In the last two weeks, the Gospel lessons for the lectionary offered Matthew’s account of Jesus calling fishermen to become his first disciples and the Sermon on the Mount. What keeps challenging me is how these men say yes and follow Jesus without knowing or understanding 100% the implications of being a disciple of this man called Jesus. The Beatitudes were like the orientation guidelines for the disciples. I wonder if the newly recruited disciples were thinking: “What I was thinking when I said yes and followed this man.”
All of us have found ourselves with that thought. The reason is that we complicate the notion of being disciples of Christ too much. But, at the end of the day, we are called by God’s grace.
Recently Bishop Shelton shared her notion of Graceful Hospitality, a series of videos where we get to know her better. If you have yet to watch them, I encourage you to do it. In one of her videos, she references what the late Junius Dotson (former general secretary of the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry) said about discipleship: “Discipleship begins with relationship.” Is that simple. Although these are helpful tools, we don’t need a sophisticated curriculum, webinar, or technique.
In the two texts I mentioned, we see Jesus modeling what it means to be a disciple. It means that you go and walk around your surroundings, meet people where they are, and invite them to join you on the journey of becoming active participants in Jesus’ redemptive plan for all people.
The beatitudes are Jesus’ invitation to be truly happy, unlike the superficial way we often understand being happy. Happiness looks like trusting that, as disciples of Christ, we might find ourselves as recipients of graceful hospitality from other disciples or offer graceful hospitality to others.
Graceful hospitality has been the invitation from Bishop Shelton to live out our discipleship.
John Wesley and his friends followed Jesus’ example. They met people where they were and offered them what they had. Wesley described how he provided his friends and strangers graceful hospitality in his diary. He was always looking for chances to not only keep himself far from sin and close to holiness through prayer, the study of the bible, fasting, holding each other accountable, etc. Wesley and the Early Methodists took the opportunity to talk about discipleship and live out their discipleship by extending graceful hospitality to one another and the stranger in their midst. They use all their time nurturing the relationship among themselves, but they also develop constantly new relationships.
I am hopeful and excited for the United Methodist Church. We have an opportunity to go back to the simplicity of Jesus’ way, we can go back to our Wesleyan roots and nurture our close relationships, but there is more. We also need to develop new relationships. Now, when we think about new relationships, the beatitudes give us a list of where we should seek these new relationships.
Prayer:
Almighty God, help us convey your graceful hospitality to those close to us, especially strangers and those who might be distant from us. Amen.
