Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost, 09/08/2013

Sermon on Luke 14:25-33, by David H. Brooks

One of the hardest things for us modern, Western Christians to accept is the fact that Christianity is less about our freedom than it is about our loyalty, our obedience. When we use a word like "freedom," we tend to think of it as an unencumbered and independent reality. Christianity is not that. Christ claims us, puts his name on us, and everything about us comes under his lordship. Family and friends, business relationships, church ties; anything and everything that is a part of the fabric of our lives is secondary to his rule. Indeed, a core part of his searching work as the Great Physician is to sift through our many loyalties, assumptions and motivations that we assume is "freedom," bring them to light, and expose them as the death-dealing viruses they are. As Jesus looked over the crowds that day, he was aware that there were many loyalties, assumptions and motivations among the people; there were many reasons for them to gather to listen to him. Maybe there will be a healing, a miracle or some incredible outpouring of power. Maybe he will become that military leader so many desired, run the Romans out of the country, and achieve a new era of peace and prosperity. There were as many reasons for that crowd to gather as the one that gathers here each Sunday.

So Jesus asked the crowd (and us today) if they understand to what it is they are committing themselves. Jesus had his face set toward Jerusalem, and there he will encounter all that resists him, all that resists the in-breaking Kingdom of God, and he will suffer greatly and die because of it. And just as it was for that crowd, so it is for us gathered here. If we underestimate the cost, if we do not understand the stakes now that we are here, if we put other loyalties first, then we will be like those who build without finishing, or who face defeat and ruin in battle.

Jesus calls us to turn away from those things that impede discipleship; as followers of Christ, we must continually evaluate that network of loyalties and ties in which we all live, and allow the claim of Christ not only to take precedence but redefine all other claims in our lives. This process means that we will detach or turn away from some things; it also means some things will turn away from us. We all know those stories of persons who sold homes, left good paying jobs or otherwise gave generously to answer their particular call from Christ. The harder stories are those like a man I met who, after becoming a Christian, was divorced by his wife who wanted no part of his "God illness."

But Jesus demands that we give first loyalty to him, that we cling to him in all times and places. Jesus does this not because he has an oversized ego, but because he understands the cost that must be paid. Brothers and sisters, there is a price to be paid to stand in the shadow of the cross. Many, many things; many, many people cannot, dare not, will not pass under that awful shadow. But Jesus did. Jesus sets his face to Jerusalem, continued on a journey no one in the crowd could understand, that many, including Peter, James, John would have stopped because it is madness. Jesus sets his face to enter into the shadow.

And he says to us in the crowd "you place your loyalty, your hope and faith in what? To place faith in anything other than me means that you will have insufficient resources to make that journey into the shadow. So pray with me, watch one hour with me, feed upon me, cling to me in the good times and in the bad times, and when you cling to me you will find that you can stand in that shadow. You may not have the resources, but I do, so cling to me even when things around you are falling apart, when those you trust are disappearing, when you feel you cannot continue, when you find the price is too steep, the enemy too strong-cling to me, and remember that I have paid the price for you, I have entered into the shadow for you, I have counted the cost and paid it, I have faced the enemy and victory is mine." Amen.

The Rev. Dr. David H. Brooks
Columbia, SC, USA
E-Mail: DBrooks@EbenezerLutheran.org

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