Friday, October 19, 2007
Quoting Bonhoeffer
Few things will get my attention faster than quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and that is precisely how Mark Daniels opened a sermon a few weeks back. Unsurprizingly, Mark's sermon is on discipleship, which he summarizes in this way: 
Mark's sermon makes it sound so easy. He makes only passing reference to Bonhoeffer's own martyrdom - talk about "flushing our lives of all that distracts us from following Christ," and yet, that is precisely the level of committment discipleship to Christ demands of us.
I remain troubled by what we as the church call people to. We call people to a good life, in fact the best life, but it is not a life of ease, or even necessarily pleasure. My heart hurts for all the disillusioned souls there are in the world, people that signed up for one thing, got there and found that it was something entirely different.
Mark makes a call to true and abiding discipleship here, I do not deny that, but I wonder if in glossing over the true cost of that discipleship (that Bonhoeffer guy...) we do not actually create an impediment to some accomplishing that discipleship.
The greatest obstacle, one with which I still struggle, in my discipleship journey has been overcoming the disappointment in finding so little of the real deal out there. So few people willing to drop their nets and follow Christ, or even to ask me to do so.
We call people to sacrifice. The other side of that sacrifice is glory beyond comprehension, but we are not permitted a glimpse of that glory until the sacrifice is made, so it is the sacrifice to which we issue the call. When we try to hint at the glory, it is too easy for people, ourselves included, to believe that there are shortcuts. Besides, part of the glory is that it is received, not grabbed for.
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Discipleship is “using” our faith in Jesus Christ in the best sense of that verb. It entails:Mark is right on in saying that these five things are what it takes to do discipleship. Because of my admiration for Mark's work, I am loathe to add a "yes, but...," so how about a "yes, however...."
- surrendering to Christ;
- practicing our faith in Christ;
- flushing our lives of all that distracts us from following Christ;
- spending time with Christ; and
- sharing our faith in Christ with others.
Mark's sermon makes it sound so easy. He makes only passing reference to Bonhoeffer's own martyrdom - talk about "flushing our lives of all that distracts us from following Christ," and yet, that is precisely the level of committment discipleship to Christ demands of us.
I remain troubled by what we as the church call people to. We call people to a good life, in fact the best life, but it is not a life of ease, or even necessarily pleasure. My heart hurts for all the disillusioned souls there are in the world, people that signed up for one thing, got there and found that it was something entirely different.
Mark makes a call to true and abiding discipleship here, I do not deny that, but I wonder if in glossing over the true cost of that discipleship (that Bonhoeffer guy...) we do not actually create an impediment to some accomplishing that discipleship.
The greatest obstacle, one with which I still struggle, in my discipleship journey has been overcoming the disappointment in finding so little of the real deal out there. So few people willing to drop their nets and follow Christ, or even to ask me to do so.
We call people to sacrifice. The other side of that sacrifice is glory beyond comprehension, but we are not permitted a glimpse of that glory until the sacrifice is made, so it is the sacrifice to which we issue the call. When we try to hint at the glory, it is too easy for people, ourselves included, to believe that there are shortcuts. Besides, part of the glory is that it is received, not grabbed for.
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