Are We Following Jesus-- Or Just Believing in Christ?

Title credit goes to Bryan Sirchio, it's from the chorus of the song entitle "Follow Me (87 times).

Are We Following Jesus, or Just Believing in Christ

Because, I can believe and not change a thing,

but following could change my whole life.

Jesus never said, "Come, acknowledge my existence."

Or, "Believe in me, I'm the second person of the Trinity."

But 87 times, he said, "Follow Me."

Conscientious people, really thoughtful people, the kind of people you want to have in your church, are often the least ready to become members of the church. Not that that means all who are members have no conscience! Not at all! But usually when confirmands or prospective members are struggling with the decision of whether or not to stand up in church and declare their faith, it is because they dread hypocrisy most of all vices. No one wants to be a fraud.

If becoming a member of the church is about declaring one's own perfection in belief, with complete confidence, then there should be no members of the church at all, except maybe a few dead saints. But I don't think that's what it's about. I don't thing that has ever been the intention of church membership.

Maybe we shouldn't even use the word membership. It was a good word, once. It intended to mean that we are all members of one body, the ways arms and legs are members of our body, but we rarely use the word that way any more. More often we use it as a term of belonging to a social club. A member of the club remains a member in good standing so long as the dues are paid. That's not what we are talking about when we speak of membership in the church. Not at all.

Maybe a better word would be "followship" if there were such a word (but my spellchecker asserts there is not), and we are followers of Jesus. Maybe, we should call each other travelers, because we are signing on for a journey. Not a literal journey. Maybe pilgrim, if we could get the John Wayne accent out of our heads when we said it, "Pilgrim."

Whatever we call it, what we are about is following Jesus, to the best of our ability. We look to the stories of Jesus for guidance. We notice that for Jesus an ethic of compassion overrides an ethic of law, and so we seek to do likewise. We notice that Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, forgave sins, and so we seek to do likewise. We notice that Jesus prayed often, in silence, and with others in the congregations (that is what synagogue means, congregation), and so we seek to do likewise. We note that Jesus, even Jesus, learned from others, and so we seek to do likewise.

Like the first followers, we get it wrong once in a while. It isn't easy, this followship, but we are not left to follow all alone. We have this company of followers called the church, and when we walk together we help one another. Sometimes we carry, sometimes we are carried. Sometimes we feed, sometimes we are fed. Sometimes we lose sight of the goal, and others draw our attention back to the one who goes before us, Jesus. Jesus, the pioneer, Jesus the one who completes us.

And that is why we are here. That is the duty and delight of the follower of Jesus. We will walk together in all God's ways, made known and to be made known, by God's gracious Spirit, arm in arm, side by side, hand in hand. Let's walk.

Following Jesus: the Meaning of Membership

Here is another "Q & A" based on not one conversation in particular, but culled from many similar encounters.

What does it mean to "become a member" of the church? What do I have to say? What do I have to commit to? What if I don't believe everything you believe?

I think that if a person is ready to go on a journey of faith, then that person is ready to claim "membership" in the church. If you can say, "I have decided to follow Jesus," then I think you are ready to join the church.

I have decided to follow Jesus.

Following Jesus means serving others as Jesus served: feeding the hungry, healing the sick, bringing good news to the poor, keeping company with outcasts, loving everyone.

Following Jesus means doing as Jesus taught: forgiving others as we have been forgiven, giving generously to those in need, sharing our possessions, refusing to allow our possessions to own us.

Following Jesus means praying as Jesus prayed, every day, in private, and with others.

Following Jesus means listening to and learning from others, even those who we think have nothing to teach us.

Following Jesus means that we are always on a journey. There is always more to learn, more to pray, more to share, more to do, our whole lives long. Therefore, we walk humbly, knowing that we may never arrive at perfection, but ultimately trusting in God to complete us.

And so I propose this simple covenant become what we promise to each other when we receive new members into the church: We promise to walk together in all God's ways, made known to us through the life of Jesus, the witness of scripture, and the Holy Spirit which continues to reveal to us the height and depth and breadth of God's love.

Looking Deeper

“Vocation” is a word that, to most of us, means an occupation, a skill, a trade. Auto mechanics, carpentry, all those courses that were taught in the “Voc Ed” wing of the high school. But if you were raised Catholic, or attended a Catholic school, and someone asked “Do you have a vocation?” you probably would have shook your head and slowly backed away, certain that you did not want to be a nun or a priest. Or maybe you did.

Vocation is what a person is called to be. The Latin root of the word is vocare, “to call.” We often use the word when we really mean “a line of work.” For some lucky people, their vocation is also their job, they actually get paid to do what they feel they were put on earth to do! Artists who can actually make a living at their art, natural born teachers and healers who earn the credentials to work as teachers and healers, I count among the fortunate few. But most people in this world just get to work, hard, at whatever they can do to provide for themselves and the people who depend on them. I don’t believe anyone was called by God to sew T-shirts for Hanes in a dimly lit factory every day. And I don’t think anyone was called by God to go down the mines to bring up diamonds for DeBeers. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.

I’ve been thinking about “vocation” because this week’s Gospel reading is the story of the call of three disciples, Peter, James and John. They get to appear next week too, in the story of the transfiguration (shiny Jesus on the mountain), but this week we read the beginning of their story, according to Luke, in which they meet Jesus at the end of a hard day’s night. They had been all night on the sea, casting their nets, coming up empty. (Hey, did anyone see that Discovery channel show on crabbing? It’s the world’s dangerous catch.) They are cleaning their nets, and probably thinking about going home to get some sleep, when Jesus gets in Peter’s boat and asks him to take out a little ways. Jesus preaches to the crowds from the boat, the calm sea providing natural amplification, as anyone knows, who has ever sat by the lake on a calm night and heard the fishermen telling jokes they thought no little ears could hear.

Maybe that is why the thought of “going deeper” in the faith is daunting.

Then, when the sermon was over, Jesus told Peter to go out to the deep water, and let down his nets. Which he had just cleaned. After catching nothing all night. I sense a bit of skepticism, but by this time, maybe Peter was just too tired to argue. He let down his nets and brought up the biggest catch ever, so heavy that the nets were fit to burst, and he had to call his partners, James and John, with the other boat, to bring in the catch.

And here’s the really weird bit: Peter, James and John, they quit, right then and there, at the top of their game, after the most successful catch ever. They didn’t even wait to sell the fish. They just left everything, even old Zebedee, and walked away with Jesus. Now that seems terribly unkind and irresponsible. I imagine Zebedee staring, gape-mouthed, after them.

When Peter went out “into the deep” what did he find, besides the fish that had eluded him all night? “The deep” is where creation began. In the beginning, God exhaled over the face of the deep, and called the world into being. When he drew up his nets from the deep, what else did he draw up? A new creation? A new spirit? A new man? One who was no longer Simon the Fisherman, but one who was becoming Peter, the rock?

Maybe that is why the thought of “going deeper” in the faith is daunting. If we go deeper, we may be transformed. And maybe this transformation will mean that we cannot go back the way we came. Perhaps it is safer, just to skim the surface, to take from the faith just enough comfort and hope to get by, but not enough to transform us into followers who give it all up.

For Sunday, January 25, 2009

Scriptures:
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20

Sunday Bulletin Service Theme: "Follow Me"

The scriptures, in summary: Jonah, the reluctant prophet, picks himself up off the beach, wipes off the whale-spit and goes to Nineveh, delivers the message that God sent him to give, and the people hear and repent. "For God alone my soul waits in silence," is the word from the psalm. The epistle lesson sounds a note of detachment-- don't get too adjusted to this world, because it is passing away. And the gospel story is the call of the disciples, Simon, Andrew, James & John.

Many people assume that prophets predict the future, and that a good prophet is one whose predictions prove true. But that is not the case: the job of the prophet is to interpret what might happen if people continue to behave in the future as they have in the recent past. Prophets are the ones who have the broader view, the ability to see if the parade is about to march off the cliff. The goal is to turn the parade around (repent means "turn around").

Jonah was a terrible but ultimately successful prophet. At first he ran away, and at last he grumbled because the people of Nineveh actually listened to him, and repented. But the important thing is, even working with a reluctant prophet, God managed to work out salvation for Nineveh. Which reminds me of something I read last week, from the collected works of Martin Luther King, Jr, ... God has not worked out a plan for our failure.

It is possible for me to falter, but I am profoundly secure in my knowledge that God loves us; he has not worked our a design for our failure.
Essay, "A Testament of Hope," reprinted in A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by James M. Washington. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

The apostle Paul put it this way, "God is working all things together for good."

So, if God can do so much with even a reluctant, rebellious, and resentful prophet like Jonah, how much more can God do with prophets and disciples who are willing to answer the call?

Those fishermen that Jesus called to follow him, they had nothing more than hands and hearts and possibly good intentions, and look what God accomplished through them.

God calls, and if we choose to respond, the stories of our faith testify that God will be able to do, through us, more than we could ever ask, or imagine. Good news.