CONSIDER THE COST

A Sermon for The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 9, 2007
by Pastor Laura Gentry

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.(NRSV)

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.


"If you don't hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, you cannot be my disciple. . . . none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." These are some of the harshest words we’ve ever heard Jesus say. Hate your father and mother? What in the world can he mean? Jesus has been gathering followers everywhere he goes because they see him deliberately include the poor, heal the sick, and proclaim love. This Jesus is now telling these same folks that if they want to stay with him, if they want to be his disciples, they have to give up everything—family as well as possessions. Perhaps his followers are now thinking, "I liked him a whole lot better when he was just preaching about love. But now he’s asking me to change my life!" There's a saying in the South that goes: "The preacher's just gone from preachin' to meddlin'." And that's exactly what Jesus is doing in today's Gospel. He's gone straight to the meddlin' part.

This is one of the toughest Gospel passages. It's tough because it's so radical, and it's radical because here Jesus is challenging his disciples to change their lives completely, to put what they say they believe about God before any of their own comforts. It's a jolt to our ears. We may wonder what his hearers were thinking. Interestingly enough, if we read into the next chapter, Luke tells us that, "all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and scribes were grumbling." Those who were on the margins of society weren't scared off by these words. It’s the ones with comfortable lives that become the most afflicted by Jesus’ demands.

In chapter 12 of Luke, Jesus says practically the same thing: if you want to be a disciple, your household may be divided. Being a real disciple is seriously difficult work. People may not like you for it. They may not agree with you. And the price you pay may be high. All through Luke, Jesus points to the cross and all the way along, he challenges the thinking and lifestyles of his listeners. It is not surprising that many are upset with him because of it.

But the tax collectors and sinners keep coming back. Though Jesus challenged them and talked about the cross, he never stopped loving them, healing them, and showing them how much they were loved by God. Even when Jesus really gets to the point of meddling in their lives, he continues to show them how wonderful it is to live the way God wants them to live. Jesus was really doing no more than calling them to look again at how they were living their own law—their own Torah. Many of the religious leaders had fallen away from a true living out of God’s ancient law. Many had let both their material possessions and their desire for power to get in the way of living a godly life.

But the tax collectors and sinners kept coming back. Even if they weren't living perfect lives themselves, they certainly understood what it meant to be rejected, what it meant to be oppressed, what it meant to be living with a cross. And because they kept coming back, they saw that in the midst of the hard times God was still with them. In the chapter before today's passage, Jesus reminds all of them that the kingdom of God was already there, and that the kingdom was like a tiny mustard seed that would grow into so a tree so big that the birds would make their nests in it. The kingdom of God would be a place of support for them. "Go out into the roads and lanes, and bring people in so that my house may be filled," Jesus told them.

But we still have that troubling part where Jesus says if you don't hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even life itself—you can't be my disciple. That word “hate” just doesn't quite sound like Jesus. The word he uses her in the original language means to "love much less than." So it isn't a call to hate, but a call to set the right priorities. Putting anything—anything at all—before God skews the rest of our relationships. The key to understanding this Gospel is to look first at how we act towards others. We have to look at ourselves. We have to look at our "Torah" just as the Jews did, at the covenant we've promised to keep. Our Torah is our Baptismal Covenant—the promises God makes to us in our Baptism and the promises we make in return, as a response to that gift.

This Gospel is easier to grasp if we look first at what we're called to in those promises. They tell us how we should act. If we really live out those promises, we'll find that many of our other relationships fall into the proper perspective. We won't be like the builder Jesus used as an example. We'll have the proper foundation to build on; our priorities will be right. We may even see our personal relationships grow deeper and more solid. There will always be the cross, yes, but there is also God's promise of resurrection.

So, how might we put these words into action? First, we need to ask ourselves, “Is my life different because I’m Baptized?” As one of God’s Baptized, I am a disciple of Jesus. Am I living like a disciple? Is God my very first priority—even more important than my need to be comfortable? Even more important than my family? Even more important than my stuff? Am I reaching out with healing love to those in need? This includes those folks who, like the tax collectors and sinners in the Gospel, are marginalized in our society. Let's look carefully how we as individuals care for them, and how we do it as a congregation. In other ways, too, Jesus in our baptism challenges us to look at every aspect of our lives. God wants us entirely and to give God our hearts is difficult and costly. But Martin Luther always used to say that a religion that gives nothing, costs nothing and suffers nothing is worth nothing.

If this passage really makes us squirm and think to ourselves that Jesus really has gone from preachin' to meddlin', that’s okay. As Baptized members of the body of Christ, this Gospel reminds us of how much it costs to be Jesus’ disciple and fires us to follow him more fully.

Now, may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

© 2007 Laura E. Gentry