Celebration of Discipline

"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5)

Hmm what does that mean? What does the word meek mean? And where does it fit into discipline? These were the questions of this weeks Adult Sunday School class. 

Our focus for the day was: 
A disciple of Jesus is one who learns, who is teachable, and who seeks to follow. Learning requires discipline and humility to open the door to new discoveries and experiences. 
First thing we noticed was that the words disciple and discipline both start with the same suffix. This was interesting, I wonder how many of you ever looked at the two words and thought of them as being similar in meaning? I know none of us had really ever made the connection between those two words. It kind of makes sense when you think about it as you probably really have to have discipline to be a disciple of Jesus, you  have to be strong and able to stand up to the criticism and doubters out in the world. 
While we were still pondering this we moved onto the discovery and reading:

• Moses and Jesus were called meek. What have you learned about Moses and Jesus that would counter the popular notion that meekness is weakness or timidity? 

Wow-None of us had ever thought of either Moses or Jesus as meek. Of course for most of us meekness has always been interrupted as a weakness or timid. 

• A number of meanings are given to the word meek. Which of the following are the most helpful to you? How?

1. One who has control of his or her instincts, impulses and passions
2. A humility that banishes pride and allows one to be teachable
3. A compassionate use of one's strengths to help others
4. One who does not need to always be in control or always win
5. A gentleness (non-violence) that promotes harmony with others and the earth
6. A sense of awe and gratitude toward the works and mystery of God
7. Other

This gave us pause as none of these really seemed to fit what we thought of as meek so we decided to look it up on the internet to see if it would help us understand the meaning of meek.
First one we saw was as an adjective meaning: Quiet, gentle and easily imposed on; submissive. OK we could go along with quiet and gentle but not so much easily imposed on or submissive. Next we looked at Webster's meanings.

1. Enduring injury with patience and without resentment
2. Deficient in spirit and courage-submissive
3. Not violent or strong

Well now the first one pretty well described Jesus and Moses and three came close if you went with not violent but I am sure we all agree that both Moses and Jesus had to have been strong to endure all that they did. Of course two came the closest to what we all think of as meek. At least we had found a couple of meanings that were making sense. After looking up the meaning we were able to look at the list again and find the ones that were most helpful to us and how it was. We could see how each of the things listed would be helpful to us and would help us to understand how Moses and Jesus could be described as meek. It was all becoming clearer as long as you could get past our preconceived idea of meek being weak or timid, not really an easy task since it is almost ingrained in us to think of someone who is meek as being weak, but we were getting there at least.

• Choose one of the above descriptions and tell of an example of this that you have witnessed or read about. It could be an individual or group. What blessing resulted? 

My first thought given the events of the past week was the stories of the new Catholic Pope and how he seems to fit a humility that banishes pride and allows one to be teachable. The fact that he seems so far to be pretty humble and refused to partake of all the first rituals that come with being named a new Pope. I realize that it remains to be seen if he will truly be this way through his time as Pope but for now this was my interpretation of what I had seen.  
Mark and Brent both talked of the sense of awe and gratitude toward the works and mysteries of God, using being in the outdoors and being in awe of all that is there to see.

• Certain attitudes in society are inconsistent with a biblical understanding of meekness. Choose the one you have struggled with the most and tell about your struggle.  

1. Technology in our salvation, our priority
2. Competition is needed for growth/progress
3. Meekness is not a sign of strength for men
4. Meekness is not a sign of strength for women
5. A need to won and to be in control
6. Silence is seen as weakness or inferiority
7. Religion belittles knowledge
8. Little encouragement to learn from the environment or lack of connectedness to creation
9. Other

Yep we were right back to a list of what society and most of us think of as meekness and could see where these were all inconsistent with the biblical understanding of meekness. It was also easy to see how each of us has struggled with at least one if not more of these. My first thought was of technology and how when technology is not working how much we get frustrated with it and usually have to make a decision to give up or to figure out how to work with technology and the glitches that can go with it. At work at least we have to have use it so that we can get the job done, and technology sometimes really makes this hard to do but we have to figure it out. 
Mark looked the list and said he could see where each of this would take patience. Now that got us all to thinking and we could all see that meekness did not really mean weak but if you have patience you are closer to the biblical meaning of meek.

• Leaning takes discipline. Give examples of how has this been true in your life. 
• What opportunities for learning has the church offered that have helped you the most? What more might be done? How does learning about global issues teach meekness?
• What could we do to teach our children about the blessings of meekness?

We did not really get a chance to totally discuss the above list, so we are posing these questions to those reading this and invite you to give some of your ideas and thoughts.

The last part of the lesson always gives a thought for the journey:
Meekness comes when we connect with nature and each other in such a way that we see the sacredness in everything God created. Take time to connect.
Verse for the journey:
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls" (Matthew 11:2829)
Prayer for the journey:
Graciouse God, help us to be so in tune with your Word and your world that we are eager to learn and gentle in how we treat others and you creation. Amen