Second Sunday After Epiphany

Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

 © 2020, Dr. Tamilio

As much as I enjoyed the incredibly short commute to the Church in the Cove in Beverly last Sunday as part of the Massachusetts Conference of Congregational Christian Churches annual pulpit swap — I think it took Cindy and I seven minutes to drive door to door — as easy as the commute was and as gracious as their members were, there is nothing like being home.  I love this place!

The Lectionary focus last week (the first Sunday after Epiphany) was on the baptism of Jesus.  The Gospel Lesson slated for this week gives us John’s account of Christ’s baptism.  (Last week we read Matthew’s version of events.)  Today, I could just preach the sermon I delivered in Beverly last week, but I decided to go in a totally different direction.  I chose a different Gospel Lesson for today so that I can focus on something I wrote about in my annual report: discipleship.

In that report, I state how our goal last year was to balance the budget, which we have, thanks, in large part, to our Treasurer, Joe Kendall.  This year, we want to focus on growth.  But growth means two things — it is both quantitative and qualitative.  Quantitative has to do with sheer numbers: bringing more members into the fold; encouraging visitors to become regular attendees and regular attendees to become members.  Qualitative has to do with something else: it has to do with the spiritual growth of you — the members and friends who are already part of this church.  The church word for this is discipleship.

In his book Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus, Mark Denver distinguishes between two types of people: those who are disciples and those who do the discipling.  The word disciple is related to the word discipline.  The word discipline has a negative connotation in our culture.  We think it means punishment.  We think of mom saying, “Wait till your father gets home.”  I always knew that I pushed things way too far when I heard that.  No one was afraid of mom, but the Italian dad?  Forget it!  Discipline is not about punishment.  In fact, if you look up the word in the dictionary you get the following definitions: training to act in accordance with rules, to drill — as in military discipline; an activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill — as in training to be an athlete or a musician.  There are other definitions, and punishment to correct and train is one of them, but the ones I gave you are the top two: discipline is training or exercise to become better at something.

I am always amazed when I hear about a student of the violin — maybe someone who studies at the Boston Conservatory of Music — and how she practices eight hours a day.  That is the equivalent of a full-time job.  It is a full-time job!  The level of commitment that takes is astounding.  This student isn’t just playing Mozart symphonies and Bach concertos all day long.  She is playing many things that we would think are laborious: she’s playing scales and mastering bow techniques.

Or think of the person training to be in the Olympics.  Think of the work that goes into that.  It isn’t just about practicing and perfecting your particular sport: swimming, gymnastics, downhill skiing.  It’s also about working out.  Lifting weights.  Running.  It’s also about eating a certain number of calories each day.  Olympic athletes follow a strict regimen.

Most of us — the vast majority of us — do not have what it takes to be a concert violinist or a professional athlete.  It takes discipline beyond compare.

Ah, there’s that word “discipline” again.  It takes discipline — commitment.  The same is true for being a Christian.  It is a discipline.

So how do we train to be a disciple of Christ?  What does it take?  In short: it takes everything — all that you have and all that you are.  What do you think Jesus meant when he said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”?  Or when he said, “For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”?  What do you think he meant when he said, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, even their own life — such a person cannot be my disciple”?  In terms of this last quote, he was talking about prioritization; he did not mean we need to literally hate our family members to be his followers.  That said, the point is clear: Christ comes first.

As I have said many times before, one of the ways we make Christ first — the primary way that we grow in our faith — is by being immersed in the Word of God.  I absolutely love what Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message, writes on this subject.  In his book The Contemplative Pastor, Peterson writes, “I need a drenching in Scripture; I require an immersion in biblical studies.  I need reflective hours over the pages of Scripture as well as personal struggles with the meaning of Scripture.”[1]  I could not agree more.  I need that!  If the Bible is the manual, we, as disciples, need a drenching in the Word as well.  It needs to saturate our being — not just be something we turn to for a quick daily devotional or something we listen to for a few minutes on Sunday morning.

We need to also be guided by prayer as well.  Again, I mean more than a blessing before a meal or a quick petition before I lay me down to sleep.  Prayer is the time we spend with God, the time that we are deliberately and intentionally in conversation with him.  Think of the people you are closest to.  Imagine if you — and I am preaching to myself here as well — imagine if you spent the same amount of time in conversation with them that you spend in prayer with God.  Not only would you have a weak relationship, but you would hardly know that person.  You would have a surface relationship at best.  It would be like me saying to Cindy, “I’ll say a couple words to you before we eat and right before we go to bed, but that’s it.”  Actually, she might like that, because she thinks I talk too much.  Hmmm…  I was destined to be a preacher!

There are other things we need to do as well in our walk as disciples — practices related to service, fellowship, education.  The list goes on.  The point is that being disciple of Jesus Christ doesn’t just happen.  It takes a concerted effort.  It takes practice.  Being a Christian requires a reorientation of your life.  Greg Ogden, the author of Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ, writes, “Being a Christian is easy.  The only thing required is that we acknowledge our need of a savior and to receive a gift that I cannot earn nor deserve.  But if I identify myself as a disciple, then I’m making a statement about the quality of my followership.  Being a Christian is a statement about what has Christ has done for me; being a disciple is a statement about what I am doing for Christ.”[2]  I love that.  Being a Christian is a statement about what has Christ has done for me; being a disciple is a statement about what I am doing for Christ.

Another way to think of this is that Christ died for you so that you can live for him.  So, live for Jesus as one of his living disciples.  Love and serve as you grow in the faith.  Make other disciples as you go.  As Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”  Amen.

[1] Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1993), 20.

[2] Greg Ogden, Discipleship Essentials: A Guide to Building Your Life in Christ, expanded ed. (Downers Grove: IVP Connect, 2007),8.