You are here100228 - Reading #2 - pg 13
100228 - Reading #2 - pg 13
For the first few weeks we'll include the entire reading to give participants a chance to acquire the book. (see the Welcome post for details).
Discussion questions are located on the bottom of this post.
Great Discussions last week! Looking forward to this week too!
Excerpts from "The Spirit of the Disciplines" - Dallas Willard
1. Discipleship: For Super-Christians Only?
The word "disciple" occurs 269 times in the New Testament. "Christian" is found only three times and was first introduced to refer precisely to the disciples…The New Testament is a book about disciples, by disciples, and for disciples of Jesus Christ
But the point is not merely verbal. What is more important is that the kind of life we see in the earliest church is that of a special type of person. All of the assurances and the benefits offered to humankind in the gospel evidently presuppose such a life and do not make realistic sense apart from it. The disciple of Jesus is not the deluxe or heavy-duty model of the Christian - especially padded, textured, streamlined, and empowered for the fast lane on the straight and narrow way. He stands on the pages of the New Testament as the first level of basic transportation in the Kingdom of God.
2. Undiscipled Disciples
For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship. Contemporary American churches in particular do not require following Christ in his example, spirit, and teachings as a condition of membership - either of entering into or continuing in fellowship of a denomination or a local church. Any exception to this claim only serves to highlight its general validity and make the general rule more glaring. So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional…Churches are filled with "undiscipled disciples," as Jess Moody has called them. Most problems in contemporary churches can be explained by the fact that members have not yet decided to follow Christ.
Little good results from insisting that Christ is also supposed to be Lord: to present his lordship as an option leaves leaves it squarely in the category of the white-wall tires and stereo equipment for the new car. You can do without it. And it is - alas! - far from clear what you would do with it. Obedience and training in obedience form no intelligible doctrinal or practical unity with the salvation presented in recent versions of the gospel.
3. Great Omissions from the Great Commission
A different model was instituted in the Great Commission Jesus left the church. The first goal he set forth for the early church was to use his all-encompassing power and authority to make disciples…Having made disciples, these alone were to be baptized into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. With this twofold preparation they were to be taught to treasure and keep "all things whatsoever I have commanded you." The Christian church of the first century resulted from following this plan for church growth - a result hard to improve upon.
But in place of Christ's plan, historical drift has substituted: "Make converts (to a particular faith and practice) and baptize them into church membership." This causes two great omissions from the Great Commission to stand out. Most important, we start by omitting the making of disciples or enrolling people as Christ's students, when we should let all else wait for that. We also omit the step of taking our converts through training that will bring them ever increasingly to do what Jesus directed.
The two great omissions are connected. Not having made converts disciples, it is impossible for us to teach them how to live as Christ lived and taught. That was not part of the package, not what they converted to. When confronted with the example and teachings of Christ, the response today is less one of rebellion or rejection than one of puzzlement: How do we relate to these? What have they to do with us?
4. Discipleship Then
When Jesus walked among humankind there was a certain simplicity to being a disciple. Primarily it meant to go with him, in an attitude of study, obedience, and imitation. There were no correspondence courses. One knew what to do and what it would cost. Simon Peter exclaimed: "Look, we've left everything and followed you!" (Mark 10:28). Family and occupations were deserted for long periods to go with Jesus as he walked from place to place announcing, showing, and explaining the governance of God. Disciples had to be with him to learn how to do what he did.
Imagine doing that today. How would family members, employers, and coworkers react to such abandonment? Probably they would conclude that we did not much care for them, or even for ourselves. Did not Zebedee think this as he watched his two sons desert the family business to keep company with Jesus (Mark 1:20)? Ask any father in a similar situation. So when Jesus observed that one must forsake the dearest things - family, "all that he hath," and "his own life also" (Luke 14) - insofar as that was necessary to accompany him, he stated a simple fact: it was the only possible doorway to discipleship.
5. Discipleship Now
Though costly, discipleship once had a very clear, straightforward meaning. The mechanics are not the same today. We cannot literally be with him in the same way as his first disciples could. But the priorities and intentions - the heart or inner attitudes - of disciples are forever the same. In the heart of a disciple there is a desire and there is decision or settled intent. The disciple of Christ desires above all else to be like him…
GIven this desire, usually produced by the lives and words of those already in The Way, there is yet a decision to be made: the decision to devote oneself to becoming like Christ. The disciple is one who, intent upon becoming Christlike and so dwelling in his "faith and practice," systematically and progressively rearranges his affairs to that end. By these actions, even today, one who enrolls in Christ's training, becomes his pupil or disciple.
And if we intend to become like Christ, that will be obvious to every thoughtful person around us, as well as to ourselves. Of course, attitudes that define the disciple cannot be realized today by leaving family and business to accompany Jesus on his travels about the countryside. But discipleship can be made concrete by loving our enemies, blessing those who curse us, walking the second mile with an oppressor - in general, living out the gracious inward transformations of faith, hope, and love. Such acts - carried out by the disciplined person with manifest grace, peace, and joy - make discipleship no less tangible and shocking today than were those desertions of long ago. Anyone who will enter into The Way can verify this, and he or she will prove that discipleship is far from dreadful.
6. The Cost of Nondiscipleship
In 1937 Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave the world his book The Cost of Discipleship. It was a masterful attack on "easy Christianity" or "cheap grace," but it did not set aside - perhaps it even enforced - the view of discipleship as a costly spiritual excess, and only for those especially driven or called to it. It was right to point out the one cannot be a disciple of Christ without forfeiting things normally sought in human life, and that one who pays little in the world's coinage to bear his name has reason to wonder where he or she stands with God. But the cost of nondiscipleship is far greater - even when this life alone is considered - than the price paid to walk with Jesus.
Nondiscipleship costs abiding peace, a life penetrated throughout by love, faith that sees everything in the light of God's overriding governance for good, hopefulness that stands firm in the most discouraging of circumstances, power to do what is right and withstand the forces of evil. In short, is costs exactly that abundance of life Jesus said he came to bring (John 10:10). The cross-shaped yoke of Christ is after all and instrument of liberation and power to those who live in it with him and learn the meekness and lowliness of heart that brings rest to the soul…The correct perspective is to see following Christ not only as the necessity it is, but as the fulfillment of the highest human possibilities and as life on the highest plane.
BIBLE SELECTION: Matthew 28:16-20 (NRSV)
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
REFLECTION QUESTIONS:
1. Dallas Willard makes a strong plea for churches to emphasize discipleship (teaching new converts how to live as Jesus commanded) and not merely membership (letting new Christians alone once they have joined the church). Describe your church experience in light of these two approaches.
2. According to section 3, what are the two great omissions from the Great Commission? Read the passage from Matthew 28:16-20, noting the exact words that Jesus used.
3. Willard says that the disciple of Christ "desires above all else to be like him (Christ)." Who are some of the people you have desired "to be like," and how did you go about becoming more like each of those people?
4. There has been a lot of discussion about how costly it is to be a disciple. According to section 6, what is the cost of nondiscipleship?
5. Willard Writes, "If we intend to become like Christ, that will be obvious to every thoughtful person around us, as well as to ourselves." What would change about your life if you were to focus all your energies on becoming like Christ? What kind of reaction would you get from those around you?
For those who've heard me preach - perhaps you might have guessed that I'm a fan of Willard's writing!
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I'm going to be somewhat blunt with my comments. I'm afraid my three sick children have expelled almost every last ounce of energy...This is what I grabbed from this weeks reading...
"discipleship can be made concrete by ... in general, living out the gracious inward transformations of faith, hope and love."
The term 'What Would Jesus Do' has become very popular, and rightly so, it is a great tool used to equate the "Christian-ess" of our actions. But to me, what I grabbed from this reading is that to a Disciple WWJD isn't just used to measure certain situations, it should be there to measure our life.
Willard writes, "If we intend to become like Christ, that will be obvious to every thoughtful person aound us," That is just it, that is the difference between a 'Sunday Christian' and a Disciple.
I guess the next question to be asked if it is neccessary for a Sunday Christan to be such before they become a Disciple?
I read this paragraph several times and came away feeling.....tired. At Faith we have offered a large number of faith development programs over the years (this being one of them) and many people have taken advantage of them. However, there is no expectation that membership requires learning and development. How hard is it to become a member of the United Church/Faith? A couple of meetings with Rev. Larry and a ritual during worship and then we may or may not see you again. I contrast this with the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults (RCIA) that someone has to work their way through in order to join the Roman Catholic church and think we really have it easy. My sister was baptized Catholic but not confirmed Catholic and so when she married her husband, she went through the RCIA program - over a year of study, worship, prayer, dialogue, discussion, group and individual work, service - and is now a full member of the RC church....and an active one at that. I can't say for sure that RCIA made her more active or committed than she would have been at a United Church without all of that work, but you have to wonder. Do we (UCC/Faith) make it too easy to be a member and then too easy to slip away?
Do we make it too easy to become a member? In a word - Yes!
This is something that has been tugging at me for quite some time. It's something I'm planning on addressing in a sermon series after Easter. The idea isn't to make it "hard" to become a member - but at least meaningful. When I look at our expectations for joining our church I am sad to say that I'm embarrassed! That is going to change!
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I guess the trick is to present it in a way that people will not back away before they even get started. I grew up in the Catholic church, but because I married a non-Catholic I could no longer attend. In my opinion, those types of rules are too harsh. For years I basically stopped attending, although my attendance prior had been scattered and half hearted at best. After my divorce I drifted back into the Catholic Church, and just at the point it all began to take on meaning for me, I had become engaged to my second husband - another non-Catholic. Had my husband agreed to go through the above mentioned process, we could have still been married in the Catholic Church even though I was divorced, and I would have remained. I can't remember how the divorce was to be 'forgiven' but there was a way. My husband would have taken the course, but I felt it was not Christian of me to ask it of him when he had absolutely no desire to do this for any other reason. It didn't sit right with me. It would have been meaningless and I think made a mockery of the whole process. I don't think anyone converts in the heart based on a ritual performed for convenience. It would be the same as when people want to have a baby baptized but have no intention of raising the child in a church. This happens constantly as well. The baptism ceremony is seen more as a social event than a religious one. The conversion process becomes a matter of red tape, something to get out of the way. It becomes nothing more than meaningless ritual, which I think is worse than no ritual at all. My sense was that I was not welcome as I was. My place on the journey had absolutely no bearing. And worse my husband was being asked to do something he had aboslutely no desire to do. It strikes me as odd that, had he lied and professed to be believe in the Catholic Church, we could have then been married. By not lying, God apparently would not have seen him as fit.
I attended the United Church for many years before it really became home, but I am thankful the option to attend without fully believing was offered. My husband's family attended the United Church when he was a child, and it was a United Church minister who agreed to marry us. Really experiencing a conversion is a slow process, and a very personalized one. It may be that becoming a member is too easy, but had I been presented with any type of guilt or obligation for the first couple of years, I probably would have felt more obligated to leave than to stay. I would be interested in hearing more of what you have in mind Larry. Although it may have sounded from my comment that I don't think it's a good idea to rock the boat, I do think more meaning behind the decision to join a church would be a good thing. I don't think being presented with questions, such as "why do you want to attend this church" are bad questions to ask. I think the problem I most felt at the Catholic Church I had been attending, was that the rules were presented as laws, and not with any sense of meaning and there was definitely no feeling that my input mattered one way or another.
I attended the United Church for many years before it really became home, but I am thankful the option to attend without fully believing was offered.
I couldn't agree with you more, Lori-ann. To paraphrase one of my favourite TV characters, it's about the journey, not the destination. We spend all of our lives moving toward or away from God (IMHO) making directional changes many, many times. That is what I value about the LC programs - that we can journey together, working through all of the myriad of challenges that faith presents as well as those that faith facilitates our passage through. And I value Faith in particular, because I can disagree theologically with others and not be cast out! (and that is speaking as someone with a more traditional theology than many of my friends at Faith) I find the opinions expressed by my liberal friends to be thought-provoking and challenging and help me to question my own beliefs and sometimes modify my stance (yes, John and George do have an impact on me!).
I don't know that we ever fully believe, but it's great to journey together.
I would like to agree. I am glad the UCC is open and welcoming and offers membership relatively easily. If there are barriers for membership, many would turn around before joining the community. We have been talking about community as one of the 3 C's, and becoming comfortable in that community, for many, is step one to moving deeper. The problem with many churches, and with some I have been involved with in the past, is that it stops there, without opportunity to grow further with the community's support. I love the learning calendar since it allows members to grow within the community. It offers interesting opportunities and great fellowship at the same time. I like the preaching that doesn't let us off with the "easy way" (I know, I have to say that), but I mean it also. The easy was is so uninteresting.
The easy way is so uninteresting.
But just once in a while, I'd like something to come easily! There are times when I feel like Sisyphus and wonder if that damn boulder will ever stop rolling.
I especially found the section on the cost of non-discipleship insightful. Flipping the question on its head like that really changes the whole perspective from one of difficulty to one of ease. Although it is true that discipleship does cost something, the lens of discipleship makes available to us all the qualities that flood meaning into life. It’s the difference between revelation and the revelation’s transformative power, the difference between wisdom and the exercise of wisdom, and the difference between doubt and mystery. The cost of non-discipleship to me seems to be an essentially meaningless and unimaginative life.
What would change about your life if you were to focus all your energies on becoming like Christ? What kind of reaction would you get by those around you?
When I was about eleven I begged my mother to buy me a pair of Jesus sandals. There was a place for your big toe to slip through a ring and by means of the supernatural your toe was expected to hold your entire foot onto a painfully flat sole made of leather. Essentially we had to walk without lifting our feet off the ground because to do so continuously tossed the sandals right off, which may be how Jesus learned to walk on water. It was an art. We ran nowhere that summer, our sandals dictating a very conscious pace to adhere to. You had to soak the sandals in water for days and wear them wet until they, at least theoretically, fit your foot like a second skin. I soaked and re-soaked, stretched, and bled for a whole summer. The sandals made me conscious of Jesus in a very practical way. His sandals were such a challenge. Maybe this was the real beginning of my foray into the idea of discipleship, my first association of Jesus with a journey that I myself could experience. It’s such a slow simmering process shifting from merely recognizing Jesus to actively pursuing discipleship. At first I think what I had was an image of an ancient man in sandals and somehow I had to get that physical human image to step aside and let the intuition of an indwelling spirit carry me through to the psychological journey. Unlike for the original disciples, our minds and hearts must replace the sandals because the psychological journey is the only journey we can take with Jesus. I think that if I were to focus all of my energies on becoming like Christ, this practiced conscious walk that is an art in itself is a good image of what my life would look like. There is discomfort involved. Yet, there is a conscientiousness that becomes necessary with each step that eventually leads to a peaceful surrender, or so I imagine. I think if I could truly practice becoming more like Christ, others around me would sense the peace that comes with the quiet awareness of Christ’s footsteps along side us.