Sermon 9-5-04
Tough! - Jeremiah 18:1-11, Luke 14:25-33
(view lectionary notes for this text)
"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 disciples. However does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."
We Christians are always struggling to interpret God's word for our lives - what does what we read mean? What does it mean for our lives? In the process of sorting things out in our minds, I think we sometimes get a little mixed up. We tend to take some part of the Bible very literally - believing that certain things mean exactly what they say regardless of context and time, and that's that - while we take other parts with a great bit of flexibility - believing that of course the scriptures speak metaphorically or figuratively, and we must figure out how to make the words fit into today's times. This is a good and necessary approach to reading such a diverse work as is our book of holy writings. Unfortunately, I fear we often tend to take very literally those things that we ought to view with a cultural or contextual lens, while we dismiss as figurative things that are probably meant to be taken much more seriously. Sometimes, I fear, our measure of how to interpret a text is related to the degree of difficulty involved in following a text. If a text seems manageable, we follow it literally. If a text seems challenging, we tend to say it is a metaphor.
Today, we have before us one of the toughest texts of the New Testament, with some hard words from the Old Testament as well. I'll repeat the words from Luke to you again, in case you missed out on their toughness: "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 disciples. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions."
You tell me: are these words literal or figurative? My gut reaction, and probably yours, is to say, "Jesus doesn't mean hate, really. He means that God has to come first. He means that sometimes other things must take a back seat to our faith. He doesn't really mean hate." How quickly we want to explain away what seems difficult to us. It is in fact true that this text can be interpreted to mean to "love less, [or] be less attached to." (1) But does that really put us in any better spot? However we end up translating this text, what's clear is that Jesus is telling us our relationship with God has to be first, above all else. For those of us with busy and full lives, with families of all shapes and sizes that are dear to us, these words are hard if we try to take them at all seriously. What's easy is to say that God is at the center of our lives. What is difficult is to support our claim with examples from the way we live. When push comes to shove, who gets the most of your time and energy and thought? God?
But even if we get beyond the family bit, there's still the rest of the passage from Luke, where Jesus also says that we must carry the cross - the very instrument that led Jesus to a painful death - and give up everything that we have, all of our possessions. We just can't seem to catch a break today. Jesus is determined to let us know up front, before we get started, just how hard, how costly it will be to be a disciple. In fact, the parables he tells are just on that topic: making sure you know before you start what you're getting into in agreeing to follow him. We can't claim that he didn't warn us. We can't claim we were told being a disciple would be fun and carefree. Yet we're here anyway! Something about this Jesus-talk brings us here today. We've asked for it!
Turning to our Old Testament lesson for today, we at first seem to find at least some comforting words here. Our reading from Jeremiah is one of our most loved texts from the prophet, where God is compared to the Potter, and we are the clay to be molded. I wondered, though, after reading this text and what comes after it more carefully, why it is we like this passage so much? We have, I think, in our minds these peaceful images of a God who gently molds us into this wonderful vessel that we have the potential to be. Well, I don't know if you've ever watched a potter at work, but when a vessel goes wrong, the process of correction is usually anything but gentle. The creation may be completely smashed down, until it resumes a non-descript clay lump form. Are we ready for God to do this sort of reworking in our lives? After all, if we read our text from Jeremiah carefully, we discover that God is not acting as potter out of a loving desire to perfect us. God is angry with God's people in this passage, angry, because, again, they have failed to be obedient, failed to be disciples, failed to put God and God only at the center of their lives. God wants to tear us down and start from scratch.
Where we're lucky, more than lucky - where we receive God's grace here is in that God is willing to use the same clay. We're not thrown out - we, God's good creations - we're 'redeemable.' (2) There's hope for us yet, and God's willing to work with us and work on us. Next week, we'll read in the very next lesson Jesus teaches images of God's loving grace so moving that it's hard not to feel moved by the welcome we're constantly offered even as repeat offenders in sinfulness. But today, we are asked to take stock of ourselves: Are we ready to be reworked? Are we ready to really let God shape us? Have you given thought to the cost? Do you want to be a disciple? The mission of this congregation, and of the United Methodist Church as a whole, is in essence this: "to make disciples of Jesus Christ." If you are here, I have to assume that it is because you want to be a disciple.
Bishop William Willimon, preaching on this gospel lesson from Luke, challenges us not to take the easy way out of the text. I like what he says so much - what he had to say has been on my mind these last few weeks: what is the cost of discipleship? He begins by talking about the United Methodist's Church current advertising campaign, and asking, how hard is it to sell the difficult message Jesus has to share with us? Willimon writes, "Jesus clearly, at least in this text, has no interest in meeting our needs. Rather, he appears intent upon giving us needs we would not have had, had we not met him. He speaks of severance from some of our most cherished values - after all, who could be against [parent]hood, family, and self-fulfillment? Jesus, that's who . . . What Jesus says just happens to be true because he is the way, the truth, and the life." Willimon continues, "I didn't say that he was the way that nine out of ten thinking Americans want to walk. Didn't say that he was the truth that we think we want or his discipleship was the life we seek. We can't have a good Jesus advertising campaign because his way is decidedly against the crowd. The only reason why we're here is not out of our seeking, our wanting. We're here because, in some surprising way, he has sought us, wanted us, called us to walk a way not of our own devising. And all reason or reservation to the contrary, we believe, despite it's patent absurdity, his is the way, though narrow, that leads to life eternal. Forgive me, forgive the church, for sometimes implying that Jesus will make life easier for you, will fix everything that's wrong with you, will put a little lilt in your voice, a little sunshine in our life. Chances are, he won't. He can do even better than that. He can make you a disciple. Forgive the church for sometimes being guilty of false advertising." (3)
Do you seek to be a disciple - a student - a follower of Jesus Christ? Are you willing to let God mold you and make you into all that God has envisioned for your life? Can you give up all that you have called your own, and in exchange embrace the gifts that God has planned for you, as you also embrace that cross to which Christ has called you? It's not easy. But it's real. And Christ has already walked the path before us. And God has already created us to be able. Count the cost. Tally the total. The only cost is your life. Amen.
(1) Chris Haslam, with my favorite and most straight forward exegesis as always, http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/cpr23m.shtml
(2) read Katie Schneider-Bryan's "Sermon Starters" in the May/June 2004 Circuit Rider for inspiration.
(3) Willimon, William, Pulpit Resource, lesson for September 5th, 2004, pg. 43