Lenten Study Companion - Week 6

"And going a little further, he threw himself on the ground and prayed, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want'."

Matthew 26:39

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, and like the crowds greeting Jesus to Jerusalem, our worship is celebratory. Children in congregations throughout the country march through the aisles and halls of their churches waving palm branches. We sing hymns and songs of expectancy and anticipation, and many of us go ahead and plan out exactly what among our finest we will wear on Easter morning.

Yet, many of us jump far too quickly from the welcoming cheers of Jesus' arrival on Palm Sunday to the jubilant praise of Easter, marking Christ's resurrection and ascension. The resurrection doesn't occur without death, death without trial, and trial without betrayal. The great challenge for us as disciples of Jesus Christ is to not just carry our cross when there is reason to celebrate, but to cling to it and bear it even in the darkest of days.

This tension is on display in this week's text from Matthew. Jesus' first prayer is supplicant; asking that this impending time of suffering pass. It is an acknowledgement of fear and anxiousness, just as it is a plea for strength. The second prayer is confessional; that God's will be done despite the conditions of the flesh. Finally, Jesus' third prayer is one of affirmation and acceptance, that through Him, God's plan will be done.

The foundation of living out our call to be disciples of Jesus Christ is confession, not just as an admission of wrong-doing or transgression, but as an act of submission and profession of faith. We must be willing to live our lives according to God's will rather than our own. We journey knowing that we must confront the vitriol of the masses, the impartiality of power, and the brutality of the crucifixion. Brothers and sisters, this week, our journey of discipleship takes us through praise and adoration and the coming of the King, but it also takes us through the betrayal, suffering, and death of the one whom we love, the sacrificial Lamb of God.

This week, read and reflect on the passion narrative found in John 17-19:

• Think of the faces in the crowd when Jesus enters Jerusalem and imagine those same faces later shouting out to Pilate. What has changed within their hearts?
• What are the smells and sounds, the textures and colors of each scene in the narrative - the triumphal entry, the betrayal and arrest, the trial and beating, the condemnation and execution?
• As a disciple of Jesus, where are you in this narrative? What do you feel?

Yours, 

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship

What Does Church Membership Mean?

While visiting one of our Sunday school classes recently, I was asked, "What happens when someone joins the church?" I responded as I think many other churches would similarly reply. I said that our pastors do some personal follow-up and that the staff does what it can to make sure that our new members get connected to a Sunday school class or a volunteer position. The truth of the matter is that this has been our answer to this question for quite some time.

Small groups - from the smallest of Sunday school classes to the largest choir, UMM and UMW groups, free and fair trade coalitions, Emmaus reunion groups, etc - are wonderful places of fellowship and belonging, and have an essential place within the life of the church. Service opportunities are part of the fulfillment of God's call for us to love our neighbor, and if excluded from the life of the church, the church would cease to be the Church. Yet, as the primary connection points for new members, small groups and service opportunities have largely been unsuccessful. If not, then why do we keep seeing declining numbers in mainline protestant churches?

I found the question that I was posed interesting for an all together different reason because it raises a question about our own understanding of what it means to "join" a church. Many unchurched, de-churched, and even churched individuals, especially in the 18-35 year old demographic (thought not exclusively), find little reason to join the church in membership. By coming to worship, participating in service opportunities, and attending Sunday school classes or Bible studies, they consider themselves “joined” and active members in the life of the church.

What is any different about doing these things as a non-member than as a member? There is no impetus to join a church when their subsequent steps of action are no different than what they were before they joined. Instead, what would happen if we understood and followed through with membership as the covenantal relationship it was meant to be?

What would happen if church membership meant that someone was saying “Yes” to being discipled and that the church was saying “Yes” to discipling them? What if joining a church meant taking the first step into a process of intentional discipleship that combined the accountability found in small groups, the orientation of living out God’s call to mission in the world found in service opportunities, with the instruction in the foundational principles of our faith?

What would our church look like if every youth small group leader had been through this process, discerned their call to work in youth disciple-making, and had been trained for that purpose? What would our church look like if every member of the Faith + Finance Committee had been through this process, discerned their call to lead the church in practicing grace compelled generosity, and had been trained for that purpose? What would happen to Norman, this state, this world if this is what our church looked like?

We have been called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. I think that the time has come for us at McFarlin to find out what the answers are to these questions.

Yours,
Michael C. Andres
Director of Discipleship

Lenten Study Companion - Week 5

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life'?" 

Matthew 16:24-26

Many of us have probably used Google, MapQuest, or some other search tool on the internet or our smartphones for directions. We study over them, seeing exactly which turns we need to make, how many cross-streets we'll have to pass, and get an idea of how long it will take to get there. We start walking or driving thinking we have have a solid understanding of the path set before us only to discover, somewhere along the journey, that we're not entirely sure what we've gotten ourselves into and that we're a bit lost.

This scene in the Gospel of Matthew is not all that dissimilar. Jesus is not giving this group an invitation to become disciples. At this point, the disciples have been with Jesus for quite some time; they've long since begun their journey of discipleship. Instead, Jesus is explaining to the disciples what exactly it is that they've gotten themselves into. They, and we, cannot understand the fullness of the cost of discipleship, or the transformation which will begin to occur as a result of our discipleship, before we decide we want to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is join a counter-cultural movement which began long before we did, and will carry on long after we have departed. Our cultural ethos is not one of self-denial or self-sacrifice. Everything in our culture informs and directs our attention inward - to "look out for me and mine" or "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps."

The word which Jesus gave His disciples and in which we now share is that to be a disciple is not just about a singular decision based solely on reason and fullness of knowledge. The mere decision to become Christian - to being your discipleship - in and of itself goes against the grain of our society. With each thought, word, and deed, a disciple must submit to God's leading call rather than to their own or our culture's beckoning. This is by no means an easy path we have been called to take, but we are strengthened by the movement of God's grace, and affirmed in taking it together as one covenantal community of faith.

Practices of Preparation:

• PRAYERS - when you wake up, at midday, and before you go to bed, ask that God guide your thoughts
• PRESENCE - come to College Lunch after worship and spend time getting to know some of our students
• GIFTS - reflect on what informs your decision to give/withhold your time, talent, and resources - is your generosity guided by our culture or by God?
• SERVICE - pray for the leadership of our church in transition
• WITNESS - share with someone how you experienced God by practicing one of these four things listed above

Yours,

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship

Adult Confirmation - Session 8: Called with Purpose-The Journey of a Disciple

Sorry for the delay in getting this week's posting up... Better late than never!


Prayer of the Week:
Father God, Perfector of our faith, give us the grace to lay aside our differences. Take away our prejudices, our greed, our hatred, and whatever else hinders us from being united under the banner of Christ our Savior. There is one Body, one Spirit, and one Hope, and in it is in You we place our faith. Strengthen us as a covenant community, that our words, thoughts, and deeds would be steeped in Your divine love. Amen.

Opening Thoughts:
Each of us is different. We have unique upbringings, different family and job situations, and specialized talents and passions. We've been created and endowed with tremendous potential in fulfilling our call to be stewards of creation, love one another, and share the hope of our salvation. Our culture asks us to define ourselves by our uniqueness, to highlight and exemplify our differences, and for each of us to honor them alike. This in and of itself is not a bad thing. However, it can often lead to misplaced hope, devotion, and actions unbecoming to the Gospel to which we've been called.

Our charge as disciples of Jesus Christ is not to highlight our own creativities and skills in order that they be lauded and proclaimed for all to see. Rather, we are called to join together in one accord in order that the goodness and glory of God be proclaimed; that our neighbors, locally and globally, would look to us and see not the individual, but instead, the loving face of God. The focus for this week of study, discussion, and exercise is to explore what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, what it means to live in love, and how we exists as one body of faith.

Suggested Scripture Readings:

• Matthew 20:1-16 - "The Laborers in the Vineyard"
• Mark 12:28-34 - "The First Commandment"
• Luke 9:57-62 - "Would-Be Followers of Jesus"
• John 21:15-19 - "Jesus and Peter"
• 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 - "One Body with Many Members"
• 1 Timothy 4:6-16 - "A Good Minister of Jesus Christ"
• 1 Peter 1:13-25 - "A Call to Holy Living"

Reflection Questions:

• Is love a gift? What does it look like for us to love in the way that the passage in Mark describes?
• In the text from Luke, Jesus tells the would-be follower to "let the dead bury their own dead." How do you understand this verse?
• What "dead" things in your life might you need to leave behind in order to follow/keep following Jesus?
• There are many places in Paul's letters where we find encouragement and command that the church be united. To what extent do you see McFarlin as well as The Church universal practicing unity in the face of social and cultural diversity?
• What are some of the positive and negative connotations with "holiness?"

Yours,

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship

Lenten Study Companion - Week 4

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." 

John 14:15

Pretty simple, right? To love Jesus means we follow His commandments. After all, weren't the commandments things like not killing anyone, worshipping other gods, or committing adultery? If that’s what Jesus is talking about, we’re doing pretty well. Most of us probably haven’t killed anyone; even if we've had rough relations with our parents, deep down we still probably love them; and it’s probably safe to say that not many of us are melting down gold to make statues of cows worship so that we can worship them [see Exodus 32]. By that account, we must all love Jesus.

But that’s not all of it, is it? If we turn back a few pages in The Gospel of John, Jesus gives His disciples a new commandment. He says, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is the commandment to which Jesus refers when we says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” If we love Jesus, we will love one another as Jesus has loved us.

When we think of what it means to love as Jesus loved, our focus is drawn to Jesus and the adulterous woman at the well, the paralyzed man who had been stepped over for over thirty years, to the blind, the leprous, the poor, the dejected, the rejected, and to the disciples themselves. Jesus was in relationship with these people. To love as Jesus loved, we must look past what we see and share in the joys and sorrows of the people around us, regardless of who they are, where they’ve been, or where they might be going. If we do this, we’ll begin to discover that our own love of God has depth to it we never imagined and that we are transformed by it.

Reflection Questions:

• Where have you seen Jesus?
• How have you experienced Jesus' love?
• What would it mean for you to place yourself in a situation to love as Jesus loved?

Practices of Preparation:

• PRAYERS - ask God for the boldness and courage to love as Jesus loved
• PRESENCE - step outside of your comfort zone to have a conversation with someone about their day
• GIFTS - visit United Methodist Committee on Relief and see how the gifts of this church go to spreading the love of Jesus throughout the world.
• SERVICE - ask the person next to you in worship how you can pray for them
• WITNESS - share with someone how you experienced God by practicing one of these four things listed above

Yours,

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship

How Do We Talk About Hope?

Two of our sessions in Adult Confirmation focused on sin and hope. It is easy for us to talk about sin because of how rapidly our eyes and attention are drawn to the consequences of sin. In just one segment of broadcast news, we're likely to hear a report about police brutality, labor conflict, political oppression, etc. Because of how prevalent this bad fruit is, hope becomes more recognizable when we see and experience it. Communities and individuals forgo expenditures so they can send relief aid to Haiti, Japan, The Sudan, and countless other places where it is needed. Organizations form to care for the mentally disabled, the imprisoned, or those who struggle with addiction. These are fruits of hope.

How though, as disciples of Jesus Christ, do we talk about hope? How do we explain to someone who is un-churched, de-churched, over-churched, or just-the-right-amount-of-churched (whatever that means) that our hope is founded in something far deeper than mere charity or goodwill? If someone were to ask you what the difference was between your church and the United Way or UNICEF, what would your response be? The way that we communicate speaks just as much as what we try to say. 

In Session 6, "Salvation and the Solution of Hope," the table groups did an exercise from Romans 3:21-31 [an exercise borrowed from my friend and colleague Rev. Will Rice]. They were asked to paraphrase this selection of text without using the words: RIGHTEOUS, RIGHTEOUSNESS, RECONCILE, RECONCILIATION, JUSTIFY, JUSTIFIED, ATONE, ATONEMENT, GRACE or FAITH. Most of these words are used frequently in our churches; you might even say they are "church words." The point of the exercise was to help us talk about salvation - the source of our hope - with someone for whom "church words" aren't a part of their normal vocabulary.

Here is how some of the groups responded:

• Everyone has sinned and everyone is a sinner. Those sins have been forgiven through belief in Christ. Christ was a sacrifice presented for us from God whose blood cleansed us from these sins. God is a God for everyone, alike and different.
• We have all sinned. God has freed us from sin through the blood of Jesus Christ. All we have to do is accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. We are not bound by law. We do not earn this great gift by works. All we have to do is believe. This gift is open to all. Our belief is not an excuse to break the law, but a reason to uphold the law.

This was a tough exercise, and I am really proud of their work. For those of us who've been a part of congregations for a long time, we sometimes forget that much of the world doesn't speak using "church words." As much as this exercise helped us better understand our salvation, we need to be reminded that part of salvation in Christ Jesus means we share it with others. How can we share our hope if we aren't sure how to talk about it?

Yours,

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship

Adult Confirmation - Session 7: Sanctification and Our Wesleyan Heritage

A summary of Session 6 will be posted later this week, but here is the look ahead for next week's session:

Prayer of the Week:
Lord God in Heaven, You humbled Yourself upon the cross so that we might be exalted in heaven. Through Your Son we have been given new life, and through the movement of Your Holy Spirit, we experience Your perfecting grace. Give us the will to submit ourselves to You each day, that we might live our lives transformed and bear witness to our salvation. Amen.

Opening Thoughts:
The 18th century was arguably one of the most chaotic, transformative centuries in history. The European continent was ravaged by on-going wars. Empires in the Middle East and South Asia were rising and falling, and colonization of the Americas, Africa, and the South Pacific dominated the economic and political thinking of the time. This was a century of turmoil was spawned tremendous bursts of creative energy from musicians, thinkings, writers, and artists. It was an era of rapid change both in landscape and world-view, and the church was no exception.

In England, there was an Anglican priest who was led by God to preach The Gospel to the people who were being tossed and battered by this change. John Wesley began a movement within the Church of England that expanded throughout the country and across the sea that was centered on salvation by grace through faith. He created and implemented a systematic approach to discipleship - the process of growing in grace - so that as hundreds and thousands of people entered into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ; they could be formed into His disciples. The focus for this week of study, discussion and exercise is to explore our heritage as United Methodists, our call to intentional discipleship, and the movement of God's grace among us, so that we may better understand who it is God has called us to be in the world.

Suggested Scripture Readings:

• Exodus 34:29-35 - "The Shining Face of Moses"
• Joshua 5:1-9 - "The New Generation Circumcised"
• 1 Samuel 16:1-13 - "David Anointed as King"
• Matthew 10:5-15 - "The Mission of the Twelve"
• Romans 5:1-11 - "Results of Justification"
• Philippians 3:12-4:1 - "Pressing Toward the Goal"
• Hebrews 12:1-13 - "The Example of Jesus"

Reflection Questions:

• What does it mean to grow in faith?
• How do you know whether or not you are growing in faith?
• Read Ephesians 2. What does this tell us about God? About us? About our relationship?
• Read the "Wesleyan Core Term" attached to Ephesians 2. What is more difficult for you, loving God or loving your neighbor?
• Reflect on where you were in your faith at the beginning of Adult Confirmation. Does your faith look different now?

Yours,

Michael C. Andres

Director of Discipleship