Proper 18C                R Lundquist                           9/9/07

Deut 30:15-20                http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=56315524

Luke 14:25-33                http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=56312484

“None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”  OK, you heard it straight from Jesus.  Wallets, purses & jewelry on the altar – auto titles & house deeds go to the office this week.  We’re open 9 – 1 Monday - Friday…  After all, can’t follow Jesus unless we give it up…  Right?

This is what is called “Holy hyperbole.”  It’s a gross exaggeration used as a rhetorical device.  It’s making a point too broadly, something we don’t use as much as Jesus did. 

And this is the point:  count the cost.  Weigh what’s important, look at your values.  You must count the cost to bring clarity to your perspective.  You can’t ride 2 horses at the same time.  Or keep 1 foot on platform and the other on train. Count the cost, make the choice:   Jesus wants disciples, not dilettantes. 

There are 3 areas today that Jesus touches upon:

Family – in agricultural society the family is the source of economic & financial stability.  See 5^th commandment (“Honor thy father and thy mother.”) to get an idea of how important family was.  It was truly the source of one’s identity.  And Jesus says to hate family inasmuch as it draws you away from God.  Count the cost, make the choice.  Mom & Pop?  Or follow Jesus?

Self-preservation – We humans are created with the survival instinct such that we’ll choose to do almost anything but carry the cross, that instrument of fatal torture.  It’s merely a figure of speech now – we use “my cross to bear” to refer to a difficult boss, parent or teen.  Discipleship too often means an occasional hour in church, a few bucks in the plate, & relatively pleasant attitude toward others.  Yet Jesus wants more.  Jesus wants you to risk irritating others, risk antagonizing loved ones.  As I’ve mentioned in past weeks, it is illegal to become a Christian in places like India.  Anyone who is baptized must leave their home and village for their own safety.  Why would anyone go through that?  We are so safe and secure in the exercise of our faith in this land.  We hardly understand the call to carry our cross.  Nevertheless, count the cost, make the choice.

Detachment – self-forgetfulness.  I spoke last week about renouncing the fruit of the action, of keeping the left hand from knowing what the right hand is doing.  Detachment is being willing to abandon all security and any possession in order to commit to the Good News of Jesus Christ.  A Buddhist saying:  “Just as great rivers, on reaching the great ocean, lose their former names & identities, so do followers lose themselves in becoming Divine.”  If you think anything or anyone is more valuable than Jesus, you cannot learn from him.  You must count the cost, make the choice.

Nearly 20 years ago there was a shooting in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of New York City.  In the midst of racial tensions and violence in the community a 16-year old black man was shot twice by group of white men.  I remember so vividly sitting in my car, hearing this story on NPR – Lisa Salgado, a white mother, heard shots and rushed outside around 9:30 pm.  Consider the risk she took, and hear her words:  “I saw a young man, a boy really, lying in the street bleeding.  I have two children, and I know the look of fear in their eyes.  This boy’s eyes were filled w/ fear, and I knew he was scared.  So I went over and held him.”  Yuseef Hawkins died in her arms a few minutes later.

            In that moment of violence Lisa Salgado was most aware of humanity she shared with someone in pain rather than any differences in color or status.  She didn’t hesitate to put herself on line, to pick up her cross, stand with the “other.”  As Hawkins’ blood soaked her clothing Salgado was carrying a cross first fashioned centuries earlier.  Through her compassion she brought a touch of grace, a glimpse of resurrection, to that fatal situation.  She brought caring to young man’s final minutes of life, and presented the world with a symbol, an example, of costly love.

            Following Jesus is not all cupcakes & Kum-ba-yahs, as a friend of mine is fond of saying.  It is risky, scary, and sobering.  It means shifting yourself to a new center of gravity, it means orienting yourself all over again, it means finding your balance in God’s world, not the kingdom of flesh.

            Count the cost, make the choice.  With holy hyperbole Jesus calls you to the path of self-emptying love in the midst of a world marinated in evil, broken by sin.  Count the cost, make the choice to serve God’s priorities at the cost of your prestige, wealth and security. 

            “If I’m really following Jesus, why am I such a good insurance risk?”                       Ernest T. Campbell

                        Good question!

            Count the cost, make the choice.  “Choose life!” implores God in the Torah.  “I have set before you life & death.”  In other words, “ I love you enough to give you the choice of your own free will.  And I desperately hope you will choose life.”  A life of discipleship – a life of selfless love.         

            Amen