“21^st Century Discipleship:

Not a Spectator Sport”

(James 1:22-27 and Luke 10:25-37)

          You can study the rule books all you want.  Memorize all the great plays of all the great matches.  You can quote statistics out your ears, but if you want to be a decent soccer player, sooner or later you’re going to have to suit up and get in the game.  It’s also the only way you’re going to have any fun.

          The same principle applies to learning languages. I remember my high school French teacher insisting that we speak only French in her classroom.  Listening to her speak was helpful, to a point, but we couldn’t expect really to become fluent, if we didn’t practice for ourselves.  If we wanted to be able to use this skill to do interesting things and travel to interesting places, we needed to practice speaking the language ourselves.  A lot.

            And any of us who thought we knew exactly what was involved in marriage before we got married, or parenting before we became parents, or being a graduate student before our first semester - don’t get us started.  Observing from a safe distance is one thing; living it every moment of every day provides learning opportunities you never knew you’d have.

          Our Scripture texts for this morning remind us that much the same thing can be said about discipleship.  Because if you stay on the sidelines, observing what it would hypothetically mean for someone to follow Christ, you’ll miss so much of what the journey has to offer you. James says: don’t just listen to the Scriptures; do them. Jesus in the parable of the Good Samaritan says it’s not enough just to know the commandments; you’re called to act on them.  Sure, with the lawyer questioning Jesus, we could sit around and debate “who is my neighbor” all day long. But why not devote that same energy to being a neighbor to someone in need.  See this Samaritan?   See how he demonstrated love for the injured man?  Do that.

          These days you’ll find a lot of churches focusing on being “seeker sensitive.”  Things like music style, worship words, sanctuary architecture are all intentionally designed to welcome those with little or no church background.  The goal is to be less churchy, if you will, than the average church, so as not to put off anyone who’s a little nervous about the whole religious scene. 

          Part of this makes good sense to me. Certainly we want our facility, our order of worship, and so on to be user-friendly.  No need to put up any unnecessary barriers to newcomers feeling welcome.  The danger lies in confusing obstacles to hearing the gospel (like off-putting formality, or ‘theobabble’ in our language) with the obstacles the gospel itself presents.  It makes me really frustrated to read about churches taking down the cross (too much of a downer, it seems), and watering down the gospel itself till they’re basically spouting things anyone could pick up from watching Dr. Phil.

Certainly we want people to feel welcome to come on in and watch what’s happening around here.  Our hope is they’ll observe our community at worship, and find something they want to be part of.  So spectators are always welcome, to be sure!

But here’s the key - healthy churches know how to help folks move from simply being observers to really being disciples.  And discipleship is not a spectator sport. Disciples get in the game. Because we are asked to do so much more than sit and be entertained every Sunday morning.  We are asked to put our faith into action.

          Being “doers of the word and not hearers only” sounds beautiful and poetic…until we nudge one another to think about what it actually means for our schedules and our checkbooks.  We hear the story of the Good Samaritan and can think: “there’s a feel good story if there ever was one.”  As long as we think of ourselves as the Samaritan.  But what if some days we’re more like the religious folks that walked on by, as the poor man suffered in the ditch?  We too may have all our theological ducks in a row, may know all the right answers, but you’ll notice Jesus doesn’t end the story inviting us to go out and believe all the right concepts about neighborliness.[1]  He challenges us to go and do.  Don’t think warm, fuzzy thoughts about the Good Samaritan. Act like the Samaritan.

          “Seeker sensitivity” tends to emphasize Jesus’ role as our Savior (the ‘what’s in it for me?’ aspect, if you will) but in doing so, it neglects to emphasize Jesus as Lord.  If he is truly our Lord, then we owe him our allegiance and are called to live as he commands.  Discipleship, as we said last week, is our grateful response to God’s salvation.

          It can be hard.  Discipleship could also be, (if the near-pacifist in me can borrow an unlikely phrase), the toughest job you’ll ever love.

          Some of you may be familiar with a song by the Newsboys called “Shine.”  I confess the first time I heard it the chorus made me a little nervous, as it began:

Shine!

Make them wonder what you’ve got. 

Make them wish that they were not

on the outside looking…

What do you think they’re about to say?  What’s the next word?  I expected “on the outside looking in.”  So I cringed, thinking I was hearing a triumphalistic song about how much better off we are in the church than those poor souls outside who are going straight to hell: “Make them wish that they were not on the outside looking in,” right?

          Interestingly, though, that’s not what the song says.

          It actually says:

Make them wish that they were not

on the outside looking BORED.

          I love it!  “On the outside looking bored.” That’s it!  People ought to look at a disciple of Jesus, and think to themselves – “What is it about her life that’s got so much more life in it than mine?”  “I’m just living a regular old existence here; that guy’s living on the edge!”

          By all means, let’s show the world that whatever else the gospel of Jesus Christ may be, it’s not boring.  Challenging, sure.  A hard life, at times, definitely.  But boring?  No way.  True discipleship is life on the edge.

            Shane Claiborne, in his book “The Irresistible Revolution” (which many of you will begin reading later this week), once heard a teenager say he left the church because he was bored.

Bored? [he says] God forgive us for all those we have lost because we have made the gospel boring.  I am convinced that if we lose kids to the culture of drugs and materialism, of violence and war, it’s because we don’t dare them, not because we don’t entertain them.  It’s because we make the gospel too easy, not because we make it too difficult.  Kids want to do something heroic with their lives.  (p. 226)

So let’s offer them a whole lot more than pizza parties and game nights, is Claiborne’s point.  Let’s give them the gospel, straight up, and see what they do with it.

          One of the things I love about this congregation is that we make sure our kids aren’t sitting around bored at church.  Instead (speaking to kids), we put you all to work.  Or more accurately, you keep on offering to be put to work!  Not only worship leading and ushering and leading children’s times and hosting coffee hours for our own congregation, but doing the Word of God by reaching out beyond our church walls as well.   In fact, the 18-and-under crowd is running most of our Alternative Gift Fair booths today, if I’m not mistaken, raising money for Heifer International, and Noel House, selling homemade cookies and fair-trade coffee and gathering blankets for the homeless as ways to fulfill Jesus command to “Go and do” like the Good Samaritan. And you should hear how badly these kids are itching to head out on a mission trip!  (Am I right?) Just try to stop them from reaching out with God’s love to the world around them.  Just try to tell them they’re too young to make a difference.  You’ll be in for quite a fight.

I’m not naïve enough to think kids always enjoy sitting still throughout our worship services.  Sitting still is not a big thing for kids.  But I sure hope they’re catching the content of our sermons and songs and prayers.  Because simply by showing up to this sanctuary week after week, they should be challenged to do great, heroic, life-changing things as disciples of Jesus.

          Granted, not everyone is up for the challenge.  Not everyone wants their lifestyle and their priorities called into question.  Preaching the gospel straight up will scare some people away.

          But let’s stubbornly insist on being honest about what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.  Let’s go ahead and set the bar high. For our kids sake, as well as our own.  Let’s really practice being disciples.  And not just practice to practice, but because it makes being a Christian so much more fun.  To get in there and play the game, rather than sitting on the sidelines.

          Remember, the song “Shine” also says: “Make ‘em wonder what you’ve got.”  The best way, by far, to reach out to those outside the church is to show them there’s something here that they aren’t going to find anywhere else. Self-help manuals are a dime a dozen. Buildings without crosses – I can sit in one of those anytime at my local community center. Pizza parties and game nights – our kids get plenty of those. 

But a bunch of ordinary radicals, actually living as the gospel commands?  That’s something people don’t see everyday.

          So do the Word.  Be the Samaritan.  Shine as Christ’s disciple.

          Folks will want to know what’s gotten into you!