“Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him. Then he appointed twelve of them and called them his apostles. They were to accompany him, and he would send them out to preach…” (Mark 3:13,14 NLT)

Isn’t it interesting that Jesus didn’t want everyone to go where he went? Textual clues in the narrative around these verses suggest that Jesus had a large and curious crowd wandering behind him. He also had a substantial subset within that crowd of more committed followers, willing to go anywhere. Out of that subset he chooses only a small group, twelve to be exact, to go with him and do what he did (preach the good news of the Kingdom and cast out demons).

Here’s my question: What did the committed subset do when he didn’t call them to go with him? And here’s my answer: Maybe they went home. This runs counter to our romantic thoughts about what it means to be a “real” disciple. I’m okay with that because I think we are oftentimes too romantic when we read the bible, thinking that we must be like the twelve in order to make a difference or be “real” disciples of Jesus. 

Consider though: were those who were not chosen to go preach and heal of no use to Jesus? Sounds crazy even to consider such a thing, doesn’t it? And it is when we stop and think about it. The truth is that those not called to go preach and teach were invaluable to the manifestation of the Kingdom of God in all the small little nooks and crannies of this world that they inhabited as part of their everyday and very ordinary life.

It’s passages like this (and like Mark 5:18-19) that help us see that Jesus doesn’t need or want everyone to be a preacher, or a missionary, or an aid worker. Rather, Jesus needs the bulk of us to continue traveling the well-worn paths we always have, and to do that as people who seek to manifest the Kingdom right where we are: in our homes with our family members, at school with our classmates, at work with our bosses, employees, or peers, and in our communities with people we love and those we struggle to love.

Jesus has an essential role for you to play in his Kingdom, even – or maybe especially – if he “only” calls you to be his child in your home and community instead of in some far off land preaching to and healing the masses. Let the Kingdom be manifest in small ways right where you are as you sow seeds of grace. Just perhaps those seeds that will grow into something bigger and better than anyone might expect (Mark 4:30ff)!

1. Phil Pearson is blogging about the challenge of Philippians as he leads his small group through that letter (here)
2. RJ and Kristy Ray are blogging about their newest family member (and other family members, too – here)
3. Michael Thelander is blogging about life, theology, and our partnership with the people of Mhlosheni, Swaziland (here)
4. Teri Wood is blogging about the 52 new things she’s doing this year (here)

Enjoy!

“Pretty much all the nations and tribes from Bible times that were of Israel’s size are gone. So why did Israel survive? Not just survive; in the words of Thomas Cahill, ‘how did a tribe of desert nomads change the way the world thought and felt? What distinguished Israel from everyone else?’ It wasn’t power. Most of its history Israel was a vassal nation. It wasn’t wealth. Israel was never a consistent economic player. It wasn’t size. Israel was dwarfed by Greece, Egypt, Babylon, and Rome. What did Israel have? A book.†– John Ortberg, People of the Book, Leadership Journal, 29(1), p37

It was Israel’s dogged commitment to hearing God speak through his word that influenced the intellectual (and spiritual) history of the world.

By the way, if you’re interested in  joining the bible study methods class that will be starting up in a few weeks, email me.

To comment or ask a question, follow this link.

Proverbs 4:18-19 – In these verses I am reminded of the Dimmer Switch principle (Larry Osborne in “Contrarian’s Guide to Knowing God“). His point is this: the path (as guided by the heart) of those who ignore God’s promptings in their life gets darker and darker over time…so much so that over time it becomes hard to move forward because the path seems so dim and unclear. On the other hand, the path of the righteous becomes brighter and brighter because they become more attuned to God’s light in their life and heart. And so…each time a right choice is made, making right choices in the future becomes easier! After quoting these verses, he writes:

…the longer we walk in obedience, the clearer the spiritual picture becomes. Subtle distinctions that were once indiscernible become obvious; things we would ahve never noticed at first suddenly can’t be missed. I find this to be incredibly encouraging. It means I don’t have to worry about all the things I don’t know. I just ahve to respond to the light I have, and the rest will come in God’s time. It means that God-pleasing spirituality can happen instantly – the moment I start the journey! Maturity and spiritual depth take time. But I can please god right away because it’s not a matter of how much I know or how long I’ve been at it. It’s a matter of what I do with what I already have that matters most.

For me, here’s how I will personalize it: My path gets a little darker (that is, less clear) every time I turn from God’s lead but my path gets a little brighter (that is, more clear) every time I follow God’s lead.

Lord, I invite you to guide me through this day. As you do, please help me to follow in the direction you lead me. I trust that day by day you’ll bring me closer to you and make my path brighter and brighter so that I can walk for you! Amen

I am suggesting that to live in this ways means to inhabit an alternative plausibility structure to the one in which our society lives. A plausibility structure is not just a body of ideas but is necessarily embodied in an actual community. It cannot exist otherwise. In this case the community is that company of people who have been chosen and called by God in continuity with those who have gone before from the very beginning of the story… As we face new opportunities and new dangers, we are the people who know what it is to cross the Red Sea on dry land, to be fed with manna in the wilderness, to return with singing from Babylon, to stand before the cross, and to meet the risen Lord in the breaking of bread. This is our story, and it defines who we are. Just as character can only be truly rendered in narrative form, so the answer to the question “Who am I?†can only be given if we ask “What is my story?†and that can only be answered if there is an answer to the further question, “What is the whole story of which my story is a part?†To indwell the Bible is to live with an answer to those questions, to know who I am and who is the One to whom I am finally accountable.

So often in our lives we lose sight of who we are, both as individuals and as the people called to be the Church. Even beyond this we lose sight of the fact that we are all, together, caught up in the grand story of the Creator. We are invited into it and yet, through our own lack of understanding (or even more probably, our own proneness to distraction) we so often leave this call unanswered.

What would change in our lives if we were to really know that we are the people of the Bible? How would we see life differently if we stopped making the distinction between biblical times and present day life?

There is a continuity within the people of God, and we are remiss if we fail to live out such a gift. Truly, we are presently surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 11) and they are bidding us on, to continue as they did in the great story of all creation.