Question for those of you that have been part of the church scene for some years: If I say the phrase "church discipline" what picture comes to mind?
                "Church Discipline."

If you’re out of the old time Reformed tradition perhaps you envision elders sitting around a table, a young girl in front of them with her boyfriend, having been caught in inappropriate behaviour, a time of confession and red faces.
        Uneasy visits to the home by church officials.
        Doors slamming to unwelcome intruders.
        Excommunication.

Christian Disicipline - the topic of the Heidelberg Catechism, our church’s old and yet still reliable teaching guide on the truths of scripture.
        It’s a topic that makes the blood pressure of some go up, leaves others shaking their head, and a few walking away in dismay.

It’s also a dangerous topic.
        To dare to tread onto this ground and consider it; to dare to step out and practice it is dangerous. History is littered with the wrecks of lives who have been smashed to bits by clumsy, stormy uses of church discipline.
        HOWEVER
        It is EQUALLY dangerous not to tread on this ground; not to consider it; not daring to step out and practice it. There are plenty of folks around caught in delusion or confusion as they wander without any awareness that their spiritual radar guidance system is completely out of synch with eternal reality.

Church discipline -
        Dangerous to do it.
        Dangerous to avoid it.
                AND
        A topic that involves you. It’s not just for some fanatical parish priest. It’s not just for a group of solemn, grey-haired elders or deacons.

Give me 5 minutes to try and show how this is so.
If at that point you remain unconvinced, then please start to count the number of rows of bricks in the wall behind me, and let me know how many you find. I’ve never been able to get that number straight.
 

Church Discipline -
        What is it, ultimately?
        What is that critter named discipline??

You can see the word "disciple" in there - which comes from a root latin word meaning "pupil." The disciple is one who follows, learns from, and models her life after the Teacher. She disciples her existence. That is - she shapes, moulds, and strengthens her life so that it falls in line with the teaching and life of the Master. Sometimes this happens through adding and building up one or more areas of her thought and action. Sometimes it happens through pulling back, tying down, cutting out some part of her life. She practices discipline.

Discipline - we experience it in various areas of life.
        Athletics
        Music
        Education
        Business
                Each with their own set of training procedures, guides and techniques – what are sometimes called disciplines

Done occasionally by one’s self. But only occasionally. Generally when we try to follow a teacher and do it alone the results are mediocre at best. Which is why athletes find a coach, musicians get personal instructors, students of any sort look for a teacher to guide them and hold them to a training schedule.
        That’s why in the business world today more and more young executives who want to succeed are looking for a mentor – someone who will guide them through the rigours and unknown ground of disciplining their lives in appropriate ways.

Discipline.
Consider all of that, then, in the world of faith - spiritual discipline, discipline in the life of the Christian and in the life of the Church.

Go back with me to earliest times among the people of God, Old Testament times in the nation of Israel, and you discover that the people charged with the task of being the spiritual mentors,
        the guides, leaders, trend-setters,
were the priests.
        They were the go-betweens, representing god and His message to people, and bringing people to an encounter with God.
        Priests were a special group of people, special training, living special lives. They were to find the floundering people, questioning people, hurting people, wandering people, discouraged people and bring them back to God.

But that was way back then.
Things have changed.
Now it is New Testament time. We are in the era that Revelation 5 speaks about. Listen to these words of praise to Jesus:

"with your blood you purchases people for God from every tribe and language and group and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and......

A priest is anyone purchased by Jesus and owned by God.
Can you see where the label hangs, believer?
        On your chest!
        Welcome aboard!
        Welcome to the community of priests.

Welcome to a community of people charged with the task of being intermediaries between God and other people. Welcome to the community charged with bringing the wounded, wandering, floundering back to the Lord. Welcome to the community of people privileged to guide others along their faith training program.

If there is one theme that rings loud and clear through the entire New Testament, it is the theme of mutual responsibility. That no believer may echo the words of Esau, "Am I my brother or sister’s keeper" when it comes to matters of faith and life.
        Each stands accountable for the other.

Oh, yes, to be sure, the Bible does speak of people specially called, gifted, and appointed to provide leadership in this challenge. And depending on one’s faith tradition these men & women have different names:
        priests, deacons, elders, pastors, evangelists.

They are the pace-setters, the models, the guides for the rest of the Church. They show the rest how to do it. They encourage us to keep doing it, and they facilitate and coordinate the doing of it.
        But they DON’T do it alone.

The task of discipling, the task of discipline,
        Striving together towards full maturity of character and behaviour in Jesus
        Rejoicing with those who reach major milestones
        Calling others to join us in the race,
        Encouraging those who become tired,
        Redirecting those who have become disoriented
        Picking up those that have fallen in the ditch.....
.....the task of discipled living belongs to the entire community of priests.

Everyone in the community of priests - you and me included - is called to serve as an assistant shepherd. And as an assistant shepherd we follow the example of the lead shepherd, the Good Shepherd of John 10:
        - taking risks to ensure the well-being and health of the sheep
        - wanting the best for the sheep,
        - making sure the sheep have enough to eat and drink
        - giving them a warm, safe place to rest away from trouble
        - caring for the sheep when they’re hurt
        - taking great joy when they are healthy, content, growing.

Christian Discipline.

Remember the theme of our evening services in the summer of ‘99?
"One Another" - moving through the scriptures, exploring this theme:
        - care for one another
        - encourage one another
        - admonish one another
        - love one another
        - give to one another......
If you do a survey of these passages, what you find yourself encountering is the mandate, the job description if you will, facing the community of Christian priests. Your mandate as a believer. Mine.

And, as you do that survey, you’ll discover that laced through each of them is an attitude, the attitude of Christian priests as they go about the task of disciplining, of discipling -
        it’s the attitude of LOVING CONCERN.
        Loving concern that seeks the well-being of others.
        Loving concern that hurts when fellow believers stray and cannot allow them to silently continue in destructive patterns of living         that don’t conform to the pattern that God designed us to live in.
        Loving concern that affirms and reinforces God-honouring, upbuilding, wholesome ways of living.
        Loving concern that does not seek to vindictively move members to the outside or get rid of those that it finds a nuisance.
        Loving Concern.

Loving concern is the attitude behind Q/A 85. Right at the very beginning it speaks of "repeated and loving counsel...."
        Only 4 little words. But they are the most important words in that whole process. These four short words take up the bulk of the time and energy in the whole process. They are the words that energize the whole process of living together as Christian fellowship – ongoing support, care, encouragement. The "One Another", day by day, sort of thing.

And then comes the rest of the process described in Q/A 85.
The special times - recovery times when things go off the rails.
        That’s how it is in the world of athletic discipline, too. You have the regular process of training, practice and exercise. But then there are bruises, sprains, pulls and breaks. When injury occurs special therapy is needed. Recovery methods are employed. Restorative measures are sought to speed healing and bring things back in line.
        In the world of faith we have special measures for the times when spiritually things fall out of line and need to be brought back. Which is why we read from Matthew 18.

Matthew describes some steps for Christian discipline work:

Step One:
        Building, repairing and moving across relationship bridges to the other person we seek to serve as priest; trying, by way of these bridges, to draw the person away from his or her damage-causing travels and back into wholesome life with Jesus.
        This is the step that takes the most time; the step where we expend so much of our effort. It’s also the quietest step. Doesn’t make the headlines. Isn’t reported in the bulletin or shared publically.
        It’s the most effective step. The best work is often that done quietly, one on one.

But sometimes it has to go further. Step two:
        When blunt and willful, deliberate disobedience to God’s ways remain while the person still claims that all is well. Then the church leaders, with deep sorrow, and on behalf of Christ, have to challenge them and say,

"Your actions speak of your faith - and it is not well. You are outside the limits of Christ. You are effectively through your patterns and fruits of living showing yourself to be outside of the Body of Christ."

Notice that this applies to those who are part of the faith community, who claim to be members in good standing and truth, and yet live something very obviously different so that it is a public, loud case of double-speak:
        Saying one thing with their voice
        but another with their actions.
Then the community of priests comes to them and says, "What gives." The bluff is called. You can’t have the cake and eat it too. It is saying, "Perhaps there’s some religious game you want to play, but God is not fooled. We cannot play along." It is refusing to aid and abet a person’s sense of spiritual confidence when there ought not be any.

Which, as I hope we understand, is far different than coming down with a sledgehammer on everyone we find who is struggling in their life in some way;
        everyone who doesn’t meet up to some standard that we in our minds lay down as being the bottom line.

The desire of the Christian community of priests is to guide, however possible, that person back to the Lord. The guiding takes many different forms - some painful, even surgical; some joyful.

And through the whole process, conducted in loving concern, is a deep dependence on the Holy Spirit - because ultimately it is not we, the priests, who bring about change in peoples’ lives. That is the job of the Spirit.
        Our job is to model the loving concern of Jesus, to provide the setting within which He carries out the miraculous sculpting of new lives.
        Our job is to pray, with and for each other; to pray long and hard; to pray expectantly; believing that the Spirit will bring change.

That is our job. A job that is, as we said at the beginning, filled with danger and the possibility of error, for those who practice it.
        But even more dangerous for those who ignore it. For then the sheep scatter. Then they are easy prey for wolves and thieves. Then we will be left empty-handed when called to give an account to the Good Shepherd.
And for those times we fail?
For they DO come, for all of us.
        It is certain that somewhere we will make an error in judgement, or be overwhelmed by our own circumstances, or blinded by resentment or anger or want of personal gain, or feeling too tired, or.....
        Then it’s good to remember that the Lord is our Good Shepherd, too, and that He has placed other priests to guide us. And that He, the Great Shepherd, is also the sacrificial lamb. He gave His life as atonement for our sin - including discipling sins.
        He grants new beginnings - also in discipline.

And in that freedom we can dare to walk the process, move tto the next step, and continue to try.

For He restores.
        He blesses.
                He empowers.