The The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 9, 2007 Proper 18 C
~The Rev. Dr. Kris Lewis

Luke 14:25-33

"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… So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

These are hard words, difficult words, words we would just as soon not hear, or at the very least, gloss over, wouldn’t we? In fact, over the years there have been many attempts to soften Jesus’ words—oh, he didn’t really mean “hate”, he just meant “love less than me” or he didn’t really mean GIVE UP our possessions …because we humans are quite skilled at rationalization, at making things mean what we want them to mean.

If we’re going to be honest, however, and if we are going to honor the integrity of the scripture, I don’t think we can soften Jesus’ words. Instead, we must look at the context in which Jesus spoke those words, think about what they would’ve meant to his audience and then think about what they might mean for us, as hard as they may be.

So what is going on in today’s gospel? A huge hunk of the Gospel according to Luke – almost 10 chapters out of 24 – comprises what is referred to as the “travel narrative.” Way back in chapter 9 Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, towards the cross, and he uses the long winding journey to Jerusalem as an opportunity to teach. He teaches about repentance, about prayer, about mission, about the coming Kingdom of God, but more often than not, he is teaching about what it means to be a disciple. In an earlier section Jesus warned those who would become followers that discipleship exacts a high price and he used the same words about taking up one’s cross to follow him in that warning to let those who might become disciples know what they would be in for. Now we are mid way through his journey, and Jesus seems to be surrounded by a more enthusiastic group – people who have committed themselves to Jesus – and it is to them that his words are addressed. “Understand,” he seems to be saying to them, “understand that what you are doing is not without cost. Think about the decision you are making, because that cost includes a willingness to forfeit those things that are nearest and dearest to you—your family and your possessions.”

That’s hard for us to hear today, and it was hard then. I don’t want to soften the impact of what Jesus is saying, but it might help here to note that “hating” one’s family in 1st century Palestine has some different connotations than it does today. In that culture, maintaining the honor of one’s family was of paramount importance. Moreover, “love” and “hate” were used to refer less to emotions than to actions. When Jesus says, “whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” he is not saying that his followers must cease to feel love for their families, nor is he suggesting that they must feel animosity towards them. Rather he is referring to behavior—in a culture where family honor is paramount, disciples must be prepared to act in ways that might dishonor their families, quite a significant cost for those in Jesus’ audience.
And what about the call to hate “even life itself?” I think that this call can be best understood in the context of having to carry one’s cross. It’s easy for us to forget that references to the cross were not just metaphorical for Jesus. The cross was a brutal form of capital punishment reserved for the dregs of society. When Jesus demands that his disciples take up the cross he is again demanding that they give up all ties to earthly honor and status, and that they be prepared to suffer whatever may come.

What Jesus is calling his disciples to is radical—to be a disciple is to loosen those attachments to all the earthly things humans set such store in—honor, status, relationships, possessions, even life as we know it—and instead to follow the way he laid out in his life and ministry. We don’t know how Jesus’ audience received these hard words—the gospel writer doesn’t tell us whether he was booed or applauded; we don’t know how many turned away, finding the cost too high. But the fact that we’re here, today, 2000 years later tells us that some stayed, some committed, some accepted the cost of discipleship. Not only the biblical witness but also the witness of the saints and martyrs who came before us confirms that a vast throng has indeed paid the cost of discipleship—many with their lives.

And what about us? What is the cost of discipleship for us? We live in an era where being Christian is often the “safe” option. To be at least nominally Christian is to be part of the mainstream, to be a “regular American”—indeed, in the current presidential campaign, how “Christian” the various candidates are is an issue of seemingly great interest. We live in an era where it is pretty easy to be a comfortable Christian, a “good person” secure in the knowledge of God’s love for all of us. But today’s gospel tells us that living this way might not be enough. Of course, God’s love for us is not dependent on our actions, it’s not conditional—that’s one of the paradoxes of our faith. Nevertheless when we sign on as Christians, when we decide that we will follow Jesus, if we take that call seriously, our lives are forever changed, and in a very real sense, they are no longer our own. Rather our lives belong to God and our task is to live them in such a way that we fulfill what God calls us to do and be.

Although few of us are likely to be called to lay down our lives for our beliefs, and few of us are called to give up all that we have to become monastics or missionaries, ALL of us are called to take our lives in Christ and our discipleship seriously and ALL of us are called to be prepared to accept whatever the cost of that discipleship might be.

You might be thinking at this point, “I already pay a cost for discipleship—I’m here, aren’t I? I put my check in the offertory, I give to charity, I try to be a good person” and so on. And I don’t want to denigrate or dismiss any of that. But what I do want to suggest is that it is awfully easy for us to be “comfortable Christians”, to live dedicated and morally upright and even exemplary lives without ever having to face up to the cost of discipleship.

Does this mean that we all have to suffer? That being a Christian has to be painful? I don’t think so. But I think it does mean that we –all of us, myself included—need to look beyond our complacency and our comfort zones to see where we might be called to extend ourselves. How this looks will be different for each of us. It might mean taking prayer and scripture more seriously. It might mean taking a serious look at our giving when the stewardship campaign begins in a few weeks. It might mean examining how we spend our time—including our Sundays. It might mean changing some of our priorities to focus more on the needs of others. The list could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: When we embrace the true discipleship Jesus calls us to, God must be at the very center of our lives. And when God truly is at the center, God’s love for us will radiate out into the world for us and through us, and we will experience the Kingdom Jesus promises. Is any price too high to pay for that?

AMEN