Pentecost 13C (Proper 15)
Sept 8, 2019 (Church picnic)
Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-33
INTRODUCTION
I’m going to
be drawing today from Deuteronomy and Luke, so let’s get oriented to each of
those. Our passage from Deuteronomy comes at the very end of the Israelites’ 40
years of wandering in the wilderness. At that point, just about to enter the
Promised Land, Moses gives a long speech, and today’s reading is its
culmination. Moses is reminding the people who they have become over these 40
years, as one scholar writes, “a people formed in the crucible of the covenant,
a people who are made and unmade by the grace and ferocity of God.” Living in
obedience to the Law, the covenant of God, would be, as Moses says, “choosing
life,” for themselves and their people. What a wonderful motto for faith this
text offers: “choose life!”
Our Gospel lesson
is… less immediately satisfying, as it contains one of Jesus’ most difficult
teachings: to “hate” your own family, give up all your possessions, and follow
him. In fact, that teaching may sound to us like the opposite of choosing life!
I will unpack that in my sermon, and hopefully squeeze some good news out of
it, but here’s how you can start: as you listen, think about what in your life
right now gives you life, and, what makes you feel like the life is draining
out of you, whether on a small or a large scale? Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you
and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
So,
I gotta admit… This is not the sort of Gospel lesson one hopes for on the day
of the church picnic, a day everyone hopes will be light-hearted and fun. Here
we are, with a piñata ready to bust, burgers ready to grill, and having
gathered enough food to feed 70 hungry families, a day we are joining with
Lutherans all across America for a denomination-wide day of serving others! This
should be a joyful day! But then Jesus comes along and says, “You know that’s
great that you gathered all that food, thanks for that, but I’m telling you
that you have to do the very hardest thing: hate your closest family, and give
up everything to follow me.” Yowzah! It’s amazing Jesus had any disciples at
all! Why would he give the crowd – and us! – such a demanding list of costs to
following him? Doesn’t he want people to follow him? Why would
he scare us away with demands like these?
His purpose, at least, becomes clearer in the analogies or parables that
follow: it is about counting the cost of discipleship. A builder doesn’t start
building until he knows he has the funds to finish the project. A king won’t go
to war unless he really thinks he’s got a shot at winning. Or, in more
contemporary terms, you don’t sign your kid up for the traveling soccer team
unless you are willing to travel every weekend, missing church and any number
of other activities. You don’t retire until you know you will be able to afford
health insurance. You count the cost before you make big decisions.
In short, Jesus is telling us: being a disciple is not gonna be a cakewalk. Sometimes
it is rewarding, even fun, and certainly life-giving, but also, there are
costs. There are things to consider. Yes, he’s here to bring life and
salvation, and this comes as a gift, as pure grace, but when you receive that
gift, when you become a true follower of Christ, there are going to be some
things in your life that can’t be the same as they were before. Your life will
change. And some of those changes may not come very easily for you.
Demands like this might sound strange to our 21st century
American ears, because for us, being a Christian seems pretty easy! As American
Christians we can worship when, where, and how we please, our lives are not in
danger for our beliefs, and we can generally go to church on Sunday, put some
money in the offering plate, volunteer when we feel up to it, collect some
food, and enjoy a picnic and some fellowship now and then. We can engage
however much or little as we want in this thing called, “being a Christian.”
But texts like this show us that there is something more to the Christian life
than that.
What is that something more, practically speaking? Jesus talks a big game about
taking up our cross, and giving away everything and turning away from the
people dearest to us… but what does any of that actually look like, in 2019?
Today’s
text from Deuteronomy sheds some light. After a discussion on the ways God has
put before God’s people the option of life and prosperity, or death and
adversity, the author implores us, “Choose life, so that you and your
descendants may live!” Well, when you put it that way, it seems like such an
obvious choice! Choose life and prosperity or death and adversity? Uh, no
brainer! I’ll choose life!
But
what if we phrased it a little differently: “Choose what is life-giving.”
Suddenly, we are compelled to consider: what is life-giving?
What choices do I make during the course of the day that are life-giving, for
me, and for the people around me? Are there choices I make that are life-giving
for me, but bring death (metaphorical or literal) to someone else? And then of
course the flip side: are there are choices I make that are not life-giving,
even for myself?
There’s
an Ignatian spirituality practice that asks these very questions at the end of
each day: what did I do today that made me feel full of life, and what did I do
that made me feel that life was draining out of me? They are hard questions to
ask, because if you ask them seriously, and reflect on them deeply, you may
find that some of the things you do that are automatic, or that are coping
mechanisms for your stress, are in fact the very things that drain the life out
of you: working too much, eating junk, drinking or smoking too much. Maybe
even, watching mindless TV or YouTube videos, or getting sucked into Facebook
or Pinterest or Instagram, or buying more stuff. Anyone guilty?
I’ve
done this exercise, and was surprised to find that some of the things that are
most difficult for me to do, like getting up early to go for a walk in the
morning, are actually, when I think back at the end of the day, my most
life-giving activities, and the things I default to, like scrolling through
Facebook, make me feel tired and wasted. Choosing life, choosing what is
life-giving, is not always such an easy choice, because you know, scrolling
through Facebook is a lot easier than going for a walk, or reading the Bible,
or praying, or speaking up for the poor, or fighting for justice, or any number
of things Jesus calls us to do. But as Jesus tells us, choosing his way, the
way of life, comes with costs.
This
becomes especially difficult when we apply it back to Jesus’ tough words today,
the ones about hating father and mother, spouse, siblings, and children. For
many of us, these people are the very thing that brings life to us! Scholars
have worked hard over the centuries to come to terms with this – surely Jesus
didn’t mean hate in the way we mean that word. Jesus is about love,
after all! The most helpful way I have come across to understand this is: hate
is not so much a feeling, as an action. To hate something, in Semitic, Jewish,
understanding, is to turn away from it, and turn toward the
kingdom of God. It might be that turning toward the kingdom of God is turning
toward your family, that tending to those important relationships is your most
important kingdom job. I talked last week about some of the important work my
grandparents did, especially for the church, over their lives, yet my
grandmother would have said that her most important vocation was to care for
her aging mother. I think my mom would say the same about when she cared for my
grandma, difficult as it was, all the way until the moment grandma left this
world and entered eternal life.
But
sometimes, our prioritizing even these blessed relationships can turn us away
from God’s will. I read a reflection some time ago from a female pastor, who
grew up in a household in which women speaking in church at all was prohibited.
Women should remain silent, and certainly shouldn’t be pastors! But this woman
felt so strongly the call to serve God in this role. So she had to turn away,
to “hate” her parents, to fulfill God’s will for her. Of course, she still
loves them, and spends time with them, even though they disagree on this point.
But this pastor had to put the will of God ahead of the will of her parents. In
Jesus’ words, she had to “hate” them.
It’s
a high price to pay. We sometimes have to make tough calls like that in our
lives of faith, to make decisions that best serve the whole Body of Christ,
even when they are difficult for us or for our loved ones. It’s good that Jesus
warns us that this life of dedication to seeking God’s will and following
Christ might require some difficult choices.
It’s
good that he warns us, but you know what’s even better? Though Jesus asks us to
make some difficult sacrifices, he doesn’t ask that without offering it
himself. And when Jesus makes his ultimate sacrifice, the result is not just
resurrected life for him. It is new life for us. It is the promise of life and
grace and forgiveness, so we know that when we fall short of the demands of
discipleship, when we are confused or overwhelmed by all the choices before us
and aren’t sure which way is the life-giving way, even when we make the wrong
choice: God continues to offer us life. God continues to love us and forgive
us, and place before us again the option of choosing life. That is the true
gift of God’s grace and unconditional love. That is why we can gather here
today to worship and fill bags of food for hungry people and join in fellowship
and fun. That is God’s gift of life: thanks be to God!
Let us pray… Life-giving God, sometimes “choosing
life” isn’t as easy for us as it sounds. Grant us the courage to make choices
that lead to life, not only for us, but for all your children, and for our
neighbors near and far. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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