Pentecost XV

By The Rev. Martha Frances+
Year C, Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 18
9 September 2007

Text: Luke 14: 25-33;  Other Reading: Jeremiah 18: 1-11; Psalm 139: 1-5, 12-17; Philemon 1-21

(Start by listening to my cell phone briefly)

      This just in from God!  At the passing of the peace today, everybody put your wallets and purses, your gold and jewels, even your Daughters of the King pins, on the altar and nobody gets hurt.  Auto registrations and deeds to your homes can be dropped off at the church office anytime between 8:00 and noon this week.  After all, none of us can be a true disciple of Jesus—according to Jesus in today's particular reading from Luke's Gospel—unless we give up all our possessions. (Adapted from Jim Melnyk)

      Thus, a literal reading of Jesus' shocking statement to the large crowd traveling with him toward Jerusalem—updated for today's congregation.  The followers must have been telling him they'll follow him wherever he leads them.  Jesus knows, however, that he is heading straight for the cross.  He knows that their being his disciples will not be easy—that they will also fear for their lives.  Remember Peter's insistence that he'll follow Jesus even until death, yet Peter denies him 3 times before the cock crows?  How many of his closest disciples stayed with him at the cross?  Only the beloved disciple & the women.  All the other men fled.  Where were the crowds then?

      Jesus must make this danger clear to the crowd moving from place to place with him, listening to him teach.  So he tells them they must hate father & mother, wife & children, brothers & sisters, even their own life itself.  Hate is a strong word, & we'd rather Jesus hadn't used it.  We're more comfortable with the translators who have softened his statement, but what Jesus tells the crowd—& us, too—is that following him means surrendering their whole life, not just the part that's easy to give up.  Before they sign the discipleship pledge, they must realize it means total commitment to a way of life that will sometimes feel like defeat.  He wants them to know they'll have to detach from all the ties that keep them from obeying Christ's command to love God & love one another.

      Is such radical adherence to the Gospel realistic?  Is this cost ever required in today's world.  I went to college with a young man from Iran who had become Christian several years earlier.  When Habib became Christian, he was disowned from his wealthy family.  He had made enough money to come to this country in order to study & make a living for himself.  He wasn't a bitter man; he was joyful to be a Christian though he missed his family terribly.

      When I was vicar at Lord of the Streets, I heard stories from men & women who made their way to our door early in their recovery from drug or alcohol abuse.  They were no longer welcome in their families if they didn't drink or drug with them.  One man told me tearfully that every time he went to see his adult children, he ended up stoned & broke.  We often encouraged men & women who left prison to find new, healthier playgrounds & playmates if they wanted to avoid going back to the TDCJ Hilton.  Some of us have families & friends who are highly supportive of our leading new, transformed lives, but others—sadly—have to take Jesus' admonition to forego family literally.

      Further, in Paul's only personal letter which survives in our Bible today, Paul is choosing to send the runaway slave Onesimus back to his master.  We modern readers would be much happier had Paul sent Timothy with a letter to Philemon ordering the master to give up his slave.  Perhaps the institution of slavery would have ended generations earlier had Paul chosen that way.  However, Paul chooses not to attack the slave system & instead, returns Philemon's slave to him.  Paul encourages—does not order—Philemon to alter his relationship to Onesimus, to treat him like a brother in Christ.  Paul asks Onesimus to choose to return to his master, accept the consequences of his action, & behave as a Christian, even when that might mean he is severely punished.  At the same time, Paul asks Philemon to be gentle, to transform his attitude toward Onesimus even if he remains a slave.  Living within even hard circumstances of our lives with a changed heart is a lot tougher than fleeing the circumstances, but that's facing life on life's terms.

      Granted, most of us don't have such drastic decisions to make regarding our whole way of life.  When we look around at our neighbors, some of whom are devout church-goers or practicing their own form of spirituality, & others who choose to mow the lawn or engage in other pursuits on Sundays, our lives are similar to theirs in many ways.  One adage asks if you were accused in court of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?  It seems to me that Jesus is asking us here to choose the bottom line.  By what criteria will we, finally, live our lives?  Will we strive for justice & peace in the world & respect the dignity of every human being, day by day? 

      We come to Rally Day today, & a lot of people have gone to tremendous creativity & trouble to display ministry areas at Hope, & I especially celebrate Joyce Moss-Clay for the leadership she has shown in pulling this together.  Ministry is a mixture of our commitments here within the church community and also beyond it.  I encourage you to listen to the Spirit's leading on where your time & talent should be expended this year.  None of us can do it all, so choose several ministries you can pour yourself into.  We laugh about the fact that 20% of a community does 80% of the work, but if we want to increase our volunteers & spread the joy as well as the work of ministry, we need to reach out & invite someone or perhaps several to join us in the areas we've chosen.  Sometimes we can only pray for or contribute financially to a certain ministry, but we can encourage & support each other as we come together in hope.

      Meanwhile, let's ask what Jesus' admonition to the large crowd might be asking us to forsake at this time in our lives so that we may focus on what God would call us to.  Many of us have chosen in the past to live our lives our way, even when we found that very damaging or at least less fulfilling than possible.  We chose to hang onto our possessions even if those were only possessions of the mind—stinking thinking, we sometimes call it.  We know those patterns of thought & action aren't working for us, but we haven't been willing to let go & let Christ's way of living take over.  Sometimes it's our own crazy thinking or behavior that we need to give up. 

      What may keep us from the radical kind of love Jesus requires of disciples is an old resentment or hatred of someone or some institution we haven't been able to let go of.  Those hurts which follow us from childhood, those deep pains, are much more damaging to us than to the person we refuse to forgive.  You know, sometimes that person is myself.  We may not be able to let go & forgive by ourselves.  We may have to let Christ's forgiveness work in & through us.  But that's what Christ offers us:  Christ's love is available to allow us to give up whatever we have been holding onto.  Jesus says that's the way to discipleship.

      I invite you today, in this Eucharist, to get honest with yourself & identify just one possession you've been holding onto that you're willing to let go of & let God heal.  Just one barrier that you have that keeps you from being the disciple Christ calls you to be.  There may be others, but choose just one for today.  And when we pray the confession in a minute, I want you to take that bad habit or nasty attitude or whatever your possession is & in your mind hang it right up there on that cross where Christ can take it.  Give it to God.  Then listen to the absolution which I will say in Christ's name, & take it into your heart like a balm to heal your heart's brokenness. 

      Then, when you come forward to receive communion today, you can receive Christ's body & blood free of one possession that has held you back from true discipleship.  Now I have to warn you:  once you hang that possession up there on the cross, it's no fair to come back & pick it up.  Giving that possession up isn't a gift if you pick it back up again.  Pray for the strength to leave it up there on that cross when you leave here today.  As you let go of that possession—& later more & more, you will be choosing life.  Then we can say together, "Glory to God whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine."  Amen.