“Half Priced Discipleship?”

Luke 14:25-33

September 5, 2004

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

This morning, I would like to invite you to be a part of one of the more important days of my life. I want you to notice that I didn’t invite you to the most important day in my life, but to one of them. This one happened in a church, like a lot of the important events of my life. This church is my home church in Jackson, Tennessee. To be a part of it, you will have to attend a worship service. You will also have to use your imagination because the service and the important day in my life happened back twenty-four years ago, in 1980, when I was twelve.

It was a beautiful, spring Sunday morning in early May. So come with me to my home church. Climb the steps in front of the church with me, but if you need the ramp to the side of the church, it’s available, too. This Sunday is Confirmation Sunday, the Sunday that I joined and became a part of the United Methodist Church. So come on into the sanctuary. There is a central altar rail up front with a curved rail. It is where I will kneel with the other twenty or so members of my confirmation class will kneel in a little while. The pews in the sanctuary are curved and there are three sections of them with aisles in between them. Feel free to sit wherever you want to, but there is always the risk of sitting in someone’s usual place. I want you to witness one of the more important moments of my life. Our confirmation class will be sitting together along with our parents, in the first few rows of the middle section, roped off and reserved for this important day. Take a bulletin and participate in the worship service. Now are you there with me? Are you comfortable? Now it’s time for the moment that I wanted you all to be a part of. This confirmation class of mine and I have been together for some six months studying about what it means to be a United Methodist and going on field trips to various places. And now it is time for the commitment that we’ve all been preparing for. At the right time, we’re asked to come to the front, to kneel at the rail, and after a little liturgy, we’re asked the all important questions of membership. There are two really, but you know that because you have seen this sort of thing done hundreds of times in our worship services. Here is the first question. It is a United Methodist question: As members of Christ’s universal Church, will you be loyal to the United Methodist Church and do all in your power to strengthen its ministries? In unison, as we have been taught to do, we say that we will do that. Then there is the second question, the one particular to our home church: “As members of this congregation, will you faithfully participate in its ministries by your prayers, your presence, your gifts, and your service?” Once again, as we were taught to, we said, in unison, that we would. I was twelve years old at the time. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know what I was saying. I didn’t realize the power of the promises that I was making. But now, twenty-four years later, with other pledges made, like wedding vows and ordination promises, I still try my very best to keep these promises.

Since I came here, to this church, just over two years ago, we have received almost seventy new members into our congregation. Seventy. That number doesn’t include their younger than confirmation aged children. Seventy. All seventy have made the same promise that I made. These almost seventy people came for different reasons. Some were invited by you and so they tried us out. Others got something in the mail and came here. I visited in almost all of these people’s houses to talk to them about joining the church. I talked about these vows and these promises. I wonder what would have happened, if we were sitting in their living rooms, chatting and sipping on a cold coca-cola or a hot cup of coffee, if they turned to me and asked, “John, what do I really have to do to join the church?” If I looked at them and said, “Only three things really. First, leave your family. Second, give away all your things. And third, carry a cross.” Some of the seventy are here this morning. Would you have joined the church under those circumstances?

Well, that is exactly what Jesus says in our scripture lesson for this morning. Jesus and the twelve are on their way to Jerusalem and it’s cross. Now we know what awaits Jesus there. We know that he will be arrested and crucified. we know that after that, that he will be crucified. But that in between those moments, there will be some hard times. We know all that. But I get the idea from reading our scripture lesson that the crowd that was following Jesus around didn’t understand that. Luke gives us this detail as our lesson opens, “Now large crowds were traveling with him...” They are traveling with him. They’ve seen the healing that he has done. Maybe they’ve witnessed a miracle or two that he has performed. They have listened as he has preached, maybe comfortable words, sermons on loving one another and forgiving one another. Maybe they have heard what he has had to say about grace. But now Jesus turns to the crowd, Luke tells us, and says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Evidently Jesus hadn’t been to the latest church growth seminar or workshop. Evidently he hadn’t heard that to grow the church, things have to be comfortable. The church has to be clean and neat with enough parking where you can run in at the last minute if you are running late. Evidently he hasn’t heard that the coffee has to be fresh and donuts have to be available. Evidently he hasn’t heard that there have to be great children and youth programs available, that the sermons have to be both powerful and entertaining, so that no one goes home uninspired. Maybe Jesus doesn’t know that there have to be Bible studies available, just in case we want them, offered throughout the day. And the nursery. You can’t forget the nursery. Maybe Jesus hasn’t heard that the only time that you leave children is during the Sunday School and church hours in capable hands like Glady’s. So it’s evident that Jesus hasn’t been to such a church growth workshop. But, friends, if I read my Bible the right way, it tells me that Jesus isn’t all that interest in filling up the pews. No, Jesus is interested in followers, in disciples, who will follow him no matter what the cost…

I will admit this to you. I have more than a little trouble with the words of our lesson. My problem is with the word hate. I don’t know how it was for you growing up, but I got in trouble, I got sent to my room, and I got a lecture when I used that word. I was taught that hate was such a strong emotion and such a strong word that I shouldn’t ever use it. I thought about that on that night when I was in trouble for another reason and when I was yelling at my parents at the top of my lungs, telling them that I hated them. That’s not how I feel now, of course. But that night I did. And so I want to ask Jesus. To follow you, to really follow you, I have to hate all of the important people in my life, my parents, my wife, my child, my brother and my sister? Eugene Peterson might help us along here in his translation of the Bible he puts our verse this way: “Anyone who comes to me and refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters - yes even one’s own self - can’t be my disciple. Well, that is a little easier. Actually the biblical word that we read as hate means “to love less.” Anyone who comes to me and does not love less father, mother, wife, child, brother and sister, cannot be my disciple.

Now that is easier. Or is it? I think what Jesus is trying to say to us is that if we are going to commit to him or maybe I should say commit again to him, we need to know what it is going to cost us. And to help us see it, he uses two images. But before he draws the picture, using his words, Jesus asks, “Which of you or is there anyone who would build a tower without first sitting down and estimating how much the construction would cost to make sure that there would be enough to finish the project? Who would do that. The answer is no one. No one would do that. The embarrassment would be great. Or, he asks, which of you, who of you, is there anyone who would go to battle with ten thousand men against an army of twenty thousand men. The answer is the same. No one would do that. So, says Jesus, “If you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether it’s plans or people and put them below following me, you can’t be my disciple.”

Would you join the church under such conditions? Would you follow Jesus if this is what it really cost you? Some would. I heard the story of a recruiter for Teach America who went to Duke University in North Carolina. She said this, “I don’t know why I am here tonight. You are the best and the brightest. This is a great school. You will leave here and be doctors and lawyers, amassing great fortunes. We would send you out to a burned out school in Watts to teach inner city kids biology or to a one room school in West Virginia to teach first through eighth graders to read. There’s no glory in that. And it’s dangerous. Last year three of our teachers were killed. So I’m sure that none of you would want to throw your lives away on something like that. But just in case, I’ll leave some brochures up here for those of you who have a passing interest.” When she finished, students crowded their way to the front to sign up. Because, as the teller of this story said, “People are hungry to give their lives to something more important than themselves. It is a fact of life, not only that everything cost us something, but that, in our better moments, we are eager to pay the price.

Now, what does this following of Jesus these days really cost you? Well, I’d like to go back to the Methodist promises. The first thing that it will cost you is time on your knees, in prayer. I know that you are busy. I am too. I know that you have a thousand things to do and that most of you don’t have five extra minutes a day to pray. But if you are praying those fifteen extra minutes that I asked you to pray each day now, then pray for this church. Pray for the minister, pray for the staff, ask God to bless this place and our ministries. Pray for our children. Yes, it will cost you a little time, but please pray. Second, it will cost you time here on Sunday morning, your presence. I cannot tell you how important it is to me that you are here on Sunday morning, with me, worshiping the God who loves us so much. It is important. I cannot tell you how important it is. Third, it will cost you some of your money. God blesses us with so many things, so much money. And we promise to help the ministries of the church with it. I’ve been here two years, so I’ll be bold. Can you imagine what this church could do if everyone tithed and gave ten percent to the church. We could do so much good in our world and in these walls. Then there is service. Being a disciple will cost you service time. That is, volunteering your time in the ministries of this church. That means everything from teaching Sunday School to changing light bulbs. We are moving towards every member doing a ministry in this church. More is to come on that.

So there are the four promises. Let me ask you to do two more. Here is the first one, commit yourselves to a stronger relationship to God. That will mean praying more. That will mean studying his Word more. Sometimes it will mean changing what you do because the Word of God convicts you to do that. Finally, I think that following Jesus means the giving of your heart to others. That isn’t always easy. It means trusting others. It means loving others. It means getting involved in people’s lives. I do not know if you saw it Thursday night, but Jane Pauley was interviewed; she has a new show. She was interviewed and was asked if she thought if her show would be successful and if people would trust her. She said this, “Yes, because I have shared a part of myself. Relationships mean that you share part of yourselves.” So you see, it will cost you to follow Jesus these days, but, in our better moments, we are eager to pay the price. Let us pray.