Being Real for Christ - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 14: 25 - 33

“The language of priorities is the religion of socialism.”

So said Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the National Health Service and later Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Whether socialist programmes and governments have lived up to those words is a matter for a debate which this morning is hardly the right time for. But a passion for right priorities is certainly at the heart of our Gospel reading.

But first prepare to be shocked!

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sisters - yes, even his own life - he cannot be my disciple.”

Wow! Crazy words! Can Jesus be serious? After all we live in a society that claims to revere the family and even now as we seem to be going through something of a phoney election season, no politician seeking electoral success, would dare to be seen as other than pro family. Yet here is Jesus, not just showing equivocation but using the sort of language about hating that we would be quick to jump on if it came from another religion or from one of the cults.

And yet, it is a good thing that Jesus expresses himself so strongly. For in doing so, he communicates with us, the very vital importance of his call to follow him. Here is the message that following Christ is not like taking up yet another hobby. It is so much more. It is about embracing a whole new way of life which transforms how we see the world around us.

But still it shocks us! Bishop William Willimon of the United Methodist Church in the USA, referring to this scripture has this to say;

“Jesus clearly, at least in this text, has no interest in meeting our needs. Rather, he appears intent upon giving us needs we would not have had, had we not met him. He speaks of severance from some of our most cherished values - after all, who would be against parenthood, family and self-fulfillment? Jesus, that’s who!”

Oh yes, Jesus is hardly on a mission to win popularity. For rather than appease the crowds of his time and our time, he is decidedly counter cultural. No spin doctor here!

So what is his message? It certainly entails commitment. But commitment to what? Just before this teaching about the cost of discipleship, Jesus, at dinner at the home of a Pharisee, has suggested that we should move beyond a pre occupation with status and demonstrate hospitality to the lowest in society. Then he has told the Parable of the Great Banquet. That parable has told us so much about the Kingdom that Jesus has come to inaugarate. This Kingdom is a place of joy, a bit like a party. And it is for all people. And as those who might have been expected to be at the centre of it have turned in other directions, the Kingdom has been offered to those who were at the bottom of the pile, those who might be seen as the unloved and the unlovely. For Christ has come to draw all peoples into the ongoing dance of divine love. And how radical, that must have seemed in a society in which the power of the few was all to often used to dehumanise and degrade the many. For Jesus has come with the revolutionary offer of love and acceptance for all peoples.

And this is a call that demands our commitment.

Let’s just for a moment look at what Jesus has to say. And this brings us to the apparent rejection of families. But here, we need to encounter these words with caution. This means that we have to be careful with how we use language. You see, exaggeration was a common linguistic trait in Judaism. A true translation of the meaning of Jesus would be “love less” or be “less attached.” It is still an uncomfortable saying by Jesus but its real meaning is along the lines that we must dare to see our main source of security as being in Jesus rather than in our family or the preservation of our own lives. In a way this is a calling to a faith that trusts in Jesus for all things but it is also a pointer to the very inclusive love that lies at the heart of the Parable of the Great Banquet. For all too often, we have used the nuclear family as a means of keeping the needs of the world beyond at bay. We have too often retreated into a world of “Me and Mine.”

Now don’t get me wrong. Christians have responsibilities to their families. Jesus demonstrates this when on the cross, he shows concern for the wellbeing of his mother. There he makes provision for her as he calls out to her as she stands near the Beloved Disciple;

“Dear woman, here is your son.”

And then he calls out to the Beloved Disciple;

“Here is your mother.”

And of course the result is that his mother Mary is taken into the home of the Beloved Disciple.”

But this has to be balanced with the times when Jesus points to a wider vision of family. Think of the occasion when his mother and brothers turn up wanting to speak to him, only for Jesus to respond;

“Who is my mother and who are my brothers?”

Before pointing at his disciples and saying;

“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

Do you get it? This is exaggerated language through which Jesus tells us that we should not use family as an excuse to fail to bear witness to the generous, inclusive love that is at the heart of the new order that Jesus demonstrates in his own life and calls us to be a part of. Far from being an argument to retreat into solitary religion, this is Jesus’ call be a part of the revolution of all embracing love which serves to include those on the edges as has been demonstrated in the teaching of Jesus at the home of a Pharisee and in the subsequent Parable of the Great Banquet.

The second part of our reading speaks firstly of a tower. The question is whether a person who wishes to build a tower will not estimate the cost so that the tower might be brought to completion. For if this is not done and the tower is incomplete, Jesus suggests there will be an outcome of ridicule with people saying;

“This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.”

Now these comments had about them something of a contemporary edge. Herod’s reign was littered with building projects which were never completed. This was an astonishing waste of resources but more than that, they bore witness to Herod lacing the commitment to see things through to a proper conclusion. I think that Jesus is telling us in both this story and that about the King at war, that good intentions are not enough. He is making clear that following him and entering into his Kingdom is not something that is just for the moment. Far from it, discipleship is about entering thoughtfully into a commitment that is to be seen through. We often see those adverts that tells us that a dog is for life and not just for Christmas. The adverts are right for dog ownership is a real commitment. How much greater a commitment is the life changing commitment to be a follower of Christ. It is not simply about a prayer of commitment at a highly charged service. To think of becoming a follower of Jesus in those terms, is but cheap grace. Rather becoming a follower of Jesus entails a decision in full awareness of the commitment that will be required, to live for the Jesus way as much at times of inevitable trial as in times of mountain top experience. This is a serious commitment and we should never sell that commitment short. Jesus wants real followers and not fair weather friends.

A final part of our reading speaks to us about salt. It doesn’t really lose its taste although in Judaism it can become ritually unclean. A suggestion made in his lectionary notes by Chris Haslam, is perhaps helpful here. He suggests that Jesus in his comments about salt becoming useless, might be thinking about salt deposits around the dead sea which when heavily rained upon, look like salt but in fact no longer are salt. And surely in that suggestion, there is the salutary warning. For we can become so complacent and effectively lukewarm in commitment to the Jesus way, that ultimately we may have the appearance of followers of the Christ way whilst lacking the substance. And that is a warning we should take seriously.

So this morning, are reminded of the importance of commitment even to the point of suffering as Jesus himself did on the cross. The commitment called for is a commitment in which we are prepared to give all and is a commitment that is steadfast. But this is not the type of commitment that is expressed in hostility to others as is so often the case when religion goes bad. Jesus does not ask for the type of religious fanaticism that we see in Inquisitions and planes going into buildings. He does not ask for the type of fanaticism which sees those who think differently as the enemy or that which portrays God as the author of threats to the recalcitrant. No, Jesus calls for a wholehearted commitment to his path of all embracing, inclusive love. It is a commitment to a path that is by no means dour for the goal is an party to which all are invited. In a sense there is a calling to a path which embraces both Cavalier and Roundhead. For the invite is to share in a community which is bright and dynamic and yet the calling is serious in that the cost must surely be counted and the commitment must be great.

Years ago, Michael Foot in his “Debts of Honour” devoted a chapter to his local preacher father Isaac, entitled “A Cavalier for the Roundheads.” It was a reasonable description yet I suspect that if we hold the entirety of the fourteenth chapter of Luke in creative tension, we find a calling to both exhibit the joy and inclusiveness of the one and serious commitment of the other.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

This sermon is being preached at Northam Methodist Church on September 9th 2007