Discipleship then Conversion

Sermon for July 17, 2005

1.  Good Morning.  Let’s pray.  O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

2.  Opening Comments:  Which came fist the chicken or the egg?  Which comes first – conversion or discipleship?  Do we WIN and then DISCIPLE or do we DISCIPLE and then WIN the lost?

This morning’s reflection is going to focus on the Gospel reading and the subtle reality that the lost around us are drawn first into our community and then converted.  In other words – Discipleship more often than not precedes Conversion.  Now this seems self-evident but that’s not what I”ve been told in the past – how about you?

Haven’t we been told – evangelize and then disciple?

The challenge has always been the go out and “WIN” souls and then engage them in Small Cell groups where they can be “CONSOLIDATED” and “DISCIPLED” and then when they’re ready they can be “SENT” out to WIN, CONSOLIDATE and DISCIPLE others.

But do you know what – that’s not what today’s scripture tells us . . . albeit indirectly.  

And I’ll tell you why this is important for us at TCC at this time in our history – we’ve committed ourselves to being intentional about discipleship and now that we’ve almost completed our training we’re beginning to think about and pray for those around us who don’t know our Lord and the concern that is arising within us is this concern over what amounts to “cold evangelizing.”  This is evangelizing without any context.  Now this works for some but not many.  The reality is that we can do a far better job of drawing somebody into the Church when they know us and we know them.  In other words, this process of drawing people into God’s Kingdom is through relationships. 

All of this is leading up to the reality that Discipleship or relationship precede Winning!

If this is true then this is critical to our thinking as we get ourselves ready to reach out to those around us who are lost.

3.  Focus on Scripture:  Let’s focus then immediately upon the Gospel readings and I’ll show you what I mean. 

This is quite important because it’s showing us God’s way of drawing others into His Church – into His Kingdom and therefore it’s telling us that we’re going to have to be willing to draw people into TCC who are as yet not committed to following Jesus Christ but as they experience life in TCC they will be converted.  This of course means that things around TCC are going to get a little messier!  Ha!

OK – let’s focus in shall we?

Matt. 13:24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field – that’s the Good News of Jesus Christ.  Reading on:  25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.  26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them.  30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

In this parable Jesus is giving us insight into what the kingdom of heaven is like.  So what does this parable tell us about God’s kingdom?

That it’s very inclusive!  Ouch! that’s a hard word for me to receive since it was a word used in the Presbyterian denomination to tolerate everything from homosexual activism to simpering political correctness! 

I was told that all sorts of people were welcome in the Presbyterian Church and do you know what – they we’re right.  But what they didn’t go on to discuss was the concomitant need for Church discipline.  All of this discipline though was to be done in a spirit of redemption and restoration – not in a spirit of vindictiveness or of punishment for punishment’s sake!

Perhaps a better word for what this parable is getting at is “tolerance.” 

Now this must clearly not become “permissiveness.”  For instance, a dandelion is obviously a weed and must be eradicated as soon as possible.  There’s no mistaking it from the good grass and it must be weeded out immediately and that’s what Church discipline is all about.  But it’s tolerance that is the focus of this parable. 

In the church I served in New Orleans a social activist attorney joined our community and for quite some time I swung between thinking that he was a dandelion or good grass but over time through the ministrations of an east African missionary doctor this man became “good grass” and had I asked him to leave prematurely this would probably never have happened!

In the words of Bible commentator Fr. Brendan Byrne:

“This parable reflects Jesus’ highly inclusive understanding of the community of the Kingdom.  The Kingdom is like a great net of God’s grace thrown out over humanity without first asking who was worthy and who unworthy to be included.”

Inclusion did, of course, entail conversion but for Jesus that came after, as a result of being touched by God’s grace, rather than before.

The parable seems to warn us against an overly zealous drive to purify the Christian community.  This parable warns against the sort of thing which resulted in the Spanish Inquisition or the Salem witch trials.

Now let’s dig a little deeper into this parable. 

It was St. Augustine in his commentary on this passage that pointed out that in Palestine there’s a poisonous weed known as “Darnel” and it affects wheat crops.  In the early stages of growth it looks very much like the young shoots of wheat but by the time that both have grown sufficiently to be recognized apart, their respective root systems are so thoroughly entwined that to tear out the Darnel weed would result in the destruction of some of the good wheat.  And so Jesus is warning against prematurely tearing out the weed for fear that some of the good crop will be lost in our zeal to have a pure crop.

4.  Now this parable can be instructive not only to our TCC community in general but it’s also instructive to our own moral and spiritual lives.

Think about some of your better qualities – you might be a vigorous warrior for social justice but the other side of this virtue may be the vice of an irascible and stubborn spirit. 

Perhaps you’re a great listener but then again you can be walked all over – you’ve never perhaps learned how to stand up for yourself against the bullies of life . . . you’ve never learn’t to set boundaries on what people can do to you . . . and so on. 

Can you see what I’m getting at here?  You see a too rigorous focus on purity wouldn’t even tolerate your own presence all of the time.

Life in the raw has to be able to tolerate the good and the not so good.  That’s the nature of our lives this side of glory.

Jesus seems to be suggesting that God can cope for quite some time with the continuing existence of evil in order to preserve or promote a wider good.

St. Augustine put it this way:

“The field (in this parable) is the world, and the church is spread throughout the world.  Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat. . . , But in the Lord’s field, which is the church, at times what was grain turns into weeds and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.”

St. Jerome put it this way,

“We are advised in the parable not to be quick in cutting off a fellow believer, for it may happen that one who has been corrupted today by evil may recover his senses tomorrow by sound teaching and abide by the truth.  . . . The Lord therefore advises us that we should not be quick to judge what is doubtful but should leave judgment up to God.”

5.  How can this parable be instructive to us at TCC?

Can you sense today that our resurrected Lord is speaking to us about our future?  Are we going to be a perfectly pristine Christian culture or are we going to become more and more of a “hardy” Christian community where love and tolerance prevail? 

A community of all types, shapes and sizes.   A community of real diversity.

Now of course we must set boundaries – dandelions must be dealt with quickly - but what about other weeds which are less obviously weeds – are they really weeds?  Could they become wheat given the right environment and nurture?

A tolerant loving environment is what God is wanting to create in our midst.

Now let’s return to our parable for a moment. 

The fact is that the kingdom is likened to “wheat.”  All wheat shoots are almost exactly alike and so it must be in a healthy Christian community – we’re all becoming more and more like our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – so in that sense we’re seeking His likeness – but it’s not likeness in our image or in somebody else’s image – it’s Christlikeness! 

Now there’s a very subtle lesson here that we don’t set an artificial goal for all of us to achieve.  Can you see what I’m getting at?  Everybody mustn’t look like me or anybody else – there’s no archetypical Christian likeness towards which we’re all heading! 

When people experience TCC they must experience the real Jesus Christ alive in us – not just us trying to be good Christians.  In other words, there’s going to be great diversity in a healthy Christian community and yet there’s also going to be a wonderful “sameness” in the sense that we’re all leaning into our Lord and seeking to look more and more like Him.

There really is a “sameness” about Christians isn’t there? – its the wheat thing!

I can meet a Christian in Wellington, Istanbul or Tagusgulpa and guess what?  There’s a wonderful “sameness” in their presence – it’s the wheat thing - it’s Him!  Our Lord – alive and well in their very beings!

But none of us are exactly like Jesus and to that extent we, each and every one of us, are going to need to extend God’s grace of tolerance to each other.

We need each other to tolerate – to forgive - those things in us that aren’t Christlike.

And so our Lord is calling us this morning to greater and greater tolerance and in calling for this He’s challenging us to extend to one another His grace which covers a multitude of sins – St. Peter reminds us 1Pet. 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

But God is also calling us to be an embracing and tolerant community which opens its arms to one and all – the wheat and the weeds. 

We’re being challenged not to be too ready to tear out the weeds – perhaps some will become wheat just by being around the wheat!

And this is where our decision to be very intentional in our commitment to discipleship. 

In making this choice we’re deciding to ensure that each and every one of us will grow in our likeness to Jesus Christ day by day rather than relying upon the more haphazard growth or stagnation model which exists in most Christian churches today.

Amen and Amen!

Let’s Pray . . .