From the Minister’s Study

The cost of discipleship: ultimate reflection for Lent

John 12:20–33

The period of Lent brings to our minds the suffering of Christ with the ultimate question why did He suffer? A modern Christian martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, wrote the book entitled, "The Cost of Discipleship." He finally himself succumbed to the cruel tyranny of Adolf Hitler experiencing the full cost of discipleship. Bonhoeffer’s witness for Christ was underscored by his final faithfulness in suffering for Christ. As our thoughts are fully engaged in reflection on the Passion at this time of the Christian calendar, it is fitting that we reflect on Jesus’ last public discourse recorded by John, in which Jesus spoke of the cost of following God’s will. In this Jesus presented four paradoxical principles that define for us not only the cost of Discipleship, but also the lasting gain in discipleship.

1. Life through death: The immediate context of this passage was the raising of Lazarus had vastly increased the popularity of Jesus and raised the Messianic expectations to electrifying heights. It also indicates that Jesus may have been protected from the crowds by well-intentioned followers. A group of Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration asked to see Jesus, the Greeks asked Philip, Philip asked Andrew, together they asked Jesus. In response Jesus took an illustration from Agriculture and said, "Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth and dies it remains a single seed…" It is a natural truth: This is the way a seed sprouts. It loses its identifiable life and then comes really alive. What Jesus was saying is that, this is a supernatural truth, soon to be verified by Jesus’ own death and its consequences. For His life to be a life unbounded, National and Racial ties would disappear in His new life and so for His followers as well. The new life would be abundant life (John 10:10). This new life was to be for His followers a life incarnate. To gain new life in Christ, which all Christians aspire, the first cost is death to self.
2. Gain through loss: A friend of mine used to say, "life is a multiple choice, what matters are the consequences". There is a sense in which life is a series of calculated risks, a series of counting the cost. Paul commended Epaphroditus (Phil.2:30) for risking his life. Jesus in His temptation experience in the first Lent as it were took calculated risks: The devil said, "Here is the easy way to satisfy your physical appetite." Jesus replied that to choose God’s way is better. He always gave of himself to others. The devil said, "Here is the way to win a following." Jesus replied that to choose God’s way is better. Jesus never dealt superficially with people. The devil said, "Here is the way to gain a kingdom." Jesus replied that to choose God’s way is better. One gains a kingdom by losing one’s self. What are we prepared to loose in order to become followers (disciples) of Jesus?
3. Honour through Service: Why have we decided to follow Christ? This is a question we need to keep reflecting on all the time in order to keep our motives and attitude pure for what we do in Church. Service, not honour should be the natural attitude of a true disciple to his master. John summed it up in these words "He (Jesus) must increase but, I must decrease", John 3:30). Someone said, "The meaning of the Cross is I crossed out (†)". To make this point Jesus related a story of the judgment in which He described the "inasmuch as" service to be the basis of judgment. Discipleship is more than an instantaneous decision. It is to be a life of service. Honour is a product of service there is no other way to be His disciple. Jesus said "if any man serve me, him, will the Father honour". Which do you seek first in your Christian discipleship, Honour or service?
4. Victory through death: In this passage, Jesus makes the point that He was on the winning side-beyond the apparent defeat of the cross. Christ’s disciple is on God’s side, the winning side. This was God’s promise: " I have both glorified it and will glorify it again", although the disciples thought that it had thundered. In real terms that is God’s thundering Easter Message, "The way up, is down". May we among many reflections that may occupy our thinking this Lent time reflect on the Cost of Disciples?

God bless you, this Passion Time.

Daniel

Network

As Easter approaches and we remember anew the great price our Lord Jesus paid for our redemption—and the great victory of that first Easter Day—may we pray about what we can give toward the task of spreading the Gospel around the world.

The Easter offering will be in the Church pews on Palm Sunday, Easter Day and the following Sunday. Please use these for your gifts, and put into the collection plate during the morning service.

This special Easter offering goes to the Methodist Fund for World Mission, and will be formally received and dedicated on Thursday 18 April at Smallbridge Chapel at 7:30 pm. This year’s speaker will be Mrs Margaret Mwailu.

(Please look out for details on the Church Notices.) Pearl Goodwin

What is faith?

The apostles said to Jesus, ‘Increase our faith!’ (Luke 17:5)

The simple question ‘What is faith?’ causes quite a headache! Jesus repeatedly told his disciples to grow in their faith (Matthew 14:31, Mark 17:17, and Luke 24:25 are only a tiny selection), but he rarely went into detail of what this ‘faith’ he required actually was. But one thing that is certain is that, for Jesus, faith and believing are the two sides of the same coin. Our faith needs to grow, which in practice means that our belief has to be mature and worthwhile. Belief in what?

St Paul is a little more precise. In Romans 10:17, he says that ‘Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.’ The anonymous author of Hebrews says, ‘Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see.’ We gain the impression that faith is not a mere believing in Jesus as a person—after all, the disciples knew that he existed! This faith is concerned with who this Jesus was (and is): that he is God.

As soon as we realise that faith centred around Jesus’ Messiahship, we need to ask about the attendant duties of faith for, as St James says, ‘Faith is dead if not accompanied by deeds.’ Paul helps when we ask what these deeds as proof of faith actually are, when (in Galatians 5:6) he is inspired to tell us, ‘The only thing that matters is faith, expressing itself in love.’

This faith might sound a little more difficult than we are used to. But Jesus did talk about faith being work. For example, in John 6:28,29, Jesus says, ‘The work of God is this . . .’ and goes on to say a most surprising thing: ‘. . . to believe in the one God has sent.’ And what is this belief that represents work and lies at the centre of our faith? Perhaps one of the best verses is John 3:15, ‘Everyone who believes in [i.e. truly has faith in] Jesus will have eternal life.’

So, to summarise the verses from James, Galatians and John, we can say, ‘The only thing that matters is performing deeds to show that our faith in a divine Messiah is alive and well. These deeds will be performed with love as an expression of our belief that we might have eternal life through the Jesus, who was sent by God to take away our sin.’ So we pray, ‘Increase our faith!’

Did You Know?

The first Christian martyr was St Stephen. Before he was stoned to death, he gave a long speech of defence (recorded in Acts 7) that is said to be rambling and incomprehensible. In fact, the two main planks of his argument are: (1) the sacrificial order was never intended to be permanent; that was why God directed Moses to build a tent as the national sanctuary; a building of stone and mortar such as Solomon built was restricted to one spot and so was a departure from the divine ideal. (2) The nation of Israel has always rejected God’s messengers, and this rejection had recently culminated in the death of Jesus himself.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, ‘Let us draw near to God’ (Heb. 10:22). In the Old Testament, the action of ‘drawing near’ related to the rituals performed by the priests: only the priests were allowed near the Altar (see Leviticus 10:3). And only someone from the tribe of Levi could be a priest. So when the author of Hebrews says that we must draw, he indicates that we too are priests. St Peter says much the same thing in 2 Peter 2:9, when he describes everyone in the Church as ‘A royal priesthood.’

Between Palm Sunday and Easter

We attend Church on Palm Sunday, and rightly share in the joy and pomp as were-live the first Palm Sunday, recreating the occasion as Jesus rode triumphant into Jerusalem.

And again, we attend a service of worship on Easter Day, rightly celebrating the miraculous resurrection of an executed Messiah. We sing hymns about the power of God, ‘Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’re his foes!’
But it is too easy to ignore the few days between these two festivals of Palm Sunday and Easter. Thank goodness Jesus didn’t! If Jesus had ignored the week after the first Palm Sunday, there would have been none of the expectancy and thrill of Passover. There would have been no Last Supper with the example of Jesus’ humility as he washed the feet of the disciples. There would have been no New Commandment wrought from the crucible of Jesus’ love for his disciples, and no instigation of that Holy, sacramental expression of love and fellowship we now call Communion.

And there would have been no Crucifixion as an atonement, with the knowledge of our sins forgiven. If Jesus had passed straight from palm Sunday to Easter, without suffered on the cross, then our sins would still be here with us today, remaining on our shoulders and in our hearts. The disciples would not have realised how much Jesus meant to them; the women would have had no opportunity to show their love in embalming the body of their dead leader.

And perhaps worst of all, if there had been no crucifixion, there could have been resurrection. Imagine an Easter without joy . . .

But Jesus did go through the pain during the first Holy Week, enacting the cycle of triumph then joy then triumph again, passing from Palm Sunday through Calvary to Easter. And so should we. If Jesus is The Way and we are his followers, then we must indeed follow Him, through the grave to new Life. ‘No-one who is not willing to put self to death is unworthy to follow me’.

The faith that does not willingly share in the pain of Holy Week cannot truly be said to be ready to accept the prize earned at Easter

‘See you next week, God’

It was Sunday afternoon, and the whole family sat around the table for dinner. As was the custom, it was the youngest who led with the short prayer which introduced the meal.

‘Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this nice day,’ he began. ‘Thank you that we were able to go to Church and Sunday School today.’ But then, to everyone’s surprise, he said, ‘See you again next week!’

Unfortunately, what the child stated in his short prayer is exactly how many view their Christian lives. Unfortunately, we all-too-easily fall into the ‘see you next week’ attitude. We forget Him as we fulfil our daily duties and responsibilities. We go for days at a time trying to pay the bills, keep the boss happy, and give attention to our families. But we neglect to give God the time He deserves.

Imagine if we said to our husband or wife, ‘I’m sorry darling, but I was so busy I forgot to speak with you yesterday!’ We would get little sympathy—and rightly so. Failing to speak to a loved one is a sign that we do no love them. yet we are called to love God with all our heart, mind, soul and body (Matt. 22:37).

Lent is not a time to give up chocolate: it is properly a time of growing into Christlikeness. Saint Peter calls it ‘growing into the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ’ (2 Peter 3:18). This is true discipleship. We cannot grow in this way if we treat God as a one-day a week friend. He is not just a friend but God, and we must speak with Him often. Anon

Emotional about Jesus

What are your emotions like? Do you weep easily, either with tears of joy or tears of sorrow? I am easily moved to tears when seeing child being baptised, or attending the funeral of a friend. But I am in good company. We are told that Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. God was pleased wit Jesus because He accomplished what He had been sent to do, leading a life of obedience and love.
And now God has sent the Holy Spirit that we might be helped and guided so that the light of Jesus may be seen in our lives as individuals, and as the Body of Christ, His Church. I think that God must often look at us and weep. He must look at us, searching us to see the life of Jesus in us and say, ‘Where is My Son?’
He sees the ever-increasing poverty and suffering caused by mankind, and ignored by so many of us as we ‘pass by on the other side,’ and He says, ‘Where is my Son?’

He sent Jesus to us so that all who believe in Him and repent can have everlasting life. And yet many refuse the love which He offers. They do not care for Him, and are not obedient to Him. Protestants and Catholics fight against each other. His chosen people, the Jews, fight against the Arabs. Muslims and Christians cannot live in peace, side by side. And God weeps and says, ‘Where is my Son? What have you done with His Love, His power, His truth?’

But, we have been chosen by God. We are His people. We are part of the Body of Christ and Jesus wants us to turn to Him in repentance. He stands at the door of each one of us and knocks.

Let us open the door and invite Him into our lives, so that any years which are shed will be tears of joy. Derek Ackroyd

Paul did not preach the Gospel that he might earn his bread: he ate bread that he might be strengthened for his ministry

On Loving God + St Bernard of Clairvaux

Notes · Quotes · Anecdotes

Jesus said:–

Father forgive them for

they know not what

they do. Luke 23:34

Easter is resurrection

E – Eternal life

A – and

S – salvation from sin

T – to

E – everyone who

R – receives Him into

their heart by

faith and believing

Life is fragile . . .

Handle with prayer

Oh Father, Thou knowest, He hath died in my place.

Cameo Character Corner

B A R A B B A S . . .

A Robber. John 18:40

A murderer. Mark. 15:7

Condemned to death.

The chief priests and

the people set him free. Luke 23:18, 23

Jesus died in his place—literally—

the ultimate substitution, yet

There is no record of him becoming a Christian Florence

Seven o’clock thoughts on prayer

One of the greatest hindrances to praying effectively and happily is ignorance—an emotive and unpleasant word.

Knowledge is the obvious solution. I can think of two areas, immediately.

Firstly, there is the matter of being informed about God’s mind, wishes, ways, plans, aspirations, and will; and His promises about prayer. In other words, knowing the Word of our Father like the back of our hand.

Second to this, there is the need to be aware of what He is doing in the World. There is a small encyclopaedia: Operation World (£13) dealing with every nation methodically—looking at its conditions and the state of the Church. Also there are prayer letters. May I ask you to enroll as soon as possible, as a prayer partner for some Christian Work: Tear Fund, Barry Woodward’s Proclaim Trust, a Methodist Missionary, or whatever God calls you to. Travel the world in prayer; change the course of history! E. Lees

Holy Moses!

Nine-year old Joe was asked by his mum what he had learned in Junior Church.

‘Well Mum,’ he started, ‘Our teacher told us how God sent Moses behind the enemy lines in a rescue mission to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. When he got to the Red Sea, he had his engineers build a pontoon bridge and all the people walked to safety. Then he radioed headquarters for reinforcements. They sent bombers, and blew up the bridge . . . and all the Israelites were saved.’

‘Now Joe,’ his mother asked somewhat alarmed, Is that really what your teacher taught you?’

‘Well, no, Mum. But I told you what the teacher said, you’d never believe it!’

Does our unwillingness to believe the Bible cause us to conceive ideas which are stranger than the truth?

What children see

When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds wanting to take over my yard. My kids see flowers for Mum, which blow white fluff you can wish on.

When I look at an old drunk and he smiles at me, I see a smelly, dirty person who probably wants money and I look away. My kids see someone smiling at them and they smile back.

When I hear music I love, I know I can’t carry a tune and don’t have much rhythm so I sit self-consciously and listen. My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don’t know them, they make up their own.

When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk. My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.

When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that. My kids say, ‘Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. Sorry, I don’t want to go to Heaven yet. I would miss my Mum and Dad.’

When I see a mud puddle I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets. My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with. I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from? No wonder God loves the little children!

Remember to enjoy the ‘little things’ in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth: anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter’ (Luke 18:16,17).

Love is self sufficient; it is pleasing to itself and on its own account. Love is its own payment, its own reward. Love needs no outward cause or result. Love is the result of love, it is intrinsically valuable.

Bernard of Clairvaux

Genocide in Sudan

Many people will have heard on the BBC Radio 4’s early ‘Sunday programme’ about the appalling atrocities occurring in Sudan at the moment.

There has been continual war in Sudan since it gained independence nearly forty years ago. The war has been waged between Northern Sudan, which is exclusively Muslim, and Southern Sudan, which is largely Christian, although much of that Christianity is nominal. The official Sudanese Government is in the Islamic North, in Khartoum.

Large reserves of oil were discovered recently in Sudan. The sale of this oil to the west has caused the war to escalate. Firstly, the oil finances for both sides to buy weapons from the West (including many EU state, and the USA). Secondly, it has led to the army of Northern Sudan trying to ethnically cleanse the peoples of Southern Sudan, in order to gain control of the oil-fields in the South.

The BBC report said that the Northern Government are deliberately targeting United Nations Feeding Stations: it is simply not possible that he high number of air strikes can be accidental. And without these feeding stations, the number of people who will die from the famine in Northern Africa can only increase. Furthermore, the Northern Sudan airforce are killing everyone near the oilfields. Some reports suggest that helicopter gunships are flying so low that the long grass is blown by the wind from the rotor blades, thereby revealing the positions of people hiding there. They are then shot, at point-blank range.

Suggested Action: Please write to the Foreign Secretary, The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw MP, and the Foreign Aid Development Secretary, The Rt. Hon. Clare Short MP, asking them to express, their abhorrence at the actions of Northern Sudan against the people of the South. Ask them to contact the official Sudanese Government in Khartoum, pushing for and end to this genocide.

Both can be contacted via the House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA.

All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.

Israel and Palestine

The division of the former British mandate of Palestine, and the creation of the state of Israel in the years after the end of World War II, have been at the heart of Middle Eastern conflicts for the past half century.

The struggle between Jewish and Arab interests over the area has origins stretching back hundreds of years, with religious tensions centred on the city of Jerusalem¾ sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital, although it is not recognised by either the Palestinians or the United Nations. The political power centre is Tel Aviv.

The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered around the world. After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state and the political state of Israel was born in 1948.

The subsequent history of the region has been dominated by conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Israel’s Arab neighbours. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced, and many wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed an historic peace agreement, but it was only in the early 1990s, after years of an uprising (known as the intifada) that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the hand-over of parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Palestinian control, a ‘final status’ agreement has yet to be reached.

Israel Data File: Population: 5.8 million Seat of government: Jerusalem, though most foreign embassies reside in Tel Aviv Major languages: Hebrew, Arabic Major religions: Judaism, Islam Main exports: Computer software, military equipment, chemicals and agricultural products

Palestinian Data File: Population: 2.8 million Intended capital: East Jerusalem Major language: Arabic Major religion: Islam Main exports: citrus fruits

Please Pray for:

• For a just, equitable and lasting peace in this troubled region.
• Wrongs have been committed by both sides in this conflict. Pray for the ability for those on both sides to forgive, unconditionally.
• For the political leaders of both Israel (Ariel Sharon) and Palestine (Yasser Arafat), that they might be willing to work for a lasting peace, and enabled to influence those wanting war.
• Thank God for the large numbers of Jews and Arabs who are becoming Christians.
• For the growth of the Church: Christians still account for no more than about 2% of the population

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