You Can't Spell Discipline without D-i-s-c-i-p-l-e

It is Wednesday.  Ash Wednesday to be specific.  It's a time that once upon a time, was observed worldwide by millions.  Though many still do observe it, the significance and meaning have faded for a host of reasons.

It's time to reclaim it.

       Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent - specifically a time of inward reflection, penitence, recognition of our own sinful, mortal state.  Simply put:  we recall only too well that we are human, and not God.

       For today, the Title’s the theme.  It’ll be our theme throughout Lent as well.  It’s why this year's imposition of ashes, you will hear “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.”  The Gospel calls us to be disciples.  Well you know what that means, or at least you should: It means we pray daily, we worship together weekly, we read our Bibles regularly, we share the Gospel with others, even as we are holding ourselves and one another accountable to God’s Word and instruction, and we give generously of all that we have and all that we are.  I know.  Easier said than done.

But if we are talking about being disciples...  If we are following the traditions of Lent and reflecting on our own mortality and our own unworthiness to stand righteous and just before God, AND we are also continually reminding ourselves that by the grace of God we are called to be disciples, meaning we follow Jesus and do not lead ourselves... we must necessarily also then talk about discipline.

You see, the two go hand in hand.  You cannot be a disciple without discipline.  And though we can talk the good talk all we want about the marks or habits of discipleship, that talk means nothing without the discipline to follow through.

Discipline is one such Lenten emphasis.  It is why among some that Lenten disciplines are often discussed and undertaken this time of year: such as the giving up of certain foods, fasting, efforts to eliminate bad behaviors from our lives, and the like.  But Lenten disciplines, like the Gospel itself, are meant not just for certain times, but to be carried out the whole year and lived.

That is what makes Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent so critical - we truly are a mess!  All we need do is look at the world around us to see that it is so: Radical Islam carrying out the tenets of their religion and executing not just Christians and wanting to exterminate Jews, but killing anyone who disagrees with their wild ideology.  Governments that are clueless and self serving, a world that we are being anything BUT stewards of, and so on.  But I don’t need to remind you of that.  Or at least I shouldn’t need to.

We recognize all of this not out of some sort of perverse self-debasement or deprecation, but to drive home what truly ought to be seen as radical in us: the love of God in Christ Jesus.  There’s a reason Lent is before Easter: Once the disciplines of Lent “conclude,” and carries us then into discipleship where we follow the living God, we see just how radical and amazing the love of God in Christ Jesus is for us  - as the song goes, “Amazing love, how can it be, that you my King should die for me?”

The challenge is not to just mindlessly carry out such “disciplines” during Lent.  Just because someone else does them is not a valid reason to do them in your life either.  As my father would often say, “If your friend jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?”  Lenten disciplines should be genuine, and should always be framed through our desire to be disciples - to follow Jesus - no matter how much out of our comfort zones it takes us.

So be disciplined this Lent.  And let it carry beyond into the entire year.  And may it be in accordance with God's Word, that our lives are lived in a manner worthy of the radical grace of God, that claims us despite our own unworthiness.