josephholubsermons


 

June 27, 2010
Pentecost 5
Luke 9:57-62

Respectable Followers or Daring Disciples?

“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God”  - Luke 9:62

There is an English idiom that, for me, fits this gospel passage perfectly.  Based on this passage, we could say that Jesus was one who “drove a hard bargain.”   The Idiom Dictionary defines “driving a hard bargain” this way:  "to demand a lot or refuse to give-in when engaged in making an agreement." 

I am not a good “haggler,” if you know what I mean?   So, when I purchase something major, like a car, I have learned (the hard way) to bring someone with me who knows how to “drive a hard bargain.”   That would be my wife Marcia or my son David.  In fact, they don’t even let me out of the house on my own to purchase big things  because they know I lack the facility to “drive a hard bargain” when it comes to the art of haggling.

“To another Jesus said, ‘Follow me.’  But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go bury my father.’  But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’  Another said, ‘I will follow you Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’  Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”

Holy cow!  I don’t know if the word “haggler” fits Jesus or not, but I know someone driving a hard bargain when I see it, and I would call that driving a hard bargain, to the point of perhaps being  unreasonable!

But you see that’s exactly the point!  Jesus often responded to people in ways that shocked and astonished them.  I think it was totally intentional and his way of getting a point across.  You see, in our shock and astonishment we must ask, "What then is Jesus all about?  What is the bottom line on matters of faith?  What was Luke’s bottom line, since he is the one who tells this story?”

Luke included this story in his gospel because he wanted his faith community, living some 50 years after the historical Jesus, to continue to be shocked, astonished and challenged by Jesus; shocked, astonished and challenged out of complacency and into focused-action.  

As I dig into and wrestle with this passage, I perceive a powerful message and huge challenge!  Speaking of idioms, this is a “fasten your seat-belt”  kind of passage.  So fasten your seat-belt because it would be a crime if I watered it down and softened its sharp and ragged edge.  This passage unmasks our most cherished self-deceptions and evasions.   What this passage does is expose the places that we hide out from discipleship; the places to which we retreat to in order to avoid discipleship.  I think it is terribly easy to hide out from discipleship, and we can become very good at it.   I know there are numerous times I have avoided discipleship.   Instead I have traded-in discipleship for respectable following.  What could be more respectable that burying a parent or saying good-bye to your family?  But that’s the point of this passage; that it is especially easy to get lured away from discipleship by respectable things.   

So what is discipleship?  Discipleship is a clear and firm commitment to live the life of Jesus; to make Jesus’ life your life; to order and organize your life around his; to live Jesus’ life in the world.  Discipleship is the Christ-like life.  And we must never forget that Jesus’ life was scandalous and threatening to the empire and religion of his day and time.   Are we?  Do our lives challenge the empire and religion of our time?

The message of this passage is that we can hide out in plain view in respectable places and avoid discipleship.  I read something this week that the average American invests 32 hours a week in television and internet.  Assuming that about 50-60 hours a week is for sleeping and resting that leaves about 90 hours for everything else.  That means 20-25% of the average person’s “awake time” is exposure to the value systems of the media – value systems that are largely self-serving and  narcissistic and certainly not geared toward Christ-likeness.    Of course, not all TV and Internet things are bad, but the point is, we need to think and reflect about what narratives, concepts and paradigms are being transmitted into our lives and souls that have the power to shape us. 

We know only too well the power of what could be called “respectable” things and desires to consume us; and skew our sense of what is really important; that lure us and ensnare us and divert our attention and commitments away from discipleship.    

I think a problem facing all denominations and Christian expressions is an over-emphasis on what could be called the ABC’s.  ABC is an acronym for “attendance, buildings and cash” which most congregations devote most of their waking time to sustaining.  When we over-emphasize the ABC’s we can easily drop off the all-important  “D” which, of course, is discipleship.  The purpose of our existence as a faith community is to empower people to become disciples of Jesus, not merely good church attendees who do just enough to keep the ABC’s minimally operational.  In that paradigm it is easy to become minimalists, living in a delicate balance of being careful not to ask for too much from people in order not to offend anyone.   The ABC’s cultivate “respectability” – a good place to hide out from discipleship. 

There was a painting that hung on the wall for many years, in plain view, in Venice's San Salvador Church.  For decades it was considered to be nothing more than a rather poor copy of Vittore Carpaccio's lost 15^th century painting, "Supper at Emmaus," based upon Luke 24.   One day somebody took a closer look and discovered that is was not a poor copy, but the real thing – the lost original.  It's just that there were layers of over-painting on the surface.  A project of restoration was launched, and the relatively worthless “copy” that hung in plain view for decades is now estimated to carry a value in excess of $60 million.

Perhaps the greatest deceptions of all are the respectable self-deceptions in plain view we hide in and retreat to in order to avoid radical discipleship; the respectable hiding places of media and cultural values or an over-emphasis on the ABC’s that can leave commitment to radical discipleship in the dust far behind.   We too often seem content to settle for layers of superficial imitation that cover up the real thing. 

Today we hear Luke’s Jesus driving a hard bargain, calling for a clear and firm commitment; not a half commitment; not a part-time commitment; not a commitment without sacrifice; not a wishy-washy watered-down minimalist commitment.   There is nothing here in Jesus’ words about the ABC’s but only about  “D” – double “D” actually:  daring discipleship! 

A few verses before this passage Luke says, "When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, (a reference to the cross) he set his face to go to Jerusalem."   The Greek word translated “set his face” (sterizo) literally means "to be firmly fixed" or "to be absolutely determined."   Jesus was not naïve, but he was aware of the cost he would likely pay for his radical message of inclusive love, compassion and social justice of the kingdom of God; a message that was a threat to the dominating forces of the culture, empire and religion of his day - but nevertheless he kept going – with determination – firmly fixed on his message and mission.  

Luke’s Jesus does nothing less than invite us into that mission. He calls us to follow him, without compromise, to not be respectable followers, but daring disciples whose hearts are on fire, who have no fear to speak and embody the truth in love, compassion and grace no matter what the consequences; who are willing to even to take up our cross and embody in our lives multiple expressions of self-giving  love.  He calls us to be filled with passion and gratitude, to be courageous people who are simply unable to get over the amazing grace of God and are eager and passionate about lavishing it upon others, the community and the world.

The good news in it all is that in entering into the Christ-like life of daring discipleship, we are promised the gift of knowing God in the depths of our most beautiful and fullest humanity – and along the way discovering and becoming all that we can be – exceeding our own expectations for self guided, challenged and astonished by the love of God in Jesus Christ.