"The Cost of Discipleship"
Luke 14:25-33
The gospel lesson we heard last Sunday was set
inside the home of a Pharisee, but now we’re outside, in public. Jesus is on the road, and large crowds are
following him. Jesus has been going
through cities and villages, proclaiming and ringing the good news of the
kingdom of God,[1]
and healing people.
Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, on
the way of the cross. He has been
telling people: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves
and take up their cross daily and follow me.”[2] He wants people to understand this about
discipleship: “Whoever does not carry
the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
The crowds have been growing, so Jesus
wants people to understand that following him is costly. As Joseph Fitzmyer put it, “The crowds are
following Jesus because of the blessing and the wonderful things that he has
associated with the kingdom.[3]”
But it seems the crowds have counted the kingdom assets but overlooked the
liabilities.
But what is
Jesus saying? It sounds so harsh to
us. The statement about hating your
parents, spouse, children, and siblings probably wasn’t as harsh as it sounds
to our ears. The word Jesus used when he
said “hate” can mean to turn away from, or to detach oneself from. That’s saying something different from what
we hear when somebody says, “I hate you.”
Throughout the scriptures, people of
faith are encouraged time after time to love-- to nurture,
to care for their families. When
Jesus talks about hating life itself, he isn’t calling for any kind of self-abuse. He’s using strong language to get our
attention. Jesus is challenging would-be
disciples to look again at their priorities and commitments. Christ’s claim on us is to take priority over
any other.
Jesus is saying that not only is the
call to discipleship the highest calling.
It also re-orders and redefines every other relationship and requires
our ultimate loyalty.
The parables in our passage ask a
related question: “Is the price of
discipleship more than you’re willing to pay?”
Whether you’re building a tower, or building or re-building a
nation-- the costs of time, energy,
resources, and life itself need to be considered. Will you be able to follow through on your
decision?
Jesus was riding a wave of enthusiasm
he knew wouldn’t last. So he told his
followers to look ahead to the costs and the difficulties.
In the church today, we may be tempted
to minimize the cost of living the Christian faith. “Make it sound easy to belong,” some may say.
“Let’s not make it too hard to join the church. We don’t want to scare anyone off.” We
don’t want to offend anyone by any decisions we make in the church. We want to try to keep everybody happy.
The problem with these well-intentioned
ideas is that they imply that what we’re doing isn’t very important. They communicate that it’s okay to give less
than our best in serving God.
In a culture that promotes immediate
gratification, we may think of sacrifice as a bad thing. But we also admire those who make sacrifices
for the greater good. Parents make sacrifices
to give their children a good life. We
may forego discretionary purchases to save for a down payment on a home or to
pay for education. We may decide against
spending our time or money for something self-indulgent so that we can give to
help others. There are sacrifices we make
joyfully, because they lead to a greater sense of purpose, life, and
fulfillment.
Jesus isn’t inviting us to be
door-mats, to say, “Oh, that’s just my cross to bear.” No—he invites us into a life of abundance
that we can only discover when we give ourselves away.
“Take up your cross and follow me,” says Jesus. Jesus wants us to know that our Christian calling
is demanding. We need to be honest about
that-- as Jesus was-- even if it turns some people off. When the church gets all tame and
comfortable, we’ve lost sight of our true calling.
I’ve heard several moderators of our
Presbyterian General Assembly tell the story of the Moderator’s cross, which is
actually two identical crosses welded together. As you may know, the Presbyterian Church
split as a denomination over slavery before the Civil War, and it took 122
years for the reunion to take place between the Northern and Southern
Presbyterian Churches. I knew that the
Moderators of the northern and southern Presbyterian churches each wore crosses
and that they were then welded together at the reunion in 1983. What’s less well known is the story behind
the two crosses.
Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor, fear of Japanese Americans and discrimination against them swept across
our country. In Chicago, a Christian
congregation made up of Japanese Americans had been leasing a chapel in a large
church building, but after Pearl Harbor their lease was revoked. They went to church after church, trying to
find a place to rent so they could worship.
They spoke to the pastor of the Fourth
Presbyterian Church, who took the request to the Session. The elders shared all their concerns about
the risks involved, and when the pastor realized the request didn’t have the
numbers to pass—the motion was tabled.
At the next Session meeting, he raised
the issue again, but the passions against the idea were still in the majority,
so they tabled the motion again. At the
third Session meeting, a person who worked with the Christian education program
came to the Session saying, “I can’t continue to teach the children in this
congregation about Christ’s commands—if the Session of this church doesn’t
allow our sisters and brothers in Christ to worship here.
The motion passed—barely. They knew the risk of violence and
ridicule. They knew the risk of losing
members. But they also knew the risk of
having their faith become meaningless.
Throughout the war, the pastor and many members
of Fourth Presbyterian gathered outside the church early every Sunday morning
to escort their Japanese brothers and sisters safely through the shouts and
threats, into the sanctuary of the chapel.
Finally, when the war was over, the Japanese
congregation was able to build their own church. When they left Fourth Presbyterian to move
into their own building, they gave the pastor a gift of money to express their
deep appreciation for the way he stood with them in their time of trial.
The pastor didn’t feel he could keep the money,
so he purchased two identical crosses, and presented them to the moderators of
the Northern and Southern Presbyterian denominations.
These two crosses welded together into one are a
double story of reconciliation and discipleship. They remind us of one form of carrying the
cross… of counting the cost… and then saying, “Yes!”
God calls us to be partners with Christ in
mission, and the cost of discipleship is high. God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us. “In a
broken and fearful world, the Holy Spirit gives us courage”[4]…
and empowers us as we strive to serve Christ in our daily lives—if only we’re
open to the Spirit’s work in our lives.
In Jesus Christ, the old life is gone. A new life has begun. We are like clay in the hands of the
potter. God can remold, reshape, and bring
about change in God’s creation. At times
when life seems to be a disaster, God is able to transform it into a creative
opportunity for growth and goodness. The
new life in Christ is full of power and possibility, because it is God’s nature
to transform despair into hope.
When we work with God, we set into motion conditions
that can transform things that seem hopeless into amazing opportunities of grace. God calls us to count the cost of
discipleship… and invites us to change our ways… to work with God and in
harmony with one another.
The good news is that the Holy Spirit can give
us new life, transform our hearts, and sanctify us to work with God to create a
more loving, just, and peaceful world.
Thanks be to God!
Amen!
Rev. Fran Hayes, Pastor
Dearborn, Michigan
September 4, 2016
[1]
Luke 8:1
[2]
Luke 9:23-24
[3]
Joseph A. Fitzmyer, The Gospel According to Luke: X-XXIV (vol. 28a, Anchor
Bible. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday,
1985), p. 1063.
[4]
“Brief Statement of Faith” of the Presbyterian Church (USA), which was ordered
to be a statement of unity following the reunion of the Northern and Southern
Presbyterian Churches. It was adopted by
the General Assembly and added to our Book
of Confessions in 1990.
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