The key to this text is this is the first time Jesus or the gospel writer refers to the disciples who have been up till this point, disciples. He refers to them as apostles. And there's a big difference there. The difference between a disciple and an apostle is you go from being a disciple where you're following, you're practicing, you're learning, you're questioning, you're never really driving the boss, right? You're always sort of second fiddle to the boss, to the teacher, to the master. So they've been disciples up to this point, and we've watched Jesus throughout the Gospel of Luke up until this point.
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They've now got a relationship with Jesus in a way where he is telling them he's about to hand this off. He's already told them that he's going to the cross. They know that this don't be sorry, that's called amen. That's my cue. But sorry about your ear, because that was right in your ear. Back to it really quick. Jesus is talking to the apostles at this point in a way that is like you talk to someone at, at the bedside of a passing person. This is the last words of a friend. This is, hey, when I'm gone, you got to know this stuff. Hey, when you're driving the bus.
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And of course, their reaction to Jesus is, oh, okay, we're going to need more of that faith because we've been listening to it, but I don't know if I have enough. And so the concept of increase our faith comes up. Give us more faith, give us maybe more belief in our guts or more gumption to stand up, or more Jesus, I don't think I have enough.
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And when Jesus is talking to them, he's not talking about getting more love, he's talking about reflecting upon the love, the faith that we have. In other words, guys, we have enough. You and I have enough. We have the ability to love others more than we can possibly imagine. We have the ability to listen and learn and serve in ways that are profound.
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Jesus invites us into a world that stops running away from the pain, stops running away from the trouble, but instead embraces it with the technology, if you will, of love. And I think that's what today is about.
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This was a kid who grew up in the top shelf of schools where he was from. He was a rich kid. His dad was an importer. He had it all going. Everybody kind of wanted to be him. And as he looked at his dad's riches, as he looked at what was happening in their lives and he read the Gospel, he found this ridiculous tension. He could not. The dissonance between the two, he could not hold on to anymore. The cognitive dissonance between the two realities did not fit.
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And so one day, Francis threw off all of his clothes and stands there naked and rejects his father's empire and goes off to be a monk. He goes off to study, he goes off to pray, he goes off to cry, he goes off to suffer because of something inside of him that read these texts and said, I'm not going to get there through my power, my wealth, my strength, I'm going to get there another way.
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And as he was going on that journey of his life, he started noticing creation around him, animals, plants, rocks, trees. And he started to realize, this is God's house, this is God's kingdom, this is God's communication for us.
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About three centuries later, Luther would make the argument that the gospel of Jesus Christ raised from the dead is written on every tree and leaf in creation. We are not tied to a tradition, we are not tied to a practice in what we do. We can watch the history of the church in people relating to the call to love in their time and place. And there's different ways we are informed of love.
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And I gotta tell you, there's a lot of days I walk into my house at the end of the day like a tyrant. I've got the worries of the world in my mind, I've got the plans of tomorrow in my heart. And I come in the door and reminding me there is my friend going, hey, this is reality, not that. Could you maybe stop enough to pet me? Could you maybe stop enough to breathe?
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In this Timothy text today, Paul is discussing the concept of being self controlled, self discipline as a follower of Jesus. And I think this is the balance, the balance between love and the call to love. And the reminder to take that seriously as seriously as we take all the bills and all of the standards of society and all of the rules. Because when we stop doing the love part, the rules begin to fade.
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The stark reality, though, is it's not meh. This is life and death. This is what will happen on the last day we breathe. Where will our hearts be? Will our hearts be thankful and gracious and alive even in our death? Or will we placate ourselves and surround ourselves with crap, junk boxes and trinkets and money? That's the challenge.
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That's why Jesus calls them apostles. He's like, now you're ready to drive the bus. And it's hard, but you can do it. And you can do it because love is never going to leave you. That's the work of Christ.
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I remember, I'm going to close with this. I remember being in seminary and I told you this story Ali before, but I can remember being in Greek first semester. Greek, we're taking all of our other classes, but if you don't pass Greek, you don't get to go to year number two. It's just, you got to get it down. And I was about probably this part of the semester. We'd been rolling since August. And I've probably six or seven weeks into the semester. And I can remember my F in Greek was growing. I was not doing well. I was behind. I didn't get it. I was having issues with it. It's a lot like algebra, by the way. It is.
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And I remember Professor Bob Smith, Seminex professor, who was out at Plts when I was there. And he was our professor. And he just kept looking at me and shaking his head going. And he talked to me after class, and one day he broke through and he said, you already know this. And I'm like, what do you mean, man? There's no way. Like, this is Greek. I literally. I don't understand it. It's literally Greek. And he's like, it's in you. It's built into your English. It's built into how you already formulate words. It's already in you. You don't have to go looking for it. You just have to find it in your own language that you already know.
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I got to tell you, that was one of those moments that gave me so much positive reinforcement. It gave me so much like jet fuel to move forward. It was a moment of trust, too. I think maybe that's what turned it on, was like, oh, I can. And I did. I think I pulled a hot C plus out of that class. But I think that's what Jesus is trying to tell us, too. This love is in you. You can be an apostle. You can be someone who corrects and loves and goes through the process of correcting yourself and loving yourself and going through the rock polisher that is the faith.
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It's not a matter of having more faith. Jesus says it's a matter of using and learning and driving that boss of faith. I guess, to use the analogy way too far, that we're called to be. And I think in this day and age, each of us need to hear those words. It's in you. You don't have to go do something or go get something or be something that you're not. But you do need to live into that call to love the people that you're called to love, even the ones you maybe don't want to, even the ones you'd love to not love. Right? That's just faith.
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May we have the faith of our pets, the faith to stick with those of us who come home like a tyrant and love us through it and bring us down to reality and get us back to that core truth, which is that God so loved the world he gave his only Son so that all might become part of his light. God so loved the world. Is the miracle in that phrase. I have a hard time loving that world. I bet you have a hard time loving that world. But in this world, may love lead us to where we're called to go.
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