My friend Todd has a personal trainer.

Three times a week, he stops by the gym and is put through a rigorous workout that includes all sorts of exercises that condition and buff his body into the kind of frame he desires. Todd is a very smart, busy man who relies on his trainer to put together the right kind of program to help him grow and develop.

One day after a workout I asked Todd, “Does your trainer show you a lot of different kinds of exercises that are more effective than the ones the rest of us do?” “No,” said Todd, “the main reason I have a trainer is not because of what he teaches me, but of how he pushes me. I know how to do all the exercises, I just need help doing them.”

Isn’t this spiritual life a bit like this?

In this Sunday’s Gospel we are given a couple of parables that cut to the heart of what Todd is up to. They are stories taken from the agricultural context so familiar to the original audience, which point to the idea of growth – and the importance God puts on the development and advancement of our spiritual lives.

It’s been said that the faith life of the average North American Christian has developed little since Sunday School. Polls that test biblical literacy seem to support this (my favorite: 1 in 10 Christians believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife). This sense that our spiritual lives should take precedent over the development of our physical bodies or our careers is not widely shared both in the culture or in the Church.

It is poignant that Jesus did not spend much time showing us how to be physically fit or how to climb the corporate ladder. He commended us to pay the highest attention to our spiritual lives – knowing this would lead to the most fulfilling and satisfying life of all.  Yet we know we live in a culture that actively works against this. Indeed, growing more deeply into discipleship is life’s most difficult endeavor.

So do we need a personal trainer? Or some other regimen that allows us to take our spiritual lives as seriously as we take the development of other areas of our lives? What might a concrete step toward deeper discipleship look like? Is summertime a good time to experiment?

As your pastor - a reminder that regular visits to the spiritual gym are recommended, and personal trainers are always on hand to assist.

Reading

HHhH – Laurent Binet
Teaching as a Subversive Activity – Neil Postman
Mark – NT Wright