Discipleship at Messiah

“Lord, teach us to pray.” –Luke 11:1

Last week, I had one of those, as Sidney Mead used to call them, “aha! moments.” I was conducting a funeral, which I don’t often do anymore since I’ve “retired.” We were “praying” the “Lord’s Prayer.” Now I figure that I have literally repeated it at least two or three thousand times. In the middle of it I realized I was saying the wrong words. I had lost my place. Embarrassing, to say the least. As I thought about it, I realized I was not “praying” so much as repeating words from memory.

It is not uncommon to hear someone say, “Let’s say a prayer” or “Let’s say a little prayer,” or “Say a prayer for me.” When I hear that I hope we’re not just “saying” a prayer. Because, there is a difference between saying a prayer and praying. We can say a prayer from memory, or read one, or when thinking, “how does this sound to those listening?” I was thinking, “I forgot to tell them to use “sins” instead of “trespasses.” Jesus disciples did not ask him to teach them a prayer but “how to pray.” Jesus’ response was not intended as a prayer to be repeated but as an example of how we should pray. He did not say, “pray this,” but “pray like this.” It is certainly not wrong to use Jesus’ words, or the “Lord’s Prayer” as we call it. However, we should pray it and not just say it or repeat it without being engaged with God, mind and spirit.

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I bring you good news of great joy. -Luke 2:10

All I want for Christmas is Joy.  I want it for myself.  I want it for you.  I want it for our churches and the world.  I believe it’s what you want too; what everybody wants.  Why else would the angels announce Jesus’ birth by saying, I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!

I don’t see much of it.  Recently, joy has not been highly visible.  I’m convinced that most people don’t know joy.  The evidence shows joy is missing.  I see it in faces, on the street, in stores, in homes, in the church.    I see it in attitudes—anger, bitterness, frustration.  I see it in actions—childish, un-Christian, sinful.  We may identify many “reasons.”  It has been a tough year or couple of years, locally, nationally, in the world.  Individually, some of us have had a hard time, and the church has its struggles as well.  But perhaps the real reason is that most of us just haven’t been very good Christians.

“For all the greeting card and sermonic rhetoric, I do not think that much rejoicing happens around Christmastime, least of all about the coming of the Lord.  There is, I notice, a lot of holiday frolicking, but that is not the same as rejoicing.”  (William Stringfellow, “A Keeper Of The Word” in CT, 12/3/01, 66)

It is one of those words, which everyone knows but little understands. It is not an easy idea to define.  The original messengers of this Christmas message were angels.

 “There are some truths too great, too sacred, too Divine for any impure human mouth to have been the first to utter them.”  (Theodor Christlieb, Great Sermons On The Birth Of Christ, 115)

Happiness, pleasure, enjoyment, delight are often mistaken for, confused with joy. The Biblical idea of joy has an element missing from all of those synonyms—permanence.  It is not transitory.

But underlying it all is that joy is in God’s presence in Jesus.  The world has many counterfeits but only real abiding joy is found here.  It is what we were created for.  The historic expression puts this way: “The whole duty of man is to love God and enjoy him forever.”

One person put it this way: “I’m 83, and I’m more excited today about being a Christian than I was at eighteen when I put my feet upon the Way.”  The theologian Nels Ferre, entering this experience, said, “The birds sang a new song that night and the trees all wore halos….The very air was softer and utterly mysterious.  Never can I forget the strangeness and wonder of it all.”

I bring you good news of great joy.  It’s Christmas.

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Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace. –Luke 2:14

             Peace was a prominent part of the prophecies concerning Jesus.

“He will be called…Prince of Peace.”
“Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”  (Isaiah 9:6b-7a)
Zechariah: John the Baptist, who was to prepare the way for Jesus, would “guide our feet into the path of peace.”
The angels greeting to the shepherds:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace.”

            I suppose that is nothing which people desire more.  At least that’s what they say in one way or another.  We suffered through many long years of war in Viet Nam, until peace almost became an obsession.  We were “promised peace with honor.”

            At the beginning of the 70’s which was dubbed “The Age of Aquarius” the song promised:

“When the moon is in the seventh house,
and Jupiter aligns with Mars;
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.”

            Surely if we could just bring an end to the “cold war” then we would have peace.  Russia’s collapse did not bring peace to the world.

            As someone has said, It’s like putting kittens in a basket.  Put one in and another pops out,  often at most unexpected times and places:

 Pastor’s wife:  “How did the wedding go?”
“Fine…until I asked the Bride if she would obey and she said,
‘Do you think I’m crazy?’
By now the groom was in sort of a daze, mumbled,
‘I do.’
THEN THINGS BEGAN TO HAPPEN!

            In Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, in our parks, on our streets, among segments of society, in our personal relationships there is conflict.We can feel with the song writer:

“And in despair I bowed by head,
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth.”

            One of Matthew Arnold’s character was described as “world-weary.”

“Her life was turning, turning,
In mazes of heat and sound,
But for peace her soul was yearning…

            What has happened to the Christmas promise of peace?  When will the fruit come?

Well, not yet.  But when God decides “It’s enough,” He will step in.  Jesus will return and establish his reign of peace.

            In the meantime, to those who will let Him, who will place their trust in Jesus, peace is offered.  Isa 26:3 says, You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.

            We wait; remembering with the song writer:

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth.”

We can understand these words—“He is our peace.”  It is a peace which the world does not understand and cannot give or take away.  He has sent us with this good news of peace, until peace truly comes to all the earth.

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On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples. Isaiah 11:10

Signals, signs play an important role in history. We remember story of Paul Revere and the light in the church steeple. Our own National Anthem was inspired by a flag (a sign) still flying after a night of battle. In the Christmas story, the star of Bethlehem guided the wise men.

We live in a world that by its very nature has always needed some sign, some signal, something to show us that we are not alone, abandoned or forsaken by God. Despite the momentary glimpses which we might see in nature, despite occasional deeds of love and kindness, the overwhelming conclusion drawn from the world itself is not hopeful.

This is a world of brokenness, heartache, pain, hatred. This brokenness is not confined to starving millions in India or Africa or other remote places. Neither is it just to those war-torn areas of our world like Iraq or Afghanistan or to lands wrecked by earthquakes, typhoons or other kinds of natural disasters. It is not only those who are poor and outcast of the earth. It very well may include the person that sat next to you in the pew on Sunday; surely some in that room. These people too, know brokenness, heartache, pain. There are those next door or just down the street. Often they cover up and few know. Maybe it’s you. For sooner or later almost all of us join these ranks. Even in the best of lives there are times when life is very difficult. The world’s signal or sign is a world out of control, headed for its own destruction.

Bob Dylan in his Song to Woody (1962) described our world this way: “Sick…hungry…tired…torn/It looks like it’s a-dyin ‘an’ it’s hardly been born.”

It was one of the darkest days in the history of Israel that the prophet Isaiah brings this little used Old Testament word (8 times, 6 in Isaiah) as a message from God. This is a banner, signal, sign that can bring a thrill of joy and hope to all.  “I will send you a signal so that you will know I am still at work.” The signal is a person, the Messiah, Jesus.

We cannot over estimate the importance of such a sign, signal. To believe that God does not really care is to be overwhelmed by the “bad news.”

December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York was destroyed by a bomb. Two hundred, seventy people, including 11 on the ground in Lockerbie, Scotland, were killed. I remember watching the news reports from that village. A woman in the midst of the wreckage looked up into the sky and said, “I won’t believe in God anymore.”

I would like to have said to her, “you’re looking at the wrong thing, the wrong signal, sign. God has given us a sign, raised his signal, flag, banner—Jesus Christ. His name is Emmanuel, God with us. There is hope. The world is not forsaken, God has not withdrawn, abandoned it, forgotten his promises. He does care.

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John Wesley was an 18^th century traveling English preacher that headed a group of Christians who were called Methodists.  It is estimated that there are now more than 70 million Christians who identify themselves as part of the Methodist family. 

Wesley is said to have traveled 250,000 miles on horseback as he took the good news all over Britain.  To put that in perspective—that’s between 4 and 5 thousand miles a year.  In addition, he preached 40,000 sermons (2 a day), mostly in the open-air.  That says nothing of the books, tracts, and letters he wrote.  He lived to be 88 and just 6 days before he died (on his death bed) he was still writing.

              Few people born over 300 years ago are looked to for insights about the Christian life as is Wesley.  And it is not just those in the Methodist family who learn from Wesley.  For example, I don’t think I’ve ever read anything of significance on small groups that does not refer to his work with small groups.

              Wesley wanted to know one thing—how to make it to heaven.  And he wanted to take as many with him as possible.  I wonder how much difference it would make in our church if we returned to that mentality.  I think we all know we would act much differently, individually and as a church.

              I have seen research which indicates not many have much interest in that.  Even in the church, studies suggest that up to 50% of church members are not really disciples—do not seriously follow Jesus, and have confidence in their salvation through him.

Yet, there is also evidence of a spiritual hunger and openness to hearing the good news that is all around us.  Jesus is what people need and we can offer him.  That is what we are about.  As we journey toward heaven let’s take as many with us as possible.      

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