Abandonment

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the New Testament's most extraordinary passages. It is one of those sections of Scripture that we can sit with for a lifetime and still not be done with it.  Bonhoeffers' book, "The Cost of Discipleship" was first read in seminary and has mostly fallen apart, but it still has a place on my bookshelves.  Today in my reading the biography of Oswald Chambers, I ran across an excerpt from a writing of his entitled, "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount," in which he wrote, "The great word of Jesus to His disciples is Abandon."  The Sermon takes us into this world of letting go and taking hold of Jesus.   

Most of us have gone through times when we regarded the Sermon on the Mount as something useful for modeling our lives.  It was something which set the standard for Christian living and all we had to do was to go after it with rigid determination.  What we soon discovered is the Sermon is not about what we can do through discipline and a determined spirit.  Instead, it is about the transforming work the Holy Spirit desires to do in each one of us.  Chambers had it right when he used the word abandon.  

The Sermon on the Mount points to the person we are called to be, but it will not be a journey taken in our own strength, but one taken by the prayer of abandonment. John Wesley's famous Covenant Prayer begins with words which point the way, "I am no longer my own, but Yours.  Put me to what You will, place me with whom You will.  Put me to to doing, put me to suffering.  Let me be put to work for You or set aside by You..."