"Yeah right ??? Mr preacher."

I hate trying to cause people to grow in discipleship! Especially trying to do it via the expected form. I am expected to take a Bible passage and expound it in such a way that people will be entertained and helped by it. I am doing some preparation for Sunday's "sermon". The passages outlined in the readings set by the Revised Common Lectionary are very challenging. In Galatians Paul says "Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh." Which sounds scary. What it means is don't live a self-centred lifestyle, but live one guided by the purposes and partnership of God. The Gospel reading for the day is even more challenging... in it Jesus challenges people who say they will follow him, but want first to "bury my father" or "say farewell to those at home". He says, "No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God."

Now these are challenging texts. I can produce a good entertaining and challenging sermon on them but also I can already see my congregations' eyes glazing over. In their heart of hearts they are saying.... "Yeah right preacher. That's OK for you, but we have a living to earn and a family to look after... if we have some time, energy and resources left over we'll think about God's purposes. But first we have to live." I think, you see, that the way of discipleship only comes to life when you risk, and when you give it your all. When you go out of your comfort zone, then passages like this make sense. Most church people, however, will be nice, good living and religious people, but never make "the way" a central focus in their living. Because they will never be led by "the Spirit" or make "the Kingdom" their focus, they never get that sense of connection, integrated wholeness and partnership available to them. ... in fact my guess is that my readers' eyes have already glazed over.

The way Jesus grew people was to say first... "Come with me". ... and he went about doing good. Somehow in the doing they discovered the truth, then in words they tried to explain the truth they discovered. They used words like, "salvation" "deliverance" "freedom" "eternal life" and "Kingdom of God" for that experience that comes from participating in receiving and sharing God's love. In my experience that method is still the best.

Its like the difference between paddling in the shallows and diving into the water. The first is nice, you get a little feel for the water. But by diving in(a scary process to start with) you get the full feeling of freedom, of twisting and turning, of being swept along, of being enveloped and supported. But it is so hard to convince the paddlers that diving in is worth the effort.

Just at the moment, as I read commentaries and try to fathom what on earth I am going to say and how to lead in worship, I wish I was back plumbing! Pipes were easy to bend!