I think I've heard more feedback from last Sunday's sermon than any I've delivered for awhile. (Feedback sometimes comes in the form of questions, at other times as comments, pro or con, and at other times as rotten tomatoes lofted at my car). I spoke about the obedience of Simon Peter in Luke 5, and the importance of the fact that his obedience was to the word of Jesus. I suggested that 'obedience' can be badly corrupted in churches (or anywhere else), when leaders (such as me) demand that church members do what the leaders say, or they will be disobeying God. I suggested that each person's task is to follow the freeing, life-giving word of Jesus.
My goal in this sermon was to reiterate that each and every one of us must do the hard work of discerning a vision for our lives, that all of us must learn to listen to the word of Jesus (the word that gives life) above the din of many other competing words, and each and every one of us must discern our calling(s) as human beings. I believe that discernment is long, hard and holy work. It involves prayerfully discovering a vision for our lives and living out that vision. It means discovering the unique ways that God is inviting us to join our lives to his love for the world. It means creatively discovering ways that we are about God's ongoing work of renewal that is taking place around and among us. I believe that this work of discernment is creative and playful and holy. And, I believe that we should allow no one--not even our pastor--to rob us of this beautiful work.
When we all, listening to the word of Jesus, discern our way, we are a beautiful chorus of differing voices--a far more beautiful thing, in my view, that folks who walk lock-step in the will of their leader.
Tomatoes anyone?
2 comments:
Comment from Bill:
Hold on – why would anyone want to throw tomatoes at the contents of this sermon? Perhaps a word of praise or a “thank you” would be a more appropriate response. To caution against the possibility of human error by any human leader, teacher, parent, or authority figure is a sober reminder that each of us are flawed and often mistaken and to expect complete allegiance from any one to our words and demands in the name of Jesus is extremely dangerous. Your sermon reminds me of the opening section of Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship where he says:
What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us to-day? How can he help us to be good Christians in the modern world? In the last resort, what we want to know is not, what would this or that man, or this or that Church, have of us, but what Jesus Christ himself wants of us.
You were clearly pointing us back to the only One who legitimately deserves our full allegiance. We begin to believe because we are right about Jesus that we are right about everything. That is a foolish notion. We each lack wisdom and perspective, are fallen and in need of a word beyond our own wisdom and narrow perspective. This includes our best pastors, Sunday school teachers, and even conscientious Bible reciting parents. Bonhoeffer continues,
The real trouble is that the pure Word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast-burdensome rules and regulations, false hopes and consolations-that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ.
What the sermon this past week was doing is exactly what Bonhoeffer was doing in his introduction to the Cost of Discipleship. The following words could have easily been inserted into the flow of the sermon and perhaps words of equal weight were. Again Bonhoeffer articulates:
When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate mankind from all man-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, men escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ. But does this mean that we ignore the seriousness of his commands? Far from it. We can only achieve perfect liberty and enjoy fellowship with Jesus when his command, his call to absolute discipleship, is appreciated in its entirety. Only the man who follows the command of Jesus single-mindedly and unresistingly lets his yoke rest upon him, finds his burden easy, and under its gentle pressure receives the power to persevere in the right way. The command of Jesus is hard, unutterably hard, for those who try to resist it. But for those who willing submit, the yoke is easy, the burden is light. “His commandments are not grievous” (I John 5:3). The commandment of Jesus is not a sort of spiritual shock treatment. Jesus asks nothing of us with out giving us the strength to perform it. His commandment never seeks to destroy life, but to foster, strengthen and heal it.
More from Bill:
Bonhoeffer rightly raises the right word of caution. He says, “But one question still troubles us. What can the call to discipleship mean today for the worker, the business man, the squire and soldier? Does it not lead to an intolerable dichotomy between our lives as workers in the world and our lives as Christians?” The call to discipleship is not calling us to a specifically religious/churchly form of existence but to a resurrected life in the real world.
Bonhoeffer concludes,
Luther’s return from the cloister to the world was the worst blow the world had suffered since the days of early Christianity. The renunciation he made when he became a monk was child’s play compared with that which he had to make when he returned to the world.
I pray that we all are able with careful discernment to hear the call of Christ and like Luther return to our rightful place in this world. I thank God for a preacher brave enough to put all other voices and authorities in their rightful place, under the judgment of the only Lord of the universe.
Thank you!
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