The Seldom Seen Kid

This weekend I spent two hours in the pouring rain watching Elbow play to 10,000 people next to a very large telescope. The lead singer, Guy Garvey, is a bit of an icon of mine. I don't know whether it is his northern charm and wit, his ability to write stunningly beautiful lyrics or his ability to make a whole field of people laugh despite the torrential downpour, but there is something instantly attractive about Guy Garvey. He somehow manages to make bird watching cool (again?), to design a real ale for his band and to bring a grown man to tears as well as being possibly the coolest man alive.

The thing is, when Guy Garvey recommends music, I can't help but listen to it. I like to model myself on him. There is an archetypal 'Elbow fan' that enjoys good beer, gigs and anything northern. And that's what I aim for. Guy Garvey is hardly short of disciples.

As I read about the need to re-embody Christ as a Church (in Alan Hirsch's Re-Jesus), I am struck that the concept of discipleship is hardly alien to our culture. It is hardly alien to myself. I have an Elbow hip flask, I even proposed to my fiance with an Elbow song playing in the background. We see disciples everywhere. Bieberians, Beyonceians, Cockaynians, our culture is littered with followers. And what they do is simple- they attempt to embody the thing that they follow. They dress like them, speak like them, act like them, model their style on them.

Following Guy Garvey is simple- you listen to the music he recommends, you drink beer, you act northern, you tune into his radio show every Sunday night. Yet we make following Jesus this really weird thing. It couldn't be simpler.

Hirsch & Frost say put it like this:

"Faith...is more like the supreme gamble in which we stake our lives upon a conviction. It can't be reduced to belief in a set of propositions. It is a profoundly existential act in which we are fully and personally involved"

Christianity is in essence lived out. It is the thing that impacts your every day, your decisions at a micro level. It cannot merely be a belief in an abstract system which gifts you a magic ticket to paradise. If we fail to grasp this we will struggle to ever understand the concept of discipleship. What you do matters- and our call as followers of Jesus is to do what he would do; to embody Christ in our culture and situations. The sad truth is, that we seldom see all out true disciples of Christ amongst us.

You can study all the complex theology you like, you can be expert on Scripture, you can remodel and replant the Church a million times, you can write excellent worship music (well probably not), you can speak the most eloquent prayers imaginable but unless you embody Christ in your daily actions it is pointless.
 

Jesus calls us to 'make disciples'- in other words 'people who follow'. As I write this, I think of how lacking I am in areas of my life. How little discipline I have, how little I seek to bless the poor and needy, how little I attempt to embody Christ in my every day existence. Just opening up the beginning of Matthew and reading the sermon on the mount inspires me to live so much better than I do. It strikes me that if we are to 'make people who follow', a good place to start is with ourselves.

The need to re-discover Jesus and the values he stands for couldn't be greater. The need to become embodiers of Jesus couldn't be greater. We aren't lacking clever ideas and complex institutions- we are lacking this one single thought: Jesus Christ has the power to radically change everything in his path, if only we are prepared to allow him.