Acts of Discipleship
Based on Isaiah 43:18-21, Philippians 3:4b-9, John 12:1-8
I’d like you to take a moment and think about the person or persons who introduced you to Jesus. Did their acts of discipleship, that is, how they lived out their faith and love for God, create in you a desire to live in a similar way? Throughout the last 2000 years of Christianity, the one constant has been that the actions of disciples of Jesus have, more often than not, modeled a lifestyle and worldview that was compassionate, justice oriented, worship filled and devotionally driven. Jesus mentored his twelve Disciples so that they would make new disciples not only through teaching, but by showing all new disciples how to act like Jesus.
These acts of discipleship when applied consistently, earnestly and honestly create in others the desire to embody that same kind of worldview and spirit. After your introduction to Jesus how did you grow in your faith? Did you actively participate in bible studies or Sunday school? How about youth groups, summer camps, young adult or other church group-related social activities? Fast forward to today…what actions are you taking that continue to help you mature and act as a disciple of Jesus, as someone who can positively influence others to follow Jesus? If you’re like many adult baptized believers in today’s world, the honest answer to that question might be – not too much and not very often.
You see, the problem is the Church, both the institutional church and the local church, have lost their focus on both making disciples and on helping them live and act like disciples described in both Testaments of our bible. The early movement of Jesus’ followers after his Ascension, as described in the Book of Acts, relied on the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit to direct their acts of discipleship. They lived in community, shared their resources, ate and worshiped together, spread the good news about Jesus, and acted justly and compassionately to all that they met – including those who sought to oppress or persecute them. They acted out of the love that God poured out on them, and they conveyed that to people around them – starting in Jerusalem and spreading to the far corners of the world.
Our scripture readings for today help us to understand what it means to be a disciple and to then act in a way that helps bring God’s kingdom to earth. It begins, as detailed in Second Isaiah, with understanding that God is powerfully present with us and that God is constantly creating new opportunities for us. We are not to live in the past, but to follow God as God makes a way for us in the wilderness of our lives. God will provide for our needs if we but actively seek God through the Holy Spirit. God will help us act out our discipleship through the Holy Spirit and the same unconditional love that we receive.
Paul wrote to the believers in Philippi that nothing else matters in all the world but the “righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith” in Jesus the Christ. All worldly gains Paul counts as loss, as “garbage”, compared with having a robust and intimate relationship with Jesus. All Paul’s discipleship activities (e.g., making new disciples, planting churches, witnessing to the saving power of Jesus, enduring incarceration and beatings for his witness to the Christ) he does through the power of the Holy Spirit which was given to him and to all by Jesus.
Mary, sister of the newly resuscitated Lazarus, anoints Jesus’ feet with a costly ointment in today’s reading. She does this act of discipleship out of pure love for Jesus and what he did for her and her sister in the raising of their brother. She also does it because she believes that he is the Anointed One, the Messiah, in Greek – the Christ. She honors him with this extravagant act – one that meets with the approval of Jesus, but the disapproval of Judas Iscariot who was not acting at that moment like a disciple. In similar fashion, Jesus will wash his disciples’ feet in his final act of servanthood on the night in which was betrayed, leaving them with an act of humility and discipleship which will empower them to act towards others in the same way.
How do the Bible and other writings help us understand how a disciple should act? The popular and accessible answer for some folks came about thirty years ago in a book by Pastor Rick Warren, entitled, “The Purpose Driven Church”. This book defined acts of discipleship as derived from the Book of Acts 2:42-47. To paraphrase Warren’s message, every church needs a plan of discipleship that leads to the church growing warmer through fellowship, deeper through nurturing each other, stronger through worship and study, broader through the sharing of ministry responsibilities throughout the congregation and having a positive communal impact through outreach and engagement.
United Methodists also have a book, the Book of Discipline, that answers the question of how a disciple of Jesus should act. The United Methodist Book of Discipline provides us with guidance on acts of discipleship from our founder, John Wesley. Wesley created a “General Rule of Discipleship” which states that Methodists act as disciples of Jesus the Christ when they “…witness to Jesus Christ in the world and follow his teachings through acts of compassion, justice, worship and devotion, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit”.
For Wesley, acts of discipleship follow naturally from our deepening relationship with God and with our neighbors. Acts of compassion and mercy for those who are oppressed, marginalized, “down on their luck” or otherwise in need, bring us directly into contact with social injustices in our world. Acts of compassion and mercy stimulate further acts focused on social justice – advocating for the elimination of those things that keep people down and cause them to needlessly suffer. Our corporate worship which includes the celebration of the sacraments as we will do together in a few moments, remind us of our ongoing connection to God and to each other – and are a means of grace to deepen and strengthen those connections to God and each other. Acts of devotion are those private personal spiritual practices that we all should do routinely. John Wesley described three devotional acts in particular which he found helpful in deepening his discipleship - personal and family prayer, searching the Scriptures and fasting or abstinence.
This season of Lent is a time for us to search ourselves and to evaluate how we are acting as disciples of Jesus. It is a time to put away some of the things of the past that are no longer helpful and to seek to reinvigorate or reignite our acts of compassion, justice, worship and devotion. In these final two weeks of Lent, as you pray to God asking for guidance, I look forward to hearing how you are being called to acts of discipleship which work with God for the common good. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit’s power and presence and to God’s love which creates the desire for all our acts of discipleship! Amen!