Inspired by Genesis 21:9-19, Romans 6:3-7, Matthew 10:24-31
I spent a few days this week at the annual gathering of the Virginia United Methodists. A few thousand laity and clergy from all parts of the Conference convened to do the work of the Church, to worship and to engage in deep listening and holy conferencing as has been done each of the previous 243 years of our existence. The theme for this year’s Annual Conference was “Reclaiming the Heart of Methodism”, and it will inform some of this reflection today. Our Resident Bishop, Sue Haupert-Johnson, has been focused over her three years with us on getting all laity and clergy of the Virginia Annual Conference to reclaim and to live-out into our communities our uniquely Methodist theology and doctrine of grace. To acknowledge where we have fallen short (as individuals and as a connection) and to repent and remember and celebrate our unique spiritual heritage and from whom we have come.
Bishop Sue’s leadership has not spared the feelings of clergy or laity about how we have often abdicated our role in our churches and communities to live out our membership vows to “renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of the world and repent of our [your] sin” all the while accepting “the freedom and power God gives us [you] to resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves”. She was pointed in her remarks about all the injustice that is in our Country and our world right now and our silent acceptance of it. Multiple speakers remarked about how Methodism has always been about embodied grace at work in the world – about practicing social holiness and social justice.
The rub of practicing our faith is that social holiness and social justice is costly. For when we openly confront the “powers and principalities” of our day, then we risk our comfort, our friendships and social standing. Since we rarely wish to feel uncomfortable, we often opt for “selective discipleship” which seeks to keep us feeling comfortable and safe instead of following the often inconvenient, confrontational and uncomfortable leading of the Holy Spirit. Selective discipleship is not discipleship at all, however, because truly living out the teachings of Jesus is usually uncomfortable and always costly.
Our scripture readings for today highlight for us that our spiritual journeys will often grow more challenging to our worldly convictions and beliefs the deeper we go. We hear about Hagar and Ishmael being cast aside into the wilderness; we hear Paul speaking to the early believers about the costly sharing in the death of the Christ; and Jesus calling his newly minted students to faithful and courageous following, even when it will mean public criticism, threats, rejection, division, and carrying their personal crosses all the way to their martyrdom. Following the way of Jesus is costly discipleship indeed, but it also is the way to our salvation.
Hagar, the Egyptian slave girl to Sarah, has borne a son, Ishmael, to Abraham. Sarah is jealous of Ishmael and orders Abraham to send them away. Sarah’s jealousy causes Hagar and Ishmael to be unjustly thrown out into the wilderness with minimal water, food and hope for a future. Yet, God tells Abraham that God will look after Hagar and Ishmael. God saved them both from death in the wilderness and Hagar is the first person in the Bible to name God from her experience of God’s salvation; El Roi, the “God who sees”.
Paul is writing to the believers in Rome to remind them of the transformative power of the Resurrection and its cost on all who have been baptized into the faith. Paul states, “…We are those who have died to sin; how can we live it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life….” Further, he wrote, “…For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free….”
Jesus is sending out the Disciples to do the work of his Father. They are to go to the “lost sheep of Israel” and “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons” and proclaim to all that the kingdom of heaven has come near. Jesus tells them to “not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul” for no matter what it costs them to faithfully live out their discipleship, God is always abiding with and caring for them.
Our Methodist heritage is filled with good people confronting, bending and breaking bad rules such as slavery, inhumane conditions in jails and poor houses, of a lack of affordable and accessible healthcare; of faith-filled people imagining how God’s world should look and then working with God to bring that vision to life. Our unique worldview is that all of creation is continually bathed in the Almighty and transformative love of God (aka God’s grace). Love which calls us to imagine ways to help all God’s children cope, find healing and discover hope in a power greater than themselves that can help them grow into the mind and heart of Jesus.
John Wesley’s view of discipleship evolved from his own experience of God’s saving grace in his life. Wesley scholar, Darrell Stetler II, summarizes Wesley’s discipleship theology and process in this way: “Discipleship is the natural fruit of salvation, that begins with prevenient grace, creating through [by] faith spiritual life and love for God, that produces increasing holiness, through the means of grace, in the context of community, resulting in a recapturing of the full image of God.” We will unpack that summation and its succinct and powerful description of our costly discipleship as United Methodists.
John Wesley came to realize from his lived experience of God’s grace that one could not have salvation without costly discipleship. This puts Methodism in a unique place with regard to other Christian doctrines which teach that one can be “saved” without becoming a disciple. Wesley taught that the outcome of salvation was to become a disciple who has been transformed through grace to live a life of holiness. This holiness is not individual holiness but is always lived out as a robust accountability to and support of the whole Christian community and the mission of God. The result is that United Methodists do not believe in individual salvation – salvation and justice are always communal and thus require that we share our works and good news with the world around us.
Social holiness and justice discipleship work are costly because we can no longer hide within the walls of our church buildings or beg off our responsibility to God because we are too old or too busy or whatever other excuses we invent. We must get out into the larger community and be at work with God on the things that get in the way of all people’s ability to flourish. Our discipleship growth in love for God and neighbor then moves us from distracted indifference or paralysis into action with and on behalf of God. Our discipleship growth in love costs us because it causes our hearts to break at the suffering of God’s people and God’s creation. Out of our individual and collective grief we then connect with God’s vision which is always creating the kingdom – creating a world that is often in direct opposition to the one humankind has created.
God’s grace helps us to grow in love, which is how we rediscover the long-neglected image of God which is inside all of God’s children. We begin to confront the systemic injustices which hold us and other children of God in bondage. None of us as individuals are large or powerful enough to dismantle the whole of the corporate sin that surrounds us. However, our Methodist history shows us that living in community as disciples who are willing to love deeply and boldly enough to risk our comfort, respectability, social standing, friendships and other worldly entanglements can change things for the better. Costly discipleship means that we are willing to follow the example of John Wesley and submit ourselves to “becoming more vile” to worldly things in order to care for others and spread God’s kingdom.
Jesus sent the first disciples out into the world to proclaim that the kingdom had come near. He sent them out to “heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead and cast out demons”. This is the costly discipleship that we United Methodists as followers of the Christ, are to embody in our day. May God’s abiding grace and the power of the Holy Spirit make us into true disciples, no matter what the cost. Amen!