What does a follower of Jesus really look like? - August 7

This past Sunday we began a journey of discovery to answer the question "What does a follower of Jesus really look like?".  Back in the earliest days of Common Table we centered ourselves on Jesus call in Matthew 28 to "go and make disciples".  He didn't call us to make Christians or church goers or nice people.  He didn't call us to humanitarianism or socialism or any other -ism in particular.  He called us to make disciples ... otherwise known in our terminology as followers.  Now Webster defines a disciple as literally "someone who accepts and helps to spread the teachings of an individual" ... in our case that person is Jesus.  Notice that this implies not just an acceptance of Jesus, most do not struggle there.  The overlooked implication is that a true follower helps "spread the teachings of that individual (Jesus).  This is admittedly where the majority of us fall short.  
It is my belief that we struggle with what a follower looks like (and does) because we are intimidated by the word "disciple".  It seems to be one of those deep, complex, never able to attain, bible concepts reserved for the saints of old.  So we are going to spend some time over the next several weeks taking a look at just what those first "disciples" really looked like ... at what it really looked like to "walk in the dust of the Rabbi" as the ancient Hebrews referred to the process of becoming a disciple (follower).
This past Sunday all began with an examination of the early calling of Simon (Peter), James and John into a life of following.  You can read about it in Luke 5:1-11.
Here are some things we discovered there:
 

Characteristics of a "Jesus follower"

1. (vs 2) Regular people leading regular lives (fishermen, tax collectors, activists, ___________, __________, _________)
2. (vs 5) Regular people leading regular lives with regular doubts
3. (vs 5) Regular people leading regular lives with regular doubts making irregular choices

4. (vs 8) Regular people leading regular lives with regular doubts making irregular choices having an irregular awareness of their need
5. (vs 11) Regular people leading regular lives with regular doubts making irregular choices having an irregular awareness of their need while pursuing an irregular path

Questions ... week 2

This week we dug deep into the parable of the "good Samaritan" where Jesus asked "Which of these three was a neighbor to the man ... ?"  We didn't spend a great deal of time on the answer because it was and still is very apparent who the neighbor was.  What caught our attention was something else ... something that brought up our own question.  Would the story have been the same if Jesus had ended it where the Samaritan took the beaten man to the inn and cared for him?  In the next verse Jesus describes the Samaritan as having gone above and beyond and engaging another, the innkeeper to assist in his care.  The answer to our question again seemed to be simple ... would the story have been the same, would it have made any difference had Jesus ended it prior to this?  Of course it wouldn't.  Jesus was not known for wasting words.  In preachers language he knew how to land the sermon.  This means that verse 35 ... the going above and beyond verse, the including another in the care and well being of the beaten man verse ... this verse needs to mean something to us.  Just maybe its another instance of us not taking this journey alone.  The importance of community and the power of "the other" when it comes to displaying love and serving those on the margins could be on display here as well.  Maybe its just a matter of an overlap of last weeks question which demonstrated the completeness of Jesus healing.  Maybe we need to realize that its one thing to bring comfort in suffering, but let's not stop there when we could be involved completely in the whole healing process.

Questions Jesus asked ... and still does

A question can be a double edged sword.  On one side, the mere asking of a question implies that you don't know something.  It could be a sign of weakness.  Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't know the answer to this.  In a competitive culture this could put you at a disadvantage.  You could be the weakest link.  On the other hand, a question could be a sign of humility, of teachability, a moment of "I'd really like to better myself, can you help me?".  In a completely different sense, a well framed question coming from a teacher can draw tremendous insight.  Jesus used this form of teaching masterfully countless times.  So effective were they that they continue to resonate in our lives if we choose to be participants and not spectators in our study of scripture.  This past Sunday evening we began a new journey in the gospels wrestling with some of the questions that Jesus asked.  We entered into the story of a blind man named Bartimaeus .  Upon engaging him on the edge of the city, Jesus asked him a very simple and yet deeply profound question ... "What is it that you want me to do for you?"  Bartimaeus replied that he wanted his sight.  Well of course he did ... it seems fairly obvious, and yet you might miss this if you're not careful.  This was a blind man who spent his life alongside the road calling out for people to help him.  The help he was anticipating, most likely, would come in the form of food scraps or the ancient version of loose change which could be used to by food scraps.  I'm guessing that not once did he ever expect his sight from a passerby ... yet he did with Jesus.  Think about it for a moment ... his most pressing need was presented to the only one who could take care of it.  He wasn't about to waste this moment on something as momentary as food scraps or loose change.  Those he could get from anyone on any given day... but on this day Jesus asked him "What is it that you want me to do for you?"  The truth of the matter is this;  Jesus asks us the same exact question.  How many of us have wasted the offer on something that could be covered on any other day by any other source?  We waste it by answering the exact same deep and probing question with superficial things like "niceness", "success", "security".  Sometimes we even spiritualize our answers with promises that "if only I had ... then I could ... for the kingdom."  "When I reach a certain level of security, success, living conditions, location, free time ... then I can really get serious about following you."  Most of us, myself included, suffer from any one of a number of forms of blindness ... spiritual blindness.  So I ask myself as I call out to him, when he asks "What is it that you want me to do for you?" ... what's my answer going to be?

A home and a light

This past Sunday evening we enjoyed our first time together in what we have determined to be our new gathering space.  On Sunday evenings and select other opportunities Common Table will call the Cascade "Peoples Center" home.  Sunday we were welcomed by Josh, the manager of the People's Center, with open arms and lots of Theo chocolate.  He was moved by the evening worship time and he shared afterwards that we were just what they were needing there to bring light and life to the center and the neighborhood.  That statement has had me thinking these past few days.  I can't underestimate how important these easily overlooked words actually are to our time at the center.  These words, although meant as sincere eagerness to have us there, hold a profound and deeper challenge for us.  Our task is indeed to bring light and life to wherever we find ourselves.  This is true of us individually, but can be so much more powerful as a community seeking to more faithfully live and love like Jesus.  So here is the challenge ... How will we in fact be light and life here?  I need us, all of us, each one who passes through the doors on a Sunday evening, to be diligently asking that question.  This is not a consumer community because ours is not a consumer faith.  So lets not fall into the trap of "using" the People's Center.  May we instead ask how God may use us within and around the space we've been given, for as long as we've been given it.  Our time there may be short as we continue to seek a permanent home, lets make the most of it.  As you walk past the park, as you drive into the neighborhood, as you come up the gravel path ... don't merely focus on the gathering at hand.  Look beyond, ask for insight, listen to the whisper, and be ready to share with us and challenge us with what God is setting before us.  Life can certainly take place inside the building within the context of our gatherings, but light is going to be a bigger challenge.  We are dead center in the middle of the city.  What greater place to bring light to than that?

Embracing the journey

In Genesis we can discover an interchange between God and Abraham where God indicates his desire for Abraham to pick up everything and move to "a land that I will show you".  I've come to discover that this is Gods way of simply getting us to put one foot in front of another and begin to move.  Now I'm a "map" person.  By that I mean I have this odd habit, gift, skill, peculiarity ... however you might like to term it ... of reading maps, visualizing the journey, and then, having been given a very reliable internal compass, setting out on the journey, rarely to look at the map again.  Nine times out of ten I can make it to the destination.  The other one I'll attribute to the male inability to ask for directions.  All this to say, I'd like to know ahead of time what I'm getting in to and where I'm headed before I set out.  So God and I continue to struggle for control in this ... or should I say that I continue to struggle.  I'm fairly certain that God is content that he has me pretty much where he wants me.  To keep myself from going completely crazy over the years I will settle for just making myself available ... simply saying "yes" to Him when he says crazy unsettling things like go "to a land I will show you".  Once again I find myself simply trying to continue to move towards the place that I am confident He will show us as our "best" place to gather on Sunday evenings to share dinner, stories, scripture, community, hope, prayers, and the Jesus who draws us all together around a common table.  As we began to pray about where this might be, my "assumption" (why I assumed I have no idea) was that we would find the new place before leaving the old place.  What was I thinking?  We prayed specifically two weeks ago for timing and the next morning I learned that we had just enjoyed our last time together in the old space.  "Go (move) to a land (space) I will show you"  The operative idea for this, I am reminded again, is to "go".  We need to move for Him to show us where.  As much as I can tend to be impatient, to charge ahead ... I am pretty sure that this particular journey is better accomplished at a walking pace, along with space to stop, listen, and discover.  So this week continues the journey and the beauty of it is that we get to experience this journey together in community ... just as we should our spiritual journeys.  Walk with us won't you.

a church for everyone ... or maybe not

This past Sunday, as a group of us sat around the table finishing the last of a wonderful meal, I asked the question "What do we value as a church community?" I was amazed and humbled to hear what their perception is of what we, as a faith community centered on Christ, valued.  You would have thought that they had intimate knowledge of our earliest documents and discussions. The reality though is that the group I was asking are all relatively new to this journey with us.  All of them joined us during the Common Table 2.0 phase ... having gone public and gathering together as a church these past 12 months.  None of them were here during our phase of wrestling with terms like mission, values, purpose.  Now as a good leader, it could be argued that I should have been hammering these as the new people joined us.  It should have been on cards, banners, signs, video screens.  I should have highlighted each message with just exactly where these all fit within our scripture teaching.  Having self evaluated and looking back over these months, I can honestly say that I did not do these things.  Oh sure they are on the website, but those of us pursuing the pastoral arts would tell you, in a moment of painful honesty, that these sites are not very frequently visited by our members.  Leadership experts would say that I failed in this most crucial aspect of vision casting. I have done that drill though in other ministries.  I have cast those visions and led those efforts to ingrain mission and value into a group who sat politely nodding their heads, only to have those who never heard it also never see it.  I would tell you that I'd much rather have the response that I received the other night ... because they knew it, not because it was well positioned and produced.  They knew it because it is what their experience has been with us.
It has gotten me to thinking though ... a key value of ours being that everyone is welcome around our table ... that we are a church for anyone and everyone ... but not really.  "Church" is still colored by so many different markers that ours would be, and is, too big a stretch for many people.  What I mean is that it is too big a stretch for "church" people.  Our intimacy in community is intimidating.  "Church" should be sitting back and watching.  It should be produced, or at least neat and definitely predictable.  Food is fine, but lets schedule it around potlucks after church that we are free to stay for or not.  Scripture is for teaching us how to be better Christians ... it resolves, it answers questions.  It might challenge, but not anger.  For all of our intent and desire, the worship environment is not participatory.  Discipleship is for the overachiever types and workshops...perhaps a small group subject. 
We are a different place.  Our values are things like community, love, prayer, connection, serving the least, walking through tough stuff ... things of discipleship. I don't know this because of our taglines.   I know this because that's what our group said has been their experience.  It's not perfect.  It's often messy and certainly not well produced.  We are wide open, and our table always has space... but be warned;  this is a church for everyone, and then again maybe not.

Personal ... And not so much

All of us, at one time or another, could probably be found guilty of being attached to something just a little too much.  You know the kind of attachment that I mean ... The kind that becomes annoying to most everyone else around you who doesn't share your passion.  The kind of obsession that makes it hard for others to relate to and, honestly, makes it difficult for you to relate to their obvious cluelessness.  I mean really, who couldn't appreciate being part of a competitive duck herding association?  It seems as if there are associations for those rabidly passionate about just about anything ... From extreme ironing to sailing, from beetle fighting to model airplanes.  If you are passionate about it, chances are that you can find a group that is too.  Somewhere in the collective goals of practically any group who are passionate about something is the desire to see the group grow, unless of course your group is the "passionate about introversion" association. The reality is that individuals of certain affinities will form groups, while it is the power, influence and critical mass of groups that create movements....and don't we all want our passions to become movements? Consequently we want those not yet sold out to our passion to get a clue and get on board.  When they don't, it can leave us discouraged, and worse yet, disillusioned.  Questions form ... What's wrong with me that I'm the only one who sees the importance of this?  What's your problem? What's his problem?  What's their problem?  What's our problem?
Today, if I were honest, I'd have to say that I'm just about there with my passion.  My passion, it seems, is the church.  The living, breathing, organic, socially challenging, relationally taxing, beautiful mess known as the local church.  I've given my life to this "group".  I can't really explain why anymore than someone who collects stamps can explain the why of their obsession, even though it makes perfect sense in their minds.  My group certainly has its flaws and its detractors.  So does NASCAR.  The difference is that I believe in the depths of my soul that my group ... the local church ...truly is the hope of the world.  I don't think that even the most deranged Seahawks fan really thinks, in their heart of hearts, that salvation comes through the Legion of Boom.  It's not only my personal church, little "c", but also the bigger Church that consumes me.  For 2000 years this flawed and faulted institution has survived and in many places flourished.  It's immortal origins and mission have carried it beyond mortal and moral shortcomings.  People, especially in other lands, still continue to struggle for it and sacrifice even life itself to belong to it.  Collectively, it is Gods instrument to carry out the eternal mission to convey His grace, love and offer of redemption.  It is still, and always has been, the hope of the world.
The problem is that I live in a land where countless people, including followers of Jesus, founder of my group, feel that they individually are the hope of the world.  There is no need to be in a group who believe as they do.  For those of you outside of this corner of the country, what you need to know is that, while we are now known as the land of the religiously unaffiliated... the "nones", we are not a land devoid of people claiming to "follow" Jesus.  There are plenty of those here.  They just choose to do it individually.  It's a sort of Jesus based anarchy.  Everyone gets do follow in their own individual way.  The thing is, individuals do not create a movement.   Groups do, formed by individuals, critical mass and momentum.  If my unaffiliated Jesus loving friends could take a page from the legalizing marijuana playbook, there would be no stopping us.
I still have faith that one day this will change ... that people would realize that we are not as strong as we think we are ... that people in the group would be passionate enough to care about those not yet in the group and that they would long, as I do, for others to get as excited about gathering to worship and encourage and to serve as we do about a home game.