The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 5th, 2010

Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139:1-5, 13-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33

The Rev. Dr. Katharine C. Black, preaching

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Jesus has three suggestions of ways to be his disciples and then two illustrations of ways to decide how best to follow, to be a disciple. Let's look at these two first. One is about building a tower. He suggests that before starting the building, the builder, or more specifically you'd, need to be sure to have enough resources to complete the project or you'll be ridiculed. Parable two says that a king setting out to wage war needs to check out the enemy, and if their force is greater, he'd best send a delegation to come to peace terms. We all nod at the sagacity of each of these parables, and murmur, "But I'm not a builder or waging war, so they must just do those jobs better than I."

Which of you intending to write a paper or homily/pay all bills, doesn't first sit down and estimate the time, resources, cost and other necessities to complete the project or risk ridicule. Which of you mounting an opposition, picking a fight, organizing a campaign does not first consider whether you can overwhelm the opposition? Come on- none of us, or if you do, would you please accept the responsibility for the parochial report next year, to do my taxes, write my sermons, cook for book club, organize for the special houseguests, get your papers ready for the new term, pack for your next trip, move, or vacation. Come on. One has to decide either I'm a slug, incompetent, improvident, foolhardy, extravagant, and lazy and Jesus was issuing reasonable social advice, or these examples are supposed to suggest something other than we're all doing it all wrong all the time.

I'm pretty sure that of all truths about Jesus, the most salient one was that he was not a moron. I'm pretty sure he understood real workings of many people, and our habits haven't changed much. Consider your experience with your contractor. You had a budget; the contractor presented one, and you negotiated a common understanding of what the final bill would be, and it wasn't. In your heart of hearts, I'll bet you knew that and argued for a real, truthful, actual, estimate. (You might have discussed penalty clauses, but they wouldn't agree, which was the one real evaluative tool you had about that estimate.) Probably you estimated a 20% over-run, or more-if it was only that much over, you considered yourself fortunate. You may have asked yourself or you may have even asked the contractor after the end of the project, how was it that you were so far off. The answer you received was a mumble of comments, which boiled down to "That's life."

If you were opposing someone, whether bombing Iraq, arguing for more pay at your job, or more time for your project, did you calculate how much force you'd need, and the risk, and then predetermine when you'd knuckle under. Probably not- you were so eagerly optimistic about the rightness of the cause, the wrongness of the one you were opposing, the energy and magnitude of your resources, that you were more than overwhelmed before you realized you were about to be swamped.

Did Jesus really not know this? Did he really think out the Sermon on the Mount, carefully over the previous few weeks, and his sermon was neatly organized and ready for passing on and passing along before he arrived at the event? Did he outline the Beatitudes on the back of his version the Ten Commandments? Was the Lord's Prayer shaped carefully in his memory along with the Shema and memorized psalms? Did not the work, the circumstances or context, and Jesus' own realities at the moment- all shape the form and content of even those? I cannot give you a historically, psychologically, or spiritually guaranteed answer, but I can give you a pretty good guess- sure.
What then was he trying to say to his potential and actual disciples with these two parables? We really should try to plan out our future projects, but even being professionals or leaders doesn't make it possible to do in the kind of depth, accuracy, or seeing into the future, that we want or need to succeed. What then? Perhaps Jesus was suggesting that there are three main kinds of obstacles keeping us from making fail-safe plans and decisions, even about following Jesus to help bring about the reign of God, or even to help out our neighbors, as they need.

First Jesus says, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple." We all have real and valued family obligations. Some of those are to people just because they're family. Some of the people to whom we feel obligated do need our work, money, time, and more or other resources. It may take time to raise babies and care for our elders. Some of that work may be the most wonderful time we spend in our lives, while other times are less so. Perhaps sometimes other people can do that work for us. We all have time obligations to members of families, some cheerful, some mundane. Societies cannot function without families and people spending time with each other. No work, mission, or greater goal can take away all focus on families from all of us. Is Jesus saying people who babysit and care for the old cannot be disciples, but only men (and, I suppose, women) who abandon their families are fit for the kingdom? I'll bet not.

Second, Jesus says, "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." We picked to sing the hymn that urges us each to take up just such a cross. We sang to be humble, not to let the shame or the weight of the cross, or our foolish hearts, or every danger, dissuade us, but to let Jesus brace our heart and nerve our arms. Somehow it doesn't sound like a marketing campaign that would work for anyone anytime anywhere.

Third, and last, Jesus says, "None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." As a statement it's not all that unequivocal; there's zero wiggle room. Is that good news? Is it possible? There is an occasional person who attempts to give up all his possessions. Francis kept throwing off all his clothes, until the pope ordered him to stay somewhat clothed. We know when people, and they may be annoying 2 year olds, 13 year olds or a particular kind of literalist, who'll say You said to eat all of it," and so will chow on the paper plate or lick the glass at some inappropriate place. We know they're difficult people, literalists, because of their age, temperament, or illness. We really try not to speak, act, or believe in these impossible absolutes. Again the question arises, "Was Jesus a moron?" No, and he believed in both God's mercy and humankind's sense.

Let's take these two examples of planning and doing huge projects, both difficult and dangerous, and how to plan for them ahead of time. I think that's the project of becoming and being a disciple, and each of us, like experts and leaders, cannot figure it all out ahead. We want to have the tower built and we want to win the war, but each is hard and in some ways incalculable in time, money, work, risk, outcome, but each goal is worthy of our all. (Let's let Jesus have the idea of "king, winning, and war," whether as a metaphor, possibly even referring to endtimes and an apocalyptic vision of end times coming soon, or a simpler image of our king being, or perhaps representing the good, and wanting to win, over the enemy, or perhaps enemies of the good.") Neither task can be achieved alone, without families, friends, neighbors, and some sacrifice of our individual purposes and resources.

Our families, if they keep us bound to them may keep us from joining in the tower project or the king's mission. Our families, and our own personal desires to do just whatever it is we want to do on our own, may keep us from hearing about the big projects. They may take all our time, and sap our creativity. I remember one friend on having her first baby stopped everything she did. She asked me this, "Who could take care of this child as well as her own mother?" Since I was up to my elbows in small children, close together, and their chaos, my answer was, "Any one else, anyone." My friend stopped seeing anyone and stayed home. She let her mother babysit if she had to go to a critical appointment, but she put her whole life on hold, to care for that one child, a perfectly fine, regular baby, one year old, two year old, three year old, and I'd guess 36 year old. The woman was a young professional, a wife, a daughter, and more, but she stopped it all, and she wasn't ill; she really thought that everything in life needed to be pushed aside for that one family member. I don't think she ever made it back to the tower committee.

The lugubrious hymn about taking up our cross does have a positive verse, almost swallowed in the shame and blame of much of the hymn. Did you hear this when we sang it? "Take up your cross, then in Christ's strength, and calmly everywhere danger brave: it guides you to abundant life and leads to victory o'er the grave." Most of the hymn is call kenotic or self-emptying, more male-understood, theology, while this verse and idea is what psychologists identify to be more female, more creating purpose to be more abundant. Jesus asks us to carry the cross, not necessarily to die on it, or suffer with or from it. He asks us to follow him to victory o'er the grave, but in doing that we have to find our own way, carrying the cross as a reminder, but perhaps not a goal. It reminds us to accept Christ's strength to give us courage, letting the cross lead us to abundant life.

Families can obscure purpose beyond their worlds. The cross can be a guide, but it can also become a damaging obsession with shame, guilt, blame, suffering, pain, losing a sense of self worth, or sight of the promised land. The point of following Jesus is not to get crucified, but to serve our neighbors, find justice for all, and not be weighed down by possessions, because they're just stuff.
If we want to get the tower built or help good triumph, we need to lead our families and others around to be people who share our vision and mission. We need to share our possessions both to achieve the goals, and not to let stuff obscure our vision or occupy our time in making more of it. The way to keep the good goals in mind is to follow Jesus, keeping our eyes open to his work and our ears alive to his challenges, routes, and actions. We are to be enlisted in the great project of bringing about the reign of God. We are not to be side tracked, but Jesus tells us that even the best among us, builders and kings, needs a guide. When we carry the cross, we can risk danger, and it, with Jesus, will guide us to abundant life and leads to victory o'er the grave." Good News.
©Katharine C. Black 5 September 2010