To Follow Jesus, we begin with community. Any study of the Gospels will illuminate the simple fact that Jesus spent time with people. He spent time with the disciples, and he spent time at the tables of people. Jesus knew that community was not only essential to the Christian life, but essential to human life entirely.

The local parish has been the “life-blood” of Sojourn Montrose. We, as a community of believers, covenant to seek Jesus together, serve together, eat together, play together, pray together, cry together, grieve together, worship together, labor together, and, together, invite our neighbors to join us in this life-long endeavor. We are a family of adopted sons and daughters, and we belong to one another. We share our gifts and resources with each other, and our neighbors. As a community, we enjoy a place and role in God’s ultimate plan of redemption.

To Follow Jesus, we must pray. Jesus spent time in deep personal prayer and spent time praying for and with his people. On the cross, in the most intimate moments of suffering, Jesus turns to the father in prayer. To follow him, we must learn prayer from him. 

Jesus teaches us how and what to pray, assuming we will pray. God’s people have always prayed, and God has always heard their prayers and responded lovingly. At Sojourn Montrose, corporate prayer has been a rhythm of our church life since we began. This month, we hope to grow together in our prayer life to experience God's power, sit in God's love, and participate in God's work.

To Follow Jesus when it comes to Scripture, we must first realize our teacher was a master of the OId Testament. On the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24) we see that Jesus, while walking with two down-trodden disciples, interprets the Old Testament scriptures entirely. Moreover, he shows them how they point to Himself!

Many of us find the bible hard to understand and thus intimidating. This is certainly understandable, and in fact 2 Peter 3:16 says some parts of the scriptures are “hard to understand.” But, when we spend time in the word, we spend time hearing from and learning from God in Christ. To quote a professor, much of the scriptures are “shallow enough for a child to splash in and deep enough for an elephant to drown in.” No one, outside of Christ, will plumb the depths of the mysteries of the Word of God. And yet, the word is open and accessible to all. 

Sabbath comes from the word shabbat in Hebrew, which most literally means to stop. But it can also mean to rest, to delight, and even to worship. Sabbath is ultimately about how we manage our time. The one thing we can’t make more of. The one thing that everyone is constrained by. If we look at the Ten Commandments, Sabbath is also the command that our culture is the most proud of breaking. Following Jesus not only means we believe he is who he said he is, the “Lord of The Sabbath” but also engaging in the sabbath practice as he did!

Dan Allenander says: We live in a dark day, but it is still rare for someone to publically tout his or her violation of the Ten Commandments, with one exception—our debasement with busyness 

This month is all about being a people who lean to Sabbath, and to fight against our culture’s obsession with busyness, replacing it with the rest we can find in Jesus.

In our society, the joy of music has become a passive pursuit. Music is something that most of us listen to rather than something we create. But as Christians, we are called to raise our voices to The Lord in song (Colossians 3:15). We only have two recorded instances of Jesus singing: the first, is the night of his betrayal, at the last supper. The second is in Hebrews 2:12, where we are told that Jesus sings over the congregation. In order to Follow Jesus, we should gather and join our Lord in song.

And of course we do this every Sunday together. But for some of us, our voices have atrophied. We mouth the words in case anyone happens to be watching but we don't dare raise our volume. And it's no wonder that we feel awkward singing loudly when our conception of 'musician' has been shaped by the polished recordings of the best singers on earth. But what if, in the context of worship, we could redefine what it means to "sing well"? What if our goal was to sing confidently, to sing boldly, to sing with abandon? What if "singing well" was more about posture, and less about pitch?

In the Kingdom of God, what matters most is not the melody, or the timbre, or the rhythm of our worship; it is the object of our worship. And when God is the object of our worship, our song is perfected. So this month, for the theme of worship, we will focus specifically on singing and recognize it as a spiritual discipline, a practice that forms us further into holiness, into rest, into joy, and into the image of our savior. 

Few of Jesus’ teachings are more radical, counterintuitive, and disorienting to our cultural assumptions than what Jesus has to say about money and generosity. We constantly hear the Western formula of “more money = more happiness.” But Jesus boldly claims that happiness is found not in the accumulation of wealth, but in a deeply relational life of giving and love. If we want to Follow Jesus well, we have to hear what he says about money. 

Acts 20:35 reminds us that Jesus said “It is more blessed to give than to receive”

When studying the life of Jesus, we find that he spent a surprising amount of time alone. Of course, Jesus spends a ton of time with people. But Jesus knew that time alone was vital to accomplishing his ministry. 

We have already discussed time in Prayer in September, and time in God’s word in October. Now, to our daily or weekly rhythms, we want to learn to Follow Jesus into the place of Solitude. 

When Jesus discusses fasting in the sermon on the Mount, he says “When you fast…”, indicating that fasting was a regular discipline for first-century Jews. Indeed, many instances of fasting are recorded in the Old and New Testaments. And yet, in the modern American Evangelical tradition, fasting has all but disappeared. But we should remember that God created us as physical bodies and the biblical imperative of fasting indicates that God intends to form us, not just through our minds and hearts, but through our bellies as well! 

When we fast we pray with our bodies, offering ourselves to God in worship. We break the power of the flesh. And while the beginning of a fast may be uncomfortable, we often reach a point of clarity where we are better able to discern the voice of The Spirit and take joy in his presence. And just like every other discipline, the more we do it the more natural it becomes. So let’s fast regularly, prayerfully, and expectantly. 

Since most of us are new to fasting it may be best to start by just skipping a meal once a week. After some practice this try going a whole day without food, or even multiple days in a row once you have developed a more regular practice. Like many other disciplines, fasting is a practice that we can engage in together. Throughout this month we should look for ways to fast together as a parish.    

Can we fast from Netflix/Social Media/Amazon? While there is certainly something to be gained from cutting back on bad habits, doing so is not in the spirit of a biblical fast.  

Parish Leaders - it may be important in your Parish to address the fact that some people have a disordered relationship with food. If anyone in your parish is currently struggling with this it may be wise for them to abstain from any fasting. Even those who have recovered from disordered eating may need to tread lightly. But rather than being prescriptive here, we ask that you use your best judgment to support anyone who is struggling with this. The pastors are also available to talk through any uncertainties with you.     

For much of church history the church fasted twice a week - Wednesdays and Fridays - mimicking the Passion story of Jesus being betrayed on Wednesday and killed on Friday. Additionally, the season of Lent was initially observed by the church as a long-term fast, with breaks occurring every Sunday as “mini-Easters”.  These illustrations demonstrate the regularity of the practice, and how it was used to connect the church to Jesus. 

Service is at the heart of the “kingdom” way of life. To serve others with the gifts, resources, and love God has given us in Christ is to move toward Christlikeness, since Jesus came to serve us. The good news of the Gospel is that God has come to serve us so that we can take hold of his life, forgiveness, and blessings forever. On the cross, Jesus counted us as more significant than his comfort, safety, and dignity. Serving others is the cruciform love of the Kingdom, and yet we can only truly serve once we understand our humble position as recipients of God’s grace through the service of Jesus.

Those who Follow Jesus will naturally serve those around themselves. It can’t be helped. But as Christians, we can study what it means to truly serve and grow in the ways of Jesus. 

At the start of this journey, we discussed that as a community, we enjoy a place and role in God’s ultimate plan of redemption. At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when he calls the first disciples, he tells Peter and Andrew, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” In many ways, this quote from Matthew’s Gospel summarizes our entire endeavor! We follow Jesus to know him. We follow Jesus to be transformed. We follow Jesus unto salvation. And we follow Jesus so that others may follow Jesus as well – it has always been the Lord’s plan. If community, prayer, scripture, sabbath, worship, generosity, solitude, fasting, and service, are ways in which we grow deeper in our faith, our “witness” is the “show and tell.” “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” (Psalm 107:2); by sharing who the Lord is, and what he has done, we nourish our faith, we acknowledge the Lord’s power of transformation, and we participate in his work of redemption. When we testify, the Spirit uses the casting of our words and deeds to catch, to gather men and women into the fold of the Almighty.