23 October 2006

This week we will continue to look at "Simple Obedience" in "Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

When Jesus demanded voluntary poverty of the rich young man, the young man knew that his only choices were obedience or disobedience. When Levi was called from tax collecting and Peter from his nets, there was no doubt that Jesus was serious about those calls. They were supposed to leave everything and follow him. When Peter was called to step out onto the stormy sea, he had to get up and risk taking the step. Only on thing was demanded of each of these cases. That was their entrusting themselves to the word of Jesus Christ, believing it to be a stronger foundation than all the securities of the world. The forces that wanted to get between the word of Jesus and obedience were just as great back then as they are today.

As I was reading through this again I realized that there really could be a difference between these cases and the ones in which we find ourselves today. Jesus! Jesus is making this request of these people. Today, we have many people wearing the masks of "Jesus" faith and trying to move people to do something along the way of "masked" religious leaders who have gifted ways of persuading people to give up all things for "Jesus." I remember a woman talking about how a friend gave up her teachers' retirement because she was told to give more money to the church she was attending and to begin attending their bible school. This language of obedience can be use to beat the brow of others and thus wound them through guilt and even shame.
Then again, this is all the more reason to have around us people who are willing to question and read and call one another to accountability and question motives. It takes community work to come up with what Jesus is calling us to do today. And yet, there is still the call for obedience at the word of Jesus. We must help one another hear that word and not fall for the many words of religious leaders who can be so full of themselves and the need for security, they only know Jesus words and not his life.

Connection: By being a part of a community of faith, we are helped for the moments throughout the day when we here Jesus call us into new life. For in those moments, we have been "trained up" to know that voice - like lambs who know the voice of the shepherd.

When you call us to follow, O God, give us others who will help us hear your voice and to discern when we are being seduced by other words. We count on your Spirit to be our guide. Amen.