Discipleship Letters 107-108

Discipleship Letter 107                                              Oct. 10^th, 2010

“The absence of Jesus Christ…is the context of Christian stewardship. In his death, Jesus absented himself from the community. This abnegation had startling results: it brought the Spirit into our midst in new and stirring ways, and it lured us into more authoritative roles in our shared life…Jesus’ absence invokes our stewardship” [Evelyn E. Whitehead and James D. Whitehead, Christian Adulthood: A Journey of Self-Discovery (Liguori: Liguori, 2005), pp. 52-53.]

The disciples picked up the responsibility of stewardship of the Gospel in the absence of Jesus. One’s absence may promote the presence of others, just like His absence led to the presence of the Spirit—another of the same kind.

I’ve worried about my absence for a period of time. Perhaps, one of the reasons why I’ve worried about it is because I think I am irreplaceable. My worry is being dealt with by two facts: Everybody can be replaced in the church, except Christ and His cross, and I do see your emerging presence in different ministerial areas. 

“When the Lord is present, we are all fittingly disciples. In the ‘generous absence’ of Jesus Christ a space was created, a leadership vacuum generated” (p. 52-53).

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Discipleship Letter 108                                              Oct. 17^th, 2010

Discipling relations are throughout the Bible. I wonder how much Joshua learned from Moses; Elisha, from Elijah; Peter, James, and John, from Jesus; Timothy, Titus, and Silas, from Paul. Throughout the years, I’ve been looking for Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and Paul so that I can grow with guidance, wisdom, and protection. However, at the same time, I have become someone’s “guidance”, “wisdom”, and “protection” without realizing it. It is through this experience I start to realize that we usually become what we want so that other people’s wants can be met.

The Great Tradition of the Church (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:3-4; 2 Tim. 2:2) ought to be passed on to one another through such a relationship. Jesus passed on the kingdom teaching and vision by spending time with the Twelve. He did preach to the crowd. But the Four Gospels show us that the Twelve was Jesus’ kingdom focus, for He wanted them to internalize the kingdom vision through discipling relationship so that the Twelve could carry out the kingdom works after he was gone. It’s a mustard seed strategy: from one to many.

This strategy seems to work and not to work at the same time because Christian faith is made up of the cross and the empty tomb: failure and future. We always deal with this paradox in our works. Jesus dealt with it. So do we. (Matt. 10:24)

Each of us must take the idea of passing on seriously.