Texts:
• Deuteronomy 30:15-20—Moses delivers a speech to the Israelites before they enter the Promise Land, encouraging them to choose life by following God over idolatry and suffering.
• Psalm 1:1-3—Blessed are those who follow the ways of the Lord, for they are like trees planted by streams of water and bearing ripe fruit.
• Luke 14:25-28—Jesus warns a crowd of followers that true discipleship comes at a great cost and requires full commitment.
Good morning, and grace and peace to you from our Loving God and Father in heaven! Amen.
My name is Joanna Kathol and I am excited to be Faith Lilac Way’s new vicar for this next year! My welcome into this community has been warm and I look forward to doing ministry together. Yet before we can dive into ministry together it is helpful to get to know each other, so I would like to take a brief moment to introduce myself.
To tell you a little about myself, I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska with my mother and my older sister. I grew up in a wonderful ELCA congregation that encouraged its youth from a young age to participate in worship, and I felt a call to ministry for the first time when I was 10 years old. You might find it fun to know that Faith Lilac Way’s first intern, Paula Lawhead, is now the pastor at that church where I grew up, so it seems like God’s hand was at work to bring me to this congregation as well. I am blessed to be here with Faith Lilac Way over the next year and I look forward to meeting more of you and building relationships together. God is good and I know God has some good things in store for us during our time together.
Now I have to be honest, I didn’t expect my first sermon at my internship site to be over a difficult text such as this one. The words which Luke writes this morning are jarring and even disturbing. What could Jesus mean when he speaks such harsh words about hatred for life and family? These words do not seem to mesh well with the Jesus we hear about in other Bible stories, the Jesus who heals people and preaches about justice and loving the neighbor.
Well, when I am confronted with a jarring text such as this one it helps me to think about the context in which Jesus would have spoken these words. So what is going on here in this text? First, it is helpful to know that for the last few chapters of Luke, Jesus has begun his journey to Jerusalem and toward the Cross, and along his journey Jesus has continued to teach sermons and conduct miraculous healings. He teaches radical things about “a New and Coming Kingdom”, a new social order that is just, and new life. These are hopeful messages for the Jewish people who have been under the oppression of Rome. Jesus is gaining attention and the people are thinking,’ This might really be the one we have been waiting for!’ The Jewish people have been longing for someone to save them from Roman oppression, and in the midst of this longing, here comes Jesus doing miracles and teaching about a new Kingdom.
For many people in the crowds surrounding Jesus, Jesus is the answer to their prayers—their hero—and they believe that if they follow Jesus they too can witness and experience the power and glory they imagine Jesus is going to have. Now Jesus is indeed the answer to their prayers, but not in the way they think. While the people are thinking about earthly kingdoms and political power, Jesus is thinking about God’s kingdom. He knows his mission is to do something much greater than defeating the Romans, but in order to do his work he must first go to the Cross.
So while the people think Jesus is headed toward glory, Jesus knows that he is instead on his way to suffering on the Cross for the sake of the world.
Jesus also knows that the people who follow him may also likely suffer the pain in which he will suffer, so as Jesus turns to speak to the crowd gathered around he is being quite blunt with them. Basically he is telling them ‘If you want to follow me, be prepared to lose everything. If you truly want to be my disciple you will have to be fully committed, even above family and comfort and all the other things you hold dear. So before you decide to really follow me, reflect and weigh the costs. If you aren’t ready to follow me even to the cross then you are not yet ready to be my disciple.’
But is Jesus really saying that discipleship requires one to hate or reject their family and even life itself? I can assure you that is not the intended message, but Jesus did intend for his message to turn heads. In the culture of Jesus’s day it was not uncommon for speakers to use stark words when they were trying to drive home a point. We even see an example of this in our first reading this morning as Moses warns the Israelites to follow God and choose life rather than go astray and choose death. In our Old Testament reading Moses was reminding the Israelites that following God required whole-hearted commitment—it was not a passive decision but one that entailed deep trust and daily action.
This was what Moses told the Israelites then and it is the same message that Jesus was delivering hundreds of years later to this crowd. Jesus was not telling the people to hate life and family, but rather emphasizing the full-hearted commitment that true discipleship would take. To follow Jesus to the cross would require a willingness to face the costs of discipleship, a commitment to put their faith first and central in their lives. These disciples could be far away from their homes and families, they risked being mocked by their peers, and they could even face imprisonment or death themselves. This is some pretty serious stuff Jesus is talking about here and he is giving them the opportunity to reflect and decide: Were they going to be half-hearted followers, or would they be all in?
Even two thousand years later I think Jesus in this passage asks us the same question. In our own modern day and culture being a Christian and walking the path of discipleship can come at a cost. There are times when our faith may likely be at odds with our culture and those around us. It can be a cost to us when our faith calls us to step outside of our comfort zone, or to speak and act in a difficult situation. It is a cost to at times set aside our own needs for the sake of the neighbor. Even taking on the label of “Christian” can be a cost. In larger society there are many who believe that Christians are judgmental or closed minded, and this can certainly be a cost to us when others apply these stereotypes simply because we use the word “Christian” to identify our faith. And yes, there are still places in the world today where following God can even cost a disciple their life.
This is serious stuff we are talking about, and in the midst of it here is Jesus, asking us if we too are ready to be “all in” in discipleship.
Are we ready to rely on God above all else and keep Christ central in our lives?
Are we ready to follow the example of Jesus when it is difficult or goes against the status quo?
Are we ready to stand up for the oppressed and welcome the marginalized?
Are we ready to step outside the comfort and safety of our church doors to go out into a world and to people who desperately need to hear the hope and good news of God’s love?
Are we ready for a journey to the cross and to allow ourselves to be transformed and made new?
These are big questions and they are decisions that change and frame the way we live our lives and approach the world. These are questions that reach deeply into our hearts as we ponder this morning what it means for us to be disciples.
But here is the good news: the Jesus who asks us these questions is the same Jesus that walks with us each step of the way. To say yes to these questions and to accept the risks and the costs of discipleship does not mean we go forward alone. Instead when we say yes we are stepping into relationship with God, into a relationship that is life changing and life-fulfilling in the best ways possible. Being a disciple of Christ does not mean that life will be glorious or easy, but in saying yes we open ourselves and our world to so many new and wonderful opportunities. God is good and God is faithful, so may God bless us, strengthen us and guide us as we say yes to the journey of discipleship. Amen.
- Vicar Joanna Kathol