Tag Archives: following

how long do you have to follow

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Perseverance. I watched that honored last night.

Not perfection, because there are likely stories about each of these people that illustrated the lack of perfection.

Not prominence, because most of these people were leaders of really small groups.

Nope, what was honored was perseverance. Having the belief that Jesus said, “follow me” and living a life that did just that.

I’m pretty sure that none of them said, “After forty years, after fifty years, I want to get one of those awards.” I’m guessing that they did their following very slowly, in bite-sized 24-hour chunks.

And as I think about their perseverance, I start thinking about what it will take for me to stand up there in forty years (when I’m 91).

I realize that it is about what am I committed to.

When I get up tomorrow morning and read this, what question am I committed to discovering the answer to?

What story am I wanting to refine so that it is as clear as I can possibly tell it?

Do I want to make the best possible cup of coffee I can make?

What child do I want to not get mad at today?

What do I want to make sure I remember?

What one phrase that Jesus said do I want to trace backwards to understand what he was referring to and trace forward to find out how it was explained?

What one thing that “always makes me mad” am I going to work out a plan to resolve or avoid?

I’m pretty sure that perseverance, in following Jesus as well as in anything else, is not a matter of a couple huge steps that solve everything. It’s a matter of intentional daily choices to follow in apparently small ways.

One step at a time. For a lifetime.

doing something that matters

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Purpose is what we are about. Purpose is supposed to be core, supposed to be the thing at the very heart of what we are. Purpose is what we are living for. Purpose is what we would die for.

Jesus starts talking about the rest of his life. He talks about how he will suffer and be killed and will rise again.

And then he says, “if you want to follow me, you’re going to have to die, too. “

Which makes sense.

Jesus is on a mission to save the world. It’s his single-minded focus. It’s the purpose that everything is for. And he’s giving up everything, absolutely everything for that. Dignity. Position. Power. Status. Reputation.

It’s no wonder that Peter told him to stop talking that way.

But, if you are going to save the world, really, what else matters? What else is of any value at all?

When Jesus tells the disciples that they have to deny themselves to follow him, the focus isn’t intended to be on the denial. Massive self-denial, without a purpose, is merely attention-grabbing. The focus is on following, on being part of something that matters beyond all mattering.

If you are going to change the world, of course you quit looking side-to-side, you keep your eyes on what matters. If you are going to change the world, you put down whatever is pointless weight. You pick up the tools that help you work. If  you are going to change the world, how you feel has to be considered as irrelevant. If you are going to change the world, you have to consider yourself as dead.

But if you are going to change the world, I mean really change the world, isn’t it worth anything?

I’m beginning to think that it is.

Jesus did.

a matter of clean hands

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“Why don’t they wash their hands?”

What?

“Your disciples, why don’t they wash their hands?”

Why do you steal from your parents?

“What?”

Why do you steal from your parent’s retirement funds when the rent is due? Why do you take food out of their mouths? Why do you gut their pension plans?

“What are you talking about, Jesus? We were just asking about the ceremonial handwashing thing. You’re making a federal case out of this.”

What you started, you are going to have to finish. You asked about Peter washing his hands. You asked why my disciples break the tradition of the elders. Though you don’t understand this completely, what you are saying is, “why do they obey God and disobey tradition?” So I ask you, “why do you disobey God and obey tradition?”

You know you are supposed to take care of your parents. It is their retirement plan.

But here’s what you do:

You pledge money in the temple fundraising campaign. You make a five- year pledge. You get to keep the money until it’s due, you get to use it to earn interest, but you say that you can’t give it to help your parents because, “It’s been committed to God.”

That is hypocrisy.

——–

When we are following Jesus, we have to make sure we are following Jesus and not what people have said that he meant when he said that.

When we are following Jesus, we have to be prepared for having our words weighed carefully by him.

When we are following Jesus, we have to consider the possibility that it is freeing.

When we are following Jesus, we may ask him questions.

When we are following Jesus, we may have to answer questions, too.

When we are following Jesus, we can wash our hands.

learning to say no

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“Every day, asking God for guidance, say no to something.”

There is a place for saying no. There are things that are good but not best. There are things that are not good at all. Learning to follow Jesus means learning to say no to both kinds of things.

It is hard to say no. And we make it harder by picking what we think that God wants us to say no too, and then making a big deal of telling other people what those things are. “We” have generated long – and different – ists of what people who follow Jesus shouldn’t do. It gets confusing.

In Titus 2:11-14, Paul helps with that discernment a bit. He says that the grace of God that brings salvation teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. There is a process of learning as we go. There is an image of being instructed by God about what is “not God.”

“When you do that, it’s not what I would do. When you demean other people, when you demean yourself, remember that I gave myself up for you. When you want take the glory for yourself rather than pointing to me, remember that you didn’t rescue you, I did. When you are ready to give up on someone ever understanding, remember that I don’t give up, not even on you. When you want to indulge yourself, let me show you how to not do that.”

There is an image in this passage of schooling, of teaching, of guiding, of relationship. We do have to say no. There are boundaries to acceptable behavior. But we learn in relationship, not in requirements.

So starting in the relationship, which we’ve described here and here, say no today.

“Every day, asking God for guidance, say no to something.”

a new week

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“Each morning, remind yourself that, for whatever reason, God loves you.”

That’s what I told a few hundred people on Sunday.

On Mother’s Day, I preached. I wanted to have some simple application from Titus 2. I wanted to walk out with a simple list of doable actions that reflect what Paul tells Titus about how to live. I wanted. Not just the congregations.

Because you and I hear a lot about how to live. We hear a lot about how to follow. We say a lot about how to live. We say a lot about how to follow.

But lots of us, on any given day, don’t do nearly as much to follow Jesus as we think we should, and we think we should.

Our problem starts with thinking that we have to prove something to God, that we have to measure up in some way. And that first statement allows us to remind ouselves each day that we don’t.

Dont’?

Don’t have to measure up to God’s love. Don’t have to earn it. Don’t have to win it. But have to accept it.

That’s the hard part, some days. Actually accepting that you are loved creates a sense of obligation, it seems. It creates a sense that there is some next step, something that will need to be done. It means that in some way, some control is being lost.

What if, however, we are losing control of a situation which we never really were managing that well anyway? I don’t run my life very well. I don’t have control of the options, of other people, of the crises that will appear this week.

This week, we’ll look at the five actions I suggested this morning, starting here:

“Each morning, remind yourself that, for whatever reason, God loves you.”