The action learning cycle of discipleship

Here's the sermon I shared at St Mary’s Langdon Hills and St Catherine’s Wickford this morning:

Last Sunday, our Gospel reading was the beginning of Matthew 10 where Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and sent them out to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim the good news that ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near’. In my sermon on that reading, I reflected that, contrary to popular belief, we do not have to be perfect to do God's work because Jesus chose ordinary people - fisherman, tax collectors, political zealots - and turned their weaknesses into strengths.

This week’s Gospel reading (Matthew 10:24-39) continues Jesus’ instructions to his disciples before they leave for their mission and this portion of Jesus’ teaching reflects his sense that he is sending them out into difficult, conflicted times to be like sheep into the midst of wolves. Jesus gives the disciples radical instructions for a difficult time. 

Being a disciple of Jesus in today’s materialistic and conflicted world is not an easy choice. It means going counter to the culture in we live and opposition sometimes results, as Bob Dylan described in a song called ‘Property of Jesus’:

‘Go ahead and talk about him because he makes you doubt
Because he has denied himself the things that you can't live without
Laugh at him behind his back just like the others do
Remind him of what he used to be when he comes walking through

He's the property of Jesus
Resent him to the bone
You got something better
You've got a heart of stone’

Dylan experienced that for himself when, for a time, he took the decision to only sing his new Gospel songs in concert and experienced vitriol from many long-standing fans as a result.

So, we bear in mind the challenges of following Jesus in a culture that is focused on other things but rather than being focused on our relationship to the world, I want us instead to focus on what Jesus says about our relationship with God and how those things relate to baptism.

In the middle of today’s passage, we heard Jesus say: ‘Do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.’ As Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, he saw heaven opening, the Spirit coming down on him like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” As he was baptised, he was immediately affirmed as God’s Son. It is easy for us to think that that only applies to Jesus; that it was a special word spoken by God the Father especially to him and, on one level, it was. But the Bible makes it quite clear that Jesus came into our world and laid down his life to make us one with God so that, as Christians, we are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, members of the same family – God’s family – and co-heirs with Jesus of everything that he has.

Listen to what St Paul says about this in Romans 8. 14-17: God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him …” We are reminded that we are, each one, a child of God, a brother or sister of Jesus, we are loved, we are valued, we are blessed.

Next, Jesus said that those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. This, again, is a reminder of how salvation comes and an insight into baptism. As the baptism liturgy reminds us Jesus has told us that to enter the kingdom of heaven we must be born again of water and the Spirit, and has given us baptism as the sign and seal of this new birth. Here we are washed by the Holy Spirit and made clean. Here we are clothed with Christ, dying to sin that we may live his risen life.

The symbolism of baptism is of being submerged under water as a sign of dying to our old way of life in which we live for our purposes and ends and then of being raised up into a new way of life with God where we are focused on God’s ways, rather than our own. That is what Jesus is saying here. If we find our life by living life our way and for ourselves, we will lose all that is precious and eternal in life but if we lose our life by giving our life to God, then we discover all that is precious and eternal in life. Baptism is the beginning of that way of life but it is also something that we need to practice day in and day out repenting and returning to the Lord whenever we fall into sin.

Finally, Jesus says it is enough for disciples to be like their teacher and slaves like their master. This is a reminder that we are those who follow in the footsteps of Jesus and are to be his body – his eyes, ears, hands and feet – in this world. We are to be those who are led by Jesus’ Spirit to ask what would Jesus do in every situation that we encounter and do the kinds of things that Jesus would of have do, remembering that we cannot simply repeat what he did, as every situation is different and needs a different response, but are to respond to each situation we encounter in his Spirit.

To do this, we need to spend time in his company speaking with him in prayer and to sit at his feet to hear his teaching by spending time in the Gospel stories which show us what he did and what he taught. Having do so, we then go to put into practice what we have seen and heard, before then returning to sit at Jesus’ feet once more in a cycle of action learning where we reflect, learn, plan and act before repeating the pattern of learning and growth.

While disciples may do greater things than the teacher, in that they may do more and different things, they themselves will never surpass what Jesus has to teach because Jesus is God and has an infinite store of wisdom.

This is how our lives are to be lived as Christians (with baptism showing us how this begins and is sustained). Foundational to our Christian life and understanding is the realisation that we are loved by God and are precious – of value – to him. This is why we come to God and why we stay with him. Then, in response, we lay down our lives on his behalf through service of others and by dying to self through repentance and return. As his disciples, we begin an ongoing action learning cycle in which we look at and learn from Jesus, practice what we have seen and heard, then return to learn more. May it be so for each of us. Amen.

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Bob Dylan - Property of Jesus.

Bob Dylan: Springtime in New York

Bob Dylan's Springtime in New York provides an object lesson in the emotive and in the moment nature of much music criticism which nevertheless then shapes responses to the music for decades to come.

Responses to Dylan's Shot of Love were along this lines of Greil Marcus' 'what is this shit?' review of Self Portrait. Shot of Love was seen primarily as a continuation of Dylan's two Gospel albums when in retrospect it is clear that the album is a transition to his next album Infidels. Infidels itself was received as a return to form and as a secular album in contrast to the three earlier Gospel albums. The fact that Infidels is drenched in biblical imagery and allusion means that, while different from Dylan's two Gospel albums, it is lazy, inaccurate and misleading to describe Infidels as a secular album.

There are two main changes to Dylan's work as documented on #16 in the Bootleg Series. One to do with recording techniques, the other to do with the way in which he wrote about faith. 

Dylan has regularly refreshed his work and inspiration by returning to the roots of the music he loves. His first album mapped those roots by including blues, country, folk, and gospel. The Basement Tapes, Self Portrait, the two 1990s acoustic albums, and the series drawing on the Great American Songbook all represent moments of returning to his roots music. While not predominantly covers albums, Dylan's Gospel albums also involve a similar return to a genre which is part of his roots. Gospel is entwined through the blues, country & western and folk music, as well as forming its own genre. Rock and roll emerges out of blues, country and gospel in particular which is why when the Million Dollar Quartet of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash were recorded in an impromptu jam session what they sang was primarily Gospel.

Dylan's Gospel period represents a period of focus on both the genre of Gospel music and the fundamentalist Dispensationalism of many US Evangelicals but biblical imagery and themes are not limited to this period. Instead, the Bible informs much of Dylan's work throughout his career both before and after his Gospel period. In particular, the focus on apocalypse which characterises much of what he writes during the Gospel period and which is, in this period, connected to Dispensationalism similarly extends throughout his career and is generally explored through biblical imagery but without being aligned to Dispensationalism in the same way.

The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981 prompted a critical re-evaluation of the Gospel period with the recognition that the reaction to his Gospel concerts was on a par to his going electric, his band in this period was one of the best with which he played, and his songwriting, although simpler and more direct than in some other periods, was often exceptional. 

By ending with music from the Shot of Love period Trouble No More leads into Springtime in New York. Tracks left off Shot of Love and Infidels were among the highlights of Biograph and The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, so Springtime in New York returns us to a period when Dylan began to embrace the reality that his best work was often missing from the albums he released following his Gospel period. It is as though the extreme reaction to his Gospel records and concerts unsettled Dylan to the extent that he was trying to judge what would play well with his audience as opposed to simply following his own path regardless.

This showed itself in two ways. First, following Shot of Love, he abandoned his practice of playing live in the recording studio by adopting the practice of recording by working with contemporary producers and then current production techniques and sounds. This approach worked well on Infidels but led to Empire Burlesque being both over-produced and mired in the sounds of the 80's. 

Second, Dylan left classic songs such as Caribbean Wind, The Groom's Still Waiting at the Altar, Angelina, Blind Willie McTell, Foot of Pride, and New Danville Girl off these albums. While each album included other classics such as Every Grain of Sand, Jokerman, I and I, and Dark Eyes, had the songs left off these albums been included the reaction to the albums as a whole would have been enhanced. In addition, these dense, wordy yet illuminating songs would have made it clearer that, in this period, Dylan was moving away from the simplistic and direct expression of faith that characterised the Gospel albums to songs where his exploration of faith was both more allusive and open. 

A song like ‘Sweetheart Like You’ from Infidels illustrates this well, as we see here a wonderfully contemporary depiction of Christ's incarnation in a song that was consistently viewed by reviewers as an example of Dylan's misogyny. The song actually expresses the exact reverse of misogyny being written from the perspective of a misogynist male employee in an all-male workplace that is literally a hell of a place in which to work. To be in there requires the doing of some evil deed, having your own harem, playing till your lips bleed. There's only one step down from there and that's the ironically named 'land of permanent bliss.'

Into this perverted and prejudiced environment comes a woman, the sweetheart of the song's title. She is a Christ figure; a sinless figure entering into a world of sin and experiencing abuse and betrayal (is 'that first kiss' a Judas kiss?) from those she encounters and to whom she holds out the possibility of a different kind of existence. Dylan makes his equation of the woman with Christ explicit by quoting directly from Jesus: 'They say in your father's house, there's many mansions' (John 14: 2).

The song's narrator is confused and challenged by her appearance. He wants to dismiss her out of hand and back to his stereotypical role for her - 'You know, a woman like you should be at home / That's where you belong / Watching out for someone who loves you true / Who would never do you wrong' - but he can't simply dismiss her as she is really there in front of him and so he begins to wonder, 'What's a sweetheart like you doin' in a dump like this?' All the time he asks that question there is the possibility that he may respond to her presence without abuse or dismissal.

So, as was the case with Trouble No More, with Springtime in New York, The Bootleg Series represents a significant re-evaluation of a period of Dylan's work which had largely been written off (Shot of Love and Empire Burlesque) or thoroughly misinterpreted (Infidels) by those who wanted back the Dylan that they thought they had possessed rather than the Dylan who was actually evolving in front of them. Springtime reveals the inadequate nature of much initial response to a complex changing artist like Dylan while also showing that such initial misunderstandings of his work by becoming the standard response actively prevented understanding of the work until challenged by unreleased songs the quality and spirituality of which could not be denied.    

Read my posts of Dylan and apocalypse here, Trouble No More here, Dylan as Pilgrim here, and all my posts featuring Dylan here.

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Bob Dylan - Lord, Protect My Child.