Tag Archive for jesus

Is it impossible to be like Jesus?

13 May, 2013 church No comments

At the first session of The District Church’s discipleship class, I began by posing the question,

How many of you know that we’re called to be like Jesus?

Everyone raised their hand. I followed up:

How many of you actually think that’s possible?

Only a handful.

We dug in a little further and discovered that many of us had this notion that disciples were the upper tier of Jesus-followers, with a higher level of commitment, a greater willingness to sacrifice, those who had answered not just the primary call of Jesus to believe he existed but also the subsequent call to do what he said. Ordinary Christians were just trying to figure out what to do on a day-to-day basis, let alone the call of discipleship!

Yet the first call of Jesus isn’t a cognitive-intellectual one, but a holistic, expansive, all-encompassing one, condensed into two words:

Follow me.

Follow meI’m not going to unpack what Jesus calls us to in this post, but there’s a foundational adjustment to be made simply by understanding what a disciple is. As the late, great Dallas Willard wrote,

A disciple [of Jesus] is a person who has decided that the most important thing in their life is to learn how to do what Jesus said to do. A disciple is not a person who has things under control, or knows a lot of things. Disciples simply are people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus. [emphasis added]

The Greek word for disciple is mathetes, meaning “learner.” By definition, a “perfect disciple” is one who is always learning. This flies in the face of our Western understandings of perfection (derived from Ancient Greek philosophical concepts of the ideal) as something that is unchanging and to which nothing can be added.

This perspective is damaging in that it causes us to think that as disciples of Jesus, we’re called to be perfect, i.e. never make mistakes, rather than perfect disciples, i.e. always learning from our mistakes. Philip Yancey wrote of (the also late, great) Brennan Manning,

he progressed not by always making right decisions but by responding appropriately to wrong ones.

This is true in the way we live our lives, in the way we relate to other people, in the way we raise our kids, in the way we work with one another–it’s not about doing everything right; it’s about responding well when things don’t go right, about always having an attitude that seeks to learn and to grow and to continue to be formed more and more like Jesus.

Being a disciple of Jesus takes time and intentionality and cultivation. Just like Babe Ruth couldn’t hit a home run the moment he was born, but grew in strength and ability and through training; just like Steve Jobs didn’t know how to program a computer from birth, but spent hours and hours experimenting and playing around with code and trying things out; even in Jesus’ case, we’re told that he “grew in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52) … if the Son of God had to learn things, I shouldn’t be surprised that I do, too.

Being a disciple of Jesus is possible. It’s not some out-there achievement for the A-grade students, the ones who are supernaturally wired to accomplish things; it’s for anyone who decides to accept Jesus’ invitation–”Follow me”–and allows more of Jesus’ Spirit to live in and through him or her.

One day at a time, one hour at a time, one moment at a time.

RIP Dallas Willard

8 May, 2013 links, other people's words, personal No comments

Gordon Cosby. Brennan Manning. Dallas Willard.

These three have passed on–”fallen asleep,” as Jesus might say–in the last couple months, and I am forever grateful for the paths they carved, the tracks they left for me to follow.

Dallas WillardDallas Willard passed away this morning at 77 years old. I don’t feel particularly adequate to articulate all the thoughts and feelings that are going on as I reflect on his life and passing. (John Ortberg wrote a great piece in memoriam here.) But overwhelming gratitude is definitely one of them.

With books like The Spirit of the Disciplines–on which I’ll be basing a discipleship class that I’m leading this month–Dallas not only changed the way I looked at life and my walk with Jesus, he helped to change the way I did life and my walk with Jesus.

I never got to meet him personally but I look forward to, one day.

—

Photo: Dieter Zander

Thanks, Brennan

14 April, 2013 links, other people's words, personal No comments

Brennan Manning

(1934-2013)

Brennan Manning passed away early on Friday, April 12; he was 79 years old.

I am beyond thankful for the life and writings of Brennan Manning. I know he was a flawed and sinful man; everybody did–he never tried to hide it. He was always very transparent with the depth of his failings and, more importantly, the depth of God’s love and grace.

TheRagamuffinGospelIt was through one of Brennan’s books that grace truly broke through into my life while I was in college. I’d grown up in a Christian home, going to Sunday school every week, and learning what I had to do to get into heaven (which essentially boiled down to “being good”). But I found myself, more often than not, confessing the words of Paul in Romans 7:19, “I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Somehow, I stumbled across The Ragamuffin Gospel, and here’s what happened (as I wrote — and preached last summer):

Years ago, I read The Ragamuffin Gospel … and it changed my life. After years of guilt and shame at not being able to live up to the standard I thought I was ‘supposed to’ live up to, falling short in failing to always treat people kindly, in losing my temper (I was an angry teenager, too!), in struggling with issues of lust and pornography, in taking for granted the many blessings I had been given rather than accepting them with gratitude and using them to bless others, and in a hundred different other ways—for the first time, through the words of this book, I began to truly understand grace—amazing grace, the grace of Jesus Christ.

I realized—not just in my head but in the very core of my being—that I didn’t have to work to earn God’s favor any more. I realized that God wasn’t keeping track of the number of times I’d failed and fallen. I realized that God loves me, accepts me, and welcomes me, as I am. I realized what it means when Paul writes, in Romans 5:8, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”

Philip Yancey wrote in the foreword to Brennan’s memoir, All is Grace:

Like Christian, the everyman character in The Pilgrim’s Progress, [Brennan] progressed not by always making right decisions but by responding appropriately to wrong ones.

Thank you, Brennan, for walking the road you did, and for inviting so many others into the wideness of God’s mercy.

Rest in peace.

Following Jesus: Marks of a disciple

12 April, 2013 church No comments

[Part 2 of a blog adaptation of Sunday's message at The District Church: "Come Follow Me"]

The second part of our recently-started series title is, “Marks of a Disciple.”

The Greek word for disciple in the New Testament is mathetes, which means learner. In Jesus’ day, Jewish disciples would follow their master around, learning how to be like him—how to talk, how to act, how to pray—and eventually, the idea was, disciples would become masters with their own disciples. But Jesus changed that up a little bit; he said, “You are not to be called master, or rabbi, for you have one teacher—me—and you are all students.”

Eugene Peterson, who wrote The Message paraphrase, said this:

Disciple (mathetes) says we are people who spend our lives apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ. We are in a growing-learning relationship, always. A disciple is a learner, but not in the academic setting of a schoolroom, rather at the work site of a craftsman. We do not acquire information about God but skills in faith. (A Long Obedience, 13)

Bob Goff, who wrote a tremendous book last year called Love Does, put it this way:

“I used to think I could learn about Jesus by studying him, but now I know Jesus doesn’t want stalkers” (197).

I love that—it’s not just about learning what he said or what he did; it’s not some dry study of principles of leadership from two thousand years ago, because I mean, from one perspective, the guy only lasted three years, he irritated all the wrong people, and he ended up dead.

Fortunately, he didn’t stay dead, though; and now we don’t just get to learn about him, we get to do life with him. And that’s what discipleship is about: relationship, not perfection.

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus addresses his disciples—his learners, his followers—and he says to them:

You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

We all know that salt adds flavor, right? So one way of looking at this is that we’re called to add flavor or zest to the world. Or you know that salt was used as a preservative in the days before refrigeration, so another way of reading this passage is that we’re supposed to prevent the rot of sin. But in the Old Testament—in Exodus and Numbers—we’re told that salt was also used in temple sacrifices as a symbol of the permanence of God’s covenant with his people.

So another reading of this passage is this: “You are a reminder to the world of who God is, you are a reminder of the relationship God desires with humanity.” And so, if you lose your saltiness, if you stop being that image of God here on earth, you’ve lost your purpose, you are not as you were made to be.

Is it any wonder we have a world full of unfulfilled people when so many are looking for meaning and purpose in the next thing–the next job, the next pay raise, the next relationship, the next marriage, the next campaign, the next president, the next child, the next home or car or gadget–rather than in the One they were made for?

When Matthew writes, “You are the light of the world,” he’s harking back to what God said to Israel through the prophet Isaiah:

I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations. … I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.

You have a purpose and that is to be representatives of God here on earth. You have a calling and that is to be images of God here on earth. You were made for something and that is to live with God here on earth, to be the body of Christ in the world.

Dallas Willard wrote about this passage in Matthew:

Jesus, surely with some humor, remarked that a city set on a hill cannot be hid (Matt. 5:14). I would not like to have the task of hiding Jerusalem, or Paris, or even Baltimore. The Gospel stories tell us how hard Jesus and his friends tried to avoid crowds and how badly they failed. Quite candidly, if it is possible for our faith and works to be hidden, perhaps that only shows they are of a kind that should be hidden. We might, in that case, think about directing our efforts toward the cultivation of a faith that is impossible to hide (Mark 7:24). (The Spirit of the Disciplines, 173)

A faith that is impossible to hide. We want to live our lives in such a way and steward our influence in such a way that our allegiance is impossible to hide.

  • “How can you be so patient when everyone else is so frustrated?” Well, I believe in a God who is sovereign over all and so I trust him and hold my own agenda loosely.
  • “How can you give up your high-paying job to help the underserved?” Well, I believe in a God who provides for everything I need and I trust that as I follow where he calls.
  • “How can you forgive that person when he treated you so badly?” Well, I believe in a God who forgave me of infinitely more and asks me to do the same for others.
  • “How can you love this person who hates you?” Well, I believe in a God who loved me even before I knew him, and who loved those who hated him, and who asks me to do the same.
  • “How can you hold onto that antiquated view of sex before marriage?” Well, I believe that sex is good, that it is such a unique expression of closeness and intimacy that that’s why God designed it for the safety of a committed, covenant relationship, because it is so precious.
  • “How can you give up a portion of your income to the church, some random group of people, many of whom you don’t even know?” Well, I believe in a God who asks for everything, actually, but it’s a reminder that all I have has been entrusted to me and I want to throw in my lot with this group of people; I want to say, I’m with these folks as we follow Jesus together, as we learn together, as we are disciples together.

“So let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine …

The mission of The District Church is, “To make disciples of Jesus in the District who are committed to living out their God-given mission in life.” That’s what we’re about here: making disciples, helping people follow Jesus, becoming ourselves more like Jesus.

And we try to do that through small groups, through service and outreach in the community, and through doing life together: babysitting for one another, helping each other move, supporting each other through triumph and tragedy, laughter and tears, joy and sorrow. We want everyone to be in a setting of discipleship, learning to do life with God; and we ask our leaders more specifically to be in discipling relationships, where they are learning from certain people as well as helping other people learn.

We’re here to help, to walk with you as you walk with Christ, to encourage you and challenge you and provide the space for you to work out what life with God looks like, because we’re meant to do this together, we’re meant to be disciples together, we’re meant to learn together.

So take stock of your life:

  1. What influence do you have? As you’ve been reading, maybe God has been putting a particular relationship on your heart or bringing a particular situation to your mind, maybe it’s to do with your money or your family or your significant other or your talents and gifts or your connections or your education.
  2. How have you been stewarding that influence? What have you been doing with what you have? How does that reflect what you’re committed to? How are you being salt and light in that situation—being God’s representative in that place?
  3. How are you being a disciple? How are you seeking to learn from Jesus? How are you following Jesus? How does your relationship with Jesus impact the way you handle what you’ve been given?

Whether you consider yourself a follower of Jesus or not, whether you’ve heard this a thousands times or never before, the invitation is always there:

I have come that you might have life to the full. … Come, follow me.

Following Jesus: The stewardship of influence

11 April, 2013 church No comments

[Part 1 of a blog adaptation of Sunday's message at The District Church: "Come Follow Me"]

Jesus says, “Come, follow me …” and we have a choice to say yes or to say no, to follow Jesus or to walk away, to step into a new life or to stay where we are. There really isn’t a place of equilibrium, where we can hold Jesus at arm’s length while also trying to keep a tight grip on the reins of our lives, where we can say maybe and try to navigate the path of most convenience, the road more traveled, the more comfortable journey. John Ortberg writes:

There is danger in getting out of the boat. But there is danger in staying in it as well. If you live in the boat—whatever your boat happens to be—you will eventually die of boredom and stagnation. (If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat)

I always need to be reminded of this truth: life with God is what we were made for. Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life to the full.”

We’ve just started a series at The District Church called “The Stewardship of Influence.” If you’ve been around church circles for any amount of time, you’ll often hear the word ‘stewardship’ used in the context of money—how we look after the financial resources that God has given us—or perhaps more recently, in the area of environmental stewardship—how we look after the world that God has created. But stewardship isn’t limited to those things. In Luke 12:48 (one of my favorite verses), Jesus says,

“From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.”

It’s about stewardship, being responsible for what we’ve been given, being answerable to God for what resources we have, not just of money but of time and relationships and, zooming out, your life.

despicable-me-2-minionsAnd what we’re focusing on is the stewardship of influence. Everyone has influence. You may be thinking, “I’m just an intern; I don’t have much influence,” or “I’m just a student; I don’t have much influence,” or “I’m just a minion,” like in Despicable Me, “I don’t have much influence.” But everyone has influence—you may have a large circle of influence or you may have a smaller circle of influence, but everyone has it. You have influence:

  • through your friendships: what you do or say or how you’re just present in a particular situation to a friend who’s going through a rough or difficult time is influence.
  • in your families: how you react to the dysfunction in your family or how you contribute to cultivating a culture of peace in your family is influence—it’ll impact other people, whether you see it immediately or not
  • at work, wherever on the ladder you are, or at school: how you work at something, regardless of whether or not that particular spreadsheet or paper or project or admin is life-giving, is influence.

So, to define these terms:

What you have = influence.

What you do with what you have = the stewardship of influence.

And here’s the key: it’s about what you do with what you have, not what you don’t have. In those last days, Jesus isn’t going to ask you what you did what what you didn’t have; he’s going to ask you what you did with what you had.

Here in DC, it’s real easy to point out examples of people who have influence—we usually understand that as political power. It’s also real easy to point out examples of people who have not stewarded that influence well, who have abused and misused that influence: council members who’ve used public funds for their own pleasure, elected officials who have betrayed the public trust for their own gain.

But even outside the realm of politics, it’s not hard to see where influence has been misused:

  • just this week the story surfaced about the coach at Rutgers who would throw basketballs at athletes’ heads and yell slurs at them;
  • we’re still recovering from a financial crisis where some folks who were entrusted with the influence to take care of other people’s money instead took some calculated gambles that blew up;
  • there are countless celebrities who have no idea what to do with fame and use their platform and influence not to help other people but simply for self-aggrandizement and preening in the glow of others’ attention;
  • the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic church, where men entrusted with the pastoral and spiritual care of souls misused that influence and abused vulnerable children.

I point these out not as an exercise of looking out there and saying, “Oh, that’s a bad example.” As Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” It’s just as important–perhaps more important–to be looking at yourself and saying, “Oh, I’m tempted too:

  • I’m tempted to use my influence in my family to side with one parent against the other.
  • I’m tempted to use my influence in my workplace to whine to others and with others about our boss.
  • I’m tempted to use my influence to work my connections so that I can get ahead at the expense of others.
  • I’m tempted to use my influence over my girlfriend to get her to please me sexually.
  • I’m tempted to not use my influence over my kids to raise them in a way that talks about tough issues of life and faith and sexuality, because, man, those conversations would be awkward and tough.”

The thing is, I think, these aren’t always conscious decisions as much as they are unconscious decisions. And by that I mean that we just don’t tend to think about these things or to talk about these things.

  • When we don’t think about these things and talk about these things, then we fall back on what we’ve been conditioned to do;
  • What we’ve been conditioned to do comes from what we’ve spent the most time being around;
  • What we’ve spent the most time being around is usually TV shows where sex just happens or movies where violence is the way to solve problems or magazines or blogs or websites that tell us that we need things, that we need to live like these people and we need to dress like those people.

How much time do we spend being immersed in the word of God and the community of God and the Spirit of God, who instead challenge us to seek right relationships with everyone, to live holy lives, to defend the poor and the widow and the orphan, to be humble and loving above all, to seek the peace of the city for in that you will find your peace, to care for the least of these, to die to yourself so that you might truly live?

Jesus says that to truly live–to experience life to the full, to do life with God–we will die to ourselves–we will put others before ourselves, we will not seek our own good but we will seek God and his kingdom.

So, as people who follow Jesus, as people who call him our Lord and our King and our Teacher, we want to be good stewards of the influence we have, to use it for his purposes rather than our own: in our relationships, in our workplaces, in our homes, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our city, in our political system, and, yes, in our social networking—because we live in a world where I can put something on Twitter or on Facebook or on a blog and people half the world away whom I’ve never met may read it and be impacted by it.

From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.

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