FIRST READING Deuteronomy 30:15-20
15“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”
PSALM Psalm 1
1Happy are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor lingered in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seats of the scornful! 2Their delight is in the law of the Lord, and they meditate on his law day and night. 3They are like trees planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in due season, with leaves that do not wither; everything they do shall prosper. 4It is not so with the wicked; they are like chaff which the wind blows away. 5Therefore the wicked shall not stand upright when judgment comes, nor the sinner in the council of the righteous. 6For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked is doomed.
SECOND READING Philemon 1-21
1Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved fellow worker 2and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier, and the church in your house: 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 4I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. 7For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you. 8Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, 9yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you — I, Paul, an old man and now a prisoner also for Christ Jesus — 10I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. 11(Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me.) 12I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart. 13I would have been glad to keep him with me, in order that he might serve me on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel, 14but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord. 15For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, 16no longer as a bondservant but more than a bondservant, as a beloved brother — especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. 17So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. 18If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account. 19I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it — to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. 20Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. 21Confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
GOSPEL Luke 14:25-35
25Now great crowds accompanied {Jesus}, and he turned and said to them, 26“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
WARNING TO THE CLUELESS ENTHUSIASTS
Choices, it’s something we live with every day. As the writer of Deuteronomy says, set before us each day is the choice; good and life or death and evil. (30:15) We have the choice, come to church or recreate. We choose to read our Bible and pray or to watch TV or read another book. We choose to obey God’s commandments (vs. 16) or to be drawn away to worship other gods. (vs.17) I saw a rather blunt quote the other day and I chose to add it to the sermon today. According to some unknown author, “Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason is because we’re stupid and make bad choices.” It’s true. Oftentimes what happens to us has to do with the consequences of our decisions. We can make good decisions and the consequences will reflect that, or we can make poor decisions and that too will be reflected in the results. It’s the burden of God giving us Free Will.
We have the freedom to make decisions and to act upon those decisions. But as a Christian, we know that it isn’t that simple. As sinful creatures, we’re turned in on ourselves by nature. Without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can only choose what we think is best for us. We are by nature self-serving. And we reap the harvest of our choices. Just ask ex-Congressman Anthony Weiner about the cost of his choices. He’s no longer in Congress and now he’s separated from his wife. All because of he chose to send inappropriate electronic messages, repeatedly. As Christians we understand thi,s but that doesn’t always make it any easier. We struggle with our decisions because we understand the grave cost associated with selfish choices. This is why Jesus made such a harsh statement in our gospel reading for today.
Jesus said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Lu. 14:26). Let’s admit it. Jesus made some hard statements and this passage is one of those announcements. And the first thing this declaration does is leaves us struggling with the question, must we really hate our family members in order to be Christian? I thought Christians were to promote family values. Must we really hate our own lives in order to be faithful? Doesn’t the Bible promote the abundance of life? Isn’t that contrary to hating our life? How are we to make sense of such a harsh statement?
The answer may be that we’re not to make sense of it. Perhaps we’re called to simply obey by doing what we’re told. Despite the seeming harshness of the statement, we’re to take the words of Jesus seriously. Our Lord is telling us something very important, and if we brush these word off as outdated, as something that doesn’t apply to us or worse yet, completely ignore the warning being given, then we’ll miss the message all together. We’re to cautiously contemplate what Jesus is saying, to weigh the cost carefully and then consciously choose to follow Jesus. We must soberly accept the fact that being a disciple of Jesus comes at a price. After all, our freedom from sin and death came at a very high price; the life of God’s only Son. So why should we expect that being a follower should be at no expense?
Luke says that Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. A large crowd of supporters accompanies Him. The Master knows that trouble waits at the end of the journey. His popularity is limited to the north around the Sea of Galilee. The joyous attitude demonstrated by His companions doesn’t extend to Jerusalem. In that great urban center, the Lord has highly motivated enemies, not enthusiastic friends. Those enemies will plot His arrest, trial, and death by crucifixion. Jesus has tried to explain all this to the apostles, but they can’t seem to grasp the significance. The entourage of camp followers accompanying Jesus and the twelve are totally clueless. They think this trip to Jerusalem is just another mission trip, when, in fact, it’s the front end of the Master’s funeral procession. With all the movies that have been made about Jesus’ life, it’s easy to imagine the scene.
A couple hundred people stir a cloud of dust as they head south on the unpaved road. Jesus is at the head of the procession. His apostles come next. Each time the group passes through a village their numbers swell with enthusiastic local fans of the Lord. They know His reputation as a preacher and healer. These folks never intend traveling all the way to Jerusalem. They just want to be part of the parade. They drop out and return home after walking to the next village. For many, this experience will make a great story for the grandchildren.
“Did I ever tell you about the time I walked with Jesus. Yep, He came right down Main Street. His apostles were with Him — James and John, Peter, Andrew and all the others. I met them all. When I saw the crowd coming, I jumped up from the breakfast table and walked all the way to Magdala. Didn’t get home that night until after midnight. Boy was your grandmother upset with me! There wasn’t, however, anything to worry about. I had a wonderful time. We laughed and joked. The apostles told us what Jesus had been doing and how we would be blessed if we followed His teachings. I remember the Apostle Peter even gave me his autograph. It was a great day.” But it’s a different experience for Jesus.
Walking among the masses, He overhears the chitchat. The enthusiastic crowd doesn’t seem to grasp the significance of this journey to Jerusalem. In a matter of days, Jesus knows that He would be arrested and abused horribly. And in the end, He would pay the ultimate price for His ministry. He also knew that there would be a hefty cost for His followers. Stephen, the first deacon in the church, would be stoned to death for teaching of God’s love in Christ Jesus. All of the apostles, save one, would be martyred. Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, would be tormented, ridiculed, arrested, imprisoned, beaten, and finally beheaded for being a follower. For the next couple centuries, many Christians will worship in secret simply to avoid arrest. In the Roman world before the time of Emperor Constantine, being a Christian required more than putting the symbol of a fish on the bumper of your car and attending church a couple times a month. Declaring Christ as Lord and Savior boldly opened the possibility of becoming the lunch special for the lions in the Roman arena.
As the crowd walks toward Jerusalem, they’ve given little thought to the cost of being followers of Jesus. Those folks are enthusiastic about this nice religious procession, but they’re clueless about the demands of the faith. Jesus tells them they must give serious thought to their walk with God. He reminds them that no one in His right mind starts to build a tower without calculating how much it’s going to cost to complete it. No king decides to go to war without first determining whether or not it’s possible to win the war. In that same way, we too must count the cost of faith.
That cost, Jesus insists, is very high. “So, therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33). “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (v. 27). In fact, following Jesus means our family must be a lesser priority than our faith. The Greek word used here in this passage means to “love less.” As God tells us in the First Commandment, we’re to have no other gods before Him. Nothing can be more important in our lives than God. Not our family, not our possessions, not even our own life. And if anything does get between us and God, we must get rid of it. But this isn’t the popular notion or teaching today is it?
Today being a disciple of Jesus seems to cost very little. Go to church on occasion. Learn whether they say the Lord’s Prayer with “debts and debtors” or “trespasses and trespassers.” Read the Bible every once in a while. Be kind to others when it’s convenient. And if we happen to answer the phone when called by the Gallup Poll folks, we tell them that we believe in God and are a Christian. Today it’s taught that being a follower is simple, opportune, that there isn’t that much to this stuff of being a Christian. But contrary to the ease with which we can claim we follow the Christ, there is indeed a cost.
In fact, if we take the call to discipleship seriously, there can be a very high cost. It still might require us to go against the wishes of our parents. It means taking up our cross and following Jesus despite what we must give up to do so. It could mean giving up our life. William Willimon, a chaplain at Duke University, shares this: A very angry parent phoned him one day. “I hold you personally responsible for this,” the parent said. “I’ve spent an enormous amount of money for my daughter to get a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering and now she wants to throw it all away and do mission work in Haiti. Can you imagine! A trained engineer digging ditches.” “Now how’s that my fault?” the minister responded. “What did I do?”
“I’ll tell you what you did,” the now shouting father answered. “You ingratiated yourself with her, filled her head with all that religion stuff. She likes you. That’s why she’s doing this. I hold you personally responsible.” “Now look, buster,” the increasingly defensive college chaplain responded. “You had her baptized in the church. You read her Bible stories. You took her to Sunday school. You were the one who paid for her to go skiing with the youth group. It’s your fault that she took that stuff so seriously she now wants to go into the ministry.” “I know, I know,” the once-angry and now-grieving father lamented. “But we didn’t want her to be minister. All we wanted was for her to be a Presbyterian!”
One just never knows when one of the kids might take the Christian faith so seriously they might turn their back on the wishes of the family and become a minister. As an aside, let me say how much the church needs this story repeated. We have a significant shortage of people taking their faith seriously enough to hear God’s call to ministry. We need people to turn their backs on the alluring call of the wealth and prestige of this world to serve in the office of Word and Sacrament. In this next generation, we need people who take early retirements and discover they can’t play golf or bridge every day to serve as ministers in small rural congregations. We need people to listen for God’s call to ministry in the middle of their lives. The Church needs ministers, Diaconal ministers and missionaries. And doing this might be sacrificial. That’s just one example of what Jesus is talking about when He says that to be faithful we have to be willing to turn our back on the wishes of the family; pick up the cross and follow Him; give up our life in service to God.
Let me give you another example in which Jesus’ warning to count the cost of discipleship is true. Remember that Christianity is, at its heart, an entirely different way to look at the world around us. This faith of ours is a holistic worldview. One is not a Christian simply because of occasional church attendance, regular prayer and Bible reading, and the presence of a “Jesus Saves” bumper sticker on the family SUV. Christianity is a comprehensive way to think about the world, to decide right from wrong, and to interpret life’s ordinary as well as extraordinary events. Think of faith as a very good set of spectacles through which we see things as God wants us to see them. I’m convinced that looking through the corrective lenses of the Christian faith clears up our vision so that we see the landmines and potholes as well as the beauty of God’s created order.
Stated more succinctly, this Christian worldview understands not only that there’s a God who is Creator and Sustainer of the Cosmos, but also that we are ultimately and personally dependent for our strength on this Ground of our Being. We believe that we come to know this God best in Jesus of Nazareth, the one we claim as Lord and Savior. This understanding of God Incarnate, God made flesh, leads us to realize that all people of the earth are brothers and sisters, children of the same parent God. This Christian way to look at the world determines our core values and influences the way we behave on a daily basis. It’s an understanding that helps us feel connected to the very nature of things. It calls us to that strict moral code that our love for God is first and our love for others is second. It’s a view that values people over things, forgiveness over revenge, and serving others over being served. The Christian faith is a way to look at the world and value justice, mercy, kindness, and love over all else.
This Christian view of a created order in the hands of God moves us to find comfort, meaning, and joy at the awesome mystery of life itself. It makes it possible for us to feel the rush of God’s grace-filled hope in the resurrection at the moment of grief when a loved one dies. It empowers us to hope in that most mysterious promise of eternal life as we journey toward our own death.
Growing into this Christian worldview is no simple, easy task. It takes significant time and commitment. That process is complicated, of course, by the fact that there are other competing world-views. And contrary to the popular notion, ours is not a “Christian culture.” Religiously, we are very diverse. More troubling, however, is that the dominant American worldview is not a religious one at all. It’s a very secular one.
In one sense, the dominating secular worldview is one which claims to have grown beyond the need to believe in God. We’re modern, even post-modern people; we claim we don’t need the ancient God of the Israelites, the God who came to live among us as Jesus the Christ. We need trust nothing beyond human enterprise. We have science and laws and government and wealth. These are the only tools we need to confront the problems of living. We need not fear the unknown. As long as we don’t do anything illegal, we’re free to do whatever we choose. We don’t accept any higher moral authority than the whims of self. That which is right is what each person decides is right. Indeed, as far as our society is concerned, we have no need for God.
This secular worldview debases our values and dulls the human spirit. It deludes us into thinking that our technology, knowledge, and wealth can solve all our problems and empower us to the abundance of life. In spite of the allure of its dazzling glitz, this worldview just doesn’t bring the joy it promises. In this Age of Disbelief, we desperately need to apprehend the sacred in the midst of the ordinariness of daily life.
We must count the cost of discipleship and with God’s help choose. We must accept the fact that it’s costly to be a follower of Christ. It means giving up the notion that the pursuit of our own desires, money and things is the greatest good that leads to the greatest happiness. It means giving up the notion that we personally are absolutely in charge of running the universe. It means learning to ask for forgiveness. It means putting the needs of others first. It means turning the other cheek. It means loving our enemies and doing good to those that hate us. It means choosing between life and good or death and evil. (Deut. 30:15-20) It means refusing to walk in the council of the wicked as our Psalmist writes, (Psalm 1:1) choosing instead the narrow gate. (Lu. 13:24)
The fact of the matter is, being a Christian is costly, very costly. The question is, have we seriously weighed the cost? And having considered the price, are we willing to pick up our cross? Are we prepared and willing to place God above everything else; family, personal desires, possessions, and turn toward God even if it cost us everything? Are we prepared with the prophet Joshua who bids us to “choose this day who you will serve”, to say, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord?” If we are, then we will have the promises of God: life eternal; we will be like trees planted by living waters where our leaves will not wither and everything we do will prosper. (Ps. 1:3) It is a matter of choice.
Amen