In case you haven’t noticed, carbohydrates have become the new dietary evil. I read recently that Americans are eating more protein and shunning carbs at an unprecedented rate. In fact, I read that some 25 million Americans are on or have tried a high protein, low carbohydrate diet. As proof, there has been a 2.4 billion dollar increase in beef sales over the past three years and a 40% drop in Americans’ bread consumption. But dietary discipline, whatever the restrictions, is hard to maintain, as most of us know. I went on to read in the same article that there has been a 25% growth in sales of Krispy Kreme doughnuts during 2003. Clearly, we fall short of our dietary ideals!

Any of us who work at being disciplined about our health, in terms of food, diet and exercise know that such discipline is hard to establish and difficult to maintain. Every time the Olympic Games come around, I always marvel at stories of the training athletes commit to in order to be able to compete. Most human beings are not born with an innate desire to discipline themselves. For most of us, discipline is a massive effort requiring a daily commitment.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that what holds true about our physical selves is also true of our spiritual selves. In today’s gospel, Jesus says that following him requires daily discipline. Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

Before we think about how we can discipline our spiritual selves daily in order to follow Jesus, it might be instructive to consider the word “disciple” itself. To be a disciple is to attach oneself as a student to a teacher, or as an athlete to a coach. To be a disciple is to follow someone else’s lead, someone else’s guidance, and someone else’s instruction. Not surprisingly, the words “disciple” and “discipline” are related for both have to do with commitment.

I think we are all pretty clear that we want to be and strive to be disciples of Jesus – that we desire his guidance and direction in our lives, that we believe his way is better than our own ways, and that his teachings offer us new life, new values, and new meaning. We’ve answered the question Jesus asked his disciples in today’s gospel – we believe that Jesus is the Messiah – that he is our Lord and Savior. That’s the start of new life – committing to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, pledging ourselves to him as disciples.

But what do we need to do to follow Jesus daily? For we all know we need help – we need discipline to be disciples. I’m going to lay out a couple of spiritual disciplines for you to consider, as you consider how to daily follow Jesus. You can call them spiritual food for the soul, or holy habits, or disciplines for disciples – whatever terminology is helpful. The point is - these are the things we need to do in order to follow Jesus on a daily basis.
The first discipline of discipleship is daily prayer. Find a time and find a place, but make it a holy habit every day, not just some days. Think of daily prayer as a kind of spiritual vitamin. Aligning yourself with Jesus at the start of each day will change the flavor of your whole day whatever the day may bring, good or bad. In your prayer you can thank God for the day that is before you, for the gift of life itself, for the friends he has surrounded you with, for the people in your life. Tell Jesus that you want to follow him today. Ask him to guide you this day in all you think, all you say, and all you do.

The second discipline of discipleship is reading the Bible. Some of you are great at doing that and some of you have you have no earthly idea where to begin and would be heartily embarrassed to publicly acknowledge that. So let me make it easy for you. My suggestion is to do one of two things – either pick a gospel and read a chapter a day or pick one of the letters in the New Testament and read a chapter a day. Read the chapter, underlining any word or phrase that connects with you or challenges you. When you finish, silently thank God that he meets us in scripture – revealing something of his nature and revealing something of our nature as well.

The third discipline of discipleship is weekly worship – our gathering together Sunday to Sunday to honor God and to be met by Jesus in the sacrament of Holy Communion. We know from experience that we are able to serve God more faithfully and effectively when we come to church Sunday by Sunday. But the reality is that weekly worship as good as that is and as important as that is isn’t enough to sustain us all week long.

Stuff is going to happen to us tomorrow, and all the rest of the days of the upcoming week. We’re going to face challenges in the week ahead at home or at work. We may be faced with situations that come at us totally out of the blue. The world news we read or listen to this week may challenge us or upset us or scare us. Someone may betray us this week, or make us mad. Someone we love may get sick this week or need us in an emergency. And the question is, will God be a part of our daily lives, of all that will happen in the course of the next six days, or will we have consciously left him behind in church when we leave here today?

Today I extend to you a spiritual challenge. You can think of it as a spiritual diet I am challenging you to go on over the next six days. I challenge you to discipline yourselves by adding two holy habits, two disciplines of discipleship to your life this week. Find a time to pray and read one chapter of a gospel or epistle every day for the next six days. I know these disciplines will make a difference in your life this week, and I know that these holy habits will strengthen your will to serve Christ effectively.

You know, taking care of our physical health is a really good thing. Eating right, getting enough exercise and rest, taking our vitamins – the disciplines of being healthy are great disciplines. But taking care of our spiritual health is even more important. At the end of our lives, it won’t be what size clothes we wear that will be the most important thing about us. Nobody will remember us forever because we exercised every day and ate right. At the end of our lives, it will be the kind of people we are that is the most important thing about us. Being kind, being loving, and being as much like Jesus as we can possibly be is how we will be measured and remembered as human beings.

And we can only be kind and loving, trying to be like Jesus as we follow him daily, as we undertake the disciplines of discipleship. Pray every day. Read the Bible every day. Come to church weekly. These are the holy habits that will keep you aligned and connected with Jesus as you seek to follow him daily. These are the disciplines of discipleship that will strengthen you to serve Christ day by day. Let us commit ourselves to spiritual health, for Christ’s sake and our own.

Amen.