The ruler governs through the cooperation and obedience of subordinates who assure that his will is carried out.  If there are mutinous factions, the whole enterprise will collapse.  The same is true of a household or family in Jesus’ time.  If it is run by someone strong enough to guard its treasures, there will be peace and security.  But if another who is stronger comes along, the very possessions the householder wishes to guard will become a liability.  

When I consider the overwhelming invasion of evil that seems to be enveloping every aspect of our lives making the scriptures proclaimed today come to life.  It can leave us asking the question, “Where is God in all these painful events?”  Where is God in all of this?  As much as it feels as though God has abandoned us, our faith tells us God is right with us in the midst of the suffering.  I believe the solution to our individual, Church, national, and world crisis rests with every individual doing some good old fashion house cleaning.

On a retreat I attended the retreat master had us participate in an exercise he titled:  “The Chapel Within”.  He had us imagine what our inner chapel looks like.  Many shared their brokenness, how their inner chapel was cluttered with stuff, broken pews, kneelers and windows.  I was currently dark and gloomy.  He sent us off to contemplate and visualize an ideal chapel.  The sharing was markedly different.  God has intervened giving us the wonderful visions of a clean and magnificent inner chapel.  The challenge is the constant care of maintaining the space.  The prodigal demon will return, with other demons worse than the first.  We must actively join those gathered around Jesus or we will be scattered among his opponents.

Few people had as great an impact on the 20th century as Pope John XXIII, he avoided the limelight as much as possible.  Indeed, one writer has noted that his “ordinariness” as his most remarkable qualities.  In his vision of a global Church, Good Pope John enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals making it more international.  At his opening address of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but [evasive speech] and ruin.” He set the tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed… errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”[1]

We are being confronted with real-life examples of today’s scriptures.  May we have the faith to find the presence of God’s in our midst.

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[1] Franciscan media. Saint John XXIII www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-john-xxiii

JUST A LITTLE FAITH

[1]If I Were the Devil” is a form of social criticism, an essay that postulates what steps the devil might take in order to corrupt human civilization (and the United States in particular) and lead it down the path of darkness — before delivering the catch that all the steps listed are phenomena that are already taking place in the world today. It was written and popularized by national radio commentator and syndicated columnist Paul Harvey, who from the mid-1960s onwards featured it in both media many times over the course of his long career, periodically updating it to incorporate current trends.  The current version circulating on Facebook is a 1996 update the following is the original version from 1964.

“If I were the devil … I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man’s effort, instead of God’s blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership;

I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one’s own life, and invent machines to make it convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that the life of animals are valued more than human beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them;

I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the mind of every family member for my agenda;

I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation.

I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art;

I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agenda as politically correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and the Bible is for the naive;

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional;

I guess I would leave things pretty much the way they are. 

Signing off: Paul Harvey, good day.[2]  

Paul Harvey’s writing of 54 years earlier ring clear even today, as does the 1996 version.  It is believed the prophet Habakkuk wrote the first reading verses some twenty-seven hundred years ago seemingly asking God the same questions we may be asking today.  “Why do you let me see ruin, why must I look at misery?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.” (Hb 1:3) and he was going to stand there until God answered him!  Even challenging God, if you want me to believe in you, if you want me to have faith, why don’t you do something?

God’s answer was a command to, “Write down the vision clearly on tablets, so that one can read it readily.” (Hb 2:2) Now I find this response somewhat strange.  God want him to prepare a sign, with bold letters.  I have a theory about signs, no one reads them.  For years my staff when challenged by volunteer’s behavior would recommend making a sign, but they would still use the last of the sugar and not tell anyone.  There are billboards all along the highway that say “Jesus Saves” but we are often distracted by the hundreds of other signs for Cracker Barrel and South of the Border.  I believe when God asks for a sign He is talking about US!  We are the sign that reveals there is still a God vision, despite the ways of the world.  The ways of the world are death-dealing ways.  We see how the prophetic voices of Paul Harvey, Habakkak, Paul, and Jesus, play out every day in the papers, schools and offices, on television, movies, twitter, and our streets.

But God’s ways are different.  God’s ways are life-giving.  Remember God’s promises.  Remember God is faithful.  Remember that God does hear the cries of his people and has stretched out His mighty arm to save, not once but many times.  God’s ways show kindness to the stranger, generosity to the immigrant, compassion and healing care for the ones left for dead by the side of the road, He is a voice for the voiceless.  Remember the stories of God and keep faith.

The apostles ask Jesus, “Increase our faith.”  Jesus’ response is reassuring, for even a tiny faith, no larger than a mustard seed, is powerful.  As the living signs of God’s vision, we are called to bear witness to God’s ways, in lives lived out loud and in big letters, so everyone can see.  We are the signs anointed priest prophet and king at baptism, we living tabernacle of our Lord when we receive the Eucharist, and we are the ones, “by the imposition of hands”, who received the fullness of the Holy Spirit at confirmation; all called to bear witness in the midst of death and destruction, insult and pain, for where else does it have real meaning, to God’s ways of peace and justice, right relationship and kindness, generosity and healing, and love that is not afraid and is stronger than death.

We are called to speak out the truth when justice does not prevail, to live out God’s life-giving vision in our own communities, and to live it large, in the midst of the world and its death-dealing ways.  Because the world needs to see God’s vision.  For some of us, that means developing the eyes to see God’s hand at work in the world around us, to find a way to get out of our comfort zones so we can join God, actively participating in His vision.[3] 

It only takes the faith the size of a mustard seed.

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[1] New American Bible, Saint Joseph Edition © 1986.  Scriptures: Am 8:4-7; 8-10; 1Tm 2:1-8; Lk 16:1-13.

[2] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/if-i-were-the-devil/ by David Mikkelson, Published 25 October 2004.

[3] Hungry, and You Fed Me © 2012 Edited by Jim Knipper. “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” by Rev. Penny A. Nash.