Stu's Blog

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 19 And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 21 Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 22 And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Mt 8:18–22).

Following Jesus is not about going to a place or accomplishing a task. Foxes have holes and birds have nests. Men build homes, businesses, cities, and kingdoms, These become identifying places and even come to own their makers. People become slaves of their gardens, workaholics, have streets and cities named after them, become absorbed in the preservation of their places and possessions. Following Jesus will probably require leaving a place. “‎For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come” (Heb 13:14). Neither is following Jesus about getting things done. Not to say that Jesus never leads us to do anything, but that we run the risk of getting left behind when the task becomes primary. The disciple who wanted to bury his father turned a task into an excuse. Following Jesus is all about responding continually, listening to the leading of his Spirit, following him on his mission. Jesus accomplished many tasks in his earthly life. He traveled widely, often into foreign cultures, but built no businesses, had no home, no city bears his name. Only one task consumed him and he calls us to join in the task of the cross. “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14:27). Jesus likewise left one living monument, the church, his body, and calls us to find our place in it, that we might become joined to him, partners in ministry and mission, redeemed, heirs of God, and recipients of his Spirit (Gal 4:5-7). Following Jesus is all about joining the person who opens heaven to us and makes our lives meaningful and significant. We will utterly fail if we aim for heaven or good deeds rather than the person. Follow Jesus.

Prayer ought to be a holy conversation, a dialog. Often we try to fill the silence with too many words. There is also a time to be still and listen. God may want to answer our prayers right on the spot if we will be still and listen. When Jesus had just begun his public ministry, had just called Simon, Andrew, James, and John, had begun to preach the gospel and heal people, we have a story of Jesus praying in Mark 1:35-38. There were important decisions to be made. Where should Jesus and his followers go next? Where should they focus their efforts? Where was the mission leading them? What did God want? Jesus prayed to find out. He needed clarity of direction and purpose. Listen to Mark’s gospel:

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” (Mk 1:35–38)

I don’t think Jesus just went to the desolate place and told God what he was going to do. I don’t think Jesus just went to the desolate place and delivered a monologue. I suspect that he talked to his father, had a conversation. He may have asked whether he should stay in Capernaum. He may have asked his father whether he should continue teaching in the synagogue. Regardless of what he said to his father, I’m sure he also listened to hear what the father had to say to him. The text tells us that Jesus had a clear sense of direction and purpose after he spent the evening in prayer. “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” Is this not what we need too? Don’t we also need a clear sense of direction and purpose?

I’m convinced that God wants to give us the direction and sense of mission we desire and need. This is why we seek God in prayer, and since we are a community and in this journey with Jesus together, this is why seek God in prayer together. Since we need to hear from God, this is why we should not fill up all the space with words, so that God can also speak words to us. Let us have a holy conversation, a dialog, with God. Let us do this together as a community.

“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Eph 3:14–19.

There is a robust prayer in the middle of the letter to the Ephesians. It almost seems out of place, as if it should be at the end of the letter. But this is a prayer that we need now, not later. This prayer asks that the Ephesians be given power through the gift of God’s Spirit, that Christ would live in and through the lives of the people, that the people would understand what God was doing and wanted to do, that they would personally know how deeply God loved them, and that God’s very life would fill them to the full. This is the kind of prayer that we need someone to pray for us. This is the kind of prayer that we need to pray for others.

The Great Inversion: Church, Evangelism, Discipleship

The North American church has largely adopted a system of priorities that looks like this:

1. Church
2. Evangelism
3. Discipleship

The reasoning for this order is that building the church lays the groundwork and creates the ability to effectively evangelize and disciple the larger community. A growing church amasses the resources to initiate effective evangelism programs. The fact that the church is growing is evidence that the church is achieving success at reaching people and gathering them in. As they are brought into the life of the church, they are exposed to the gospel, and make decisions and commitments to serve Christ, disengage with the world and its ways, and form meaningful and life giving relationships with other believers. Most of this activity happens within the context of the local church and its authorized extensions such as neighborhood small groups. As the church grows, it is able to provide more opportunities for its membership to participate in and receive the things necessary for spiritual growth. The church begins to more and more take the place of the world in its member’s lives. The church becomes the transcendent meeting place for God and his people. The pastor become the mediator for God’s Word. Bible classes and discipleship groups become the means and measure of spiritual growth. Spiritual formation becomes the responsibility of the trained and often paid staff. Evangelism happens inside the church during the preaching of the Word of God. The church becomes central to the life of its membership who are expected to invest their time and money in keeping the church resourced and growing.

This is all backwards. Lesslie Newbiggin said that we inverted the biblical injunction to “be in the world but not of it” and have become more likely to be of the world but not in it. The gospels present a different story, a narrative of God coming to lost people with a defining and primary challenge. Jesus said, over and over again, “follow me.” The word “church” is hardly mentioned in the gospels, a total of two times, both in Matthew. Jesus responded to Peter’s declaration of faith in Matt 16:18 saying, “on this rock I will build my church.” As he never talked of building an institution and actually predicted destruction when referring to the existing religious institution (Matt 24:2), he could not possibly be referring to the visible church, especially in the form that it presently takes throughout much of North America. He was rather referring to the mystical body of Christ, the church universal, all who would join themselves to the life of God through Jesus. The other reference to church occurs in Matt 18:17 “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector,” where the issue is over reconciliation and restoration in this mystical body when an offense that threatens to destroy the fabric of this body has occurred and the offender is resistant to repentance.

The word “follow,” or a form of it, is mentioned approximately seventy five times in the gospels in direct reference to following Jesus. To follow Jesus is the essence of discipleship. Every disciple entered into his relationship with Jesus by responding to the call to follow him. The specific phrase “follow me,” uttered by the lips of Jesus, occurs twenty times in the gospels. While there are additional requirements for discipleship, following Jesus is primary. Following always implies choices, both to go in the direction that the one you are following has set, and to abandon the direction that you have chosen and are presently traveling. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where the word repent comes into play. We can’t begin to follow someone until we realize that we are heading the other way and are willing to stop heading the other way. Those who repent, change direction, begin to follow Jesus, become his disciples. He will teach them although they will not often “get it.” No matter, if they keep following, they will eventually begin to understand. And out of this group of followers, a community of faith will emerge. A local expression of followers who begin to meet together is what constitutes a church. This is why the Great Commandment says nothing about building a church but everything about making disciples. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:19-20).

It is of note that the Great Commandment is not a call to evangelize or build a church. Among Evangelicals, it is common to say that our fist obligation to God is to evangelize and “win the lost to Christ.” Evangelicals question whether one can disciple someone who has not already been evangelized. This question is grounded upon an inadequate understanding of discipleship. Evangelicals tend to view expository bible study and preaching as the means and mediators of discipleship. It is also of note that Jesus never organized bible study groups. His preaching, of which we have snippets, could hardly be called expository. The Sermon on the Mount, arguably the greatest sermon recorded in all of Scripture and found in Matthew chapters five through seven, is hardly a detailed analysis of an Old Testament pericope. None the less, the impact of this sermon is noted at the conclusion of Matthew chapter seven: “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matt. 7:28-29).

It appears that the system of priorities revealed in the gospels is quite different than the current operating system in the North American church. I would suggest that it looks like this:

1. Discipleship
2. Evangelism
3. Church

It begins and stands on the call to follow Jesus. As we do this and call others to join in the journey, they too may choose to truly join in the life of Jesus and through him the life of God. They will appropriate the gospel as their own good news. They will be evangelized. As they do so, they become joined to the mystical body of Christ, the church universal. The local expression of the church is made up of such people. Those who congregate but are not truly joined to God through Christ are not really a church, no matter what they call themselves. They may be an organization even committed to good works, but they are not really the church. And the ones that masquerade as the church but are not committed to anything greater than their own self interest are really no more than or different from a club.

It is highly questionable whether Jesus gave his life for a club, just as it is highly questionable whether he is out to build the biggest and best club around. Our obsessive interest in building a bigger and better church says more about the very human desire to achieve and succeed than anything revealed in the gospels. Especially in consumptive North America, bigger is better, whether it is super sizing your Big Mac or building a church. Jesus is in the business of making disciples, and particularly disciples who make disciples. This will always require going. Our goal should not be to build the biggest gathering in town but to go out into the world with the gospel call to follow Jesus and become disciples. It is true that Jesus came to planet earth, but he didn’t go to Jerusalem to build a church. He went out to the highways and byways to call people into following him. At the end of his earthly ministry, he did go to Jerusalem to do at least three things: 1. to prophetically speak of the destruction of institutional religion, 2. to suffer, die, and be resurrected so that a new way to enter into the life of God would become possible for all people, and 3. to delegate the work of discipleship to his followers. This is now our challenge, to go into the world and make disciples of all nations. The church, if it is to emerge at all, will emerge from the disciples who will constitute it.

What shall we do with this thing called the church? Some advocate blowing it up and starting over. There is an assumption that you’ll end up with something radically different. That may not be true, especially if you try to start something new with the same people operating with the same set of priorities. Why not attempt to cultivate a better funded and more robust culture of discipleship within the current church context? Perhaps the real church will emerge from the institution as real disciples are made. If a church can devolve into an institution, it may be that an institution can be re-purposed and renewed through discipleship and regain its identity as the body of the one who gives it life. A few bible classes and good sermons are not going to get the job done. The small group/social club experience is not sufficient either. We are going to have to get back to what it means to follow Christ. The full implications of laying down your life (Matt 10:37-39; Luke 14:26-33) need to be heard, responded to, and lived into. The truth is that we can become disciples, even those of us who are currently card carrying members of the social club that calls itself the church. We may need to become a little less religious to hear and respond to the call. Jesus had better luck with tax collectors and prostitutes than he did with religious leaders. But the way of discipleship is open to any that will follow. This is our challenge, to follow in the full meaning of the word, at the cost of our lives as we know it, in faith that a new life lies ahead and open to us. We can and must follow Christ fully if we are ever to become the real living church, and to do what he told us is now our job, to make disciples who will follow him and make disciples.

Today’s reading from “The Imitation of Christ”¹ suggests:

Whatever I can desire or imagine for my own comfort I look for not here but hereafter.

Dan Kimball says one of the common complaints he hears from those who like Jesus but not the church² is how Christians rail on about the afterlife. It’s all about getting to heaven. I do look forward to the next life but also believe that I’m called into a new way of life right now and that this life is not devoid of joy. It is true that this life has hardship and pain but I can’t go so far as to say that there is no comfort nor any delight whatsoever in this life.

For if I alone should have all the world’s comforts and could enjoy all its delights, it is certain that they could not long endure. Therefore, my soul, you cannot enjoy full consolation or perfect delight except in God, the Consoler of the poor and the Helper of the humble. Wait a little, my soul, wait for the divine promise and you will have an abundance of all good things in heaven.

True enough. At least for me, one day this present life will cease, along with it all the joys and sorrows as I presently experience them.

If you desire these present things too much, you will lose those which are everlasting and heavenly. Use temporal things but desire eternal things. You cannot be satisfied with any temporal goods because you were not created to enjoy them.

What! Was God’s creation not good?³ We’re we not given stewardship of creation to care for and enjoy?⁴ Is this life and all of creation a prison doomed to destruction that we must escape? This thinking leads to the concept that we are saved for heaven rather than for God. I think rather that we are being called into a new way of life that includes both now and later.

No, I’m not asking where she went after Jesus said “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” (John 8:11) This morning as I was reading John’s gospel on page 1376 of The Oxford Study Bible, REB version,¹ I noticed that chapter 8 began with verse 12. I quickly checked a few other translations (ESV, NIV, NAS, NRS, NET, KJV) and they all had 8:1-11. Where there are textual questions, you might expect to see square brackets around the text in question and/or a footnote (see Mark 16:9-20), but here it was just gone. A little digging revealed this:

Conspiracy of Silence –
In most every scholarly commentary John 8:1-11 is a source of genuine controversy. Conservative scholars agree that this incident is part of the original manuscript; but they can’t agree on where it belongs in the Gospel record. It seems that at the end of the first century or in the early part of the 2nd, some overly zealous Christians thought that this account made Jesus look soft on sin. As a result, there was a widespread conspiracy to expunge it from the record. “The reason probably is that in a day when the punishment for sexual sin was very severe among Christians this story was thought to be too easily misinterpreted as countenancing un-chastity.”² Inspiration preserved the text, but some feel that it originally belonged to Luke’s Gospel.³

The idea that the verse numbers, or horror of horrors even which gospel, might be in question as to the proper placement of this passage could be a cause of great anxiety among us moderns. We forget that chapter and verse is a pretty late addition, as in the 1500′s for our English bibles. The controversy, to my mind, is more revealing of our problem over a “soft on sin” Jesus than which page, if any, this story belongs on.

The REB does include this story. It places it at the end of John’s gospel with this footnote:

This passage, which in most editions of the New Testament is printed in the text of John 7:53-8:11, has no place in our witnesses. Some of them do not contain it at all. Some place it after Luke 21:38. others after John 7:36, or 7:52, or 21:24.

I’m glad the story wasn’t missing after all. It’s an important story. Too bad that it was so embarrassing that it got shoved to the end of John’s book. It is kind of clumsy to place it there, but then again, to close John’s gospel with “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more” is more poignant than reminding us that there’s more to Jesus than fits in a bunch of books.