Called to A living Discipleship: Ephesians 4:20-32 & Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon preached by the Revd Phill Ball at St Martin's Church Walsall on Sunday 11 March 2012.  The video clips are taken from session 7 of the 'Moving On Course' by Robin Gamble and David Banbury.  For further details about this excellent seven week discipleship course go to http://movingoncourse.org.uk/

'He's the salt of the earth.' We say that about somebody who's loving and kind, in a quiet and modest way. 'He may never be great and famous, but he does so much good he's the salt of the earth.'


The poet Shelley described one of his friends as one of those happy souls


Which are the salt of the earth, and without whom this world would smell like what it is - a tomb.
Salt's what makes food interesting, and before modern day refrigeration the only thing that preserves it from going rotten.


Jesus meant something like this when he told us, his followers, that we must be the salt of the earth, as we live our lives of discipleship.


Please note, Not we should be, or should try to be, but we are the salt of the earth! .
We as followers of Christ are called to share our life, to give taste to life, and to save others from losing their saltiness and remaining spirituality rotten.


Lets hear what some new Christians think about who or what is important in their lives.





Does that ring any bells?


Jesus also said we're to be the light of the world, with a goodness shining out of us that will show others the way to live their lives, even without any words being spoken.


People never light a candle and put it under a bowl. That defeats the whole purpose of the light and it would go out.


It would seem ridiculous; especially to people whose only source of light at night was a candle or small lamp. Why light a candle if you are only going to put it out? In the same way, why become a Christian if you only want to be personally “saved” and do not intend on being a light to the world or to make it more palatable for others?


What good does it do to become a Christian if you are going to be like everybody else?
The answer is: Your life would become tasteless and dark, and useless to God’s kingdom.
But if you see your responsibility and privilege to “to live a life that becomes the Gospel,” then your life has meaning and purpose. There is huge value in becoming a Christian, if we live that life and daily strive to be a disciple of Jesus.


The danger in the 21st century Christian discipleship is that it has become so personal. For many it is “all about me and Jesus.”  I “get saved”, I get my ticket to heaven, and then I just sit back and wait till Jesus comes.  I want God’s blessings so my personal life will “work” or be better in some way. I want God to fix my marriage, my finances, my children, my health or I want God to give me protection, but I’m not sure I want to have the responsibility of living for God , and making a difference in the world, in being its Salt and its light! But what good does it do if you are going to have your life lit with the light of God if you are not going to let that light shine into the world’s darkness?


If your life was meant to be like salt in a tasteless world; and you lose your flavour, what good does it do?  If you believe certain things, or become a Christian just so you can feel more comfortable, or Saints forbid, so that you can feel superior to other people, it amounts to nothing.
You are living in darkness and you have lost your saltiness. We are called as Disciples of Christ, to strive to be more like Christ, who was the salt and light in this dark world.


We are called in our daily lives to share his salt and light, with our families, friends, all we meet, even with those who do not share our beliefs, at home ,work, school ,church, on the bus, at the shops; just let Christ’s light shine from us, in our daily lives working for what’s important to Jesus, the Kingdom of God. Jesus is concerned about what our chief concerns in life are.  And he says that our chief concern should be whether we are really salt and light in a dark and flavourless world.


Are we actually seeking the Kingdom?


If we really are seeking Kingdom of God, all the rest will take care of itself. Jesus is again telling us not to live for the kingdom of this world, but for the kingdom of God. As C. S. Lewis said, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you will get neither.”


In Romania, 20 years ago , when the country was still in the grip of a communist tyranny. Laszlo Tokes, was the pastor of a church in the Romanian city of Timisoara. He had caught the attention of communist officials, and they began a strategy of suppression. They stationed police officers around his church, machine guns cradled in their arms & They hired thugs to attack him.
Finally, just before Christmas, they decided to send him into exile. But when the police arrived to hustle Pastor Tokes away, they were stopped for around the church stood a wall of Christians.
Christians from around the city- Baptist, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic and others- had joined together to protest. All through the day they held their post. As it grew dark, a young Christian student pulled out a packet of candles, lit one, and passed it to his neighbour. Then he lit another. One by one the burning candles were passed out among the crowd. Soon the darkness of the December night was pierced by the light of hundreds of candles. When Pastor Tokes looked out his window, he saw a sea of faces lit up by a warm glow. He would never erase from his mind the picture of believers from all denominations joining hands in his defence. Two days later, the police finally broke through the crowd and dragged Pastor Tokes away. But that was not the end. The people now streamed to the city square and began a full-scale demonstration against the communist government, that was a catalyst for the beginning of the end for the communist terror of the Ceaușescu regime, all brought about by united faith, and Christian disciples being light in the darkness of this world.


If like me you don’t achieve all you should every day as you stumble after the example of Christ, be thankful that we receive new Grace every day, on our journey of living faith and living Christian discipleship, then remember this: Christians aren’t perfect, just forgiven .So daily pray, confess, be forgiven, then live each new day as a disciple of Christ.


Lets look for a challenge for us all in all our Christian lives as Disciples of Christ; as Robin talks about Saltaire and Titus Salt.





Finally, Brothers and Sisters, as disciples of Christ, living his life; remember; we are the salt of the earth, and the light of the world, lets us share what Jesus has given us, in this flavourless and dark world. Amen.

Discipleship L Plates

For this sermon I am hugely indebted to Robin Gamble and the excellent 'Moving On Course' - which forms the basis of this sermon.  The video clips featured here are from the 'Moving On Course'.  Further details about this course can be found at http://movingoncourse.org.uk/

Discipleship.  I wonder what your immediate reaction is to that word?  Do you know what a disciple is?  Do you consider yourself a disciple? 

I imagine amongst us here today, there will be very different reactions to that word.  We’re going to start by listening to a number of people who’ve recently become Christians, talking about what being a disciple of Jesus means to them.

It is interesting to see what a different range of responses there are to discipleship, it is possible that you identify with some of the things that the people said there on that clip, I know I do!

So what is a disciple?  A disciple is someone who wants to spend as much time as possible with his master, to learn from them, to be a committed follower, to become like them. 

This is God’s desire for us, Paul writes that God wants us to be "conformed to the image of His Son" (Romans 8:29). So to be a disciple of Jesus is to want to become like Jesus – not in the sense of growing long hair and a beard, and wearing sandals, but being in the moral likeness of Jesus.  To have the fruit of the Holy Spirit growing in our lives, so that we are full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), just like Jesus.  And to do the sort of things that Jesus did, caring for the poor, healing the sick, sharing God’s love in words and actions.

Jesus had a very striking expression, he said he wanted people to follow him, to walk in his footsteps, even to be willing to carry their cross, that is to say, to be willing to make sacrifices, do difficult things, push out of their comfort zones.  Jesus was willing to carry his cross for us, and he wants us to do something similar for him.  That is why he said to his followers, go into the world and make disciples of all nations.  Not, go into the world and make church attendees.   You see Jesus doesn’t want one day a week church attendees, he wants committed seven day a week followers.  The question we need to ask ourselves is which one are we?  Are we occasional attendees, or committed followers? 

One of my hobbies is photography.  As with discipleship, photography is all about learning, growing and developing.  I like to think that when it comes to photography I have a pretty good eye, and know what makes for a good photo.  But I’m never going to be as good a photographer, as say Steve McCurry, who took the hauntingly beautiful picture of an Afghan Girl, but I can become a pretty good Simon Bickersteth.

 

Photography is a bit like discipleship, people often say, I’m not as good as others at praying, or reading my Bible, or sharing my faith and caring for people.  But as with photography, we learn, we develop, we get better at it gradually.  We get better at it by listening to other people, by reading books, and crucially we get better at it by doing it. 

 

The more I pray the bit better I get at praying.  The more I try to share the gospel, the better I become at it.

 

The fact is that when it comes to Christian discipleship, we all wear L plates.  It doesn’t matter if you’ve been a Christian for a few days or all your life, we never lose our L plates, because none of us our perfect.  Instead we should be learning and getting better at it as we go along.

 

It was Albert Einstein who said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new.”  We learn from our mistakes.  This is certainly true for Jesus’ twelve disciples.  You could not have picked a more unlikely or less promising bunch of people, fishermen, a sprinkling of zealots, a tax collector, a collaborator with the Romans, none of them outstanding for their abilities or achievements.  You have probably all come across the management consultant story where they evaluate Jesus’ workforce and advise him to sack the lot – except for one who shows remarkable promise and a good business head, Judas Iscariot.  Jesus’ disciples were forever making mistakes, like Peter, who one minute was being congratulated by Jesus for what he had said, and the next minute he is being rebuked with the words "Get behind me Satan!”  But crucially Peter, and the other disciples learned from their mistakes. 

 

So being a committed disciple of Jesus is not about getting everything right, because we will mistakes, but it is about learning from our mistakes and by picking ourselves up and pressing on with God when we get things wrong.  Being a disciple is also about being prepared to take risks, like Peter when he stepped out of the safety of the boat, and on a dark and stormy night started to walk over the water to Jesus. 

Fortunately the journey of discipleship is not made alone, God gives us the Holy Spirit and the Church to help us along the way, and we will think more about this as we explore discipleship over the coming months. 

I want to finish by showing another short video clip, this time of Vicki’s story.

Vicki faced a real choice, to go for it and be an active disciple.  It’s a choice we all face, what about you?