The Cost of Discipleship
Proper 18 Year C Luke 14:25-33
The Cost of Discipleship
The Rev. Brett P. Backus
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Today's message is about the cost of discipleship. It is about learning to let go of all we love
in order to truly grasp Christ.
So, I had a very hard time preparing today's sermon, a harder time than normal actually. I spent the majority of this week racking my brains as to how to begin this sermon, torturing my poor pregnant wife by using her as a sounding board for my ideas, staring at my computer until my brain went numb, and roaming the halls of the church desperately trying to trick someone else into thinking it was their Sunday to preach (it almost worked on Deacon Amy, by the way). Then, in desperation, and because I could no longer stand the site of my office, I somehow found my way up to our labyrinth sometime late Thursday afternoon. It was there, walking the labyrinth, that I unexpectedly realized that I actually had the perfect anecdote with me for beginning this sermon all along. It is my own sermon process.
Now, I have never shared this with anybody, but you see, I go through virtually the very same learning process every time I begin trying to come up with a sermon for you all. I struggle to find a good idea, to figure out a good delivery, and then God teaches me the same lesson in humility that I must relearn almost every time I write a sermon. You think I would learn by now, but every time I am preparing to preach, God teaches me that I have to let go, and that none of this, no matter how much it feeds my ego to think so, is actually about me. Patiently, over and over, God shows me that it is about letting go and placing God's interests above my own.
Basically, the main issue is that I forget to pray and to ask for guidance. Whether I have already started my sermon preparation and have a very clear idea of what the Gospel is saying and what I think am going to speak about, or, like this week, I struggle until almost the very end with finding a direction, the sermon that I actually bring before you all on Sunday is really never given to me until I am finally somehow humbled and hit my knees in prayer. You see, God has to teach me, over and over again, to give up control and to get out of the way. Only after approaching God, thanking Him for calling me to His service and for the honor of delivering His word to His people, and after requesting to be given only the words which He wishes me to speak and for preparation of the hearts that will be receiving them, do I ever really begin to write a sermon. Only when I let go of everything, do I ever produce anything. God is constantly teaching me to give everything I am over to Him, and this, I believe, is what Jesus is teaching all of us this morning as well. To let go, detach ourselves from all that binds us in order to bind ourselves to Christ.
Now, I know that on the surface, today's Gospel lesson seems altogether harsh. Jesus is telling His audience to hate their loved ones, requiring them to sacrifice their lives, warning them of failed discipleship, and requiring the forking over of all one's possessions. However, I think the true danger for us today is the very real possibility of missing Christ's actual intended message for us all this morning as a result of getting too hung up on His seemingly extreme words. Certainly it is quite jarring to hear our compassionate, peaceful, and loving Christ, all of a sudden requiring us to hate our family and loved ones, and requesting of us both our possessions and our lives. But what I would like us all to see today, is that Jesus' words in this Gospel lesson actually point us to a greater and more important learning than what we might originally perceive.
You see, in this morning's Gospel, Jesus is speaking to those who wish to follow Him, those who wish to be His disciples. Through two parables and some pretty intense illustrations, Jesus is telling his audience that they must seriously consider the cost of discipleship before committing. In fewer words, Jesus is telling them that in order to follow Him, they must be prepared and willing to put Christ before all else, if necessary. He is telling them that they must be prepared and willing to let go, and today, He is reminding us, His present day disciples, of the same.
Now, perhaps this will seem like some sort of a cop out to some of you, but I do not believe that Jesus is saying that those who wish to follow Him must actually and literally by all means turn away from their loved ones, or that they must in fact lose their lives and give up all possessions. What I hear Jesus saying through these expressions, the point that is underlying all of this, is that in order to be disciples of Christ we must give Him ourselves. All that we are, and all that we have. To place Christ before and above all things, including ourselves, and to recognize that all that we have and all whom we love in reality belong to Him, not us. This, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the cost and requirement of true Christian discipleship and this is what Jesus is speaking to us all about today. Jesus' requirements for discipleship are not harsh. On the contrary, they are what make us complete.
However, even with this new understanding of Christ's words we still encounter a fairly large difficulty in this morning's Gospel when we realize that Jesus' message goes even deeper for us than his original audience. Unlike the people who Jesus is talking to in today's Gospel, those considering discipleship, you and I have already accepted. We have already supposedly weighed these great costs and committed, through baptism, confirmation, affirmation, membership. Therefore, we are disciples of Christ, and Jesus' message for each of us today serves more as a calling to return to our true roles as disciples, rather than an introduction to the costs of Christian discipleship. Jesus' very personal message for us today is to call us back into what we probably whole heartedly intend to become, but have more often than not, failed to be. Disciples; a body of people whose lives are fully and whole heartedly given to God, bowed and humbled before Him in all that we do and with all that we are.
I would say that this message is quite timely for us in today's world, this beckoning back to a selfless living for God. I mean, it is not very hard to see that we currently find ourselves in a world and in a particular society that more than anything encourages individualism and egocentrism. With all the constant noise which bombards us and indoctrinates us into a seemingly permanent mentality of “I,” or “me,” and with our religion, regardless of denomination, seeming to be shaped more often than not by the world around it instead of the other way around, it is frankly a surprise to me that we can ever hear Jesus' calls to us at all. No wonder I forget to pray before a sermon! And no wonder the Church and discipleship have become the second class citizens that they currently are, always trumped by the interests and desires of our selves.
If we are honest, then I think we have to admit the reality that, for the majority of us, myself included, our commitment to Christian discipleship is usually not really much more than an afterthought. It is something that seems, well, nice. Our responsibilities to God are what we think about only when we have either hit a crisis point in our lives and therefore need God, or when things are just going so swell for once that we actually find that we have some time to sit down and acknowledge God. This is why Jesus' message for us today is so important for us to hear. This is why it is necessary for us to be reminded of the promises we have taken and what they mean.
As always though, there is also good news and a healthy measure of hope in Jesus' message for us today. Though Jesus' words at first seem so harsh and seem to be cautioning us about our questionable decisions, the heart of His message for each of us today is actually much more like a gift. It is a gift which, if used correctly, will lead us to real happiness and peace in this life. You see, part of the problem that the Church overall is facing today is that somehow its teachings have become burdensome to our world. Whereas church worship was intended to be a celebration and a joy, for many it is now a burden and obligation. Whereas spreading Christ's message was intended to be excitingly Good News, it is now an embarrassment. Now, whereas Discipleship was intended to show us all how to finally encounter true life, it is now seen only as a harsh regiment of highly set standards.
But this is not how Jesus intended His words to be heard. Jesus' call to a return to our lives as Christian disciples today is not a call to some boring, restricted, and regulated life. He is not calling us to suffering. Rather, Jesus' call to us today, as Christian disciples, is a call to freedom, to true life. Yes, it is ironic, and yes it does defy our logic, but this is what Jesus is truly calling us all to when he beckons us to lose our lives, to lose our possessions, to lose our attachments. Jesus is calling us to life. You see, the truth which Jesus knows and is trying to share with us is, that only through loosening up the tight grip we have on our things and our loved ones, only through consciously giving up our possessions, only by giving over our lives and our selves to Christ, recognizing that nothing is truly ours but in fact all is of Him, will we ever experience true Life. This Brothers and Sisters in Christ is what Jesus is saying to us in today's Gospel. This is what we as Christians are actually called to. This, my friends, is Discipleship. To give up all that we have and all that we are to Christ, to let go, and in doing so gain Him, the Christ, God, Everything.
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Amen.
The Cost of Discipleship
The Rev. Brett P. Backus
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Today's message is about the cost of discipleship. It is about learning to let go of all we love
in order to truly grasp Christ.
So, I had a very hard time preparing today's sermon, a harder time than normal actually. I spent the majority of this week racking my brains as to how to begin this sermon, torturing my poor pregnant wife by using her as a sounding board for my ideas, staring at my computer until my brain went numb, and roaming the halls of the church desperately trying to trick someone else into thinking it was their Sunday to preach (it almost worked on Deacon Amy, by the way). Then, in desperation, and because I could no longer stand the site of my office, I somehow found my way up to our labyrinth sometime late Thursday afternoon. It was there, walking the labyrinth, that I unexpectedly realized that I actually had the perfect anecdote with me for beginning this sermon all along. It is my own sermon process.
Now, I have never shared this with anybody, but you see, I go through virtually the very same learning process every time I begin trying to come up with a sermon for you all. I struggle to find a good idea, to figure out a good delivery, and then God teaches me the same lesson in humility that I must relearn almost every time I write a sermon. You think I would learn by now, but every time I am preparing to preach, God teaches me that I have to let go, and that none of this, no matter how much it feeds my ego to think so, is actually about me. Patiently, over and over, God shows me that it is about letting go and placing God's interests above my own.
Basically, the main issue is that I forget to pray and to ask for guidance. Whether I have already started my sermon preparation and have a very clear idea of what the Gospel is saying and what I think am going to speak about, or, like this week, I struggle until almost the very end with finding a direction, the sermon that I actually bring before you all on Sunday is really never given to me until I am finally somehow humbled and hit my knees in prayer. You see, God has to teach me, over and over again, to give up control and to get out of the way. Only after approaching God, thanking Him for calling me to His service and for the honor of delivering His word to His people, and after requesting to be given only the words which He wishes me to speak and for preparation of the hearts that will be receiving them, do I ever really begin to write a sermon. Only when I let go of everything, do I ever produce anything. God is constantly teaching me to give everything I am over to Him, and this, I believe, is what Jesus is teaching all of us this morning as well. To let go, detach ourselves from all that binds us in order to bind ourselves to Christ.
Now, I know that on the surface, today's Gospel lesson seems altogether harsh. Jesus is telling His audience to hate their loved ones, requiring them to sacrifice their lives, warning them of failed discipleship, and requiring the forking over of all one's possessions. However, I think the true danger for us today is the very real possibility of missing Christ's actual intended message for us all this morning as a result of getting too hung up on His seemingly extreme words. Certainly it is quite jarring to hear our compassionate, peaceful, and loving Christ, all of a sudden requiring us to hate our family and loved ones, and requesting of us both our possessions and our lives. But what I would like us all to see today, is that Jesus' words in this Gospel lesson actually point us to a greater and more important learning than what we might originally perceive.
You see, in this morning's Gospel, Jesus is speaking to those who wish to follow Him, those who wish to be His disciples. Through two parables and some pretty intense illustrations, Jesus is telling his audience that they must seriously consider the cost of discipleship before committing. In fewer words, Jesus is telling them that in order to follow Him, they must be prepared and willing to put Christ before all else, if necessary. He is telling them that they must be prepared and willing to let go, and today, He is reminding us, His present day disciples, of the same.
Now, perhaps this will seem like some sort of a cop out to some of you, but I do not believe that Jesus is saying that those who wish to follow Him must actually and literally by all means turn away from their loved ones, or that they must in fact lose their lives and give up all possessions. What I hear Jesus saying through these expressions, the point that is underlying all of this, is that in order to be disciples of Christ we must give Him ourselves. All that we are, and all that we have. To place Christ before and above all things, including ourselves, and to recognize that all that we have and all whom we love in reality belong to Him, not us. This, brothers and sisters in Christ, is the cost and requirement of true Christian discipleship and this is what Jesus is speaking to us all about today. Jesus' requirements for discipleship are not harsh. On the contrary, they are what make us complete.
However, even with this new understanding of Christ's words we still encounter a fairly large difficulty in this morning's Gospel when we realize that Jesus' message goes even deeper for us than his original audience. Unlike the people who Jesus is talking to in today's Gospel, those considering discipleship, you and I have already accepted. We have already supposedly weighed these great costs and committed, through baptism, confirmation, affirmation, membership. Therefore, we are disciples of Christ, and Jesus' message for each of us today serves more as a calling to return to our true roles as disciples, rather than an introduction to the costs of Christian discipleship. Jesus' very personal message for us today is to call us back into what we probably whole heartedly intend to become, but have more often than not, failed to be. Disciples; a body of people whose lives are fully and whole heartedly given to God, bowed and humbled before Him in all that we do and with all that we are.
I would say that this message is quite timely for us in today's world, this beckoning back to a selfless living for God. I mean, it is not very hard to see that we currently find ourselves in a world and in a particular society that more than anything encourages individualism and egocentrism. With all the constant noise which bombards us and indoctrinates us into a seemingly permanent mentality of “I,” or “me,” and with our religion, regardless of denomination, seeming to be shaped more often than not by the world around it instead of the other way around, it is frankly a surprise to me that we can ever hear Jesus' calls to us at all. No wonder I forget to pray before a sermon! And no wonder the Church and discipleship have become the second class citizens that they currently are, always trumped by the interests and desires of our selves.
If we are honest, then I think we have to admit the reality that, for the majority of us, myself included, our commitment to Christian discipleship is usually not really much more than an afterthought. It is something that seems, well, nice. Our responsibilities to God are what we think about only when we have either hit a crisis point in our lives and therefore need God, or when things are just going so swell for once that we actually find that we have some time to sit down and acknowledge God. This is why Jesus' message for us today is so important for us to hear. This is why it is necessary for us to be reminded of the promises we have taken and what they mean.
As always though, there is also good news and a healthy measure of hope in Jesus' message for us today. Though Jesus' words at first seem so harsh and seem to be cautioning us about our questionable decisions, the heart of His message for each of us today is actually much more like a gift. It is a gift which, if used correctly, will lead us to real happiness and peace in this life. You see, part of the problem that the Church overall is facing today is that somehow its teachings have become burdensome to our world. Whereas church worship was intended to be a celebration and a joy, for many it is now a burden and obligation. Whereas spreading Christ's message was intended to be excitingly Good News, it is now an embarrassment. Now, whereas Discipleship was intended to show us all how to finally encounter true life, it is now seen only as a harsh regiment of highly set standards.
But this is not how Jesus intended His words to be heard. Jesus' call to a return to our lives as Christian disciples today is not a call to some boring, restricted, and regulated life. He is not calling us to suffering. Rather, Jesus' call to us today, as Christian disciples, is a call to freedom, to true life. Yes, it is ironic, and yes it does defy our logic, but this is what Jesus is truly calling us all to when he beckons us to lose our lives, to lose our possessions, to lose our attachments. Jesus is calling us to life. You see, the truth which Jesus knows and is trying to share with us is, that only through loosening up the tight grip we have on our things and our loved ones, only through consciously giving up our possessions, only by giving over our lives and our selves to Christ, recognizing that nothing is truly ours but in fact all is of Him, will we ever experience true Life. This Brothers and Sisters in Christ is what Jesus is saying to us in today's Gospel. This is what we as Christians are actually called to. This, my friends, is Discipleship. To give up all that we have and all that we are to Christ, to let go, and in doing so gain Him, the Christ, God, Everything.
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Amen.
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