church if not a community of disciples, of people devoted to following Jesus? If the New Testament is our guide in these matters, then discipleship should be the defining quality of the Christian life. And if this is the case, then we can never move from the more primal commitment that is involved in becoming his follower in the first place. And yet, the ethos of discipleship and the presence of the wild Messiah are not readily associated with church and Christianity of our day. Far from it, our