Years ago, while I attending classes for pastors in California, we pastors were given the book Celebration of Discipline” copyright (c) 1978, by Richard J. Foster. This well-known book, has been, over the years, very helpful to many Christians both laity and clergy alike.
With that acknowledgement I would like to offer in my own words, as best that I
may, what I have gleaned from Mr.Foster’s work"Celebration
of Discipline". Mr. Foster's book speaks to believers about
how Christians can avail ourselves of the "Spiritual
Disciplines" and grow in the Christian life thru a
relationship with Jesus Christ by way of the "Spiritual
Disciplines"
Spiritual Opportunities
The Spiritual Disciplines are not Religious
Duties, but rather, are Spiritual Opportunities that
aid in the Christian life and bring us ever deeper intimacy with our Lord Jesus
Christ and thru Jesus into an ever growing relationship with the Holy Trinity ,
the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Again, the "Spiritual Disciplines" do
not earn us salvation, our salvation is accomplished through and by
Jesus alone on our behalf.
What the "Spiritual
Discipline" are, are Spiritual Opportunities for
each and all of us to have Communion with our God in
times of deep personal intimacy which brings us to see that he is with us and
wants us and loves us.
Who is the Greatest?
That very night in that upper
room as our Lord Jesus transformed the Passover, the commemoration of Israel's
deliverance from slavery in Egypt, into the Holy Sacrament of Eucharistic
Communion or the Lord's Supper, a disagreement arises among Jesus' Disciples as
to their status in Jesus' ministry.
The Apostles each posture to one degree or another making their claim to
greatness, each wanting to insert themselves into this place of prominence and
dominance among the group.
St. Luke the Evangelist
records this exchange among them and Jesus' response to, not just this self-advancement
of his disciples gathered with him at that time, but any mercenary approach to
the Christian life.
"And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was
regarded to be greatest. And He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles
lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called
'Benefactors.'' Lk: 22:24-25
Self-advancement, or rather
advancement of “the self”, is not a quality which should be found among
the followers of our Lord. Unfortunately, it is still present with us even to
this very hour even as it was in that upper room around that table.
Our Lord Jesus came for us, to do what we could not do for ourselves. Jesus,
the eternal Son of God, the Second person of the Holy Trinity, the Great God,
the very true self of God, came to serve us though he is the one who should be
served.
Jesus Our Servant
This God set aside, as a garment, the glory of his deity and assumed our humanity to be a servant to us. Consider this Holy contradiction, the very one who deserved of being served has come to serve us, each and all of us.
This is what St. John wrote in his Gospel to all of us down thru the ages when
he wrote of our Lord taking the role of a servant by washing the feet of his
disciples at the Passover supper in that upper room.
"It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had
come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who
were in the world, he loved them to the end.
The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas,
the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had
put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning
to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and
wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and
began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped
around him."Jhn:13:1-5
This demonstrates a holy humility and which perplexes the mind of the power-oriented
heart of humanity. In St. John’s account tells us more than we might
first understand. St. John is in truth describing the very incarnation of the
Eternal Son of God into our humanity so that he might serve us as the one who
brings us salvation.
St. John records that Jesus "took off his outer garment” before
his act of holy service toward the Apostles. This is speaking to us of
the setting aside the glory of Jesus' deity, his glory being symbolically
spoken of as his "outer garment".
St. Paul broadens the view of Jesus' incarnation as the Divine
Servant-Messiah infused with humility, in his Epistle to the Philippians which
then leads us into one of the earliest recorded creedal hymns of the Primitive
Church.
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if
any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any
tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded,
having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of
selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above
yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests
of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as
Christ Jesus:"
The Creedal Hymn of Incarnation
"Who,
being in very nature God, did not consider
equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather,
he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being
made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even
death on a cross!
Therefore,
God exalted him to the highest place and
gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God the Father." Philp: 2:1-11
The Towel of Service
St. John continues the
narrative of Jesus' act of Salven (Salvation) service toward
the Apostles and each and all of us.
"and
wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and
began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped
around him."Jhn:13:4b-5
When we read the account, we
might a first only see Jesus' taking on the posture of servant
hood and modeling the condition of heart that all his disciples should emulate
that of serving one another, and in truth that is present here in St. John's
Gospel, but there is even more which directly relates to Jesus' as our
Incarnate Servant Messiah.
The
wrapping of the towel of service around the waist of Jesus is a reference to
his shared humanity with us, the very life he would lay down in less than twenty-four
hours from his act of the foot washing; the very act which would wash away the
sins of humanity, not just the dust from the feet of those Apostles. Jesus '
act of foot washing is looking ahead to the complete forgiveness of our sins through
the power of his life laid down and his blood shed that washes us each and all
clean.
This wrapped towel of service
prefigures the very burial linens that would be wrapped around the body of our
Lord after his death on the cross for the washing away of sins.
"Then
took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as
the manner of the Jews is to bury". Jhn:
19:40
Jesus' as our Servant Messiah
has provided humanity the greatest act of service thru the forgiveness of sin
thru his death.
Jesus
after washing the feet of the Apostles Jesus then encourages, they and we all
to do as he has done. Jesus is telling us be instruments of forgiveness and to
extend that very forgiveness into the lives of others. That is, we serve others
thru forgiveness and thru the proclamation of the message of the Gospel which
invites others to experience that forgiveness thru the Gospel's presentation to
those around us.
"When
he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his
place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call
me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I,
your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one
another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for
you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a
messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these
things, you will be blessed if you do them." Jhn: 13:12-17
Forgiven to Serve
When we grasp the magnitude of
what our Lord has done for us, we should be complied by grateful love toward
our Lord and serve him, not out of constraint or "religious duty"
but out of love. This expressed service is directed to all around us though the
true recipient is our Lord himself thru the humanity that he has joined us
in.
We need to see those around us
our Lord did, as those who need his love and those who need to experience his
complete forgiveness St. Paul's view of the people around him had been
radically transformed by the complete renewing of his mind when he came to
believe in Jesus and experienced that complete forgiveness.
"For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died
for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live
should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was
raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once
regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in
Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this
is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the
ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,
not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message
of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were
making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled
to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might
become the righteousness of God." 2Cor:5:14-21
Love Compels
The kind of love, that divine
love of God, which Jesus did and still shows us, is aggressive in that it is
always seeking opportunity for the betterment of others and outlets to be
expressed each and every day.
God's love should compel us all to look for ways to serve others not to "earn salvation” but rather to serve because of the salvation which Jesus has bestowed upon us. We should look for ways to bring God's love and mercy and grace into the lives of others around us. This is, in part, what our Lord meant when he encouraged us to "take up the cross" and follow him. That means, to shoulder the responsibility of bring forgiveness and reconciliation and go forth daily each day serving others.
So often we think of our
Lord's sacrifice as only one day, there upon Calvary on the cross, but what
occurred there on that cross only showed us what is and has been eternally
true. That our Lord Jesus was completely give over to serve his eternal
Father.
That
means that Jesus sacrificed his whole life, his whole life. All his life all
his life. We as his disciples are called to the very same.
Sacrifice
of the Self
Jesus is not just talking
about "self-sacrifice" but "sacrifice of the self".
"Self-Sacrifice" can be acts that are good yet may originate
out of a heart that is attempting to ultimately vaunt itself for its own advancement.
We can be like the disciples at the table with Jesus in that upper room each
claiming to be the greatest thru the "evidence" of
our service posturing and seeking rank and influence with others in the end for
our own benefit as the "rulers of the gentiles" did.
Jesus calls us to something
higher, the very "sacrifice of the self" that is the complete
giving over of our whole being as Jesus did for the good of all. None Greater
has condensed lower to be raised high than our Lord Jesus. Jesus called us his
disciple to be so filled with our Lord that our "selves" will have little
room for expression.
We sacrifice our self for
others. We act in humanity not self-exultation. We seek the good for others and
justification for others not our own. We reach out in quite love for the world
around us even in their disbelief or even in life style which are contrary to
divine instruction.
We have multiple ways each day
to serve others in many circumstances as we go thru life being the very
servants that our Lord has called us to be even as he is.
Benediction: May our lives daily demonstrate the very love and humble service
that our Lord Jesus shows to each and all today, tomorrow and forevermore Amen.
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Topinabee Community Church
Topinabee Michigan
https://topinabeechurch.org/index.html
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