Strong Language

Sermon by: Rev. Dr. Mary Alice Mulligan

Scripture: Luke 14:25-33

Today we continue to follow Jesus as his teachings get more and more serious about discipleship. Let me encourage you to take time later to read through these chapters, starting at Luke 9:51, where Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, then read what we have been listening to recently: Luke 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. We’ll hear the beginning of 16 in 2 weeks. Next week you get a little break from Luke to hear Pastor Greg preach about belief from Mark, which is actually right in step with our journey into discipleship. Today we see Jesus as he moves closer to Jerusalem, which means he is calling his followers into deeper discipleship. The call is not just to confess belief in Jesus, be baptized, and attend worship once or twice a month. Week by week his teachings get harder, calling believers to make a more serious commitment. Eventually every fiber of a person’s being, every breath the person takes, and every action every minute, need to say: “I belong to the Lord.” He is teaching tough stuff, so everyone is going to need to make choices. This passage is bookended by ideas that sound impossible. “Hate your family” and “Give up your possessions.” Difficult directions. In the first century, the word we translate as “hate” meant “to turn away from, to detach oneself from.” In other words, one scholar explains, “…in the network of many loyalties [like to family] in which all of us live, the claim of Christ and the gospel not only takes precedence but, in fact, redefines the others.”(1) If Jesus doesn’t come first, if you aren’t detaching yourselves from family and possessions, Jesus says, “You might as well just go home and stop pretending you want to be my disciple.” Ouch. Turn and read Luke 14:25-33.

Jesus speaks strong words. The lessons of Jesus become more difficult as he takes his followers further into the journey. Three times he tells them, and therefore us, ways we fail to be his disciples. We cannot be disciples if we cannot turn away from our closest family members; we cannot be disciples if we cannot carry a cross as we follow him; and we cannot be disciples if we cannot give up all our possessions. What a lot of how “not” to be disciples.

Jesus gives a strident call to followers, requiring full life commitment. He has metaphorically pulled up next to people with a boat and calls them to get in, completely. Anyone who pretends to be in the boat, say by draping an arm against the side, is just fooling herself. We need to get completely in the boat, or we aren’t in at all. Then to make it perfectly clear he is not kidding, he talks about the need to plan the cost. Here is the only report of Jesus’ using the word we translate “cost.” In fact, here is the only time the word “cost” is used in the entire New Testament. Each of us, he says, if attempting to build some structure, first estimates the cost. If we don’t, we might get part of the tower constructed and run out of money. Wouldn’t we be a laughingstock?

Then to drive home the importance of planning the cost even further, he talks of going to war with 10,000 soldiers, but finding the enemy attacking with 20,000. We have to give up, get more defenses, or ask for the terms of peace (by which he means surrender). Planning the cost of building a tower or figuring out the odds when going to war are obviously metaphors for planning the cost of making a commitment to follow Jesus. Being a Christian for the long haul is not easy. We have to be “all in,” Jesus says, or we aren’t in at all. Our commitment to Jesus Christ comes before family, before personal comfort, and before any possession. Jesus’ teaching is tough.

And, if we get honest, we all have anti-disciple habits. As embarrassing as it is to admit, none of us lives totally focused on how Jesus expects disciples to live. True. But don’t misunderstand. When we admit our shortcomings in being good disciples of Jesus Christ, we are not excusing ourselves. Jesus is not standing in the background saying, “That’s okay. You did your best.” Drifting away from living according to the teachings of Jesus means we are not being disciples.

We are supposed to be living according to the purposes of God, which means we are to be spreading God’s love, giving everything we have to make life around the whole world better. Our efforts are to be aimed especially at those who are struggling the most. In other words, true disciples are to sacrifice significantly for the ministry which Jesus entrusted to us. But instead, we dabble. We feel good if we put an extra $25 into the plate for Resurrection House this month and plan to buy 2 pairs of white socks for Sock it to Me Sunday. But when someone asks if we are going to the Conference Annual Gathering in October or are willing to volunteer at one of our mission organizations, we say no, because our lives are full enough. Although some of us are involved in Jesus’ ministry in several places both at St. Andrew and in the community, our regular life habits make adding another responsibility too cumbersome. Sunday belongs to Jesus. The rest of the week, we get to decide what to do. We have our certain disciple-y behaviors on Sunday, because God is worthy of worship and we want to catch up with our friends at church (and in-person coffee hour has begun), but after Sunday, we go back to our weekly habits in the world of Facebook and watching the Bachelor. And we usually don’t even feel bad about it. After all, we aren’t following UPS trucks around stealing packages off porches. So we feel pretty good about ourselves most of the time. Our day-to-day normal life is just that – normal “good person living,” as if that were good enough. None of us fulfills all the disciple expectations.

But we can grow in discipleship. Just as Jesus’ teachings with his first century disciples get more difficult as they progress on their journey towards Jerusalem, so can we move deeper into discipleship. In fact, Jesus expects us to grow in discipleship. No matter how old we are or how long we have been following him. So the real question is: Do we want to be more faithful disciples? Because if we want to move deeper into discipleship, Jesus’ hard sayings are for us. We may not be able to go from where we are today to someone fully committed overnight, but each of us can commit to the journey. We might start by just paying attention to how we spend our time. A government survey found on average, American adults watch more than 3 hours of television, every day. Many older people watch significantly more. What if we turned off the television at 2½ hours and read a devotional book for a half hour each day? Something to draw us closer to God, to nourish our soul? There’s a step on the path.

Does anyone think Serena Williams was a tennis star the first time she stepped onto a court? Of course not. She established a discipline of hard work practicing., step-by-step, every day. Disciple and discipline have the same root. If we want to be a disciple, we have to be disciplined, step-by-step, moving deeper into our commitment, every day.

Some of us may sort of want to move into discipleship, but there’s a little voice in the back of our minds saying, “as long as I don’t have to change much.” But it’s not possible to increase our discipleship without moving, changing, doing more. No matter how old we are. After all, Grandma Moses began painting at 76.

So a person who wonders what one of the newly designed Church Teams actually does, can drop in on a meeting. The Zoom links are in the bulletin and the Midweek. Or they might link in to St. Andrew 101 in October to find out what some options are for getting a little more involved. One step at a time. Jesus knows commitment costs, and he wants all of each of us. So let’s give it a try, one step at a time. We can grow in discipleship.

Luke shows us an intentional journey. As we move closer to the cross with Jesus, Jesus teaches us more difficult lessons. The closer we get to Jerusalem, the more Jesus asks of us. But our movement toward becoming a more faithful disciple also means we are moving closer to Jesus. The journey we make to more serious discipleship is a journey we do not make alone nor do we depend on our own energy alone. Divine strength comes to us by the presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, always our companion, always our guide. Which is great news. We really can grow deeper in our discipleship.

(1) Fred Craddock, Luke. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary (John Knox Press, 1990), 181, 182.