Receiving from Jesus - Being Led

On Sunday morning, Karen, our Discipleship ministry leaders shared the third in our series of sermons on receiving from Jesus

Discipleship - Receiving from Jesus - Being Led (Exodus 40: 34-38, Matthew 4:17-22)

Today we conclude our Receiving from Jesus trilogy by considering how we are led by him.

In Mar we considered how we are loved by Jesus. Looking at the parable of the two sons we asked:

·        are like one or both of the sons?

·        and are we are eating at the banquet?

The image shows our places are laid at the table, ready for us to join the feast.

In May we considered how God looks after us at the most fundamental level. The cross is God's "cure" for the self-centred, destructive "condition" of the human heart.  Like Nicodemus we need to realise our dependence on God and rely on him rather than our own wisdom and logic. The image contrasts the two ways of life on either side of the cross.

Today we consider how we are led by Jesus - a key concept for Christians and one that often comes to mind when we think of discipleship. What image should I choose for this third theme?

The Cloud

Last week talking about names, Richard explained that the New Testament doesn't use the term "Christians". Instead it identifies Jesus' followers as followers of "the Way". From the beginning our faith was seen as a journey - a way to follow.

Richard also talked about the origins of the "Congregational" way of being church. During Queen Mary's Roman Catholic reign, many protestants fled abroad. Some scholars translated a new bible from the original Hebrew and Greek texts - the Geneva Bible. This is the frontispiece of the 1560 version:

The Bible and Holy Scriptures Contained in the Old and New Testaments

Translated According to the Hebrew and Greek and conferred with the best translations in divers languages

With most profitable annotations upon all the hard places and other things in great importance as may appear in the Epistle of the Reader

The image shows the Israelites wait for God to part the Red Sea. Moses holds his staff aloft ready. The cloud of the God's presence is across the water waiting to lead them on. Our Old Testament reading (Exodus 40: 34-38) explained how the cloud of God's presence led the Israelites on their journey through the wilderness. When the cloud lifted from the tabernacle, they broke camp and moved on. If it stayed still, so did they.

The Geneva Bible was the popular choice of ordinary people until the end of the English Civil Wars. It included wood-cut pictures, summaries and annotations in the margins which helped people understand the bible for themselves. When King James commissioned his authorised version, he forbade annotations. The King and official Church believed it was their job to interpret Scripture on behalf of the nation. Our early Congregationalist forbears didn't agree. They saw themselves like the Israelites in the picture - led by  God and seeking his guidance together.

The Lake Side

In our New Testament reading (Matt 4: 17-22), Jesus walks along the shore of Lake Galilee and calls Peter, Andrew, James and John. The fishermen leave their boats and nets to follow him.  They have to make a decision. They chose to follow Jesus and life will never be the same again. In the GNB translation Jesus says, "Come with me and I will teach you to catch men." In the NRSV he says, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." The old Sunday School chorus has, "I will make you fishers of men if you follow me." These are familiar words to many who have been brought up in churches.

What will happen?

The four will join a new family business - one that deals with people rather than fish - the business of the Kingdom of God. Its work includes finding the lost, mending the broken, feeding the hungry, joining the separated. The fishermen will embark on a new "career".

How will it happen?

Jesus will make them into skilled practioners in his business. As fishermen, the four already knew how they gained the ability to fish.  James and John weren't born with ability to mend nets. They learnt their skills from their father Zebedee over many years. Jesus was a working man too - a carpenter. He must have earnt about wood, tools, techniques and business skills from his father Joseph.

Although not an expert in fishing training today, I know that engineers, brick-layers, plasterers, auditors, accountants, nurses, doctors, radiographers, chefs and many others have to train over many years. Men and women still have to learn how to be effective practitioners in their own particular field. I think these images from the Modern Apprenticeship web-site that can help us understand how Jesus makes us into discipleships - how he leads us.

Apprenticeships

In April I started a new six month IT contract where the rest of the team are in their twenties. On Thursday we went out for lunch to mark a milestone - two young men were moving to their next placement on the graduate scheme. They have to spend a series of 3 month placements in different parts of the organisation in order to get a good grounding in the business.

Back in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the early Congregationalists understood about apprenticeship. In those days young men typically served seven year apprenticeships followed by three years as a journeyman - ten years training before they could be Masters of their craft.

Apprenticeship schemes developed over the centuries and by the 1950s - when my Dad, his brothers and the contemporaries entered Portsmouth Dockyard - it was highly structured. Young men who left school at fourteen with no qualifications were able to pursue academic study in addition to learning on the job. Some went on to take HNCs and degrees.

I was sponsored as a student on an Electrical & Electronic University degree. Five of us spent three summers in Marconi Avionics in Rochester, Kent  on placements in the Production, Commercial and Engineers areas of a division making head up displays. I still remember much of what I learnt there.

So this is my favourite "Being Led" image. The Master has taken apprentices to a bench on the factory floor and is showing them how to assemble something. They concentrate on what he is showing them. Some try to do the same themselves. If they go wrong, the Master is there to help. There are many similarities with the way Jesus makes us into his skilled practitioners.

1. Learning from the Master

The gospels record many stories and direct teachings of Jesus. His disciples needed to listen and learn from him.

We need to be people who are prepared to learn. If we think the most important thing is for people to listen to us, we won't make good disciples. We need to read our bibles with teachable-minds, listen for the promptings of conscience and inspirational insights, listen and watch others around us and see what's happening in the world. We need to give prominence to those things which concur with what we know of our Master Jesus.

2. Developing new skills

In Matthew 10 Jesus sent out the twelve disciples saying, "As you go, proclaim the good news. "The kingdom of heaven has come near." Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, case out demons." He gave instructions about receiving payments and knowing how long to stay in one place. They needed to find out for themselves what that meant in practise - how to make the right decisions "on the job".

Similarly, we need to develop the skills we need and we have a Master who helps us along the way. As Jesus disciples, we never stop learning new skills or relying on Jesus to provide more.

Experiencing different "placements"

Just as apprentices experience different placements so Jesus led his disciples around Galilee, Judea and Samaria and crossed into Decapolis and they experienced different situations with him. They saw how Jesus interacted with lepers, prostitutes, Roman centurions and Pharisees. We will look at six of these placements in the autumn and share the first disciples' experiences as we consider Discipleship more.

The places where we spend our time each week - our homes, work places, communities, clubs, friendship groups etc - are our Kingdom of God placements - the situations our Master Jesus places us in for our own sakes and for the sakes of those around us.

Contributing to the Mission

Business expect apprentices to contribute to the business from day one. After sending out the twelve, Jesus sent out seventy-two followers in the same way. The seventy two returned full of joy because of the difference they'd made. They seemed surprised that they could achieve so much in Jesus' name.

In our placements we can make a difference too - salt & light, sometimes in the darkest places.

Growing more courageous

As apprentices experience new situations they build up resilience and grow more courageous, becoming braver to face further new things in the future. It is true of both professional life and Christian life. I can still remember the first time I plucked up courage to open my mouth in a group prayer meeting. It was terrifying. Jesus says, "Do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say is given you at the time,"  but it's hard to trust his words.

Two Questions

·         Do we want to follow the Master? - to learn from Jesus, develop new skills, work for him in our different placements, contribute to the Kingdom mission and grow in courage?

·         Or do we want to stay where we are?

Change is unsettling. It challenges us. It takes effort. It's easier to stay where we are. We will be considering Discipleship at the Church Meeting this Thursday. Please try to come. We will seek what Christ would have us do, in the same tradition as the early Congregationalists. There will be two further opportunities to discuss discipleship on 17 and 24 June too. All start at 7.30pm.

There's never room for complacency, but the more we lean on Jesus, the more we know he's there to sustain us through everything.

Even as Discipleship Ministry Leader, I don't know exactly where we're going next. I finished most of this sermon on Thursday night, after the team lunch. One of the graduates is a Christian called Paul. On Friday he bounded into the office and described how he attended a YMCA discussion with others from his church.  He'd been challenged by the stories he heard - so different from his own background - but loved the honesty of the group. Paul had experienced a new placement while I was writing this sermon. We can never be complacent. God continues to surprise us as we follow him.

We don't always know Jesus is leading us to, but we can have courage and confidence along the way because we know our Master loves and looks after us every step on the way.