Ever since I gave that sermon where I said God is not our friend, Luke has been pouring that sentiment on us. He has gone from being mildly unfriendly to being downright hostile. I mean this is downright vicious, “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 disciple.”
Well I don’t hate my father or my mother or my wife or my kids or my brothers and sisters, and I certainly don’t hate life itself. And I have a feeling most of you share that sentiment, at least most of the time.
There are times I was not very happy with my mom and dad: after all I was a teenager for six years just like the everyone else here. Maybe there was a time or two when I wasn’t very happy with one of my brothers or sisters either, and I’m sure they felt the same way about me. Every relationship has its ups and downs, but I can honestly say there is no one I truly hate, even if there are some folks I’m less fond of than others.
But Jesus says we all have to hate everyone in our family and hate life itself if we are to be his disciples. And I don’t intend to start hating everyone.
We’re always talking about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves and as God loves us. And here Luke would have us believe that Jesus wants us to hate each other.
It’s another example of Jesus using very extreme and very challenging language to make a point.
Can you imagine if I stood up here and told you you all ought to hate one another and you’ll never be good Christians until you do? What kind of response would that get from you? I mean it was bad enough when I tried to make a point by saying we should not think of God as our friend. This passage seems to be telling us that hating people is what God demands we do. It sounds so unChristian that we have to wonder why Jesus would say such a thing!
What point could he possibly be trying to make?
The point comes in the next statement, where he compares being a disciple of Christ to a builder who wants to build a tower. It is essential, if you are going to build any kind of structure, to know exactly what it will take to finish the job. You don’t want to run out of materials, or find out that your foundation is too weak, or you will never be able to complete the work.
The next example is even more stark. He speaks of a King going into battle against the enemy. He has to consider the odds of victory. There are all kinds of Bible stories where the weaker side wins out over the stronger because of moral superiority or divine intervention. Here, Jesus us being utterly practical. He’s not calling on David to defeat Goliath, or God to part the Red Sea. If your enemy has 20,000 men and you only have 10,000, you might want to petition for peace.
In this struggle for the coming of God’s kingdom on earth, those who want to make it happen are vastly outnumbered. It’s going to take every bit of moral character we can muster and some divine intervention to make it happen. The only way we can honestly agree to follow the path Jesus would lead us down is to be willing to suffer the rebuke of your friends and family and to be prepared to follow through with our commitments.
Jesus is asking us to be realistic and say who we are and what we are willing to give up for the sake of following him. It might mean fierce attacks by those you love. It is very costly.
We know there are hungry people right here in our own community: that the number of folks coming into area Food Pantries has been steadily growing. We give a little each month to help out, and we are even asking folks to give a little more this month because the need is so great.
But for most of us, if not all of us, there is a limit. We will only give so much and then we will pull back and say, no, I need to think of myself too.
It may well be true that if we each gave a little it would be enough, but we know that’s not what happens. We are never willing to give everything, but there are so many folks who give nothing at all. How can we bring about God’s kingdom if we are not willing to give up all we have?
It is not up to us to insist that other people do their fair share. It would be nice, but Jesus is interested in what those who claim to follow him are willing to do. He’s not concerned about those who have NOT committed repentance: to turning their lives around.
He isn’t saying to turn a blind eye to the fact that other people are acting selfishly and greedily and only looking out for themselves. He has plenty of criticism for those folks. But he has even stronger criticism for those who say they have chosen to follow Christ and then are not willing to go the distance.
We are not permitted as followers of Christ to say, “Let someone else do it.” It’s very true that in this country the rich are getting very rich and the poor are becoming even poorer, and those who were just scraping by are now joining the ranks of those in need. And it will almost certainly get worse.
“None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” Not one of us, I think it’s fair to say, is willing to do that. We all draw the line someplace. We are not willing to make ourselves destitute so someone else can eat.
The point Jesus makes is entirely valid. If we aren’t willing to give everything, how will the hungry be fed? How will the naked be clothed? How will the sick be healed?
So how do we change things? Jesus tells us it’s by giving everything we have. You won’t give up everything you have, and neither will I. So the world will keep spinning in the same crazy way it always has. Spinning around with the 225 richest people having the same income as half the world’s population. Spinning around with 3 billion desperately poor people.
“Well,” you say, “Everybody has to make a living.”
“No,” Jesus says, “Everybody who wants to call himself or herself a follower of me has to be ready and willing and able to give all they have. Everything. And that’s going to cost you.”
So where will we draw the line? It’s not an easy question. What are we willing to give up?
Perhaps we can start by comparing what we have with what we really need to live on this planet. We can compare that with what someone who is scraping by on welfare and handouts. It’s not just depravation and hunger that makes you poor, it’s also the humiliation of needing to ask for help and of being considered less human than anyone else. It’s easier to have possessions when you think you deserve them while other people don’t.
Perhaps we can give the most by opening ourselves up to offer our peace and blessing to those in need, and to understand what it is like to be cast off from the world.
The world is a messy place, and it’s going to take a lot of planning and a lot of hard work to clean it up. The kingdom is not going to come falling out of the sky through some divine warrior. It’s going to come about when you and I are willing to pay the price to make it happen.
PRAYER: You are a demanding God. You want everything we have to give. But everything we have was given to us by you. We seem to think we have earned it, that we deserve it and that other folks simply aren’t as deserving as we are. Deep down we know that is simply greed speaking. You have given each person talent and ability to get your work done, little by little, piece by piece. Help us learn to share all you have given us, including this beautiful and sacred Earth. We ask this in the name of the one who demands we give our all to you, as you have given all to us. AMEN.
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