The English word “disciple” and the English word “discipline” both come from a Latin word that means “pupil.” These verses in Hebrews remind us that we are pupils of God's disciples, and God uses discipline to help us pupils learn! I remember a beautiful fall day when I was about eight or nine years old. Frank Clark and I were in my backyard playing football. We would pass the ball. We would punt. We would try to tackle each other. Great fun! And, occasionally, I’d mess up -maybe drop a pass or slip and fall while trying to punt or letting Frank break out of a tackle. Of course, this frustrated me, so I called out loud words I had heard boys from the high school use when they were upset. (I best not repeat them here.) My mother was in the yard, hanging clothes on the clothes line. She heard me loud and clear. She sent Frank home down at the end of the street. Then, she told me to go inside and wait for her. When she came in, she handed me a pencil and a piece of paper. I was to write down every word I could think of that someone might use when they were angry or upset. Then, I had to look it up in the dictionary. If that word was not there, I was not to use the word. And then, after about an hour of doing that (now you may find this hard to believe!) I was told that I could not play football again until I could recite the Apostles’ Creed from memory. That took two weeks. Discipline. The writer of Hebrews (12:5-6) quotes Proverbs 3:11-12. Those verses remind us that it is out of love that God disciplines us: discipline as a gift of love. Jesus is the “pioneer and perfecter” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2, NRSV). Other translators have put it this way: “author and finisher”(KJV), “Cause and Completer” (Berkeley), “source and goal” (J. B. Phillips), “guide and end” (Basic), “start to finish” (New English). And how does He do that? We are made a disciple by the grace of discipline (Hebrews 12:10). Now I am not saying that God creates bad situations in order to discipline us. But, God can use bad situations to bless us, correct us, sustain us, inspire us, challenge us, heal us, improve us, strengthen us, change us, restore us -well, you get the idea! Hebrews 12:11 reminds us discipline ultimately yields “the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” Amen. May it be so! What Someone Else Has Said: James Reed Cox (Pioneers and Perfecters of Our Faith, Archives and History, Tennessee Annual Conference) wrote: “The judgment of history is inexorable; the record of the past shows clearly that the periods of perils for the Church have been greatest eras of her affluent prosperity.” Prayer: As you prepare this lesson, let your prayer begin: “Bring the grace of discipline, O God...”
