Theme: ABC of Discipleship – B- Behaviour/Belonging

Theme: ABC of Discipleship – B- Behaviour/Belonging

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

I wonder what you think of when you hear this phrase.  Does it inspire you?  Does it cause you to ponder and reflect?  Or does it wash over you as if it didn’t apply to you? When it comes to your behaviour do you need to repent?  Yes, No, Maybe, Always, Never...

I always found those people who stood on Buchanan Street or on Princes Street with the sandwich boards calling people to repent for the end is night somehow sad and lost.  Yet the call to repent is so necessary in this world.  Just because we don’t like the message it doesn’t make it wrong. I maybe wouldn’t agree that the end is nigh but the call to repentance - yes we need that. It makes us uncomfortable because none of like to think we have anything to repent of. 

Repentance became something of a dirty word in Protestant circles, linked as it was with confession which is seen as a Catholic activity or with the evangelical fundamentalism of sinners prayers and Jesus in your heart.  Yet within both of these are important understandings about repentance.  

Although we have different understandings around confession, ultimately confession is necessary for all Christians whether Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox or Independent! Confession is a part of repentance but not the whole of it. 

I can confess my sins and receive forgiveness, but repentance is about actually turning away from it.  For example, I can confess that I lost my temper and was less than gracious with my children. I can receive their forgiveness and God’s forgiveness. But if I truly repent of it then I am likely to actually make an effort to find ways to not do it again.  I will but less often because I will have made an effort to learn my triggers, given myself coping mechanisms and most importantly prayed for help and support from God to control my temper. 

The Evangelical focus on asking Jesus to come live in your heart was the desire to help us focus on what it means to live in God’s ways.  Even in the song we had earlier we sang about Jesus being in our heart, which for us is where we understand our emotional behaviour resides.  The heart is the symbol of love and passion, and if you are the Grinch then your heart is too small! Like all metaphors it has its limitations and we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and our neighbours as we love ourselves.  Kind of like living with the “What would Jesus Do’’ mantra as your guide, the focus of repentance is turning from the world to God.  

To repent means to turn around or turn back from a certain course of action or way of life.  For us we are turning away from that which is corruption or evil to God himself.  It is a deliberate decision, a deliberate act, a moment in time where we make a choice to cease those activities that are breaking our relationship with God.  Again each person has to repent of their own free will, but repentance isn’t a form of torture.  It is an opportunity to receive healing in body, mind and soul.  Repentance is about turning away from the call of the world to live selfish lives, where we are the focus, to focussing on Jesus himself. 

We might not want to have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude and that is good.  We are not trying to set ourselves up as better than other people - after all we are all sinners.  But our behaviour speaks volumes.  Our words can share love or anger, peace or hatred, encouragement or criticism.  Our actions show love or anger, peace or hatred, encouragement or criticism.  If anything our attitudes shape the environment around us.  A grumpy person gives off a very different vibe to a happy person.  We all know that moment when you walk into a room and you can cut the air with a knife...

Repentance for Christians means living in God’s way - moving away from the need to keep up with the Jones’, or crippling our lives with addictions or drowning in work in order to receive affirmation through status or pay packet.  Repentance sees us loving our enemies rather than planning revenge or wallowing in bitterness.  Repentance sees us reaching out in compassion to the lost, lonely and struggling, not through some false sense of ‘goody-two-shoes-syndrome’ but because we couldn’t imagine not helping. Repentance sees us giving control back to God, not trying to control our own lives or future, or the lives of others.  

The biggest criticism of Christians is that we don’t practice what we preach.  We are more known for who we don’t love than who we do.  Just this week the Church of England came under fire for its statement on sex and marriage, which made other types of relationships appear second class or illegitimate.  

How does our faith impact on our daily lives?  If we are holding grudges against others, how does that tie in with the call to love everyone even our enemies?  We speak about welcoming the stranger and then refuse to offer safe haven to the refugee or opportunities for the immigrants for fear of them stealing our jobs. We offer help to the poor but it is not the best of what we have but the cheapest or cast offs.   Do we spread gossip and rumours or spread encouragement?  Even the magazines we read - are they gossip mongers or actually worthy of being read by Christians, for by buying them we are contributing to the social shaming of human beings.   And we are feeding the negativity of humanity, even if it is one step removed. 

You are known as a Christian even by people who don’t really know what that means.  And less and less having any clue what that means.  Folks know that you belong to Blantyre Old and often if you end up in a conversation about church with others, you will share which churches you go to or went to. Some of you belong here, but your heart lies with a previous church! Our sense of belonging also often needs some repentance.  

It’s not wrong to feel that you belong here - I absolutely get that.  And I would dearly love to see more and more people become members here.  But whenever one joins the church, at the heart of it must be the desire to publicly confess your faith, your desire to belong to Christ.  As Paul found out people find it easier to swear allegiance to an individual than to God.  Some people come to church here because of family ties, because of the minister...some will come back to this church when the current minister goes and some will leave.  But we don’t come to worship for the building or the minister or the great cakes after the service - but for God. 

And within the Church family there are issues and divisions, and just as there are some who love what happens here, there are others who find fault and share them without care or compassion. The greatest threat to the Church has always been its own ability to fight with itself.  We preach a message of unconditional love and then throw in as many conditions as possible.  We say everyone is welcome but only if they don’t sit in my seat! We ring fenced the table yet Jesus broke bread with the man who condemned him to death and the one who he knew would betray him. 

I said earlier that repentance brings healing and it does because with repentance comes freedom.  Freedom from the burden of this world to conform.  With repentance comes light in the darkness. Jesus is our light, his word is a light to our path.  When we don’t know the way to go he shows it to us.  We no longer have to fear what lies ahead even though it may take us through the valley of the shadow of death.  

When you look at your life, assessing your discipleship where is your focus?  It is on worldly concerns - like status, wealth, making human beings happy...or is your focus on God and his call on your life to love.   When people look at you do they see Christ in your actions?  It is fantastic if they do and if they don’t, is this a time for you confess and repent?  It may be a journey to take rather than an overnight transformation.  Repentance is a first step - confession is the tool that keeps us focussed on God.  

When, not if, I lose my temper - I will need to confess, but I will know that God will help me work out why it happened and how I can continue to grow in grace, patience and biting my tongue until I find kinder, healthier ways of getting my children out the door! If I don’t repent first, I will simply go through the motions or worse enjoy the temper tantrum. 

What my children see is not a battle of self and God’s grace, but my behaviour.  This is what the world sees and so our behaviour needs to reflect our repentance and our belonging to Christ.  I want to be a good role model, and that will mean modelling repentance, confession and growth in faith and grace. Let’s not be arrogant and suggest we have nothing to repent of or confess...for then we might be compared to a certain President than to Christ. 

Pray this week for the Holy Spirit to help you be open to areas of your life where repentance might be necessary.  Invite a trusted friend to ask you if your behaviour reflects Christ?  Be gentle with yourself, and remember none of us are perfect, not even Mary Poppins (referred to in our all age conversation about role models).   But if you are willing to repent, I promise the new direction will take you ever closer to God and deepen your sense of belonging with him.  And that’s worth it.  

God bless! 

Next week we look at Challenge and Change. 

The A of Discipleship - Assess and Assurance

Over the next few weeks I want to encourage us to explore discipleship and how we might grow and strengthen our faith.  If anything I have learnt over the past year, its that when people see the difference they want to find out more.  They are curious as to the how and the way.  In the beginning some take the mickey - including family.  But as the difference becomes more obvious then they are interested to find out more.  We can inspire and encourage others to join with us because there are visible positive results.  Those who do join in have to make their own choice though because each person is responsible for what they learn, or eat, or do.  Just as going to McDonald’s doesn’t make you a burger, joining a gym doesn’t make you fit.  You have to commit and make your own effort, your own decisions. 

Today I want to encourage you to assess where you are on your faith journey.  It is a good place to start, because it is when we acknowledge where we are, that we can make decisions about how to move forward in faith.  

It is a time of honesty - a time to be honest with yourself and with God.  

It can be a time of challenge because you might not like what you find.  

It is can be a time of empowerment because you realise how far you have come.  You might think that in terms of faith that you haven’t grown that much, and yet when you think of the times where you have resisted temptation, or overcome some time of hardship, or when doubt has almost wiped you out, that mustard seed of faith has never gone. 

If we are to commit to turning our lives around - whether it is healthy living, eating well, getting fit, reducing our carbon footprint, developing our spiritual life of prayer or bible reading, improving our minds - we need to know what it is that we need to do. So we can’t shortcut this process of discipleship. 

Looking at the story from the Gospel today, John knew who he was and where he stood in the story and mission of the faith.  He doesn’t speak from a place of self-pity, but a place of confidence.  He knew that the one who came after him, would surpass him. We have to ask ourselves where do we place Jesus in our lives?  And this isn’t so much about putting God first, but actually about recognising that God is in all things and through all things.  God is part of our daily life, part of our family, part of our friendship circles, part of our working life, our commitments.  

John knows that Jesus is the Lamb of God, and gives him his place.  And from this knowledge that he shares with those who follow him, Jesus has his first two disciples who follow him.  John points the way to the Messiah in such a way that Andrew is able to tell his brother Simon that he has found the Messiah. 

As a Church, especially one facing such change and decline, where conversations of linkages, unions and closures, of cutting staff and the minister retirement cliff, shrinking congregations, resources and finances can cripple our outlook, we need faith.  And it can’t be a faith that is built on the sandy ground of reshaping committees and governance, but a faith that is built of the cornerstone - that is Jesus Christ himself.  There is a place of reshaping, for thinking of others and building a church community that is focussed on the right things.  But at the heart of any change and transition in a church is you.  Each and everyone of you.  

If you want to know how healthy we are as a church, it isn’t the number of bums on seats on a Sunday morning, or indeed how much money in the bank, it is the faith that resides and grows within you.  How do we measure that?  How do we nurture our seeds of faith?  That is the million dollar question.  It is your faith and how you point the way to the Messiah, like John the Baptist that is our measurement.  However, to do that, we need, like John to know the Messiah.  

It is easy to accept who we are at a superficial level.  We get comfortable with who we are, even if we wish that we were taller, shorter, smarter, richer or whatever. Yet if we dig down below the superficial level to what really matters to us, what do we find? 

I want to plant some seeds of discontent amongst us...because seeds of discontent motivate us to be uncomfortable, and when we get uncomfortable we make changes.  There are definitely times when being comfortable is a must, wearing the pyjamas of faith are necessary.  Even Jesus took his disciples on retreat. 

This is a time of discontent and we are going to need to strengthen our faith, be convinced of the fact that God is here, that we are his people in this place and we have everything we need to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.  We know that these are dark times for the Church, but the light shines in the darkness and the darkness hasn’t put it out.  Arguably, this is the time when the fields are ready for harvest.    

That is the Great Commission - that we are to go and make disciples.  However, to make disciples we need to be disciples.  I have made more disciples for WW than arguably I have made for Christ.  Certainly before I got involved with WW, nobody got involved with it because of me.  Obviously, I never truly know how many seeds I have planted for Christ, for it is God that makes them grow. 

Where are you at?  Is your faith something that informs your daily life?  How you treat people?  What you buy in the shops or who you vote for?  How you communicate with those who annoy you?  Faith isn’t just about worship or reading God’s word or volunteering at the Foodbank.  It is a way of life, it is our life.  And this isn’t about comparing with others because telling St. Peter at the Pearly Gates that you were better that Mrs Smith isn’t going to cut it.  

However, before you think I am judging you - I’m not.  I have to assess my faith, my commitment to be a disciple as well as my commitment to make disciples.  I am far from having this sewn up.  

Thankfully, I know that I’m not in this by myself.  Firstly, Jesus is our teacher, Rabbi.  We learn from him by reading his word, by prayer, by contemplation and by getting out there and doing it.  We grow and mature as we grow in trust, because God is faithful, even when we are faithless.  Paul writing to the Church in Corinth which was as messed up as many a church family is today, praises God for their faith and tells them they have every spiritual gift they need.  Everything we need is at our fingertips, just sometimes we need help to make sense of it, to embrace it.  

I always knew about healthy eating, portion sizes and all that jazz.  But I needed help to make sense of it, to embrace it.  Nowadays I don’t need the same level of support because it has become a way of life.  We know so much but sometimes we need the help and guidance of others more experienced, or more knowledgeable or just willing to make mistakes with us.  Sometimes we win big, other times we feel like total failures.  But we don’t quit!  Once we commit to this we might find we go on to far greater amazing things for and with God than we ever thought possible.  

Jesus’ disciples went through the highs and lows of discipleship.  From great praise to deep lows, from profound teaching to getting out there and trying it from themselves, the disciples went through it all.  But they didn’t quit - even Peter who denied Christ three times became the rock upon which the church was built. 

So today I want to assure you that God loves you.  There is nothing in this world or the next that can separate us from the love of God found in Jesus Christ.  Assessing your discipleship is to motivate you - rather than stagnate. We don’t know what we don’t know.  So ponder it this week - be aware of how your faith impacts the choices you make, the words you say, the behaviour, the time you spend with God...

Whatever this season of discipleship brings to light for you, let me know, constructively so that you can be supported in this journey. You are not alone, for we are in this together and ultimately God Himself will provide. 

The author of the Message version shares Paul’s words from 1st Corinthians like this:

Just think—you don’t need a thing, you’ve got it all! All God’s gifts are right in front of you as you wait expectantly for our Master Jesus to arrive on the scene for the Finale. And not only that, but God himself is right alongside to keep you steady and on track until things are all wrapped up by Jesus. God, who got you started in this spiritual adventure, shares with us the life of his Son and our Master Jesus. He will never give up on you. Never forget that.  Amen.