30th June: 3 rd Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts on Discipleship

If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).

An unusual situation has occurred for those of us who follow the Lectionary. Attention is directed to two passages of scripture from the Old Testament, which are concerned with the Elijah and Elisha sagas. ¹ From the second book of Kings we have the story of Elijah rolling up his mantle, striking the water of the River Jordan, thus enabling the dry land to appear, and the chariot of fire and whirlwind to whisk him conveniently to heaven! The other set text, from the first book of Kings, is the account of Elijah recruiting Elisha as his helper and disciple.

With regard to the historical and textual context, we find that both men were devoted to proclaiming the supremacy of their God, Yahweh, at a time of apostasy. The religion of Israel was being diluted, or corrupted, by the nature worship of Baal, which was encouraged by King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel. Elijah, appeared as an ascetic from Gilead, who challenged the current accepted mores imposed by Ahab, and in so doing established for himself a reputation for moral rectitude and religious fidelity. This is reflected in the traditions of Judaism ² , which in turn becomes incorporated into the New Testament.

What then, makes Elijah relevant to us in the twenty-first century? Surely it is his ability to stand-up and question the social and religious mores of his time. Try and envisage him in the context of our generation and imagine his angst in the light of the recent revelations of the #MeToo generation. Can you think of anyone, with the style and panache of a latter-day Mary Whitehouse, ³ striding with righteous indignation, into the Weinstein furore, ⁴ because I can’t? This generation has singularly failed to produce a charismatic leader, capable of questioning the liberal attitudes of a secular society.

Our lections point to a discrepancy in the methods of recruitment of disciples. Elijah, recruiting Elisha, allows him the time to say goodbye to his parents, ⁵ whilst Luke records Jesus as taking a stern approach when dealing with would-be followers. ⁶

To the scribe who says, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go,’ Jesus responds with the rather obtuse remark, ‘Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.’ And another of the would-be disciples said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father,’ which elicited the response, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.’

Jesus was a man in a hurry. He was aware of his own impending demise, and of its nature. When questioned about discipleship (presumably by Peter), he said: ‘If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,’ ⁷ with the added, stringent, comment, ‘No man who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.’ ⁸ Thus, we can see that Jesus expects his followers to be fully committed to him—there can be no half-way house. Discipleship is all, or nothing!

Many of the clues to the understanding of the nature of discipleship can be found in the lection from the epistle. ⁹ St. Paul reminds the Christians in Galatia that Christ has set them free from a yoke of slavery (to the Jewish law), and that they should be free to live by the Spirit, rather than by the flesh. Within the text we see that Paul identifies those attributes which belong to the flesh and must be vanquished, if one is to live in the Spirit:

immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissention, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like.

However, when it comes to life in the Spirit, Paul repeats what might be considered one of the oldest mantras in the Christian scriptures: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ And really, how simple is that!? I guess that for many people, where there have been family feuds, which may have torn communities apart, this is the hardest of part of discipleship.

The type of advice given by Paul to the people of Galatia is similar to that given to Titus in Crete:

to renounce irreligion and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world, awaiting our blessed hope … the glory of our great God and Saviour ¹⁰

Some will ask, what is discipleship? It is that we follow the example of our Lord, in having love, respect and deep concern for our fellows. Daily, we both hear of, and see, how people serve within their communities, with many going the ‘extra mile’ in their service of their friends, and also those unknown to them.

We may think that discipleship is demonstrated through witness. Should we actually attribute our deeds of kindness, love and caring to our Lord? This is very difficult in a secular society, where many people consider themselves to be spiritual rather than religious. Many good people are reticent about joining parades of witness, especially at Easter, preferring to keep their faith a private and devotional matter, and letting members of the clergy/priesthood witness on their behalf. In fact, it is probably fair to suggest that many of us are half-hearted in declaring and expressing our faith.

I am sure that the ‘film buffs’ among you will recall the Whoopi Goldberg film ‘Sister Act I’, ¹¹ and its sequel, where nuns of the fictional church of St. Pauls’s Catholic Church, San Francisco, sang the glorious hymn/chorus in the presence of the ‘Pope’: ‘I will follow him, Follow him wherever he may go’. Although light-hearted comedies, the religious content of these films display a verve and an exuberance, which show how joyful commitment and service to our Lord could, and should, be, real commitment is demanding: it is deeper than the joy of singing emotional songs—it is a personal and everlasting devotional constraint.

Very often, our innermost thoughts can be expressed in the words of the hymnists of a former generation. In this respect, the rewards for accepting the Lord’s call to discipleship (‘follow me’) ¹² can be encapsulated in the words of the hymn by John Henry Sammis: ¹³

When we walk with the Lord

In the light of His Word

What a glory He sends on our way!