What does it mean to be a faithful disciple? We are now in the last weeks of the liturgical year. Three weeks from now it will be the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year. The long growing season of Pentecost that began on June 15th is now drawing to a close. Soon we will exchange our green paraments and vestments, which symbolize our growth in faith, for blue ones. What have we learned in the long season about being a faithful disciple?
Our Scripture readings for this morning give us hints as to how we might answer that question by speaking to how we are to look at the past, how we regard the future, and how we are to live in the present. Together, our readings also remind us in the strongest possible terms that, both as individuals and as a gathered community of those committed to Jesus, we face choices in our spiritual lives, choices that challenge us to live intentionally.
Our first reading, from the Old Testament, comes from the book of Joshua. This is the sixth book of the Hebrew Bible, coming immediately after Deuteronomy, the last book in the Torah. Unlike the Torah, whose five books embody Jewish law, Joshua is the first of a series of books that lay out the history of the Israelites, through kings David and Solomon and on through the exile in Babylon and the subsequent return to Israel. In the book of Joshua, Moses has died, and Joshua is now the leader of the community. As we pick up the story Joshua and the people have followed God’s commands: they have crossed the Jordan, displaced the indigenous peoples, and settled in Canaan.
Now gathering the assembled people, Joshua provides a summary of their history and a way of understanding who they are in relationship to God. He reminds them of God’s initiative in leading Abraham from his original home beyond the Euphrates and of God’s promise to Abraham to make of him a great nation. Joshua then reminds the people that God has delivered them from Egyptian oppression and sustained them in their long trek. Having experienced all that, they now face two choices. The first choice is whether or not to renounce any former gods, whether they were gods of their ancestors or gods of their Egyptian neighbors. Second, and more important, they are called to choose whether to honor their past by remembering all that God has done for them and committing themselves, as individuals and as a community, to God’s commandments.
So here is our first lesson in faithful discipleship. We are to remember all that God has done for us, and we are to give up all the old gods, idols, and loyalties that come between us and God. Most important, we are to consciously and intentionally commit ourselves to God’s way.
Our second lesson in discipleship comes from Paul’s first letter to the Christian community at Thessaloniki. This was Paul’s very first letter. He wrote it before 50 AD, i.e., about twenty years before Mark wrote the first gospel. At the time he wrote it, Thessaloniki was the capital of Macedonia, and one of the crossroads of the ancient world. These first Christians believed that they would see Jesus return in their lifetimes. However, as Christians began to die, those remaining began to worry that those who had died would not be part of the Resurrection when Jesus returned. In this letter Paul answers their concerns in two ways. First, he reminds them of what has already happened: Jesus has died and has risen. He reassures them that those who have already died will indeed share in Christ’s resurrection. In his reassurance he uses apocalyptic language that would have been familiar to them, i.e., intentionally symbolic language that was not meant to be taken literally – despite what believers in “the rapture” may think. Second, and more important, Paul asks the Thessalonian Christians to look ahead with hope, and to embody their trust in God as a group of believers.
So here is our second lesson in faithful discipleship. We are to regularly gather as a community to encourage either other in spiritual growth. We are to remember all that God has done. We are to trust that God has done and will do a new thing, and that, most important, we are to ground ourselves in the hope that our lives with God will continue on the other side of death.
The third lesson in faithful discipleship comes from the gospel according to Matthew. Called “the great teaching gospel,” Matthew was written between thirty and forty years after Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians. As you know, we’ve been hearing this gospel all summer and fall. As a vehicle for teaching, it is organized into five great discourses, which would have reminded its audience of Jewish Christians of the five books of the Torah. The five discourses of Jesus in this gospel begin with the Beatitudes, those hallmarks of a Christian community, which we heard again last week. Along the way, the discourses provide instruction on how to organize the community and resolve conflicts within it. The fifth discourse, which we are now hearing, ends with several parables, i.e., allegorical teaching stories, specifically addressing how Jesus’ followers should live while they wait for his return.
The parable we have just heard reflects the wedding customs of Jesus’ time, in which the groom and members of his family go to the bride’s house, collect her, and bring her to the groom’s house, where the wedding ceremony will take place. Meanwhile, the bridesmaids wait at the groom’s house ready to greet the happy couple when they finally show up. The bridesmaids can’t be sure when the groom’s party will arrive, since there may be many different ceremonies at the bride’s house before the couple can leave. They are expected to wait patiently and to be ready even if the groom’s party comes at an unexpected hour.
Can you hear what the evangelist is saying through this parable? The community of the faithful is called to wait patiently, attentively, and intentionally for Jesus’ return. They are take responsibility for their spiritual lives, and, in all that they do, they are to ensure that they are open to Jesus’ call wherever and whenever he appears. And what might that openness require of them? As faithful hearers of the gospel, they are to embrace the counter-cultural ethos of the Beatitudes, they are to love their enemies and forsake violence, they are to focus on heartfelt devotion to God rather than outward piety, they are to trust God to provide, and they are to attend to the needs of those around them.
And so here is our third lesson in faithful discipleship. While looking in hope to God’s future, we are to live fully in the present. We are to pay attention to our spiritual lives now, not procrastinating, not expecting that we can become holier at some later date, that we can borrow someone else’s holiness, or that someone else will bail us out. And we are to take seriously the lessons of Scripture about what following Jesus truly requires of us.
So, my brothers and sisters, here is the spiritual life in a nutshell. First, we are to know our story. We are to know what God has done for us, both individually and collectively. For most of us, that means looking at our own lives and seeing reflections in them of God’s grace. Actually, this is a good exercise for prayer or journaling: ask yourself, “Where do I see God at work in my life?” Second, we are to look ahead with hope to the eventual coming of God’s reign, committing ourselves to partnering with God in bringing God’s reign closer. For most of us, that means actively working for peace and justice in our communities, choosing that place or that issue, where we sense God at work and joining with others to follow God’s lead. Third, we are to live attentively in the present moment, ready to serve Christ wherever he turns up, whether it be in the face of a child, a Loaves and fishes diner, a fellow member of the parish, a friend, a family member, or even a complete stranger. And, most important of all, we are to live each day as if it were our last.
Methodist bishop Will Willimon tells the story of a funeral he attended at Baptist country church.1 The coffin was brought in. The preacher began to preach. He shouted, fumed, and flailed his arms. “It’s too late for Joe,” he screamed. He might have wanted to do this or that in life, but it’s too late for him. He might have wanted to straighten his life out, but he can’t now. It’s over …. But it ain’t too late for you! … Now is the day of decision. Now is the time to make your life count for something. Give your life to Jesus!” On the way home, Willimon told his wife how awful he thought the sermon was. “Can you imagine a preacher doing that kind of thing to a grieving family?” he asked her. “I’ve never heard of anything so manipulative, cheap, and inappropriate. I would never preach a sermon like that.” Willimon’s wife agreed. “Of course,” she added, “the worst part of all is that what he said was true.”
Dear people, can we live faithfully in the present, knowing that each day may indeed be our last, yet sharing the hope that God is bringing in a new heaven and new earth?
1. Related in Synthesis, November 9, 2014, 4.
No comments:
Post a Comment