We need to get to the point where we “presume nothing” when it comes to how well Episcopalians are evangelized or catechized regardless of whether they are old or young. Yet, once engaged by the church, young adults have often said that they began as a Christian “on the outside,” and were little more than
Jesus calls disciples into a new way of thinking. We might call this “kingdom thinking,” where things like racist slurs and degrading terms are seen as instruments of destruction and are not really much different than the blast of a shotgun into the face of anyone we aim our bile at. When we use such
When Jesus calls me to follow him, he expects me to begin thinking like him. But how can I know the mind of Christ? This is not as impossible as it may sound. The apostle Paul tells is that once we have become involved with the life of Christ, we are given the mind of
I cannot exercise obedience to Jesus’ call to discipleship on my own power or by my own devices. I cannot on my own decide what step will bring me into greater faith. Only Jesus can decide that. The process is simple: He calls – I follow. That is why I become responsible for listening to
Like our muscles, we must exercise our faith for it to grow. Here is the paradox: When I take my first step of faith, it places me in a position where greater faith becomes possible and actually becomes necessary. That first step emerges from my obedience to the call of Christ. By answering this call I
Recall the story about Peter “walking on water.” Peter was in a storm-tossed boat when he saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter thought that if Jesus would just call him, he, too, could to walk on water. And just then, Jesus calls out to him, but Peter still had to decide whether or not
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not
Jesus doesn’t want you to be a good person. When he calls you to follow him, he isn’t asking you to become nice and do your best at helping others. He isn’t telling us to do things so that we can feel good about the other things we may have screwed-up. Jesus’ call is a
In his analysis of discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer declared “cheap grace” to be the deadly enemy of the Church. We, unfortunately, have not moved beyond that reality some 70 years later. By cheap grace, Bonhoeffer meant the presumption that I can receive forgiveness for my sins without abandoning my life to Jesus and his way. I
We live in a world with so much to see. There is so much that our brains actually play a large role in filtering out what we don’t seem to need at the moment. Because of that, we may miss something which is very important – but that the habits of mind we have don’t
