"The Risk of Discipleship"
Adair Lassonde
Sunday, March 16th, 2003

Don’t you just love that first reading by Andre Obey! Talk about risk! Noah was some disciple! Probably a bit more of a disciple and a bit more risky than most of us could manage. But there is something of Noah and his gutsiness and daring about all of us. And that is what I’d like to reflect on this morning.

Basically, I’ve lived a charmed life. I’ve had no life threatening illnesses, no huge traumas, nor have I had extraordinary or bizarre experiences that were life changing.

And yet my name is Adaire! But, I guess in some ways, that is what I am, A darer! We all are darers, risk-takers.

Growing up on the East Side of St. Paul in the 40s and 50s had its own risks. I grew up on a block with what we called the “beer joint” on the corner, the train tracks on the other end, and the streetcar barns across the street. My siblings and friends and I played hide and seek in the streetcars, hopped the slow moving train to the lumber yard a few blocks away to play yet another game of hide and seek. We also tried to get a nickel or dime off one or other of the men who would stagger out of the beer joint. Now, that childhood had a number of foolish physical risks attached to it, but the risk of discipleship is a whole ‘nother thing.

We, as followers of Jesus, his disciples, are signs of Him in this world. As we grow up, mature, and get older, we come to know what we believe about this Jesus, what we can be committed to carry to others because we are His disciples. I think that being a disciple of Jesus means that we have to follow what we know we have to do.

I knew that I wanted to be a nun since I was about 13 years old. And I didn’t enter the convent until I was 18, so my high school years were focused on everything that was not academic…cheerleading, drama club, Girls Athletic Association, mixed chorus, Sodality, and Bill. For some of those 3 years that Bill and I were “an item,” I didn’t know that he knew that I wanted to be a nun. My Butinsky Aunt cornered him early on in our relationship at some family gathering and gave him the news. By the time I was to leave home and go to the convent, I had gone through some pretty difficult decision -making. But I knew what I had to do. And Bill didn’t stand in the way, nor did he get married until 6 years later, the year that I took Final Vows.

I look back at that now, and can appreciate the risks involved in that whole scene. I was somehow led to doing that which I knew I had to do. I wasn’t sure what would come from following my Call, either. (Remember two weeks ago when in Ric Rosow’s homily he mentioned how he had to go to the Middle East with the Fellowship of Reconciliation delegation? He only found out while he was there that he was to be a messenger for the Israeli and Palestinian people by bringing their stories back to us. Ric was acting out his role as disciple when he shared his experiences through his homily.)

I maintain that discipleship is acted out from the values we’ve developed and the conscience we’ve acquired because of those values. We cannot NOT act on a belief that comes from a well-formed conscience. Some of the more dramatic examples of this are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran theologian that George mentioned last week. Because of his moral courage during the reign of Hitler, he was shot to death. Thomas More lost his head because he would not agree with King Henry VIII. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake because she could not go against the mission she believed she had to accomplish. They all were followers of Jesus, who by the way, was hung on a cross.

Our discipleship may not be as spectacular, but it needs to be, nevertheless, one that adapts the message of Jesus. I think we do discipleship things all the time. But because discipleship sounds like a “saint” thing, we dismiss our actions as those of disciples.

When I think of who Jesus was, I see a healer…we can do that!
I think of his compassion for the widow, the stranger, the less fortunate…we can do that!
I think of how he forgave the sinner…we can do that!
I think of how he challenged the politics and religious rules of his time in the name of justice…we can do that!

Last week George suggested 3 ways that we are called to be disciples of Jesus:

1. By being proponents of peace and nonviolence. Have you written to your senators and representatives? Have you spoken to friends and family about your views of peace and nonviolence? Have you placed a peace sign on your lawn (or should I say snowbank)? Have you signed a petition? Have you picked up something to read that would broaden your view? Have you paid attention to bringing peace to your personal relationships? Have you prayed about this? Is that not discipleship?
2. By being compassionate, identifying with the other. Have you given of your time to be a ray of hope to someone? Have you used your talent to make someone’s day a bit better? Have you given of your means to one more unfortunate than you? Have you offered help to someone? Have you made a phone call to alleviate someone’s loneliness? Have you prayed about this? Is that not discipleship?
3. By being an advocate for equality of all peoples. Have you spoken up against an ethnic slur, or an ethnic joke? Have you affirmed inclusive language, using it consistently yourself? Have you acted on behalf of an immigrant, have you spoken against the judgment of others who are different from you, or are living in poverty? Have you prayed about this? Is that not discipleship?

In the position I have as the director of the Office for Separated and Divorced, I have to swallow hard some days with declarations that come from the curia that have an effect on the people I serve. Sending off a nasty letter would be my first impulse, but I know that the ministry to separated and divorced would be damaged and compromised if I took such an action. These are hard decisions in a time when there is more tightening up than in previous years. I have to keep in mind what would be best for this population, and what would be best is that there are services for them, rather than none at all.

The ordinary and daily things of life have their challenge to us of being disciples of Jesus. We often don’t see them for what they are…opportunities to be signs of Him in this world. We need to be loyal to what we believe in the large and small things in life. Like Noah, we all have a rudder issue. And sometimes we are asked to go without it. Let us pray for each other in our “rudderlessness!”