Season 4 - Episode 35

To listen to an audio version of this post, visit www.covenantchurch.ca/podcasts/covenant-weekly.

The Roman Catholic Church just elected a new pope. Electing a Pope is interesting because the Cardinals who were candidates for the position have very different perspectives on many things. They are different enough that one could get confused about what it means to be Roman Catholic. Looking at the church beyond the Roman Catholic Church, the diversity among people who claim the name Christian can be confusing or even overwhelming. Some people with this name are active initiators of aggressive nationalist and expansionist movements globally, and others are strong proponents of caring for refugees and immigrants and peace movements. Some are at the forefront of opposing many “social justice” issues, and others are at the forefront of actively supporting the same issues. Some advocate for understanding everything in the Bible as literally, scientifically factual, and others oppose reading the Bible as a source of scientific claims. Our Be In Christ Church of Canada isn’t immune to the tensions between different views about what it means to be Christian. The value we’re looking at today is, in many ways, the central value for us that pulls in all others and guides us in our discernment. It is the one that transcends all the differences. In this Covenant Weekly for May 13, 2025 we are looking at the value of Following Jesus.

Following Jesus - We value wholehearted obedience to Jesus Christ through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit.

In the book Compelling Convictions, Perry Engle suggests that, “Following Jesus is at the very heart of our BIC core values–the sum of our identity and the core of our calling.”

Jesus came into the world as the fully human incarnation of the divine. He embodied - he imaged - God in the flesh. In doing so, he did what we were created to do from the very beginning. And he said, “Follow me.”
This isn’t a rote obedience to a checklist of assignments. This is a process of learning to embody God in ways that align with how Jesus did. It takes time, shared discernment, commitment to a wisdom that is higher than ours, and a trust that our God, who is love, is concerned for our best interest, not just in the present moment, but for eternity. It takes bold steps, humility, confession, repentance, love, grace, and mercy.

To get there, we need more than just “Believing the Bible.” We need to centre that belief on Jesus. We need to listen to his words, watch his ways, lean into his sacrificial death, and receive his resurrection life. But that isn’t easy.

That is why Jesus said, “I will send you an advocate…the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.” (Jn 14) He didn’t leave us alone to follow in our own strength. The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, was and is given to us to guide us, strengthen us, sustain us, and lead us on the way. This doesn’t mean that it is easy to discern how to follow Jesus. (Although, admittedly, sometimes we make it way more complicated than it needs to be.) But we have the Spirit who binds us together, leading us in this Jesus way.

We also sometimes put too much pressure on ourselves to be “certain” we’re discerning things correctly. I take comfort in the example of the early church. They were debating how to incorporate Gentiles into the body of Christ, and it was contentious! This was a more deeply rooted religious conflict than anything we face today. So they gathered and wrestled and debated and prayed. The outcome of this council had monumental consequences. And at the end of it, James stood up and said, “We decided…for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us….” I love that sensitivity and humility. They root the biggest collective church decision recorded in their story in something that seems good to the Holy Spirit and to them, based on their conversation, debate, testimony, and prayer.

More often than not, that is what following Jesus through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit looks like. It looks like discerning what seems best based on collective wisdom, dialogue, conversation, and prayer. And then saying, “Yes” through our active response. Just like the first disciples did when Jesus called them and said, “Follow me.”