ABC of Discipleship - Adventure and Acceptance

I suggest you read Acts 8 and the story of Philip and the Eunuch first. 

The bible is full of stories of ordinary people who never set out with the intention of becoming our biblical heroes.  They didn’t lie awake at night and wonder how they might change the world.  They just lived their lives the best way they knew how. Our biblical heroes, mostly, had their focus on God.  Their lives were shaped around worship and religious practices that made God real to them.  They lived humble lives or good lives, often in cultures that were difficult and anti-God.  

So many of our bible heroes are not overtly religious or good or smart, but they are faithful, and recognise that there is God! Noah was the last good man in the world, Abraham fought for the safety of towns based on the few good people left, Moses committed murder but received forgiveness and mission, Daniel was a prisoner but kept praying even when it was banned, Joseph was sold as a slave but listened for God, Mary was cleaning house and so on.  I could go on.

Last week we considered the fact that it is our ordinariness that God uses - we don’t have to be extra-ordinary.  The trouble is we often think we need to be extra-ordinary. The story of Philip shows us that the ordinary can be made extra-ordinary through God. All we need to do is step up to the adventure and accept God’s leadership.  We are not in charge - he is and the adventure is that often we don’t know where we are going to end up.  In fact often we try and dictate the path we end up in trouble, lost or out of our depth.  Or as Robbie Williams likes to sing:

Come and hold my hand

I wanna contact the living

Not sure I understand

This role I've been given

I sit and talk to God

And he just laughs at my plans

So what else can we learn from Philip?  Well you have heard of the 3 Rs - today we are going to have the 5Rs

• Relationship 

Primarily a relationship with God...

If we are to know what it is we are called to do then we need to have a relationship with God, or at least an openness to him.  Whether we meet God in a burning bush or a sky splitting moment, or in conversation or like Philip in the prompting of the spirit or a dream like Paul, God communicates with us.  Philip went on his way immediately.  How many of us are like young Samuel - hearing the voice of God on our lives but not knowing who it is?

• Readiness

How many of us are RFA - Ready for Anything?

Philip goes to Samaria and whilst there preaches the word of God, willing to baptise, to invite the other apostles to come and baptise with the Holy Spirit, a sign to Jew and Gentile that God was welcoming the Gentiles, and specifically the Samaritans. In the midst of a successful evangelical event, God calls Philip to go out into the desert...and he goes. 

How many of us, locally, regionally, nationally are so caught up in our own agendas, agendas that are potentially very worthwhile and awesome, that we resist or worse miss God’s call to go out into the wilderness for the sake of the one. 

How often are we so caught up in trying to convert or help the many we miss the value of the one?  

Are we ready to drop everything for God, to change direction, to slow down or speed up...how ready are we? 

• Responsive

If we are ready for anything are we responsive? Philip left immediately and followed further instruction.  He ran up to and alongside the chariot.  No mean feat in itself I’m sure. It was the desert.  It was a stranger in the chariot, who had come from Egypt - a place loaded with cultural significance for the Jews and the Eunuch was a high official.  He was open to God, even though he wasn’t sure who God was.  He was responsive but uncertain. 

I love how God honours the Egyptian here proving that background, creed or job is no barrier to God’s love and mercy. 

Philip could only respond to God, and he couldn’t make the Eunuch respond - only God could open the heart of the Eunuch to hear.  Sometimes we may share the Gospel with eloquence, with knowledge, with loving example and our loved one, our community, the passenger we sit next too doesn’t get it.  Even Jesus knew this - they have ears but they do no hear, eyes but they do not see...

We respond to God and allow God to carry the outcomes.  

That said, we are responsible

• Responsible

We are responsible for our own effort in knowing and strengthening our faith.  Constantly the young church is encouraged to pray together, to open the scripture, to share communion, to worship, and mature in their faith. 

The Eunuch is reading a prophecy text from Isaiah about the suffering servant, a Messanic text.   Through this text Philip is able to share the truth of the Gospel, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how knowing Jesus in this way is life changing.  

The eunuch’s question is perhaps even more relevant to us today, in this world of mixed messages. 

‘How can I understand unless some explains it to me?’

 We are responsible for growing and maturing our faith, learning our scriptures, reading worthy material, asking the minister awkward questions and indeed putting our whole trust in Him.  In a world where we expect to get everything handed to us on a plate, where we throw away rather than mend, where we become armchair or keyboard warriors rather than get out there, where consumerism means we demand rather than give, we think someone else is responsible for growing our faith knowledge and experience.  

I’m here to tell you that sermons are just part of the feast and not even a critical part.  They are, at best the starters...warming your palate.  During the week you are responsible for the rest...which you may or may not get in community or in the privacy of your home.  Then when someone asks you to explain you won’t run in the opposite direction. 

The final R is 

• Reveal 

Philip reveals Christ -this is not about how awesome Philip is.  Our challenge especially as a church in decline is to make sure that our message is revealing Christ not the Church of Scotland or indeed Blantyre Old.  Often we speak of filling the Church or keeping the Church open.  Yet first and foremost we should be revealing Christ.  And we do that best when we share our faith without fear or shame, when we support the Foodbank and decry the need for them, when we give or work with agencies that support others to find their way in the world, when we challenge injustice or make sacrifices for the welfare of others.  

And that is where the adventure comes in.  When we are truly in a relationship with God, life is an adventure.  Whether we are in a wheelchair or a marathon runner, in the slums or the penthouse, young or old, fit or infirm - all are counted worthy in God’s sight. Remember, we are called to be ordinary - then God adds the extra to make us extra-ordinary in his service.  

Can you accept the challenge like Philip did and embrace the adventure even if it leads to strange lands or random individuals? 

God bless!