Carbon Copies

Does anyone besides me remember the days of the carbon copy? When you had to put a sheet between the pages to that your typewriter would be able to  make a copy for you. We have come a long way since then and I am thankful for that.

Now, we can scan copies and fill them out, or alter them, or just leave them as is.

Jesus calls us to make disciples. But are these disciples carbon copies? And if so, copies of what?

I think a lot of churches want to make copies rather than disciples. Copies are comfortable. We can look at a copy and see if it looks like the rest very easily. We can control the copies by what we put into the copier.

But I don't think making disciples means making copies of ourselves. If it did, we wouldn't need much of the New Testament, because much of the New Testament teaches us how to deal with the problems that are created by our differences.

I am not a carbon copy. I need the New Testament. Jesus did not create or expect carbon copies in his disciples.

I think Jesus came to break the copy machine. Good thing too, because I have dealt with copiers, and they are a pain to maintain.

Have I missed the point?

For some reason, I have been thinking of the Rich Young Ruler this morning. He was a man who came to Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.

I think his premise was off from the beginning, and Jesus was trying to show him this. First, Jesus says, "Just keep doing what you have been doing. Obey the commandments, follow the law."

But the man was smart enough to know that this was not enough, at least in Matthew's version. He told Jesus, "All these I have kept (I have kept the law), what do I still lack?"

Jesus responds by telling him 2 things, one of which we focus on and the other we miss.

Matthew 19:21   Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

That first part of the answer hits us hard. We consider it (giving away all that we have to the poor) and then want to explain it away. "Well, Jesus doesn't ask that of everyone," or "Jesus just wants us to have a loose grip on our stuff," or "Jesus was speaking that way to this man because he had a problem with wealth, but I can handle it." Care to add your favorite?

It is a section of Scripture that we don't want to talk about a lot. But I think the lessons are huge.

First, try as we might, we cannot do anything to earn our salvation. Going to church, praying, tithing, helping little old ladies across the street, been there and done that. There must be something more. What is missing?

Second, Stuff can and does get in the way. Our lives are cluttered and messy. They are full of wazgunnuz. I was gonna pray about this, I was gonna read that book, I was gonna go to church today. It's not that the wazgunnuz save us, but they do reveal our hearts. When we don't get to our wazgunnuz, we reveal what is important to us by what we have done. What if our lives sounded like this, "I was gonna what that show, but I was praying, I was gonna take a nap but I needed to read another chapter of that book, I was gonna play another round of golf, but I remembered that I wanted to take some of that clutter down to the Christian Center. I think our wazgunnuz reveal a lot about us.

Third, The thing that is missing is following Jesus. Even selling all that we have misses the point if we do not follow Christ! This seems obvious, but I think it is what most Christians are really missing. I wuzgunna follow Jesus, but I was too busy getting rid of my stuff, that takes a long time you know.

Following Jesus. Like Mary, who sat at his feet while Martha was so worried about having everything in place. Maybe we don't have to give it all away, maybe we just need to let all that other stuff take a back seat to loving Jesus.