This mornings scripture, the first request, verse 7 specifically, includes self-discipline, which is something we don’t talk about very often. We tend to think of self-discipline as something we exhibit when we run an extra mile, say no to dessert or the extra glass of wine, but we don’t think very often of spiritual, religious or even moral self-discipline.
And yet all religions require the self-discipline to remain faithful, putting God before self, doing what’s right, being called to sacrifice for the greater good.
There’s a story of a Rabbi and a Priest sitting next to one another on the airplane. When the stewardess comes around she offers the gentleman a ham sandwich and chips. The priest thanks her but the Rabbi politely takes only the chips, declining the ham sandwich. The priest smiles at the Rabbi and asks, “How long have you been a Rabbi?” The rabbi says 30 years now. “The priest, says. “Wow, that’s a long time to go without the pleasure of a ham sandwich. That’s quite a sacrifice, it must take great discipline.” And the Rabbi says; “Well when I was in my youth, I didn’t have much self-discipline, and occasionally cheated, but now that I’m older, I no longer miss it.”
They sit for a while and the Rabbi turns to the priest, “What about you, you certainly know a lot about self-discipline, never having been with a woman?” The priest nods, smiles and says, “well when I was young before I became a priest I too had my occasional lack of self-discipline.”
The Rabbi pauses and says, “It sure beats a ham sandwich doesn’t it?
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This letter to Timothy, speaks of self-discipline, not just as will power but as something gifted to us by God.
Verse 7- For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.
The letter tells Timothy his faith and calling aren’t ancillary or supplementary to his identity; they are part of who he is.[1]
And that idea remains true for all of us. God gifts to us power, love and self-discipline as part of who we are when we come to Christ in baptism.
Baptism is the visible sign of that call and claim on a human life and of entrance into the membership of the church.[2] We’ve been claimed and our lives and identity are no longer our own but live in response to the love and grace we receive through Jesus Christ, which means we have a responsibility to live our lives so that our choices reflect that same love and grace we’ve received so freely.
It means life as a disciple of Christ’s.
The words disciple and discipline and are etymologically related. Discipline comes from discipulus, (diskipoolus) the Latin word for pupil, which also provided the source of the word disciple.
Which brings us to request #2, without abandoning request #1.
To be a pupil of Christ’s, means we are required to live a certain way, embodying Christ’s values and reaching for certain ideals. It means moving beyond self-gratification and self-interest and living instead of a life that embodies the core biblical values of Jesus Christ who we profess as Lord and Savior.
The Christian life is more than professing or taking comfort in salvation. It’s an active life. How we imagine what it means to follow Jesus eventually becomes how we live, as our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions and our actions define who we are as disciples.
So how do we imagine what it means to follow Christ?
Perhaps no other writer has defined what it means to be a disciple better than Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
For those who don’t know, Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian. Bonhoeffer is known for his resistance to the Nazi dictatorship, was arrested and imprisoned in 1943, and later transferred to a concentration camp where he was tried and executed by hanging in 1945.
His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book The Cost of Discipleship has been described as a modern classic.[1]
In that book, Bonhoeffer sets up the difference between what he calls cheap grace and costly grace.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.
Cheap grace, Bonhoeffer says, is to hear the gospel preached as follows: "Of course you have sinned, but now everything is forgiven, so you can stay as you are and enjoy the consolations of forgiveness." Cheap grace contains no demand for discipleship.
Costly grace is quite different. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus…. It is costly because it compels a person to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him. “It is costly because it costs a man his life,” writes Bonhoeffer, “and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.”
Rev Emily C. Heath explains it this way-
Bonhoeffer points us to the false dichotomy between preserving our lives and responding to the needs of the world. It is through costly grace that we receive our real lives. In treacherous times, when powerful people and systems threaten us or others, we have to ask what God wants us to do—and we have to accept that doing it will cost us something.
… In Christ, we are given a new freedom to respond to a world in need. So each time the news informs us of something that’s happening that we know is not right or just, the question to ask is what response does God want from us in this moment?[3] (End Quote)
To be a disciple comes with a cost. How can this be good news? Because it’s good news for those who are suffering, who are oppressed, who are weak, who are hungry, who are the least, the ones fleeing violence, the ones seeking refuge. As disciples, ones filled with self-discipline, our call is to spread this good news through the way we live our lives.
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I was asked to talk about biblical values. Even if you’ve only been paying attention a tenth of the time, you can name them, beginning with our two greatest commandments according to Jesus;
Love God, Love others. (What else?)
Loving others as self
Kindness
Inclusion of the other
Welcoming the stranger
Understanding The last shall be first and the first last.
Or understanding power as it’s listed in the requested verse; For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power.
Biblical power is power that reconciles and heals, power that brings wholeness and restoration. It isn’t monetary or ego-driven. It doesn’t get you the best seat at the table or to the head of the line. It’s a place of humility that dominates through a new ruler, namely Jesus Christ, who is hated by the Caesars and the Herod’s of the world who kill innocents and crucify dissidents as a way to retain their power and ignore God.[4]
What else do we know?
We know we should share our resources; Giving- that’s another, but biblical charity doesn’t motivate by posting on Instagram and Facebook, that you did something good. It comes from an innate sense of fairness, that all of God’s children should be provided for.
Biblical love doesn’t motivate from a place of, this feels good for me, number one, but from a place of sharing what has been given to you, even with others you don’t like, maybe even especially with them.
Biblical inclusion means more than putting up a welcome sign. It also means accepting that we have a responsibility to recognize the ways in which we separate ourselves, the ways in which we are all complicit in our own racism, sexism, materialism and all the other isms we define as sinful in this tradition. The ways in which we box one another in. The ways in which we separate ourselves from “them” so we can feel better about ourselves. Taking responsibility for our own lives as a way of healing and repairing what’s broken.
What about as a Presbyterian? The church is supposed to practice here what God envisions out there. The Book of Order lays out our foundations, what the church is built upon, And perhaps most important right now is this foundation;
Unity in Diversity—The unity of believers in Christ is reflected in the rich diversity of the Church’s membership. In Christ, by the power of the Spirit, God unites persons through baptism regardless of race, ethnicity, age, sex, disability, geography, or theological conviction. There is, therefore, no place in the life of the Church for discrimination against any person.
Which brings me to the third request for today’s sermon.
How do we, as Disciples, respond to those who also call themselves Christians, but don't embody or practice the values we just named?
The letter to Timothy when read as a whole, expresses great concern about this; false teachers and rival doctrines. It worries about other teachings possibly leading Christians astray thereby wounding the ministry of the gospel.[5]
We’ve witnessed the worst of that possibility as slave owners, or during the holocaust, as a nation that discriminated before the civil rights movement, since and most vocally now again, as white supremacists claim Christianity as their own. We are in deep need as a nation for disciples that speak up and speak out. And I don’t mean that we are a Christian nation. We are a nation that constitutionally values not one religion but the freedom to worship at a Mosque, synagogue, temple or church.
How many more shootings? How many people need to die before we hold others and ourselves responsible? How do we uphold biblical values of decency and respect while holding others responsible?
We can begin at the very least by calling others out for using language that dehumanizes whole groups of people and erodes the fabric of this diverse nation.
Peter Bouteneff, professor of systematic theology at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary puts it this way;
The gospel obviously couldn’t have envisaged the political systems in place in the United States today. “Gospel values” do not prescribe for us how to shape our governments. They tell us how to live. This leaves us with the responsibility to make our political decisions on the basis of our best judgment as to which actions will yield the most life-giving results. Many Democrats and many Republicans feel with great conviction that their choice is the truly Christian one, but let’s face it: neither party today truly and fully embodies Christ values, and neither presents the only right solution. (end quote)
As a follower of Jesus Christ, as a disciple empowered with love, power, and self-discipline, we are required to speak up for what you are for and what you are against, to learn from the mistakes of the past, reclaim the foundations as worth living into, even if it comes at a cost, because that’s where God calls God’s disciples.
At times, it might mean walking away for the sake of peace. Other times, It might mean calling others out, with respect, with humility, in the form of questions and with curiosity over condemnation.
But at times, it also may mean, that like Jesus, there’s a time to go big, walking into the temple and throw the tables over in outrage.
And it means remembering that Jesus never stopped inviting those same money changers to the table. Jesus never kept anyone away from the fellowship of the table.
Finally, Bonhoeffer in one of his letters from jail wrote this;
“We have been silent witnesses of evil deeds; we have been drenched by many storms; we have learnt the arts of equivocation and pretence; experience has made us suspicious of others and kept us from being truthful and open; intolerable conflicts have worn us down and even made us cynical. Are we still of any use? What we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, and straightforward men. (people) Will our inward power of resistance be strong enough, and our honesty with ourselves remorseless enough, for us to find our way back to simplicity and straightforwardness?”
May it be so,
Amen.
[1] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1834
[2] Book of order, meaning of baptism.
[3] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/opinion/learning-costly-resistance-bonhoeffer
[4] https://www.christiancentury.org/article/opinion/do-politics-belong-church
[5] https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1834