Magyar Egyház, 1981 (60. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1981-07-01 / 7-8. szám
MAGYAR €GYfíAZ MAGYAR CHURCH 9. oldal Sermon: FOLLOW THE LEADER It seems to me that being a Christian is a lifelong process: a process filled with more questions than answers, more conflict than peace, more struggle than calm. It is frustrating to be a Christian because I want answers, peace and calm, and not the other. Was I not taught in Sunday School that “God is love”, and that “love” is all good things? Why did not someone warn me that being a Christian does not mean “sugar and spice and everything nice”? I thought that life was supposed to be better in being a Christian. Perhaps, however, “better” is not supposed to mean nice and easy when it comes to being Christian. I have often wondered why it is that if the Son of God really came to earth, that the world was not totally transformed. I mean, my gosh- we’re talking about the Son of God! Would not His presence and His power have been so great that people and the world could not have helped but to have been turned upside down? How could it be that the Son of God came to earth 2000 years ago and humankind is still struggling amidst hatred, violence, jealousy, greed and untruths? Perhaps part of the answer lies in the kind of God who is creator, redeemer and sustainer. Perhaps our God is not the God of the Thunderbolt and the battering-ram, but the God who wields a quiet, steady and ever-present strength. Perhaps our God does not bang down the walls of the world and our lives with a sledge hammer and barge onto the scene, but stands at the doors of the World and our lives, and knocks and knocks until we are able to hear and ready to answer. So, Christ came to earth and the whole world was not turned upside down —but some people were. In light of this, I have to ask myself and you, if Christ were to come to earth today, would I follow — would you follow? If Christ came at this moment and stood before you and asked you to give up you know it to follow Him into a new and virtually unknown life, would you be able to go with Him? Should we not be able to? I mean, we certainly do have an edge on the original disciples who had no idea as to who that guy was. At least we have a good idea as to what would be expected of us. Perhaps that is why we would not want to go. Perhaps it is not the unknown which frightens us so, but the known of what would be expected of us as a follower of Christ which would force us to find excuses as to why we could not go: there would be too many responsibilities to attend to and loose ends to tie up before we could rightly “take off” to follow Christ to a life which requires radical changes in the status quo of our lifes and the world. If Christ came to me today and asked me to leave the life that I know to follow Him, I am not certain that I could go. I have to ask myself the question then, as I understand and experience the Christ, who is He that I want to follow Him but I am unable to go very often? I ask this of you also. Who is Christ to you? Why are you a Christian? How are you a Christian? In thinking about what it means to be a Christian today, I find myself wondering about the first disciples. What kind of people were they that they could up and leave their jobs and their families to go with someone they had never met, and whose only guarantee was that He would make them “fishers of men”. You have to wonder why they would go anywhere under such conditions. Maybe Jesus’ call was just the “out” they were looking for. Maybe they were unhappy at home or did not like their jobs. Maybe they were the kind of people who are always looking for an adventure and a thrill. Or, maybe in a way they had no choice but to follow. Maybe deep inside they had a sense of the emptiness of their lives, and the presence of the man Jesus was so compelling, with a quiet kind of strength, that they could feel the promise of fulfillment in life which He had to offer. Perhaps the disciples were at a place in their lives where they were able to hear the knock at the door and were willing to answer. So, what does it mean to be a Christian today? It means to be a disciple. And what is a disciple? I do not believe that you can be a disciple without being a Christian, and I do not believe that you can be a Christian without being a disciple. It seems to me that there are two distinguishing characteristics of a disciple: a disciple is one who is called and one who follows. A disciple is one who is able to hear the call of God to a life lived from the example of Jesus in the singleminded obedience to the will of God, and one who is willing to follow that call. A lot of responsibility is put on the disciple. It is God who takes the initiative to offer the invitation to a life lived in His light and glory, but it is up to the disciple to have ears to hear and the will to respond. What does this mean for me and for you as we struggle with our lives as Christians? Am I really a Christian? Can I be a Christian without being a disciple? If not, then do I really participate in that dynamic of hearing and following God’s call? Why do I say that I am a Christian? Why do I want to be a Christian? How do I understand God and Christ and the difference that they do make or can make in my life? I have no definitive answers to these questions, but I do think that these are questions which need to be asked and struggled with, individually and in the context of a community of people who call themselves Christians. And I am not certain that there are definitive answers to such questions. I go back to my initial premise that being a Christian is a lifelong process to struggling to understand what it means to be a Christian. I do think, however, that there are helps we can look to assist us in
