A Difficult Lesson
Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
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I figured that since many people are back into the swing of things this September, I thought I would share a "back to school" experience from my past. Once I graduated high school, I thought it was time to "get out into the world," but somehow found myself going to college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now don't get me wrong, my college was excellent, and I enjoyed what Michigan had to offer. However, it made me realize what we take for granted out here on the East Coast (I'm talking about bagels and Taylor Ham/pork roll). There was one thing though that I could never stomach about college, and that was the 10-12 hour drive between Michigan and my home state of New Jersey.
Pennsylvania was by far the enormous beast to overcome during this journey between New Jersey and Michigan. Nothing but 311 miles of uninteresting interstate littered with potholes, never-ending construction, and "service stations" that offered the bare minimum. Those service stations were something you needed to pay attention to though. Because if you weren't careful and went past a service station, you might find yourself waiting for an unbearable 50 miles until the next one. So you when you saw a sign you paid attention. Before passing one of these rest points, it would be natural to check your gauges, your body, and your mind in case you needed a break was crucial. You had to have a little forethought in your planning and pay attention to the signs.
In our text this morning, such forethought and wisdom are essential if not vital to a life of faith. The reading this morning doesn't say where Jesus is going, only that a large crowd seems to be following him. Which is great, but do you think the people who followed Jesus, knew what it cost to be a disciple, a follower? Sometimes our perception, our understanding, of following Jesus is skewed by the response of the first disciples. So far the people who've been following Jesus and we have only seen the good. They've counted their blessings, yet I wonder if they have calculated their liabilities as well? We'll quickly learn though that we cannot merely follow, as Father Fitzmyers put it, "because of the blessing and the wonderful things that he has associated with the kingdom."
It must have been pretty jarring, and it still is for us, to hear Jesus utter the words, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate, father and mother, wife and children, brother and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple." These words are meant to be provocative, and they are intended to serve as that "50 miles till next rest stop" sign to make us check if we are aware of what is going to come next. While Jesus might be speaking hyperbolically, the truth of the matter is that following in the footsteps of Jesus requires dedication. Following Jesus requires hard work, and it demands that our hearts commit themselves to a faith that just as much about sacrifice as it about receiving blessings.
My mother has been a teacher for I'd say as long as I can remember. She taught at the preschool my sister, and I attended, she taught second grade for a large part of her career. As we start into another school year, I can be sure that teachers would tell you that as they prepare their lessons, they know not all their students are going to pick it up at the same rate. Of course, there will be students who get it on the first try and others who may need a little extra help or out of the box creativity to make the lesson comprehensible. I don't think that Jesus had a certification in education, but I think he was well aware that the people who were listening to him needed some creative lessons as well.
So Jesus tells the crowd, whose attention he certainly has, two stories; one about a tower and another about a king who was heading off to war. In both of these stories, Jesus makes the point loud and clear! In the first Jesus lays out that you wouldn't build a tower if you didn't have the money you needed. And in the second story, Jesus would like to think that you wouldn't head off to war unless you knew you had the numbers on your side. Both of these short stories are meant to make you stop, and think about whether or not you've considered what it means to follow Jesus and if you're sure you want to commit. However, that doesn't mean we give up, because we have a teacher who is willing to walk alongside us patiently as we continue to understand what it means to be disciples who are committed, active, and hopeful.
However, that hope and energy cannot manifest if we beat each other up over mistakes and misunderstandings. I've never been a fan of what preachers have called the "bad dog sermon." If you're not sure what I mean by that, I'm talking about the kind of sermons where the minister stands up front wagging their finger. Often you'll find them saying, "O, you're such bad people and God's disappointed." I'm sure that any teacher would also agree that this is not an effective means of education. Except there's an irony in what I just said because there are many who enjoy being reminded each Sunday that they are bad people who don't stop sinning. There is a time and a place for that kind of message, but it's seldom, and it's rare. And our approach to learning and discipleship should embrace a vigor that propels us to be better not because we are scared of being shamed, but because we want to serve for the sake of serving.
In these past few readings from Luke, we've been learning what it means to be a disciple, to be the hands and feet of Christ. But today Jesus lays everything out on the table, "So, therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." We've been slowing taking it all in, but all of a sudden a new revelation hits us. Not only do we have to not worry about counting things (like our possessions or social standing), but we also have to live as though nothing we have means anything. The lesson is not only about the end of our journey, but the in-between bits as well. It would be fair to say that Jesus wasn't expecting everyone who was following him that day to leave everything behind, but I would say that Jesus was expecting that all took time to evaluate the things that were important in their lives.
The takeaway for us this morning is not the emphasis on giving up everything we own or do. The takeaway this morning is the reminder, the challenge, for us to stop and consider if we know what it means to follow God's plan for our lives to completion. When we can let go of the things that we need to let go of we'll find the freedom to hand those things over to God and dedicate ourselves to things that bring rejuvenate us and give us a second wind. We've spent a lot of time holding onto past things that we've been saving up, but those past things will turn into bitter memories if we don't let go. So let those things go! Don't hold onto possessions or memories that won't allow us to grow, and our spirits transform as we become more interconnected with God and one another.
There is one last thing I want to make one thing very clear, though, which is that this work of transformation, this work of learning, is not another project for us to take onto our list of things to do. This work has already been done by Jesus, the one who picked up his cross and bled and died for all of us. The only thing we have to do is make a choice. Are we going to reorient our lives on the things that truly matter and give what we have to God who has already done the hard work? Or are we going to keep counting the costs of mission, keep saying that our time is more valuable and that there are other things to be done, and keep believing that we have nothing to offer, so it's someone else's job? I can't answer that question for you, because a difficult lesson is taken differently by each person. So how will you live differently today, tomorrow, and the next day that God is calling you to live? We have an opportunity to receive a great gift, embark on a grand journey, and a call that leads us to a place of hope. So let’s take that first step with faith and grace. Amen.