Counting Beyond The Chicken and the Egg
Luke 14:25-33 with Philemon and Jeremiah 18:1-11 in the b.g.
Ham n' eggs: have you ever had them for breakfast? Let me tell you the chicken gives something to such a breakfast, but the pig's ALL IN to such a breakfast. That's commitment.
This reminded me of a particular couple I once did premarital work with. Before I perform the wedding ceremony for any couple, I ask that they sit down and invest 4-6 hours with me in exploring their relationship. This is always a worthwhile experience, certainly for them, but also for me. They get to know each other better and I get to know them, at least a little bit. Today's Gospel reminded me of one couple I worked with. Let me call them Steve and Lorrie. In about the third session we arrived at the place where we were talking about longer-term goals – 10 years and beyond. They both identified a similar goal of retiring by the time they were 45. I asked them if they had counted the cost of doing such a thing. They enthusiastically nodded and then began to spin out #s – in terms of dollars and cents, land investments and GIC's. In that area they had certainly done their homework. But there were other areas which they hadn't even begun to think about.
I asked them: when you have worked at least 10-12 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 20 years at different locales, both of you, do you think that you will still love each other? They looked at me like I was crazy. Well, I offered, you won't have spent very much time together in those 20 years will you? Now if you spend very little time together, can you be sure that you will still love each other?
Then I posited a second question. Do you hope or plan to have children? "Oh yes". They both beamed. Then I asked, "Will your kids love you? Will you love them?" Again they looked at me as if I had rocks in my head. "Well," I said, "if you are working 10 –12 hours a day, 7 days a week, when will you spend time with your children? And if you don't spend time with them, how will they experience your love? And if they don't experience your love, how will they be enabled to love?"
Well, now they were beginning to wonder about retiring at 45. Finally I asked them one last question: "Are you sure that you will both still be alive at 45?" "Absolutely", they asserted. "Really", I said, "Do you know how many people I have buried long before they reached their 45th birthday? It will be great if you both live to be 80 or 90 or more – but there aren't any guarantees. Sooo, if you aren't going to spend very much time with your kids or with each other, because you are so busy working so that you can retire at 45, what if one of you or both of you die before you reach the age of 45?"
This morning I want to ask you one question: Have you ever counted the cost of being a Christian, of actually following Jesus in every aspect of your life? And if you haven't I want you to consider the flip side of that question – the cost of not following Jesus in every aspect of your life.
Let me say a bit more. This morning's gospel lesson from Luke 14 puts the question directly to us. It reminds me of someone saying that following Jesus isn't like taking someone out Starbucks for coffee or even a strawberry frappe.
Jesus says things in this Gospel lesson that catch in our craw, that won't navigate their way past our Adam's apple. If somehow they do make it past that juncture his words will give us lasting heartburn. Did you hear the things Jesus is saying in today's Gospel? "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.'" Wow! What do we do with this? More importantly, what do such words and actions of Jesus do with us?
Even if one does a word search and discovers that the word translated "hate" here does not mean psychological hatred – such as disgust or disdain, we are still left with considerable dis-ease. Make no mistake. Anyway you cut it, Jesus is saying that following him means that he is to have priority in each and everyone of his follower's lives – even over such important relationships as father and mother, son and daughter, or with oneself. How can this ever be? Could we do that? Would we want to? You see, I deeply love my children, my parents. Can there be any greater love than that?
Hold onto that question. It's not rhetorical! There is a much greater love even than the love that some parents flesh out for a child, or loving children for a parent. Look around. See this greater love hanging on a cross FOR US, for you, for me, for our children, for our parents, for those caught in the floods in Pakistan, for those killed by the suicide bombers in Afghanistan, for those suicide bombers themselves, for the entire world – especially for those who have hated and continue to hate. This greater love is incarnate in Jesus. It is God's will for all to have life! This doesn't just mean a heart beating, nor only, as miraculous as it is, minds thinking. But even more than this, God wills people, mind, body and souls together, dedicated to caring for each other and this world, so that no one needs to be hungry or alone – thinking or feeling that they just don't matter. They do matter to God. And they and creation must matter to us if we are to follow Jesus.
Only by the grace of God can we be freed from anxiety, concern, obsession with ourselves and those we love. By the grace of God through the activity of the Holy Spirit we can be freed to trust God and actually follow Jesus. In this there are moments when we are enabled to act selflessly – not by our own willpower and certainly not by our own goodness, but by God's grace. We can be empowered by the love of Jesus to follow Jesus – whatever may come. On our own this is not possible!
I am drawn to what Alan Culpepper a New Testament commentator says about cross bearing or following Jesus. He says that cross bearing is what we do VOLUNTARILY as a consequence of our commitment to Christ. Some times such action will involve great thought and struggle. At other times we become aware of need and react in caring but risky and vulnerable ways. We may jump into a river to save a drowning person or go that extra mile at work or with others so that they may be cared for in body, mind and spirit. Whatever we do at home, at work, in our recreation, this all matters to God. For God loves the world! We glimpse this in Jesus who gives His all for all.
If such living isn't the way we are living then other POWERS seek to rush in and overtake us. Such powers are many – too many to all be named. Nevertheless such powers are real. As Paul writes "like a lion they seek to devour us". Do you know any of them: money, possessions, reputation, fear, anxiety, or apathy?
So whom are you following? My observation is that we are all, following, someone or something(s). If we are to follow Jesus, the COST IS HIGH. His love, the emptying of Himself for us and this universe changes everything! It can no longer be me, myself and I or even only me and my family or my closest friends, or those who are somewhat like me. If we are to actually follow Jesus, we are called to love as He loves, to risk as He risks.
But also know this: Jesus' love, his forgiveness, his accompaniment does not abandon us through the death of all that was, and of much that will be. We too will often suffer, be disappointed, wonder if "it" is worth it. But He will not abandon us.
So, by God's grace may we daily follow Jesus. We can be living examples of His amazingly good news! We can embody hope. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed… And because he lives we too can live! Amen.