Being a Disciple

    When we were studying from Luke 13, "Jesus went through the towns and villages teaching as he made his way to Jerusalem", through 19:28, where Jesus actually gets to Jerusalem, I got very caught up in the text's concept of following Christ. He focuses so much in that section [the last 6 months of his life] on counting the cost, making sure you're "in", making choices and following through.
    You will remember me asking the question, "Is everyone who is called to be a follower of Jesus called to be a disciple?" Most of you thought no, but I was very much, because of my focus on the text, thinking yes: we are all called, we all need to count the cost, we all are required to give up everything and follow him. There is certainly a sense that is true.
    But wriggling around in the back of my mind was this verse my quiet husband loves from First Thessalonians 4: 11, 12. "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." Neither Paul nor Peter spring to mind when you define a life as quiet, minding your own business. Is there a different way to follow Jesus, a regular guy kind of disciple?
    As I've had plenty of time [lol] the last three weeks, I've been looking at that thought. I've been trying to think back to two things. 1) What was Jesus focus in those last 6 months? 2) What is Luke's focus in the gospel story he is telling us?
    Luke wrote a two part account originally circulated as The History of Christian Origins. The accounts were only later separated when the four Gospels were grouped together for circulation throughout the church, the Apostle,  was formed as a collection of some of Paul's letters , and the Acts of the Apostles was left as a freestanding entity. It's intention was never as a free standing entity, but I think it's isolation from Luke influences our understand of Luke more than it does our understanding of Acts.
   If we think about the story Luke is telling in Acts, the story of the beginning of the church, and realize he is telling the same story in Luke, then his purpose becomes more clear. Luke's account that last 6 months is Jesus' preparation of those early disciples and Apostles [remember at one time Jesus sent out 72] for his death, his resurrection  and the subsequent, literal dropping of the ministry into those disciples' hands.
   So we are back to the transitional quality of these unique books, the Gospels and Acts. The five books tell the story of the men and women who pioneered the ministry. These men and women learned from Jesus, carried out his teaching about the Kingdom of God after his death and resurrection, and went on to fulfill his teaching by establishing the church. They were His witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and finally to the uttermost parts of the earth.
   Who are we? We are the church. Our role might be different than theirs. Our job may be to live out the Kingdom in Community, in our larger community, loving each other and acting like Jesus. First Thess. certainly isn't the only place in the Bible that encourages us to do that. It may be that our ideas of what it means to be a disciple would be better gleaned from the letters to the churches than from the Gospels.
   Too "Covenant Theology"? Maybe. I don't know. I'm still just thinking about it.