Discipleship

A friend of mine took the tremendous trouble to transcribe a sermon I preached on discipleship.  (Perhaps my friend needs a hobby...)  Taking advantage of his hard work I am publishing it to this blog.  Full disclosure: it is rather longer than my usual posts.

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I was an odd, geeky sort of child. I spent a lot of time reading encyclopedias in my spare time for fun. And I learned a lot reading the encyclopedias. So if I spend a lot of time reading Wikipedia and I’m learning, am I a disciple?

I would say I am learning, but I am not a disciple. A disciple is one who learns how to be like someone else. Discipleship is not stuffing information into people’s heads. It is not that. It never will be that. It never was that, although sometimes we call that discipleship.

What does the Great Commission say? “Go and make disciples”–people who are learning to be like someone else–”of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

Baptism is death to the old life and rising to the new, and it is also a grafting in to the body. It is that rite by which we become members of the Church. It is that rite by which we receive the spirit of adoption by which we cry “Abba, Father”.

Discipleship happens in community. Always. It never doesn’t happen in community. Can I grow and be a disciple of Jesus Christ and commune with him in my prayer closet by myself? No, you can’t, actually. I know it sounds pious and lovely, but you cannot. It does not happen outside the initiation into the body.

And that is why reading Wikipedia doesn’t make me a disciple. And that’s why, interestingly enough, if your entire Christian life is reading your Bible by yourself, it doesn’t make you a disciple. I realize that may be a challenging thought.

So Jesus goes on and says, “Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”

This is an important line as a reminder of whom we are to be like. Discipleship is the formation of Christ in us. It is the shaping of the character of Christ in each of us.

But what is obedience? Some of us would think that obedience is compliance. Compliance is not obedience. Compliance is following the rules so as not to get into trouble.

Is compliance part of obedience? I would say, yes. But the issue is this: For it to be obedience and not just compliance, there  has to be a person in the mix. And here’s the other thing that makes it more than just compliance: When we are complying to rules so as not to get into trouble, it’s because we don’t actually love the rules. We hate the rules. Despise the rules.

Obedience doesn’t just do the good. It loves the good, and it loves the one who has commanded the good. Obedience is a free choice out of love to do what our Lord commands, not to avoid wrath but to express love.

It’s not just compliance, because that’s legalism: I have to do this, this and this to stay out of trouble. There’s no relationship in that, is there? There may be a relationship of fear, but there’s not a relationship of love. Just doing the right thing isn’t enough. God is calling us to love the right thing, which is larger than that.

So how do you teach obedience? How do you teach this response of love to the commandments of good?

I think there are three things. Two of them are classic, and one is a recent addition by my friend Justin Howard, which I think is an awesome addition.

We teach obedience by orthodoxy, which is right teaching. We teach the truth about who God is: the God of love, the God of justice, the God of compassion. The nature of Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. What that means to us in very real terms. We teach about the nature of the Church. We help people understand that [having your personal relationship with Jesus all by yourself] isn’t good enough.

But then there’s orthopraxis, which is right practice. We teach not just the right information. We teach how we should act in the right way. How our actions are right. How we respond in a right way in [different] circumstances.

And a big part of this kind of teaching is, of course, modeling. Showing people. Living that out. “This is how you love your enemies.” “This is how you pray for those who persecute you.” “This is how you live in openness and obedience.” “This is how you live in relationship in the light with God and with others.”

Part of it also is instruction on right action. “In this situation, this is an appropriate thing to do.” “In this situation, this is not an appropriate thing to do.”

So, orthodoxy–the right doctrine. Orthopraxis–the right way of behaving. And here’s the one I think is really important: Orthopathos. It’s Justin Howard’s word. It’s right feeling.

To create disciples, we need to know what the doctrine is, we need to know what the practice is, and we also need to know how to order our disordered loves.

And we don’t do that! We give people the information: “God loves you and if you do something wrong, you’re going to be in trouble. Therefore, do all these things.” And we don’t address our disordered loves. The orthopathos. To feel right. To respond right.

And why this is important is because [of] the command, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself”. We cannot do that with disordered loves. We can be excellent Pharisees (Editor’s note: legalists): right teaching, right practice, and have completely diseased and disordered internal lives.

And that, friends, is not a disciple. That’s a liar.

You know what I think? I think most of us have a reasonably good handle on orthodoxy. We have a reasonably good handle on orthopraxis. And, I think, a lot of us struggle with disordered loves and have no idea [as to], ‘How do I do this?’

And here’s the struggle: I can’t give you information to do that. I can’t say, “If you’ve got disordered loves, you should do A, B, C and D.”

Because it’s about relationship.

This is why programs will never do it all. Because people need more than information. They need someone to love them, to walk with them in their disordered loves, and bring order to them.

So what’s necessary for discipleship?

Well, clearly teaching is necessary for discipleship. Orthodoxy, orthopraxy and orthopathy all have elements that have to be taught. Who is God that we may love Him? How is it that Jesus’ death sets us free? How does the Holy Spirit empower us? What disciplines of life will till the soil for godly growth? How does Jesus’ saving work redeem me from my disordered loves? That is information, and the information matters.

But even if I were to be taught until I could be taught no more, does that make me a disciple? No. It might make me a conference junkie, but not a disciple. Remember, the body has to be both fed and exercised. We need community and belonging. Being in relationship matters. We cannot be disciples outside of community.

And here’s the central part of what discipleship is about: Discipleship is about being in relationship with a person or persons with whom I am willing to learn.

These are apprenticeship relationships.

Here are the problem with apprenticeship relationships:  You can’t read a book and go to a seminar, and Poof! It’s done! How frequently we [think that]! We’re struggling with something, we go off to some event and we think, “I’ll be done when I’m finished [with] this.” Apprenticeship takes time.

And we hate that! Why can’t I have this fixed now? Why can’t I have my loves ordered now? Why can’t I know how to do the right things now? Why? Because we’re not designed that way. We’re designed to live in apprenticeship. And apprenticeship is over time with a mentor or mentors. It is not about fast results. You might be in a rush. Jesus is not.

 I love [in the hymn] “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”, the line that says “Unresting”–He’s not lollygagging by the side of the pool–”and unhasting”. He’s always acting, but He’s not in a rush.

But here’s the other problem: To live in a discipleship or mentorship relationship requires humility. To be in relationship with someone from whom I am willing to be taught.

It is profoundly un-American because it makes the declaration: We are not all equal. And we’re not. Of course, on one level we are equal before God. I get that. But in another sense, friends, we are not! We are absolutely not!

There are people in my life (and I’m going to use this language) who are my spiritual masters. They’re not just a little more mature or have seen a little more. They have seen and understand this life in a way that I might someday, but I don’t yet. I am not equal with them. They have walked farther and gone deeper, and suffered more. They know the “ortho”s better than I do.

The greatest barrier to discipleship, I think, is, “I can do it myself. I will not submit to the wisdom of another.” Sometimes we pretend that we will, but we actually won’t. I worked with a guy some years ago for a long, long time, and all the stuff on the outside [said], “Yes, I want to listen,”, but [he] listened to nothing. You can’t come to somebody in a mentorship relationship and not listen, not live in obedience on some level.

 So one of the hard things is that in order to make disciples, you must be one first, which requires a sacrifice of pride and the cultivation of humility.

I want to leave you with two questions:

[First,] where am I becoming a disciple? Who are the mentors in my life? Who are the people from whom I am willing to learn?

And the second question is this: Who am I discipling? In whom am I investing? Because that’s the work of the church. To invest in people. The investment might be our friend who doesn’t know Jesus, or it could be another believer who wants to learn and wants to grow. Either way, who am I discipling? Because the Church will [never] truly grow until we become and create a culture of discipleship.

 I want to say one last thing about the Great Commission. Jesus said, “And ‘lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age.” In the reality of doing this work, we live in the presence and the power of Jesus in us at all times.