Discipleship and Integrity

Acts 16

We been looking at these long passages this summer and pulling out the lessons from Acts. There been a small group of us meeting after service to have a conversation about book and text, the sermons, and the larger ideas we’re looking at.

We discussed last week the conflict the early leaders were having. It is part of this ever-expanding nature of the new faith that now one doesn’t have to become Jewish by way of circumcision, to be a follower of Jesus.

So the question that is begging to be answered is: What makes the new faith?
What is the outward sign? That marks one for the community?

I think this is the question Paul is trying to answer in most of his ministry, his letters, his travels, he was looking to help define who this group of people was going to be. What does it mean to follow Jesus?

At Paul's time of Judaism, there were those who were followers or disciples of particular rabbi’s the best of the students were selected to study years wit a teacher and to continue the lessons they learned after their teacher had died. Jesus had countless disciples, there were so many who heard his teachings, the “best of the best” the 12, became those who were sent to carry it on.

“Covered in Dust”
There’s this teaching in Judaism where the disciple would be “covered in the dust” of their teacher in the ancient desert world where nothing was paved, there was no quick way to get from one place to another.

You had to walk. And the disciple follows so closely, that when they arrive where ever they were going, the disciple is covered in the dust of their teacher it would be so clear that you are following that your very clothing bears the evidence.

We are called to be disciples. So what then, is our evidence?

We were told: Become a Christian and you have to change as a young person, the Christian communities that I was a part of talked a lot about discipleship. I was part of the mainline church so it wasn’t so much about a moment of salvation but it was made very clear to me through multiple communities that what it meant to be a Christian was to be different than I currently was I had to change who I was to be a good Christian.

Let me tell you about this, in case you’ve missed this wasn’t part of your world there is the Christian and then there’s the world. And things of the world are always in conflict with the things that are Christian the consequences of this could be: throwing out CDs that aren’t Christian, not watching Dawson’s Creek, (you can guess what years in my life this became a thing), reading Christian novels. The active removal of non-Christian things was meant to help you focus on the second part: Obedience.

On its surface, obedience is the part that most people struggles with it’s the part of Christianity that appears legalistic that demands you do or you don’t do something as a young person, someone was always telling me about what actions, thoughts, words, were “Christian” and which ones weren’t. The obedience part was the forcefully becoming a good person until I become the good Christian that I am suppose to be. No longer struggling. No longer filled with doubt. Certainly never swearing… Or cruel word Or mean thought.

And as an adult I want to push against the notion that I have to give up everything that doesn’t explicitly fit into a well define box to believe. And I want to push against the idea that I have to become someone completely different before I can be faithful, good, whole person.

And in our modern, western culture we generally bristle against obedience. We don’t like to admit that we are not the center of our own universe. Sometimes we don’t even like to admit that there is something greater than ourselves.

Or there is something that remains unknown in the universe or within ourselves. We don’t like the idea that we are still having to grow that as adults we still going to grow and change and become. And not just that we are going to but that have to.

We worship at the feet of something. The reality is, I am going to obey and follow something. Something is going to set my direction, my thoughts, my actions. I had a friend who found there was a difference when he was driving when he listened to the rock/metal music he enjoyed he was more likely to respond to other drivers with anger and rage. When he chose to listen to classical music he found he was able to maintain his sense of center more likely to respond with calm.

Right-wing/racist memes that are “funny” sometimes it does sneak its way in I was listening to an interview with Clive Thompson and he had written an article about the use of memes, images or really short videos that often have writing and make a comment about life, culture, absurdities. But, they have been used in fun and less fun ways. They have become a tool of extremist groups ro turn racist, sexist, homophobic ideas into what one of the reporters called “Just funny jokes, dad” Sometimes, we don’t notice what is feeding our souls.

I’ve made a choice not to watch this Netflix show Insatiable. Partly because it looks terrible and partly because the review are terrible and mostly because I don’t think it would bring more goodness in my world. My roommate wouldn't watch 13 Reasons Why and I won’t watch season 2 of the same for the same reason. I think about how Marcus Theaters have chosen not to show the movie SlenderMan in Milwaukee or Waukesha County given the horrible events that happened here.

So maybe it’s not about giving everything up and changing. And maybe it’s not believe that it doesn’t matter what we bring into our lives. If I am going to be covered in the Dust of something

There are choices made about what will bring joy or harm into our own lives or the lives of those around us. Maybe it’s the conscious curation of that which we feed our souls.

So we consciously and with intention curate. We make choices, every day, at least most days, like one who makes choices for a museum or library. I believe that we are creative creatures because we have a creative God. We bring and curate and create around us and so we have to ask: What brings us more joy? What brings my family, church, community more joy? What brings the world more joy? Because don’t think that it’s what we subtract from our lives but what we add to it. We learn from our story today what kinds of things we ought to add to our lives, what might bring us joy, bring our community joy, bring joy to the world.

What marks us as disciples, the kind of dust that has been kicked up on us.

Who we welcome and who do we become when we do is really a question that is underlying much of the book of Acts. It became an integral part of the early church. It’s vital to who we are. Lydia showed hospitality by welcoming into her community these 2 traveling preachers and it changed everything about this small band of women. She showed them hospitality by keeping them safe after they had been beat and eventually released from prison.

And so we welcome the stranger and the outcast because that is who Jesus was and who we are called to be as followers. But this too is about adding to our lives. It is about bring in joy. There is so much to gain. There are so many stories that remain unheard and we have the opportunity to hear them.

Not only that, we are called to give space for those stories to be lifted up. We are called as disciples to bring joy into the world, by bringing or calling for, justice and liberation for all. We rise up those who haven’t been given a voice so that their stories might be told. We march and gather so that those who have been captive might be set free. We march at the ICE building. We support Pathfinders. We feed those who are hungry and we clothe who have nothing. We do this in part because we know or have felt that deep river that connects us that each is created and worthy of love, respect, hope, grace, another second chance.

I think that last three marks of discipleship that we see in the stories of Lydia, Paul, Silas and the guard are probably the hardest for this community at least. We are a community of action. We like to get up, get out, do things, we are making a difference kind of people and I celebrate our desire for justice. However, there is more. And so we curate in worship and prayer. No matter what we do, we are going to fall at the feet of something we are going to choose to make something our priority and our efforts are going to support that which we invest our time, our energies, our emotions. When we come together in worship we are choosing to say that this, that this God, that Jesus, that this community is important. And in this community we practice. Our worship is a practice in grace, in forgiveness, in vulnerability. We practice it here. Worship connects us to each other. And prayer, it connects us to the universe. it connects us to the deep flow in the universe that connects all of creation. It’s that flow, that river we have been singing of this summer. We step into the eternal depths of the universe when we pray and we connect to the deep river in ourselves.

Paul and Silas met with Lydia and the other women, which is an excellent story on its own but what they did was teach. And when Paul and Silas were in prison, they taught. And when they went to the home of the guard, they taught. As disciples, we learn. Education key to who we are. And we embrace that. We know Sunday School: learning the stories, learning to ask questions, is so important to our young people. But there is so much more. We do not reach the limits of our own learning. We do not know all that there is to learned from the stories of our faith for we will never come to Scriptures are the same person we were before.

There is always more to know. And the community here, we have so much to teach each other. You have so much to learn, I have so much to learn. We know so little of the world around us and we get continue to ask questions, to see stories in new ways, to keep learning. And so we join discussions. We participate in our adult education. We choose to participate in learning intentionally.

And sometimes, all our best efforts are for naught. Paul and Silas did their work of God. They set free that child and for their work, they were imprisoned, there was suffering.

We’re in a particular place of Western Christianity that is claiming suffering and oppression in what are really just the consequences of losing our place in the dominant culture. Or living in a pluralistic world. But living like: this inviting in joy, welcoming the stranger, making space for the outcast, speaking liberation. Choosing to live as a piece of the universe-deeply connected, and not just a me. Seeking to continue to learn and grow, realizing that it’s going to change you. These are not the way the world usually works. And it will not always be easy. Sometimes it does lead to suffering. Sometimes it will mean having to choose to not:
to not participate,
to not join,
to not this job.

Or not give up.

Sometimes the choice is to carry on even when it’s hard. It’s choosing love, and grace, and hope and we know that choice changes everything. But struggles, suffering, it builds empathy which brings us back to connection.

Which brings us back to our community. Discipleship: The work that we do for ourselves, our family, our church, our communities, for the world, they mark us. They review who dust we are covered in. And it isn’t about me, or you, changing to fit in. We already are, we already belong. But it will change us. As we add to our lives: worship and prayer, justice and liberation, teaching and learning, as we welcome the stranger and learn from our struggles, we will be changed. When we curate joy, when we feed our souls with joy, and love and forgiveness, we become. We continue the work of becoming from the moment we are born, till we take our final breaths. And so, in that way, maybe discipleship isn’t the burden that it was made out to me. Maybe it is the joy of participating. The joy of being and becoming.