Hey all,
Recently I have been struck by how immediate everything can feel. With my smartphone I can stay connected nearly 24/7. Sometimes this is great. I love being able to connect with others and take care of business in a variety of contexts. However, I also notice that there is an increasing need for immediate response, immediate satisfaction. “Now” seems to be the operative timeline these days. The trouble is that not everything can be now – some things take time to develop.
So, over the next few months I want to walk with you through a book on the process of discipleship. I have been deeply touched by Eugene Peterson’s ”A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” (Intervarsity Press, 2000). Peterson uses a section of the Psalms to describe the process of becoming a disciple. I invite you to read this book with me, to share your thoughts and questions and feelings, and to pray about the practice of following Jesus in your own life.
So, we will begin this journey together starting Wednesday, October 5.
Phil +
Sounds great. I am looking forward to it.
Much appreciated for the information and share!
It can be hard to find skilled people about this topic, you sound like you understand exactly what you are preaching about! Thx
Discipleship…this is the title of chapter one in “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” by Eugene Peterson, and it is really what this book is all about. In the preface of this book Peterson writes
“God doesn’t change: he seeks and he saves. And our response to God as he reveals himself in Jesus doesn’t change: we listen and we follow. Or we don’t. When we are dealing with the basics – God and our need for God – we are at bedrock. We start each day at the beginning with no frills”.
I love this quote. I love it because it reminds me that in an age of gadgets and marketing and trends some things are just simple. God’s love is simple. God’s love is deep and wonderful and full of mystery – but it is simple. No smoke and mirrors, no “fine print” and no need for a warranty. My response to that love is not so simple. It should be, but it is not. Do I really listen? Do I listen and do in response to God’s call? Do I even care about what I am hearing? Yep, God’s love is simple and it calls me to a simplicity of life and to a fundamental choice – to open my heart and mind to God’s call.
That sounds really challenging…and it is. It is tough to really open our heart to God and to open our mind to his truth and to open our will to God’s leading. The hard truth is this – like little kids we want what we want and often we hope that God wants what we want. When God’s desire matches ours, then life is good. But, like little kids, we grow strangely “deaf” when God’s call is different from our desires. Like a little child I know that I have heard God call in my life – and like a little child I have played dumb, done my own thing, and made life far too complicated. My personal prayer is that I may embrace the simplicity of discileship. I pray that I may be open to the loving call of God in my life and that, with God’s help, I may listen and do. Amen.
Simple “Chlid Like” Faith is only difficult because we have trained ourselves to over-think everything. Just letting go seems like the hardest part but the fact is it isn’t.
I think letting go is very hard because you can’t know the outcome. Of course fear is almost always the reason we don’t let go. It is interesting that God doesn’t change but our entire life journey is one of change after change, whether forced or voluntary, in seeking a changeless God. You would think we would “bump” into Him more often than we do, or at least say “Ouch” when we stub our toe turning in the opposite direction.
Continued conversation about discipleship…Repentance.
Peterson says: “Repentance, the first word in Christian immigration, sets us on the way to traveling in the light. It is a rejection that is also an acceptance, a leaving that develops into an arriving, a no to the world that is a yes to God”
I love this chapter of the book. Peterson starts with a discussion of popular lies that are used to distract us from the important choices and changes that lead to real discipleship. He first describes the work of false prophets: “Rescue me from the lies of advertisers who claim to know what I need and what I desire, from the lies of entertainers who promise me a cheap way to joy, from the lies of politicians who pretend to instruct me in power and morality…from the lies of moralists who pretend to promote me to the office of captain of my fate, from the lies of pastors who get rid of God’s command so you won’t be inconvenienced in following the religious fashions. Rescue me from the person who tells me of life and omits Christ, who is wise in the ways of the world and ignores the movement of the Spirit.” (pg 27). Does any of this sound familiar? It sounds like the messages I hear every day and they are messages that don’t always land on deaf ears. As I read this litany I am reminded that sometimes I listen to these false prophets…and that makes me not only unfullfilled, but sad. I am sad that I am not always the best follower because I am not always listening to the right voice.
” God” – this is the antidote, according to Peterson, for these false prophets and their teachings. To call out “God” changes the perspective and begins to reveal truth from falsehood. And the truth is God – the God that created us, loves us, calls us, and forgives us. It is God that calls us to repentance, to a change of direction, that leads us to the decision to follow. As Peterson puts it: “It is a decision that you have been wrong in supposing that you could manage your own life and be your own god…”(pg 29).
And so, for me, the take away is this: that repentance is a process. In my life I am constantly challenged to adopt the teachings of false prophets. In my life the reality of God challenges those false prophets, and me, to seek God’s truth. I am regularly challenged to decide to see that I am not God of my own life. And as I make the choice to follow Jesus, and not my own wants or the lies that others tell me, I am being saved by the grace of the One who loves me.
A few Sunday’s ago at church I started a sermon with a pop song (not my idea, by the way). I don’t think I did too much damage to the congregation’s ears – but I did get a taste of humble pie.
My entry for this week is about song. The Psalms, as we know, are songs. Some are songs of joy and praise, some are of fear and sorrow, while others focus on repentance. Psalm 121 is a great song and Psalm. It is a song that puts things into perspective. Here is what Peterson says on pg 42
“The promise of the psalm – and both Hebrews and Christians have always read it this way – is not that we shall never stub our toes but that no injury, no illness, no accident, no distress will have evil power over us, that is, will be able to seperate us from God’s purposes in us”.
The message of this psalm is one of assurance, that our relationship with God is a personal relationship and that our connection with God is good in times that are pleasant and in times that are bad. It does serve as a corrective for a prosperity message, one that says that if we are with God, then we will never experience harm or sorrow. The real good news is that no matter the hurt we feel, we can have the assurance that God’s love remains ours, that God’s plan for us is greater than sorrow, and that in the darkest moment, there is hope. This is what Christians have traditionally called Providence.
As I have reflected on this chapter, however, I continue to be drawn to the experience of God’s Providence in song. Psalm 121 is a great example of the way in which the Holy Spirit reminds us of God’s care and protection. But there are others. Peterson makes referrence to Luther’s hymn “A Mighty Fortress”. Great song. However, for me (in true Anglican fashion) I love the song “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” (1982 Hymnal #390). For me, this song inspires me – in good times and bad – to have confidence in God. It is joyful in tone (something I love) and this joy fills my whole being the experience of God’s Providence. Whey I sing this song, I really do pray twice.
So I close with this question: what are the songs that fill your heart with the experience of God’s Providence? Is there a time or circumstance that you feel drawn to them most?
Another that speaks to me of God’s Providence is ‘Healing is in Your Hands.’ We did this as a Communion song on Sept 11. http://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/9174844351/healing-is-in-your-hands-song-for-9-11-service. A primary part of the song’s message is that nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Amazing grace comes to mind.
Howdy All:
Sorry I could not make a posting last week – I was preaching at the friend of a funeral out of town last Wednesday. His name was James and he was a great disciple of Jesus.
Chapter 4 from “A Long Obedience” is on the subject of worship and it is a reflection on Psalm 122. As I read through this chapter I found it encouraging and challenging.
It was encouraging to read that worship; 1)serves as a framework for life; 2) nurtures our relationship with God; 3) centers our attention on God’s decisions. The first point – serving as a framework for life – really is great. Peterson writes, and I agree with him, that in worship our life is molded to a new pattern. It is fundamentally communal – not individualistic. Worship not only stresses the “we” factor, but it brings it into reality. When we arrive at worship we do so as individuals, but as we engage in worship together, the rivalries and quarels and distinctions face into the background. In worship we see the development of a new humanity – in harmony with God and one another – a humanity that begins to look like the Kingdom of God.
I think that this message of unity in worship is positive and life-giving. At Resurrection we cross boundaries each Sunday – language, ethnicity, status, gender, age, wealth, education – and we do so with God’s help. It is awesome to witness the way in which different people develop fellowship through the act of worship. We sing together – sometimes in a language that is foreign to us – and we read God’s Word and we share at God’s Table. These simple actions create a common ground both practically and spiritually. And as we practice worship, together, we become a new kind of people. Worship really is an action of the community – and it is a self-fulfilling prophesy; we become “church”.
The challenging part of this chapter is that real worship is not always about “feeling” – it is not always about the warm fuzzy that we get. It is about being in God’s presence, and each other’s, and placing our lives at God’s disposal. Christian worship cannot be separated from the cross – and the cross is about sacrifice and selflessness. When we worship we place ourselves at the foot of the cross and we offer our lives to God, and to each other, for a purpose greater than our own personal satisfaction. That is the power of worship – but what a great challenge it is. Sometimes I don’t want to place myself as an offering and sacrifice to God or to my community. But that is what I am called to do in worship. And I know from life experience that the more I worship, the more I am willing to stand before the cross with a grateful and giving heart.
It’s so true that when we worship together at the foot of the cross, all the ground is level. And when we empty our hands of what we tightly cling to, we are free to receive God’s blessings with open hands and open hearts. Worshipping together – especially across the social divides that you mention – can help us be conformed to the image of Christ … and be more willing to live lives of sacrifice and not-me-centeredness.
Chapter 5 and the message contained therein is very timely…the message of this chapter is service.
Peterson opens up Psalm 123 and finds contained within the song a message about waiting upon the direction of God “We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath, awaiting your word of mercy.” At face value this psalm is about attending to the direction of God, and that sounds very different from our normal understanding of service. Service, for most of us,is about doing something.
There is so much to do. I just got back from a community breakfast where leaders spoke of all the ills in Far East Dallas and of our need to do something. There was even a quoute that I liked “the world is full of willing people…those willing to do something and those will to let them do something”. It was great and everyone laughed. What a great call to action – to get out there and make a difference. As a priest I often find myself wanting to say this to my fellow Christians – “hey, don’t just sit and watch trouble happen, be an agent of positive change”.
However, as I reflect on Psalm 123 I find myself checked. The pattern of my life as a disciple of Jesus is not just about doing something. It is not about constant action. There is a subtle idolatry in doing – the idea that we can change the world and make all things right. And as one falls for this illusion we become slaves to our agendas, or the agendas of another, and the focus of our life becomes doing.
This past Sunday we focused on “being”. Four new souls were brought into the Family of God – including my own daughter. It was beautiful to see these person reborn by Water and the Spirit. These persons became ” a new creation” in the words of St. Paul – they adopted a new way of being. They became children of the light. The became salt for the earth. They were sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own, for ever. A new being. And at the heart of this being is their relationship with God and with other disciples. Who they are – God’s children – is fundamental. Being comes before doing.
The path of discipleship and of Christian service first starts with who God is and who we are. God is the creator, the Father, the redeemer, the Son, the sanctifier, the Spirit. It is in God that we live and move and have our being. God is the center…and not me. God is the center of my being and must be of my attention, too. As a follower of Jesus my attention cannot be on all that needs to get done. In cannot be about all the things that can occupy the time I have been given. Here is what Peterson says:
“The Christian is a person who recognizes that our real problem is not achieving freedom but in learning service under a better master. The Christian realizes that every relationship that excludes God become oppresive. Recognizing and realizing that, we urgently want to live under the mastery of God” (65).
So I return to the comment about being “willing” that I heard earlier today. I think that there is truth in that statement, the world really is full of wiling people. The difference, however, is between those who are willing to accept the mastery of God in their lives and those who choose a master of their own making. All of us have a master in our lives – not of us live unto our selves. We will all engage in constant service. My prayer is that we may choose to focus our attention on our Heavenly Father. That we will be willing to wait upon God’s direction in our lives, that we will be willing to serve as God leads us, and in so doing, we may find perfect freedom and rest. Amen.
Amen!
Chapter 6….Help!
Psalm 124 is a great psalm. It is real and earthy and honest. The imagery is powerful and, I think, it is a song that can only be sung by those who have dared to walk with Christ. Psalm 124 is about the experience of helplessness and the joy of finding God sufficient in time of need.
Peterson writes that “Christian discipleship is hazardous work” (75). That is true, oh so very true. Jesus tells his friends to take up their cross and follow him. Sounds pretty hazardous to me. So much of what Jesus tells us in the Gospels point to the harzards of the path we are on. In Matthew we are reminded that a servant is not greater than a master…and look what happened to Jesus. We are reminded of persecutions and loneliness and frustration. Does any of this sound familiar, yet? A brief review of the Acts of the Apostles is a litany of privations and beatings and deaths. Thankfully, physical persecutions for our faith is not a constant threat to us. It is a reality that our brothers and sister in Christ experience in other parts of the world. Costly? Hazardous? You bet.
On a daily basis, it is more likely that our hazards in following Jesus resemble rush hour in Dallas. The fact is that following Jesus is full of traffic jams. There are accidents along the way – sometimes disciples bump into other disciples and feelings get hurt. Sometimes the road is not as straight as it may seem – gosh, I get really bummed when a short-cut takes twice as long. Sometimes I get bogged down in construction – the path that I am supposed to take is not ready – yet – and I must sit and wait. Or maybe it is time for a tune up and God pulls me to the side to work on me a little more, getting me ready for the journey ahead. I think for many Christians the biggest hazard is the idea that somehow following Jesus is something that I can do efficiently or neatly – like getting a “trip-tik” from a supernatural “AAA”, so that I can avoid the detours and delays. Perhaps some of us think that “God is our Garmin” – we talk and God gives us the turn by turn directions we want, so that we can get where we want, when we want. Sound familiar?
This past week I have felt real hazard in following Jesus. It has been tough to love and be vulnerable when my instincts have been to do the exact opposite. My patience has been tested, greatly, and some of you know that is a growing edge for me. Trust has been required…and we all know how easy it is to trust, right? As a senior pastor, I am trusting that God will provide not only continued direction for our congregation, but also the resources needed to pursue the path set before us. That feels pretty hazardous to me.
So, my friends, buckle up…it’s going to be a bumpy ride. The road report calls for delays and detours and some frustration – plenty of hazards. Let’s stay in touch – no sense in traveling alone. And keep in mind that the path we are on has been traveled by generations before us. God was faithful to those brave souls – and God will be faithful to us as we follow Christ through the stages of life.
Chapter 7 – Security
One of the things I love about Peterson’s style of writing is that it highlights the juxtapositions of the faith life – the way two seemingly conflicting or competing values rest side by side. For example, last chapter was about help, this chapter is about security. The nature of discipleship is a juxtaposition – vulnerability contrasted with stability; grace contrasted with law; mercy contrasted with justice. Faith is a study – a life-study – in contrasts.
I must confess that this is one of my favorite chapters of the book – I am all about finding security in my relationship with God. Who isn’t? But this chapter does a great job of describing the kind of security we can hope for as disciples of Jesus.
Being a disciple does not mean that our employment or 401k will be secure. Nope, this is no prosperity gospel chapter. Security does not mean that our relationships are invincible or that our health is secure. In fact, discipleship, true discipleship, can be hazardous to both. Instead, the security of discipleship is about the covenant love of God for those who are his people – a love that stands the text of time and circumstance and never gives up hope.
“Those who trust in God are like Zion Mountain: Nothing can move it, a rock-solid mountain you can always depend on. Mountains encircle Jerusalem, and God encircles his people – always has, and always will”. Peterson’s translation of Psalm 125, pg 85.
What an image – that our security as God’s beloved is as stable as a rock-solid mountain. That God’s love encircles us like a range of mountains. For those who grew up in flat land this may not hit you the same way – but I grew up in Appalachia. My earliest memories are of the mountains that surrounding my boyhood home and served as the backdrop for all of my daydreams as a child. Those mountains have been there for milennia and framed the lifecycle of humans and animals and plants. Now, imagine that God is the mountains that surround you – that your life and the life of all other things rests upon. That the love of God is present to generations before you – and will remain long after your earthly life has come to an end. That every-present stability that makes life possible – that is the security that Psalm 125 is getting at.
The Judeans new that security – both its realities and its limitations. The Judean hills are a tough place – they provide seclusion and protection from enemies. Jerusalm really is built like a fortress and, often, the city has only fallen from within. And yet the city has fallen and the Judeans were brought into captivity. The security of the mountains did not protect from every sort of evil. So what did the mountains do? How is the faithful security of God like a mountain that cannot be moved?
The image of Zion moved the heart and mind of generations of Jews, and Christians after them, for centuries. In the midst of the greatest losses and humiliations, the people who looked to God as their mountain of strength never lost hope. Zion became an image of hope – a hope that God had not forgotten them. Zion over and over called the Judeans home – and calls Christians home today, too. The message of God’s security is that no matter the fortunes of history, God still calls us home. God’s love is still there for us, and there is nothing that political realities or economic hardships can do to stop that. The mountain is not moved – and God’s faithful and secure love for God’s people is never lost.
“Discipleship is a decision to live by what I know about God, not by what I feel about him or myself or my neighbors” (Peterson, 87). This is a powerful quote and it is so very true. Sometimes we may not feel very excited about the life of discipleship. Sometimes it is slow, or frustrating, or scary, or unsettled. Sometimes it is full of joy and praise and success. God’s promise to us – for better or worse, in sickness and in health – is to love us as God’s own. That is a promise that has been kept by God for as long as the mountains have been…and it will be true even after they are gone. The decision to be a disciple is secure because it is a choice to believe in the One that is believable and to follow the One that is worth following. Discipleship is worthy of your life and devotion because the One we follow has proven love for our ancestors, for us, and will do so for our descendants, too.. God’s love is secure. God’s love is Forever and ever, forever and ever…Amen!
Chapter 8 – Joy
Over the course of my life I have visited with many people and been a part of many congregations. There is one element that I always look for – even if not consiously – and that is a sense of joy. I like to be around joyous people.
During the preparations for the season of Christmas, many folks will have “joy” on their mind. They will be out shopping -and the merchants will gladly reap the reward of their efforts. There will be baking and cards written. There will be family portraits taken so that family near and far can feel more connected (we had ours taken last week). All of the preparations are for that moment of “joy”. Singing “Silent night” by candlelight on Christmas Eve; sleepy parents and wild-eyed kids around the tree in the early morning; parties with family and friends…all the moments of “joy” that so many of us look forward to and work toward and prepare for.
Joy. Can we really prepare for joy? Is it possible to create a formula – a “to do” list that when checked off that will lead us to the experience of joy? Well, yes and no.
The fact is that most of the actions around the Christmas Season do not bring about joy. No joy comes, in itself, through the consumption of retail products or from a great feast. Parties with family are not always that fun – in fact, they are often filled with moments of discomfort and sorrow. In a sad irony, this season of joy often is marked by a high rate of suicide. Joy, like love, cannot be bought, borrowed or stolen. As Peterson puts it
“Society is a bored, gluttonous king employing a court jester to divert it after an overindulgent meal. But that kind of joy never penetrates our lives, never changes our basic constitution. The effects are extremely termporary – a few minutes, a few hours, a few days at most. When we run out of money, the joy trickles away. We cannot make ourselves joyful. Joy cannot be commanded, purchased or arranged.” (97)
Joy affords us no shortcuts. In my life I have found that the most joyous persons are often those who seemingly have little of the diversions of life. True joy is not a commodity they posses. Sometimes the most joyous persons are those who have experienced real heartache in life, real challenges, and have come through on the other side. Joy, it seems, is a gift given by God to those who serve God through all of the chances and changes of this life.
And so, I would leave you with the idea that we can prepare ourselves to receive the gift of Joy. We can lead our lives in a manner that is worthy of being a disciple of Jesus. We can trust in God’s mercy and love – and we can share that mercy and love with another. We can live into our vocations with passion – the vocation of being a Christian, a parent, a spouse, a friend – and as we engage those vocations we become more than we once were. As we become the disciple that Jesus has called each of us to be, we in turn experience the joy of a life well-lived, that sense of fullillment that only comes from those who have faced challenges and overcome. The joy of a disciple is attractive because it gives everyone hope – hope that we, too, can experience joy. The Joy of the Lord really is our strength in life – and it is a gift given to those who make the choice to walk with Christ through the stages of life. Amen.
As one of the fruits of the Spirit joy is only developed over time as we spend time with and in the Spirit. I love the metaphor of fruit on a vine or tree, which is different from a gift. The deeper our roots push into the soil seeking the eternal water from God, the richer the nourishment for fruit production. Roots flourish in the darkness and stillness – our set-aside time for listening, opening, praying, reading/studying. That is the entire anchor for the plant and the primary source of it’s life. The fruit is a by-product of the intake and processing of those nutrients and it’s purpose is to feed others.
Joy very often is a fruit that grows best in the soil of pain and suffering, at least that has been my experience. But everyone will experience pain and suffering. The difference is having our roots seek out the water of God rather than many other alternatives.
Great post – I love what you write about joy and the experience of sorrow. I am reminded that the joy of Easter is only properly understood and experienced in light of Good Friday. Perhaps our constant desire to avoid pain and suffering is one reason why our experience of “joy” seems so unfulfilling? Perhaps we cannot experience true joy if there has been no experience of sorrow or sacrifice?
“Society is a bored, gluttonous king”…”Stuff” will never bring joy. As a matter of fact, the fewer things one has to carry around with them, the lighter their load is and the farher they can travel on any journey. I just hope that they are not traveling to find more “stuff”.
I saw a funny Facebook post on Black Friday – “one day after being thankful for all that we have, we devote an entire day to seeking out all those things that we don’t already have”…funny, ironic and true.
Chapter 9 – Work
As we approach the Christmas vacation, I doubt that there are many who care to read about work. And yet, the concept of work is critical to Christian spirituality and discipleship. The monastic tradition bears this out, particularly the Benedictines, and the dual focus on prayer and work “ora et labora”. Not everyone has looked so kindly on work. St. Paul had to have words with some of the members of the church at Thessalonica – some quite working, quite being engaged in productive labor, in anticipation of God’s imminent return. However, a constant theme in both the OT and NT is that work is good. “The foundational truth is that work is good. If God does it, it must be all right. Work has dignity: there can be nothing degrading about work if God works. Work has purpose: there can be nothing futile about work if God works” (Peterson, 109).
Seeing work as in a spiritual light is important for Christian disciples. The fact is that most of us spend the majority of our waking time at work – more than any other pursuit. Our work often shapes our identities, it affects our rituals and our health, and it is part of our plans for the future. The question for the disciple is whether and how one can find spiritual meaning in our work? How can your work and the job you do be connected, intentionally, with your identity as a child of God?
I think going back to creation is an important part of answering that question. The story of salvation begins with God’s work – the work of creation. And the first humans – God’s special creation – are invited to participate in God’s work. God entrusts creation of Adam and Eve’s care. In a special way, God includes the man and woman as partners in God’s creative work through the command to procreate and educate children. The gifts of memory, reason and skill are part of the call to work – through our gifts we may create and bring glory to God. Whether the work is that of an artist or a sandwhich artist, human effort has within it a dignity that can reflect the creative work of God in the world. This is a “theology of work”.
At the same time, there is a temptation to engage in senseless work – work simply for the sake of work – that ignores the most important context of our work; how our action fits into God’s action. The reality is that not all work is good or moral. Sometimes work may be contrary to the divine will for humanity – it may be destructive to persons or creation, and as such it has lost its reference to God’s work in the world. For the disciple of Jesus, our work must never ignore our participation in God’s work. Our work provides meaning and even refreshment to the degree that what we do is a follow-up to God’s work. In this sense, work is a vocation – a calling – to continue God’s creative work in the world.
The ultimate meaning of work is found in our worship…the “opus dei”. Just as most human work exists in community, the faith community finds its best expression in the work of worship. Certainly this worship takes place most clearly on Sunday morning. Yet, we can take the effects of worship with us into our daily lives. Similarly, we can bring to worship our whole selves – including our work – and offer it to God for blessing and purpose. And so, my prayer is that in those moments when our tasks may seem anything but holy, God’s Spirit may make us aware of the ways in which we are participating in God’s creative work and that our hearts, minds and hands may be refreshed with new purpose and dignity. Amen.
Chapter 10 – Happiness
Here is a question – and I don’t have the answer: What is the difference between “happiness” and “joy”? I invite your responses.
In Chapter 8 of “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction” Peterson writes of joy in discipleship. Through our conversation we saw that Joy is intimately connected with suffering and sacrifice – that a truly joyful person cannot lead a life that simply escapes sacrifice, but rather, the sacrifice is transformed and the person’s joy is made complete in God’s blessing through and in spite of the suffering.
Here in Chapter 10 Peterson write about Happiness. Instead of providing a clear definition of Happiness, I find that Peterson talks around the subject. He begins the chapter with a discussion of “the good life”. That happiness and a good life are the product of one leading a life in accordance with God’s commands. At first it sounded a little like retributive justice (google this term if unfamiliar) – but I don’t think he means to go there. Here is what Peterson does say about the good life:
“He makes it clear that the way of discipleship is not a reduction of what we already are, not an attenuation of our lives, not a subtraction from what we are used to. Rather, he will expand our capacities and fill us up with life so that we overflow with joy.”(116-117).
As I read this I was reminded of what Jesus said in John 10:10 “I have come that you may have life, and have it more abundantly”. The gift of Jesus the Christ was not about sending in a new batch of “do not” rules. Instead, the ministry of Jesus is about showing us the way to the Father. In Jesus, we see what it means to be truly human and humane – we see the image of God that was supposed to be ours and, in Jesus, that image is being restored. Jesus makes humanity complete.
So I return to this idea of happiness and a full life. It seems to me that the blessing of discipleship is that as I walk with Christ, I am conformed to the image of Jesus. And as I become more like Jesus, the pattern of discipleship helps me to become the true “Phil Webster” that God intends me to be. To be one’s most authentic self – that really is happiness. The philosopher Aristotle understood happiness as action in accordance with nature. That may sound a little academic, but think about it. When we act according to our truest selves – when there is not gimmics or pretense in our thoughts or actions – that is when we are most authentic. Our society craves authenticity becuase we as individuals long to be authentic. This is the blessing of discipleship – following Jesus makes us “real” and we are then free to be the person God created us to be.
This concept of being authentic is not the same as the wanton individualism that music and movies portray. Contrary to Lady Gaga, “born this way” is not the path to happiness. The image of God in us is not something we impose on God or ourselves – it is only discovered when we conform ourselves to the image of God in Christ. Happiness is about being “reborn, God’s way”. Again, Peterson writes:
“Keeping the rules and obeying the commands is only common sense. People who are forever breaking the rules, trying other roads, attempting to create their own system of values and truth from scratch, spend most of their time calling up someone to get them out of trouble and help repair the damage, and then ask the silly question “what went wrong?”. As H. H. Farmer said, ‘if you go against the grain of the universe you get splinters’.”
I love that last line about the grain of the universe. This past summer my youngest son slide down a ramp – against my counsel – becuase it is what he wanted to do. It was a wooden ramp and, sure enough, he got splinters in his bottom…ouch. My heart went out to him as I tended his wounds. However, I wondered then and now, how often we, in pursuit of moments of “happiness”, slide down something against the wishes of our Father and end up with splinters in our bottom? My son, on that day, was not too happy about his choice. Most of us, when we “go against the grain of the universe” find ourselves in the same place – with metaphorical splinters in our body and soul and not too happy. My prayer for us is that we will follow Jesus, and in so doing follow the “grain of the universe” that leads us to the discovery of our truest selves.
“I have come that you might have life, and have it more abundantly” Amen.
Chapter 11 – Perseverance
Recently I have been playing “Star Wars” with my oldest son. He is in that stage where light sabers are cool and he wants to be “Luke”…guess who gets to be “Vader”? Well, it is a ton of fun and a great bit of exercise too, I might add. What I have noticed, however, is that my son will get frustrated at the first moment when things do not go his way. If “Luke” does not get “Vader” at just the right time, or if the choreography of our light saber duels do not mirror his imagination, well, then, that just will not do. In fact, he gets really impatient with me sometimes – more more often with himself – and then the tears of a young boy begin to flow. It is frustrating for him and, as his father, I want to console him. Welcome to the world of impatience in the imagination of a child.
Sometimes I look at him and I see myself. My impatience is not normally with light saber duels, but sometimes the issues may not be much more important. Patience is tough to learn (be careful before you ask God to teach you patience) because it is a skill acquired in the context of frustration. I think we all get impatient and frustrated from time to time in most aspects of our lives. So what about frustration in your faith life? Do you ever find yourself frustrated with God, or yourself, or both?
In this chapter Peterson reminds us that faith is not a fad – “it is a way that works. It has been tested thoroughly” (128). He goes on to describe the way in which, according to Psalm 129, the Israelites had tested faith in God – the test came through the frustrations and trials of life. The Israelites were a people who had become familiar with struggle and loss – the story of their nation was not a glowing success story. In fact, by most outside standards, it was a failure. So, why was faith in God, for them, not a fad?
Peterson reminds us that the Israelites were passionate about their faith – even when it seemed futile – and this passion lead to perseverance. Passion about God and about their identity as God’s chosen people provided them with the energy to continue to care even in the darkest, most painful times of their history. Sometimes their passion came out in tears, and sometimes in shouts for joy, but what is clear is that passion cannot be hidden. Passion is the engine that keeps one going in the tough times. The passion of the Jewish people is alive and well today – thousands of years later.
As a pastor, passion is one of the things I look for in dealing with pastoral care – particularly marriage preparation. When I meet a couple, I want to know if they are passionate about each other and if they are passionate about God. My experience has been that the couples who remain passionate about each other, and who are passionate in their faith life, have the necessary energy to see most challenges in their relationship through. The great warning sign in relationships – including our relationship with God – is whether or not the passion is there. Do we really, really care? Do we care enough to overcome the challenges in our lives, both spiritual and personal? I often ask myself “are you really passionate about God?”. Sometimes it is a tough question to ask – but it is a necessary one if my faith is to be more than just another fad.
And I think this issue of passion helps me to appreciate the perseverance of my son, the “young Jedi”, even more. Although he gets frustrated from time to time, he always comes back. As we examine our walk with Christ, I think it would serve us well to focus on our passion – and not simply our frustrations – in following Jesus. Is the desire to love God in our hearts? How can we build up the passion? For you see, the mark of perseverance in our faith is not our frustration level, but instead, our desire to keep coming back for more.
Chapter 12 – Hope
Over the years I have come to appreciate that there are nearly two sides to every experience – things seem to come in pairs. Risk and reward, effort and achievement, joy and sorrow, death and growth….suffering and hope. Sometimes we fall victim to the myth that things are one-sided. Sometimes we strive for the pleasurable, the enjoyment – but deny the effort or the suffering. At other times things seem so bad in our lives – losses so great – that we cannot see the opportunities that lie ahead. Suffering is real…and so is hope. And it is the Christian Hope that I want to share with you in this blog.
Recently I have seen a lot of suffering. Friends of ours experienced a horrible tragedy – a car accident and the death of a father and husband. This family is suffering. The wife and mother remains in the hospital and the children – mostly grown, now face the prospect of rehabilitation for their only parent. Income concerns must be present. And, since the father was a pastor and the family lived in parish housing, most likely a move to a new residence. Our congregation has been praying for them, and they have received the love and support of many people…but their suffering is real. Their grief is real and any attempt to move past it, too quickly, dishonors their experience. It also short-circuits God’s grace and salvation.
Hope, according to Peterson is: “…a confident, alert expectation that God will do what he said he will do. It is imagination put in the harness of faith. It is a willingness to let God do it his way and in his time. It is the opposite of making plans that we demand that God put into effect, telling him both how and when to do it. That is not hoping in God but bullying God.”(144)
Hope is a great gift from God. Hope is faithful belief that God’s grace, and not the suffering we experience, is the final answer. Hope is the most Christian response to life – it is honest, real and faithful. Hope recognizes our current condition for what it is, suffering and all, and places our hearts and lives before God in expectation that the God of life and light and love is not through with us. Sometimes the tears of our hearts seem to flow without ceasing. However, as our sorrow flows, so too, God pours love and mercy into our lives to give us hope.
In Romans chapter 5, Paul tells us that “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance character; and character hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who he has given us”.
Our life in Christ began in the waters of Baptism. God’s life was poured into our hearts and we were marked as God’s own, forever. It is this identity, as very members of Christ’s Body, that our hope is secure. And it is through the ministry of the Spirit that this hope is poured into our hearts – even as we walk through the valley of tears. Amen.
Chapter 13 – Humility
Peterson spends a lot of time working through humility from the perspective of two extremes: Ambition and Dependency. The chapter takes a while to work through, but in pure Aristotelian fashion, it arrives at a place of quiet and confident spiritual humility.
Ambition, as Peterson understands it, is a vice that is all too common. Our society loves ambition – hard work and getting ahead are values in our society. Personally, I believe that they are good values. Our Christian tradition embraces a theology of work, one in which we give honor a glory to God as we exercise our natural gifts and abilities and are productive. Success is a good thing – the Proverbs and Psalms are full of examples of ways in which success is celebrated spiritually. However, ambition has a dark side – the insatiable drive for “more”. Ambition, if left unchecked, is a hunger for the things of life – money, attention, position – that distracts us from our relationship with God. Ambition, if we are not careful, can become an idol. An idol to things and, sadly, an idol to self. Peterson thinks that a better word would be “Aspiration” – ‘the channeled, creative energy that moves us to growth in Christ, shaping goals in the Spirit’(153). If a change in words helps to make the distinction, I am fine with that. What is important, I think, is that a proper sense of development – of Aspiration or Ambition – must be Christ-centered if we are to be authentic disciples. Whatever we do, or achieve, it must not be just us – but Christ working in us.
Aspiration is not only contrasted with the egotism of ambition, but also with dependency. The dependency that Peterson describes is the “the dishrag saint: the person upon whom everyone walks and wipes their feet, the person who is used by others to clean up the mess of everyday life and then is discarded”(154). This is the person who appears to have lost a sense of healthy boundaries and to have lost a healthy respect for the Imago Dei – the image of God. As a disciple, as a child of God, we have an inherent value and worth. There is a dignity that is ours because we are loved by God. However, if the disciple does not set healthy boundaries for one’s self and for others, then there is a disrespect for God. Part of healthy boundaries is not relying constantly upon the ‘emotional highs’ of faith. For some Christians there is a need to constantly be affirmed by the Holy Spirit, in extraordinary emotional ways, that they are still loved. Peterson notes that just as a child is weaned and deals with separation anxiety – so too, the disciple must be able to recognize that the divine presence is experienced differently as we grow up in faith. This is the difference between dependency and trust – the disciple is now a child that trusts in the love of the Father even when it is not felt.
As I reflect on the chapter I think that Christian humility is the process where we come to a more mature understanding of who God is, who we are, and what we are called to. Humility reminds me that God wants to me to grow, to become the person that I have been created and called to be. Humility reminds me that whatever I accomplish in life, it is not just I, but it is Christ in me that is at work. At the same time, humility reminds me that I have value in God’s eyes – even when I may not feel like it. Christian humility helps me not only to set boundaries with others, but also with my inner-most fears…including the fear that somehow I am just not loveable in God’s eyes.
Chapter 14 – Obedience
“True knowledge of God is born out of obedience” – John Calvin.
Peterson does a great job in this chapter of setting out the context of faith. There are so many quotes that I would share with you from this chapter – I hope, instead, that you will take the time to read it, or re-read it, carefully.
Obedience, as most of you know, is about listening – or rather, hearing, the commands of another in such a way that it affects our behavior. In the Webster house we have some rules for our kids, and the first of those rules is “listen and do, obey your mom and dad”. Listen and do – hear and follow – that is the gist of obedience. It is both awareness and responsiveness to the direction of another. Obedience to God, then, is about hearing the direction of God in our lives and letting that sense of direction guide our thoughts and actions. The type of hearing that changes our outlook and behavior is holy obedience.
Peterson compares the disobedient and obedient in this way:
“The only person they consult is themselves, and the only experience they evaluate is the most recent ten minutes. But we need experiences, the community of experience of brothers and sisters in the church, the centuries of experience provided by our biblical ancestors. A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in the bloodstream, Paul in his fingertips and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his momentary feelings and the experience of the past week.”(pgs 166-167).
The quote was part of a larger conversation about the connection between faithful memory and obedience. For Peterson, the disciple can enjoy a deep and broad “memory” of God’s faithfulness and direction. This religious memory is one of the important means by which we gain a sense of direction from God in our lives – about how we should act and react to the opportunities and challenges of life. Here is what Peterson says:
“With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith. If we are going to live adequately and maturely as the people of God, we need more data to work from than our own experience can give us.”(pg. 166).
The idea that there is a deep well-spring of faithful insight that supports the life of a disciple is one of the great things about the Christian Tradition. Tradition, in the Christian context, is the living faith of the dead – passed on to us today. We do not face the questions of life each time for the very first time. That is not true in science, or mathematics, and it is not true for our faith. In reality, our understanding of truth – and this includes matters of faith – is cumulative. None of our experiences are in isolation – so why do we often attempt to address these questions as though they have never been addressed before? Why do our faith communities often ignore the cumulative wisdom of God’s people over the course of the ages?
Sometimes obedience sounds too heavy – that it is a matter of fulfilling a set of rules imposed from without. However, following God’s will for our lives is about becoming a truest selves – growing into the fullness of God’s image in us. Obedience to God is hopeful – for as we follow God’s will in our lives we become all that God is calling us to be in Christ Jesus. Peterson describes obedience as a “race of hope” – that we should follow God with energy and enthusiasm. What a great image – racing after Christ through our life!
My prayer for us is that we may live into this last quote:
“We need roots in the past to give obedience ballast and breadth; we need vision of the future to give obedience direction and goal. And they must be connected. There must be an organic unity between them.” (pg. 170)
Amen!