The Shepherd’s Voice

From Membership to Discipleship to Mission

Readings for Sunday, August 15^th
Jer 23:23-29
Psalm 82
Heb 11:29-12:2
Lk 12:49-56

From Membership to Discipleship to Mission from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church on Vimeo.
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Stretching south for hundreds of miles from Glacier National Park in northern Montana we see massive valleys, mighty streams, and majestic mountains. The area is called the Bob Marshall Wilderness and is a favorite of backpackers, hikers, as well as some elk, a few grizzlies and some golden eagles. Fortunately, the grizzlies stay up in the high country, but you can see the golden eagles soaring, and you may see a spotted and elusive wolverine from time to time.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness hosts some 90,000 packers and hikers each year, most of them in the months of July and August. They must come in either by foot or horseback. No motorized vehicles are allowed. The forests on those rugged mountain slopes are thick with Lodgepole Pine, a tough, hardy tree with cones so thick that only extreme heat can burst forth the seeds.

For thousands — perhaps millions of years — lightning has cracked in the big sky out there down to the forests below. (Often the lightning will hit the Douglas Firs, less rugged than the Lodgepole Pines, and a forest fire will begin.) For years, of course, the United States Forest Service fought furiously to put out these fires. More recently, they have adopted a policy of managed fires. They have learned these fires have a purpose. Without them the seeds of the Lodgepole Pines are never released. The earth needs a fire cast on it or it will die.

Jesus, speaking to Peter, that blustery, Lodgepole Pine kind of a man, said, “Peter, I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” What did Jesus mean?

Jesus knew that Peter, like all of his disciples, was a wilderness that needed fire or he would die. Peter needed the fire of God’s Word to keep his heart from freezing over and to keep the passion of his soul from cooling down.

Today we are going to talk about maintenance then move to membership and then to mission.

We all know about maintenance. This past week a lift was brought in to fix one of the overhead lights in the sanctuary. Now at least all the lights will come on, however they are not fully repaired and will require more work. This church, the facilities have a lot of maintenance requirements.

Jesus, in this 12th chapter of Luke has been dealing with lots of maintenance issues in the life of a Christian. Last Sunday we talked about laying up treasures in heaven, about planning ahead, about maintaining the right focus as a Christian. The prior Sunday we talked about prayer, staying connected to God and how we should pray. The Sunday before that we spoke about the Good Samaritan, loving our neighbor and giving aid to the lost and dying.

These are all important things, there what we do after we say, ‘I believe.’ Jesus wanted his followers to maintain their sense of identity, their sense of commitment to God, but now Jesus is saying there’s more to being a Christian than worrying about the carpeting, changing the light bulbs, or watering the lawn.

Those are good things, but Jesus said, “I (have come) came to bring fire to the earth.”

Rev Michael W. Foss, in his book Power Surge, says the membership model of the American Protestant church came from an adaptation of the village church system as it was know in western Europe before the 20th century. The pastor served to provide spiritual direction for important life passages such as, birth, confirmation, marriage, critical illness, and death. This model has been pretty consistent even through the 1950’s and 60’s.

Congregations provided social and spiritual connectedness and church was a place to meet others with whom we had something in common, often our immigrant heritage. A number of years ago I was talking with a pastor about evangelism and outreach and I asked him about his efforts in this area. He said to me, “Oh, we are a church of Scandinavian and German transplants from the Midwest. We’re happy with that model; it seems to work for us.”

Perhaps that model used to work, however, the changing cultural context and emphasis we see on a secular world which we see today have forced a displacement of Christianity from the center of the individual and community life to the periphery and in turn this has caused a mutation in the membership model.

When I grew up our country church was the focal point for everything we did. Everyone in our community was a member of that local church. This model does not exist today, especially in urban environments where secularism reigns.

According to Rev Foss “The greatest weakness of the membership model has been the loss, over time, of its vision for mission of the church.” So not only has the church lost its status as the focal point of the community it has lost its understanding of what it means to be church, the community of faith, the center for our spiritual life.

Bill Easum, Lutheran Pastor and noted sociologist and lecturer has said, “Most mainline and established churches are dying because they only try to take care of their members. Three out of four will close over the next 25-30 years ….. Most mainline churches are already irrelevant to the needs of postmodern people.”

It is no wonder we see statistics such as this from major surveys that have been done:

• 91 percent of all households in the US own at least one Bible
• 80 percent of adults name the Bible as the most influential book in human history
• Yet only 38 percent of adults read the Bible in any given week
• 96 percent of adults believe in God
• 93 percent believe in the virgin birth
• Only 39 percent say Jesus did not have a physical resurrection
• 62 percent say that the Holy Spirit is NOT real
• 56 percent say a good person can earn his/her way into heaven
• And still 72 percent of those polled say that they are church members

Jesus said, “49I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!”

A teenage girl at summer camp was torn between two sets of friends. Some of them were sunbathing on the dock, saying to her “stay with us.” But her other friends were in a rowboat saying “no, come with us.” She stood, one foot on the dock, the other foot on the edge of the boat, and the boat was moving. Trying to appease everyone, trying to not decide, she ended up falling into the water; and worse, her hair got wet!

The membership model is no longer effective, if we hope to remain relevant we must move from membership to discipleship. This is what Jesus is addressing in the gospel lesson today. He is warning us that there will be times when following him will require us to turn away from something else. There will be times in this life when we will be required to say “yes” to one thing, and therefore “no” to the other.

We cannot go in both directions at once. We try to say “yes” to it all, and we end up falling in between the canoe and the dock, and we will end up miserable.

Jesus message for the disciples was startling, it was bold. “51Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” This is dangerous talk! Moving from membership to mission requires discipleship, it requires commitment, it requires that we say no to some things and yes to other things.

Jesus’ words regarding separation occurring in families is startling, for most of us we can’t believe it, because it’s so bold. However, let’s look at some of our models down through history.

Thank God for those free thinkers throughout Christendom who have brought fire upon the earth, the early Church and the Catholic Church.

Martin Luther, who called the church back to a Gospel which emphasized grace rather than works. John Wyclif and William Tyndale, who against the wishes of church leadership produced the Bible in the language of the people. William Wilberforce, against the will of many within the church, fought the evil ravages of the institution of slavery. Thank God for a women who we celebrate today. Mary, the mother of Jesus, what grit, what determination, what willingness to be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in her life.

These people were trouble makers. Thinkers. Applecart shakers. Men who muddied the water just like Jesus. Heroes of the faith, we now call them, because they were not afraid of division for the sake of the gospel. They knew Jesus did not come to bring peace but a sword.

In other words: Truth. God’s truth is like that. It is a double edged sword. What sounds like peace, the peace that Christ gives, really isn’t peace as the world would have it. It is peace as God would have it. He wants us to have the peace that exists between us and Him.

Jesus uses very strong language in our reading today, he says, “56You hypocrites!” He called the people around him hypocrites because they couldn’t interpret (or maybe wouldn’t interpret) Jesus sense of intensity in regards to the kingdom of God. Can we? Can you/we understand the difference between membership and discipleship? Pay, pray, and get out of the way is over!

Jesus came to bring fire to the earth to force us out of our cone of silence. Jesus brings new life, once again in bread and wine, we need to die to sin and rise with Christ so we can be transformed, sanctified in the one true faith. It’s not about us; it’s about Christ’s work in us, it’s about the transforming work that Christ performed on the cross in mission to the world.

Allow God to start in your heart and live that transformed life today. Live like Jesus can make a difference in your family, in your community, and certainly in this church, because he can.

Amen

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