3Epiphany2008

The Third Sunday after Epiphany January 27, 2008

Amos 3:1-8

Psalm 139:1-11

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Matthew 4:12-23

The focus this morning is the call to discipleship that is illustrated in the Gospel lesson. To refresh your memories, there is a significant difference between discipleship and admiration. A disciple is a follower. A disciple is a student. A disciple is obedient, even and especially when it’s not convenient. A disciple is disciplined

It is really a challenge to be a true disciple of Jesus in our modern culture. So many different things demand time and allegiance: I think of parents trying to hold down jobs, driving kids to all the activities to which they belong, finding a bit of time for relationship development with the spouse, all the while striving to be more and more faithful to Christ. It can only be done by God’s graceful intervention.

The call to discipleship is a call to Christian maturity. Remember that human, worldly maturity has us thinking our own thoughts, feeling our own feelings, having appropriate boundaries, being a responsible citizen. Christian maturity takes us in the opposite direction: the more mature we are in Christ, the more realize that every beat of our hearts, every cell that divides in our bodies, every breath we take, every dollar we earn is possible only by the grace of God. A disciple is dedicated to being mature in Christ. The goal is maturity and not just salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote in I Corinthians 13: 11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult I put an end to childish ways.”

About 20 years ago I came across the work of Sr. Rose Page, a Carmelite nun, who wrote about the stages of discipleship. She called it the stages of conversion, and at least once a year I go through these 8 stages with you as a reminder of this very insightful process. I’m going to do it again this morning.

1. The first step is “Awakening.” There is an awareness of the presence of God that wasn’t there before. Sr. Page writes:

“It is more than intellectual acceptance of truth. It seems to encompass…emotions of joy and consolation or fear and dread. The experience might come from an encounter with a religious person or book. The truth of spiritual reality hit[s] home.”

This is a time when something stirs within and there is a sense that there is something more and there is a need to find out more.

For discipleship there is a new awareness that I’m not in this by myself. I need other folks in a community of faith.

2. The second step is investigation. There is an assimilation of facts, experiences, and questions. This is a time of active exploration: books are read, sermons are actually listened to, prayer is tried rather tentatively. Questions about basic doctrines arise: “Why should I subscribe to these? Why do I need to be baptized or confirmed? What is the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Trinity? What does it mean to be saved? The little things become important: Why kneel? When do you cross yourself and why? What are the different colors all about?”

You realize that you need to shift your schedule and that it’s important to be in church. You read more, you try to pray more, but you are really grateful when a more mature Christian offers to pray for you.

You begin to realize that this religious stuff is not about your spare time; it’s about something much deeper and that is both attractive and unsettling.

3. The third step is the conversion. This is the time of commitment. This is the moment of truth. There are people sitting in pews off and on for decades who have never made a full commitment to Christ. They come when a need is felt and then they’re gone when that need is met.

Sr. Page writes about this conversion/commitment:

[It] is a leap into the indefinite, the infinite realm of meaning. Commitment is the decision to make the leap. For many, this stage is a time of vacillation and anxiety. For some, this stems from a need for intellectual certainty, for others from a kind of faintheartedness in facing the implications of [truly belonging.]

At this stage, there is almost always an event involved. It may be the time one accepted Jesus Christ is Lord. It may be at the sacrament of baptism or confirmation. It may be the birth of a child. My favorite and oft used illustration is the conversion of John Wesley, already an ordained priest in the Church of England. He wrote in his diary of this experience:

“My heart was strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone

for my salvation; and an assurance was given me, the He [loved me]

and had taken away my sins, even mine and saved me from the law of

sin and death.”

There is also a conversion to the Church. There is a realization that it is in this community of believers that I experience Christ so very strongly: In the sacraments, in the preaching and teaching, in the fellowship, in the common life of prayer. This is where others hold me accountable and I in turn, lovingly hold them accountable as well.

4. Step four is Conscious Integration. This is a time of getting your act together. You realize that there are two indicators in your life of how you respond to Christ: They are your daybook and your checkbook. You ask yourself two basic questions: “How am I spending my time and how am I spending my money?” Time and money are the two best indicators of one’s values. There is a realization that there are folks in need and it pleases God to tend the poor and needy. There is a realization of the truth of line of the Epistle of James when it says: “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17)

You look at your life and make sure that what you say you believe, matches what you do. You will discover that being in church and receiving Eucharist is more important than going to Mt. Bachelor for a ski trip.

5. The fifth stage is a time of dryness. This is the time that fidelity is needed, for this is when most folks are prone to drift away. This is the time when the little things start to get to you. Sermons aren’t very good, the music is a little ragged and you discover that others in the community have annoying faults.

This is the time when the demands of home and job become a priority. You get tired, you’re easily bored; you wonder, “Was all this stuff about Christ real?” Old acquaintances tempt you to be unfaithful. “Why go to Church? Let’s go play golf. Come on over for brunch and lets watch the ball game.” Sleeping in is an ever increasing attraction.

This is also a time when your prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling. It’s a time when old temptations come back and you have to deal with things you thought had gone away. Sr. Page writes:

“When we first turn to God we experience emotional satisfaction in our religious practices…[Now] the emotional fervor dries up. Prayer, meditation, attentive participation in the liturgy takes so much effort. Also the nastier side of our character, which we thought had been conquered, seems to reemerge. It is a time of desireless desire, of dry will, of naked fidelity.”

This is the time when folks start “to nibble themselves astray” like wondering sheep. You remain faithful only by will power.

6. The sixth step is absorption. This is a time of real prayer because you have the sense of being absorbed into God. Your determination to “hang in there” pays off. Your faith is becoming mature; it is not based on just feelings or just rational thought. It is becoming integrated in the whole of your being. This is a time of fidelity. Your awareness of Christ in the liturgy is overwhelming. You realize at your deepest level that God is present and active, even when things are going sideways. There is less preoccupation with yourself and more spontaneous joy and absorption in common life in Christ.

7. Sr. Page calls the seventh step penetration: I call it “all hell breaks loose.” Terrible things happen. Scandal erupts at church: money is embezzled, a child is molested, something faith shattering occurs. Your community changes from a place of sanctuary to a place of pain and tension and conflict.

In your personal life, horrible events take place: your kid gets addicted to meth; your spouse announces she’s going to leave you; you lose your job; you are diagnosed with an incurable cancer. You literally are broken.

This is the time folks will leave the faith angrily. They ask, “How could God allow this to happen?” Underlying it all is a deep sorrow, a deep sense of loss. It is a time of fear and anxiety. There is an appreciation of Jesus’ quote of Psalm 22:1. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” At this time, many will renounce God and claim to be atheists.

One of my favorite quotes is from an old Scottish preacher named A.J. Gossip. This is from the first sermon he preached after the unexpected death of his beloved wife:

“I do not understand this life of ours. But still less can I comprehend how people in trouble and loss and bereavement can fling away peevishly from the Christian faith. In God’s name fling to what? Have we not lost enough without losing that too?”

“If Christ is right: if, as He says, there are somehow hidden away from our eyes as yet, still there, wisdom and planning and kindness and love in these dark dispensations, then we can see them through. But if Christ was wrong, and all that is not so; if God set his foot on my home crudely, heedlessly, blunderingly, blindly, as I unawares might tread upon some insect in my path, have I not the right to be angry and sore?”

“If Christ was right and …the dear hopes of which he speaks do really lie a little way ahead, we can manage to make our way to them. But if it is not so, if it is all over, if there is nothing more, how dark the darkness grows!”

“You people in the sunshine may believe the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else.”

8. The eighth step is transformation. I call it “Christ is in me and I am in Christ.” We realize that discipleship has wholeness about it. There is an understanding that the commitment to Christ is not a part time endeavor, but it is really the stuff of life, and everything else is commentary.

So in review, here are these 8 steps again:

There is an “Awareness” which is an awakening.

There is an “Assimilation” of material as we investigate.

There is a “Commitment” which is usually a conversion event.

There is “Conscious Integration,” a time of getting your act together.

There is a time of “Fidelity” of hanging in there when it is dry.

There is a time of “Absorption,” a time of real prayer.

There is a time of “Penetration,” when all hell breaks loose in your life, and you realize that the faith has to be lived at the deepest level.

There is “Transformation,” when you have a deep, abiding sense of oneness in Christ.

These steps are not always sequential, nor are they static. As disciples, we move back and forth, always with times of joy and refreshment, and times of suffering and tenderness. But this is the pilgrimage of faith, and our promise is that Christ will never forsake us, no matter what we think or feel.

Amen.