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Michaelmas Christ Church Covington September 29, 2002 Belief and discipleship. Believing in Jesus and following Jesus. Which of these comes first? Do we follow because we believe, or do we believe because we follow? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could figure that out? It would be nice for us as a Church if we can discern which precedes which, because then we’d know where to focus our energy. If we can figure this out, we can stop spinning our wheels on all kind of nonsense and only expend our resources on that which gets results: either convincing folks about who Jesus is or persuading folks to do God’s work in the world. Wow! We could jettison at least one of the components of our parish’s mission statement. We could either drop “Proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ”, or we could drop “Sending and being sent.” Think of the savings! So which comes first, belief or discipleship? If you know me and my preaching, you’ve probably already guessed what I’m going to say next. The answer to the question is of course, neither and both. The story of the call of Nathanael that we’ve just heard, illustrates the fact that the moment we believe in Jesus Christ is the moment we begin to follow Jesus Christ, and that the moment we begin to follow Jesus Christ is the moment we begin our faith journey. Nathaneal’s confession of Jesus as the Son of God and King of Israel is also a commitment to following Jesus as his loyal subject. Likewise Nathanael is called to come to Jesus (by Philip, a detail recorded in the verse immediately preceding today’s Gospel), and his movement toward Jesus is accompanied by his conversion to belief in Jesus. So, I guess we can’t really jettison either part of our mission statement. We must proclaim the good news of Jesus. And in order to do that convincingly, we must respond to the call, and go forth in obedience, doing God’s work. We also must send and be sent. And the kinds of things we are sent to do are impossible without a firm belief in the One who sends us, and a joyful confession of that belief. Belief and discipleship: two sides of the same coin. A journey of faith. A moment ago I mentioned focusing our energy only on that which gets results, and we see that that requires focusing our energy on both belief and discipleship in a kind of two-pronged attack. That is what yields results. Yet we might wonder what “results” are for the Church. What “results” are we aiming for? Our Gospel this morning addresses that also, and in order to look at that I propose a little exercise. I’d like to for us to do a little time traveling, if you don’t mind. I want you to think back for a few moments. I want you to think back and reflect on the first person or event or place in which you encountered Christ and heard Him calling you to follow him. Feel free to close your eyes. Maybe it was a parent or spouse’s love. Maybe it was a teacher or a child or a colleague or a coach or a teammate. Somehow somewhere, you experienced Christ for the first time. By some means Christ revealed to you something about yourself that maybe you didn’t know: how wonderful you are and how much He wants you to follow Him. Do you have that memory, that image before you now? It should warm your heart and stir your soul. It probably even seems miraculous. Do you feel that, do you remember that feeling? “You will see greater things than these,” says Jesus. While remembering that first encounter with Christ, now try to imagine what it will feel like when we “will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” If our first encounter with Christ was so sweet and moving, what can we expect when the Glory of God breaks through in a torrent and fills the universe and bring back to God all that is His? Can you handle even thinking about that? Yet this is what Jesus promises. This is what the disciple has to look forward to. This is why we evangelize. We invite others into discipleship because this is God’s promise and our hope. Not because we want church growth or so we can beat the Methodists or even because we think folks might go to hell otherwise. We evangelize because we know (given what we’ve experienced) what we have to look forward to, and we want others to look forward to it also. Therefore, having been called, go and call others. There might be in the back of your mind a friend or neighbor or coworker or family member that you think you’d like to see in Church on Sunday. I think we all know at least one person like this. If you’ve been waiting for permission or encouragement to invite this person, I’m giving it to you now. You have it. You have my permission, indeed please go ahead invite them. It’s a risky thing to do, but our fellow creatures have too much to loose if we don’t at least extend the invitation. “You will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” Amen. The Rev’d Robert M. Odom M.Div., Curate |
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