Luke 14: 25-33
“Giving Up”
September 4, 2022
The word hate gets thrown around our culture pretty easily.
There are actually people who hate the Boston Red Sox – I know, isn’t that hard to believe?
There are people who hate television news stations – take your pick of CNN, MSNBC, Fox – there’re plenty to go around.
There’s a pretty long list of famous athletes, entertainers, politicians, and corporate leaders who, if you check out their Twitter feed or Instagram account, you will find it filled with haters wishing all kinds of terrible fates on the subject of their hatred.
Having worked with preschoolers and having parented one, I was always amazed at how early that word hate was introduced into their vocabularies.
Now, in a 4-year old’s world, hate is probably attached to something innocuous like broccoli or getting their hair washed but still the message is out there, where an intensity of feelings becomes the norm.
Many of our Bibles will label this passage of Luke’s Gospel as “The Cost of Discipleship” or “Discipleship’s Demands” or “Counting the Cost” and anyway you name it, it is still really hard to hear and even harder to live into.
It’s words like these from Jesus that make us wish they were coming from a small child who doesn’t know any better because then at least we could say
they don’t mean it or they’re just exaggerating or imitating the grown-ups around them.
But, no, this is adult Jesus asking us to pay a steep price in order to call ourselves disciples.
Anyone can receive the Good News of the Gospel but here Jesus wants to know what are we going to do about it.
And if we’re hoping that something got changed in the translation and that Jesus didn’t really mean hate when talking about the people we love most, sorry, but there is no softening this word.
Before we start turning on our families, we might consider that immediately after saying this Jesus begins putting discipleship into economic terms.
There’s figuring out if you have enough money to build the tower before you go and get the building permit or if you’re thinking about starting a war, you’d better be sure to have enough troops and all they require before you start attacking.
If we look at the Gospels we will see that Jesus really only called 14 people to be disciples.
When he sent the 70 out, it wasn’t to get more disciples it was to heal and proclaim the nearness of the Kingdom of God.
When Jesus went out and fed and healed the crowds that came to see him, he didn’t leave them with the words “Follow me.”
What he did say was things like “Go home and tell folks how much God has done for you” or “Your faith has made you well” or “Go in peace.”
Jesus came to save us all but true discipleship he reserved for only a few.
So maybe we should refer to ourselves as Barbara Brown Taylor coined it, “friends of the disciples.”
God may still be creating disciples in each generation, but it might not be us.
Maybe the real disciples are people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Francis of Assisi or Dorothy Day – those who were willing to give up family and earthly possessions and live for the Gospel.
Maybe as “friends of the disciples” we’re meant to support the work of disciples whenever we can and draw our inspiration for the living of our days from the example of their lives.
So when we’re tempted, as so many interpreters of this passage have been over the centuries, to either interpret this as a requirement directed toward a minority of Christians who are ready to dive in – such as those who join monasteries and vow to live a life of obedience, poverty, and chastity OR taking as its meaning that we don’t literally have to give up our family and possessions but just our strong attachment to them.
Both of these feel like we looking for some kind of way to excuse ourselves because we’re either saying the hard stuff is for special people like saints or monks OR we’re saying Jesus doesn’t really mean what he’s saying and we can have family and stuff, just don’t let it rule your life.
So, if we are to be considered “friends of disciples” what would that look like?
How would we be changed by such friendships?
One thing we can each do is keep telling the stories of the disciples and be sure they continue to get passed on.
And the other is that we may be able to follow their lead by taking large and small steps when we have the chance recognizing that this will probably never be an all or nothing way of life for most of us.
Instead, we might prioritize the things Jesus did.
Figuring out how we live with less – not selling off all our possessions but finding a way to make sure others have what they need for a quality of life we would wish for anyone we care about.
Perhaps it will look like cutting others the same slack we do with our beloved family members rather than writing them off.
Instead of taking an us vs. them approach to the world’s people, finding common ground and an inclusive we approach that seeks out the part of each other person that reminds us that they, too, are beloved children of God.
Rather than taking this as Jesus’ “giving up” message maybe instead we might view it as what we are to add to our life in the name of love.
Hate speech, hateful actions, wishes for the destruction of whole groups of people, an abandonment of concern for others – we face these parts of our world every single day.
Our life’s work is not to fall into the us vs. them mentality of hating but rather following the lead of Jesus and his disciples through the generations where we prioritize concern, compassion and mercy and forgiveness in our care for God’s people – the only means we have of truly loving God. Amen.