The Magic Carpet Ride: Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In an age that increasingly values relativistic individualism at the cost of any substantial ethic, the Church has, by buying into the trend, lost much of its firm footing.  Nobody really knows how to confront the “current issues,” and those who’ve stood upon orthodox Christianity are left like Alladin, standing on the last remaining bit of rock protruding from a boiling bed of molten lava.  And we’re tempted to do nothing.  We’re tempted to huddle together with shouts of fear and accusation, praying for the magic carpet to sweep us up and out of the mouth of this monstrous cave.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, stranded in a Nazi prison after attempting to assassinate Hitler, asked this question: “have there ever been people in history who in their time, like us, had so little ground under their feet…?”  The perceived ground under the Church has done nothing but shrink since Bonhoeffer made that statement more than fifty years ago.  Spiritual formation was Bonhoeffer’s answer to the shrinking ground, and it must also be ours.

When Jesus addressed his disciples in the Gospel According to John he didn’t say, “oh yeah, everybody will love you guys.  You’ll be safe and sound until I decide to whisk you away into a land of clouds and trumpets and white cloaks.”  No.  He told them that the world would hate them.  He told them that they would face incredible hardship, even be dragged to court for standing firm on his name.  But Jesus looked into the eyes of his confused disciples and told them to take heart, because he had overcome the world.  Even when it looked as though the lava was about to bubble over the last stone pillar, it was not.  The often unperceived reality is that Jesus is still King over the wind and the waves.  Abraham, the Apostle Paul, Augustine of Hippo, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the pastor preaching substantial truth in today’s world of ethical flux all have one thing in common:  Trust.  Through radical trust the disciples and apostles were—and are—spiritually formed by the one with the name on his thigh, “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Spiritual formation is the strongest commitment I have, because it is my commitment to Christ and his power in my life that make me fully human.  My relationship with Jesus, through discipleship and worship, instruction and evangelism, learning and community, is the only firm ground upon which I am able to stand.  And part of this commitment involves my transmitting it to others.  As Paul exhorted Timothy so very long ago, “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also,” so also have I been commanded.  I am being strengthened by trusting the unmerited favor that is mine through Christ Jesus, and I am called to entrust robust theology and the knowledge of His grace to others.  What a beautiful life.  There is no magic carpet, but there is a God who is right there with us in the mess.