Pentecost XVI: From Preaching to Meddling

Luke 14:25-33.  Jesus is on the road, not cruising the Galilee with his homies, but rather on the road to Jerusalem and his sacred destiny.  All the nice talk about love and such is now replaced with hard words about changing one's life.  Jesus has gone from preaching to meddling.

He employs the classic rabbinic technique of hyperbole, saying that one must hate one's relatives, even one's own life, in order to be a disciple.  Sharp language to tell us that nothing in this life is to conflict with the first place of God in our values  --  not family, not power or wealth, not friends or institutions  -- nothing.  He follows up with two interesting parables.  One is about a builder who commits to erect a tower but becomes a laughingstock when he runs out of resources needed to complete the project.  The second describes a king who needs to evaluate the approach of an army having twice as many men as his, commending a negotiated settlement of the conflict.  In other words, don't start what you can't finish.

I have on occasion explained our use of crucifixes, in contrast to protestant Christ-less crosses, by saying that an image of Christ Crucified is a warning of what Christianity can cost.   Jesus is telling the crowd that they must move beyond only considering the assets of the Kingdom of God and begin to contemplate the liabilities.   That commitment can cost you everything you have, even your life. Discipleship is more than a hobby or an extracurricular activity, it is a vocation that demands first place in our lives in all things.  Don't start what you can't finish.

Yet, we all fall short, we are all on a journey to being the people Jesus is calling us to be as cross- bearers and Kingdom-builders.   In an address to us clergy, Tony Campolo recently prefaced his remarks by noting that he is not a Christian and we, the audience, are not Christians either.  We are all on the way but fall far short of living as Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  We are Christians- to-be.  We are taking our first baby steps towards the life to which God calls us in the Saviour.  Yet we have begun, we have started, committed to live and die as necessary in the holy cause of Christ.