A congregation of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota led by the Rev. Aron Kramer Sunday’s Gospel called us to explore how we are being disciples to each other and to the surrounding community. We have entered a time in our lives and our culture when we focus so much on ourselves and what we have, not just what we have, but how we fight to keep our time our own and not our phones, or someone else’s.
Whether we consciously do it or not, we place ourselves in competition with our neighbors around us. Who has the best car, who’s bushes are the most manicured, is my grass greener on this side of the fence? We have removed meaning from those things that matter and placed meaning on meaningless things.
Our loyalty is less and less to humanity and more and more to our own ability and knowledge. We do not slow down, we do not take stock in the intangible, and we rarely take time to breathe.
As you read the book you have received for being awesome, ask yourselves how Jesus is working and moving and shaping your life. If you are more of a God person, then replace Jesus with God. If you are more of a Holy Spirit person, you can substitute the Spirit. But take the time to reflect on the meaning of Jesus, God or the Spirit, or as my old mentor would always say, the Holy, is shaping your life.
Looking at what it means to be a disciple, did you find we as Episcopalians have the corner on salvation? Did you discover there really is no there there? Maybe you have a blank slate and no idea what to say about discipleship? Maybe you found out you want to go back to Egypt, like our ancestors did after they had been in the wilderness for so long. Maybe you understood more fully how your hands, feet, and eyes were leading you to be an obstacle to others?
When I look out over this congregation each Sunday I see people that are spread thin. I see people who are spread thin with things to do, people to see. For some of you, you are caring for more people than you thought you might be at this moment. Others have children that are growing up, others have grown children you worry about. Kids have activities, sport and music practice, one program after another. It’s as if we work really hard to be so busy we have no time to stop and hear the still small voice that is God.
But I also see a group of people who are deeply engaged in the communities where you live and work. People who have a passion to bring justice and peace to places where injustice thrives. I see people who want to discover meaning in the work they do, and delve deeper into understanding how God is alive and well and actively moving in our midst. I see people who are eager to learn, but maybe don’t quite have the confidence to believe that their discipleship, their understanding of God in the world, their knowledge of Jesus is enough.
Blair Pogue, in her visit with us a couple months ago talked about being people of the way. This is what we are, we are not the final, completed version of ourselves or our discipleship, we are on the way to learning and being a disciple. We are not an exclusive elite community of special people who know something others do not, we are a community of people struggling to be more inclusive and welcoming as disciples.
This next year is about being a disciple of Jesus, an apprentice to Jesus, as John Mark Comer says. We must stand together and ask one another open ended questions that help us know more deeply God’s love for us. We must sit with one another and tell the stories of our discipleship, honestly and openly and wonder about how God is doing amazing and wonderful things with us.
Jesus challenges us not to have limiting thoughts, thoughts that tell us we can only do so much, we can only ask so much, we can only accomplish so much. We are made by God and that fact alone should be so overwhelming and wonderful as to give each of us the passion, the energy, the joy to engage in the question of what it means to be a disciple. Whether we are 8 months old or 95 years old.
Are we a bold community?
Are we a joyous community?
Are we a celebratory community?
Are we a blessing community?
Are we an energetic community?
Can we allow ourselves to be converted, to be transformed to a rededication of what it means to be a disciple not because we need to, or because we have to, or because it is the right thing to do. But rather because we want to follow Jesus, we want to know Jesus, we want to understand how to live as fully as we can.
Belief that is set aside easily cannot be what Jesus is calling us to. Faith is not like fast food, faith, Jesus, our community should be too precious to be surrendered lightly. Too much, too many people depend on us, on you, on all of us.
Be well,
Aron