Discipleship and the people called Methodists - BEH District

with God and not yearn for God’s goodness and grace to be shared with the whole
world.
Because staying in love with God is so important, and sometimes so hard, it’s
worth pausing to explore some of the ways in which our faith might be relit and
our discipleship deepened today. Some of the ways have already been outlined.
The importance of belonging to a small group, and particularly one to which you
become accountable for example, and the need to study Scripture to be shaped
by the Spirit through it. But others require emphasis here. They’re not distinctively
Methodist but common to all Christians. Occasionally however there is a Methodist
‘flavour’ given to generic spiritual practices.
It will be useful at this point to read Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 6, or even
better chapters to 7 inclusive. This is known as the Sermon on the Mount,
and is regarded by many as Jesus’ ‘manual of Christian discipleship’.
‘when you fast…’
Fasting was included in the list of practices to which the people called Methodists
committed themselves in order to stay in love with God. Some of us wish it wasn’t
so, but it is. If you’re fortunate enough to have visited Methodists from other parts
of the world, in Asia, Africa and South America particularly, you quickly realise
that regular fasting is a part of their ‘normal’ discipleship more than it seems
to be in British Methodism. Of course some British Methodists fast too. And,
quite properly, some fast but others don’t know about it, because they heed the
words of Jesus that when they fast they are not to look dismal so that their fasting
is not seen by others but will be seen by God (see Matthew 6: 6- 8). Even so,
my hunch is that fasting is a spiritual practice out of fashion for many of us, and
British Methodists and Methodism alike would benefit from a recommitment to
fasting.
For some disciples the fact that Jesus says ‘when you fast’ rather than ‘if
you fast’ is enough. The Lord expects it – so do it. But it’s also worth asking why
Jesus might have assumed fasting is ‘normal’ for his followers. It clearly has little
to do with dieting! Nor is it to be confused with the terrible fact that many poor
people in the world have no option but to ‘fast’ regularly! (Though I know some
Methodist Christians who give the cost of meals they would have eaten were
they not fasting to agencies like the Methodist Relief and Development Fund.)
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