Absolutes
(Formerly: None of You)
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Fifteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 14:25-33
“All your possessions”
“ALL your possessions”
“NONE of you”
“NONE OF YOU”
Just wanted to make sure we all heard those last phrases from Jesus.
Several weeks ago, as I was planning out the 6 weeks or so we are about to wrap up, today’s message title came out of what initially struck me the most from the Gospel passage for this morning – and that was – at first – Jesus’ words “none of you”. I typed it in along with the general theme of the service, and the responsive reading selection, and went on to the next week’s scriptures, and a couple of weeks later I was looking back over the list in preparation for what was to come, and read back over the passage … and noticed in the second reading that there are MORE phrases or words that carry the weight of ‘totality’ with them in what Jesus was saying – two words: ‘whoever (does not hate (v 26), does not carry the cross and follow me (v 27)’ and ‘cannot’(be my disciple x 2). In my mind the title of the message changed from what you see in the bulletin to a single word: ‘Absolutes.’
This is one of the most discomforting sayings of Jesus for me. And you know what is interesting? It has become MORE discomforting as I’ve grown older … I remember when I was a freshman in college; I didn’t bat an eye when reading this. My thought process was “of COURSE, that’s what it is going to take. It CAN’T take anything less than total commitment, radical commitment, absolute and complete surrender to Christ. I have to be willing to follow him wherever, whenever, however he asks me.” Of course, I was single; I had relatively few earthly possessions, and felt like I was the smartest person in the world. (Not really, but you get the idea!)
Then I grew up a little more, and realized the sacrifice my parents made, that other missionaries made, and that missionaries make every DAY. And I realized how much my parents and brother and sisters and those missionary aunts and uncles meant to me, and how much I loved them, and I read back over the first part of the passage – where Jesus says,
“Does not hate”
Eek.
Luke, if you remember, is one of the synoptic Gospels, that is, one of the three that share much of their content – Matthew and Mark are the other two. If you look in the Gospel according to Matthew, you can find essentially the same discourse, but with slightly different wording – Matthew’s is a little easier to read – there we find the words
26“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
Based on this verse alone, I can see why Matthew’s Gospel became the most popular and therefore appears first in the New Testament. The message is still essentially the same, but he seemed to have more finesse with words.
And that last item in the list – “even life itself” …
I got married to a woman who still to this day amazes me by her passion and humor and grace and wisdom, and we had these three incredible kids who are funny and demanding and obedient (most of the time! ) and smarter than whips, and kind and caring, who lavish us with love and affirmation – MUCH more so than I remember EVER giving MY parents at their age … I get to pastor TWO groups of people who are at the same time walking alongside me in a journey that we are sharing of getting to know Christ, AND are teaching me HOW to be their pastor… sometimes still naïve about some things, and hopefully always open to some new insight, other times wrestling with issues and situations that I’m sure have confounded pastors throughout the centuries … it’s all good, and it IS a wonderful life … I have been blessed to have become a part of your lives over the last four years.
But does Luke then, expect me to understand that Jesus wants me to actually HATE my parents, brother and sisters, and life?
Before we dismissively say ‘of course not, we just need to love HIM so much more than them that comparing the two would be like comparing love and hate’, we need to understand the context that Luke is sending his Gospel into.
Scholars date the writing of the Gospel anywhere between 35 to as much as 50 years or more after the resurrection. In the intervening decades, Christianity has spread, and it has also begun to suffer some of the beginnings of more extensive persecution to come. Some followers of Christ were growing fainthearted in the face of that; some were even abandoning the faith. They were facing imprisonment, expulsion from their known world and environment, and just couldn’t handle it.
We’re again faced with a situation for which we really have little point of reference. It might be different if we lived in a country where becoming a follower of Christ puts you at risk of being cut off from your family. Has anyone here been cut off from their family because they became a follower of Christ? It DOES still happen. People ARE still paying with their lives for following Christ. In some cases, it is paying with the lives they have known up until that point – the person loses their job, is cut off from their family, becomes a non-person in the prevailing culture … but is still physically alive. In other cases it is in fact their life that they lose.
But not here.
And that is where WE are. So how do we apply this text to OUR situation, to OUR context? What does it mean to Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
Do we go back to the comparison between the degrees of love, love for Christ up here, love for family and life down there, but still love? Do we take it literally and start stoking a hate for our family and life?
I think the distinction needs to be made about the context. We are blessed to be surrounded by family who, for the most part, though maybe not entirely, affirms our decision to be followers of Christ. We didn’t risk much in choosing to follow Jesus. Or did we?
We are still called to die to ourselves. We are still called to surrender everything to the Lordship of Christ. We are still …called. And we are still SUBJECT to being called to do something we may not be thrilled about doing but that Christ still demands of us.
So we are still subject to the cost of being a disciple. And THAT was Luke’s point here. He put it in concrete terms for those who were choosing to remain with family or choosing the life they had lead up until then over following Jesus, when following Jesus would have meant losing those things.
Jesus’ words apply as much to us today because we STILL have to wrestle with what we are willing to give up in order to follow Jesus, in order to truly let Jesus be Lord of our lives. What is it that we don’t want to surrender to Christ? What are we less than thrilled about putting below our allegiance to Jesus? Are we willing to put our citizenship under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to say ‘I am a Christian first, a citizen of the United States second?’ Are we willing to put our pride in our history – even our family history – in this church under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to envision – and enact – what God wants to do through Jerusalem that would surprise and maybe even annoy our grandparents or great grandparents?
Look around. Are there more empty seats than there are occupied seats around you? Are we willing to submit who we are willing to sit and stand next to in worship to the Lordship of Christ? Jerusalem has a history for which we can be grateful, but our future is what is going to count just as much as our past. It is what happens from here on out that will determine the impact we have on our community as it is NOW as well as what IT is becoming.
A couple of Wednesdays ago we studied the passage that comes right before this one – where Jesus tells the parable of the guests invited to a great dinner – those guests – the “A” list folks, came up with excuses for not coming to the banquet – one had just bought some oxen and needed to check them out, another bought some land, another had just gotten married … in short, all the people one would ‘WANT’ to be seen with begged off and gave some excuse for not coming. So the master told his servant to go out in the street and call in anyone they saw – the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
Who do we relate to in the story? Are we expecting the invitation, or are we surprised that we were even invited?
God’s grace is like that. Are we still overwhelmed by the fact that Christ counted us worth dying for, or do we sit back and say maybe mostly to ourselves, “well, of COURSE I’m worth dying for!”
It still surprises me, how much we … I have to work on submitting to Jesus. It’s a daily process, a daily examination, and a daily surrender.
Let’s pray.
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Fifteenth after Pentecost
Jerusalem Baptist Church, Emmerton VA
Luke 14:25-33
25Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26“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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my
disciple. 28For 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? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or 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? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
“All your possessions”
“ALL your possessions”
“NONE of you”
“NONE OF YOU”
Just wanted to make sure we all heard those last phrases from Jesus.
Several weeks ago, as I was planning out the 6 weeks or so we are about to wrap up, today’s message title came out of what initially struck me the most from the Gospel passage for this morning – and that was – at first – Jesus’ words “none of you”. I typed it in along with the general theme of the service, and the responsive reading selection, and went on to the next week’s scriptures, and a couple of weeks later I was looking back over the list in preparation for what was to come, and read back over the passage … and noticed in the second reading that there are MORE phrases or words that carry the weight of ‘totality’ with them in what Jesus was saying – two words: ‘whoever (does not hate (v 26), does not carry the cross and follow me (v 27)’ and ‘cannot’(be my disciple x 2). In my mind the title of the message changed from what you see in the bulletin to a single word: ‘Absolutes.’
This is one of the most discomforting sayings of Jesus for me. And you know what is interesting? It has become MORE discomforting as I’ve grown older … I remember when I was a freshman in college; I didn’t bat an eye when reading this. My thought process was “of COURSE, that’s what it is going to take. It CAN’T take anything less than total commitment, radical commitment, absolute and complete surrender to Christ. I have to be willing to follow him wherever, whenever, however he asks me.” Of course, I was single; I had relatively few earthly possessions, and felt like I was the smartest person in the world. (Not really, but you get the idea!)
Then I grew up a little more, and realized the sacrifice my parents made, that other missionaries made, and that missionaries make every DAY. And I realized how much my parents and brother and sisters and those missionary aunts and uncles meant to me, and how much I loved them, and I read back over the first part of the passage – where Jesus says,
26“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children,
brothers and sisters … cannot be my disciple”
“Does not hate”
Eek.
Luke, if you remember, is one of the synoptic Gospels, that is, one of the three that share much of their content – Matthew and Mark are the other two. If you look in the Gospel according to Matthew, you can find essentially the same discourse, but with slightly different wording – Matthew’s is a little easier to read – there we find the words
26“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”
Based on this verse alone, I can see why Matthew’s Gospel became the most popular and therefore appears first in the New Testament. The message is still essentially the same, but he seemed to have more finesse with words.
And that last item in the list – “even life itself” …
I got married to a woman who still to this day amazes me by her passion and humor and grace and wisdom, and we had these three incredible kids who are funny and demanding and obedient (most of the time! ) and smarter than whips, and kind and caring, who lavish us with love and affirmation – MUCH more so than I remember EVER giving MY parents at their age … I get to pastor TWO groups of people who are at the same time walking alongside me in a journey that we are sharing of getting to know Christ, AND are teaching me HOW to be their pastor… sometimes still naïve about some things, and hopefully always open to some new insight, other times wrestling with issues and situations that I’m sure have confounded pastors throughout the centuries … it’s all good, and it IS a wonderful life … I have been blessed to have become a part of your lives over the last four years.
But does Luke then, expect me to understand that Jesus wants me to actually HATE my parents, brother and sisters, and life?
Before we dismissively say ‘of course not, we just need to love HIM so much more than them that comparing the two would be like comparing love and hate’, we need to understand the context that Luke is sending his Gospel into.
Scholars date the writing of the Gospel anywhere between 35 to as much as 50 years or more after the resurrection. In the intervening decades, Christianity has spread, and it has also begun to suffer some of the beginnings of more extensive persecution to come. Some followers of Christ were growing fainthearted in the face of that; some were even abandoning the faith. They were facing imprisonment, expulsion from their known world and environment, and just couldn’t handle it.
We’re again faced with a situation for which we really have little point of reference. It might be different if we lived in a country where becoming a follower of Christ puts you at risk of being cut off from your family. Has anyone here been cut off from their family because they became a follower of Christ? It DOES still happen. People ARE still paying with their lives for following Christ. In some cases, it is paying with the lives they have known up until that point – the person loses their job, is cut off from their family, becomes a non-person in the prevailing culture … but is still physically alive. In other cases it is in fact their life that they lose.
But not here.
And that is where WE are. So how do we apply this text to OUR situation, to OUR context? What does it mean to Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?
Do we go back to the comparison between the degrees of love, love for Christ up here, love for family and life down there, but still love? Do we take it literally and start stoking a hate for our family and life?
I think the distinction needs to be made about the context. We are blessed to be surrounded by family who, for the most part, though maybe not entirely, affirms our decision to be followers of Christ. We didn’t risk much in choosing to follow Jesus. Or did we?
We are still called to die to ourselves. We are still called to surrender everything to the Lordship of Christ. We are still …called. And we are still SUBJECT to being called to do something we may not be thrilled about doing but that Christ still demands of us.
So we are still subject to the cost of being a disciple. And THAT was Luke’s point here. He put it in concrete terms for those who were choosing to remain with family or choosing the life they had lead up until then over following Jesus, when following Jesus would have meant losing those things.
Jesus’ words apply as much to us today because we STILL have to wrestle with what we are willing to give up in order to follow Jesus, in order to truly let Jesus be Lord of our lives. What is it that we don’t want to surrender to Christ? What are we less than thrilled about putting below our allegiance to Jesus? Are we willing to put our citizenship under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to say ‘I am a Christian first, a citizen of the United States second?’ Are we willing to put our pride in our history – even our family history – in this church under the Lordship of Christ? Are we willing to envision – and enact – what God wants to do through Jerusalem that would surprise and maybe even annoy our grandparents or great grandparents?
Look around. Are there more empty seats than there are occupied seats around you? Are we willing to submit who we are willing to sit and stand next to in worship to the Lordship of Christ? Jerusalem has a history for which we can be grateful, but our future is what is going to count just as much as our past. It is what happens from here on out that will determine the impact we have on our community as it is NOW as well as what IT is becoming.
A couple of Wednesdays ago we studied the passage that comes right before this one – where Jesus tells the parable of the guests invited to a great dinner – those guests – the “A” list folks, came up with excuses for not coming to the banquet – one had just bought some oxen and needed to check them out, another bought some land, another had just gotten married … in short, all the people one would ‘WANT’ to be seen with begged off and gave some excuse for not coming. So the master told his servant to go out in the street and call in anyone they saw – the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.
Who do we relate to in the story? Are we expecting the invitation, or are we surprised that we were even invited?
God’s grace is like that. Are we still overwhelmed by the fact that Christ counted us worth dying for, or do we sit back and say maybe mostly to ourselves, “well, of COURSE I’m worth dying for!”
It still surprises me, how much we … I have to work on submitting to Jesus. It’s a daily process, a daily examination, and a daily surrender.
Let’s pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment