Proper 8C – Luke 9:51-62
It is good to be with you on this beautiful Sunday in summer. As we gather together in worship, as we prepare to share a holy meal, we seek to open our hearts and our minds that we may hear what God is saying to us in this moment… as we seek to glean the Good News, that is the Gospel for our time.
So, I ask you, what and who is the Gospel for? I like the way that Brian Manning, the author of The Ragamuffin Gospel, puts it:
[The gospel is for] the bedraggled, beat-up, and burnt-out. It is for the sorely burdened who are still shifting the heavy suitcase from one hand to the other. It is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don’t have it altogether and are too proud to accept the handout of amazing grace. It is for inconsistent, unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker. It is for poor, weak, sinful [people]… It is for the bent and the bruised who feel that their lives are a grave disappointment to God. It is for smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags.”
As a people of Christ, we are a people of the Gospel… of the Good News of God’s love and call to wholeness that is meant to touch and stir the hearts and minds of God’s beloved. Jesus was the embodiment of the Gospel message. He came to God’s people to remind them, to show us… even today… how we are called to live in the fullness of God’s love. So how did Jesus teach his disciples about the challenges and blessings of living in accordance with God’s call? The ninth chapter of the gospel according to Luke gives us a mini-course in Jesus’ message about discipleship. So, let’s dig in.
In this 9th chapter of Luke, the journey of Jesus and his disciples is well underway. Jesus and his rag tag band of followers have travelled by foot, by boat, though towns, up hills, into valleys and across wide-open desert-like expanses. All along the way, Jesus has been teaching his disciples what it means to be faithful followers… reminding them that the mission they have undertaken… a mission whose conclusion will not be known in their lifetimes… is a project infinitely larger than themselves. All along the way… Jesus is showing his disciples the ropes. All the while he is preaching, and teaching, and healing… bringing good news to God’s people and showing them God’s Way. As they journey, Jesus continues to empower his followers… who have willingly upended their lives to follow Jesus… followers who dropped their nets, left their homes and families, and headed south with Jesus. All along the way… Jesus reminds his colorful band of followers that the journey ahead does not promise to be easy. In fact, being a disciple guarantees that unforeseen challenges will be coming their way… challenges that will ask a price of the followers. Faithfulness to the mission of walking in God’s way… will surely exact a cost.
In this 9th chapter of Luke alone, we are given a fast-paced depiction of what the original disciples would have experienced. The chapter opens with Jesus giving the twelve authority to heal and cast out demons. In the same breath, he tells them to take absolutely nothing with them, “no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.” Travel lightly and, oh-by-the-way, expect to have doors slammed in your faces! A few verses later, Jesus shows skeptical disciples how to feed a hungry crowd with a mere loaf of bread and two fish. He shows them how to turn around an attitude of scarcity into one of abundance as twelve baskets of bread crumbs are left over from the miraculous feast.
When Jesus asks Peter, “who do you say that I am?” Peter proclaims Jesus to be “God’s messiah.” Then… only 21 verses into the chapter, a third of the way through, Jesus announces to the disciples… who… as you remember… have left everything behind and upended their lives to follow him… Jesus announces that the clock is ticking. Just as the group is gaining momentum, Jesus tells them that he is going to die. Not only that, he adds what can only be a very perplexing note. Jesus tells them that after his death, he will be raised on the third day. What could be made of that pronouncement? Then, practically in the same breath, Jesus reminds them of the cost of following him:
“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24)
I can only imagine how confusing it must have been like to hear these words. I would have wondered what Jesus meant by taking up a cross, an implement of torture and death, and continuing on with the journey… after Jesus is gone. I can only image how confusing it would have been… to ponder the paradox of letting go of life to gain life??? Hadn’t they already let go of a whole lot? The lessons only seem to be getting harder. Then Jesus says, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” I might well have thought to myself, “Is it too late to turn back????”
Still in this 9th chapter, we are given stories of Jesus’ transfiguration on a mountain top, of Jesus healing a possessed boy and of Jesus predicting his death a second time. After all of this action, we come to the end of the chapter and today’s lesson in which Jesus, once again, tries to reinforce the fact that there is a cost to be had for continuing the journey with him. How would you feel about that message?
When preparing sermons, I often refer to Eugene Peterson’s contemporary language take on the Bible that has been published as The Message. The Message version of today’s lesson reads:
On the road someone asked if he could go along. “I’ll go with you, wherever,” he said. Jesus was curt: “Are you ready to rough it? We’re not staying in the best inns, you know.” Jesus said to another, “Follow me.” He said, “Certainly, but first excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have to make arrangements for my father’s funeral.” Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent: Announce God’s kingdom!” Then another said, “I’m ready to follow you, Master, but first excuse me while I get things straightened out at home.” Jesus said, “No procrastination. No backward looks. You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.”
“You can’t put God’s kingdom off till tomorrow. Seize the day.” The question lingers: is the call to discipleship worth it? Is the price too high? Before turning in our dusty walking shoes, I think this question begs us to take a look at the big picture. Can we begin to envision what the promise of God’s reign looks and feels like? When the world feels chaotic, when injustice seems to have the upper hand, when God’s people are hungry and hurting, can we envision a world of blessing, a world in which the Beatitudes of blessing are front and center, in which they are foundational to our life together: Blessed are… the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers… God’s dream for us is that we build one another up, welcome one another, honor one another, take care of one another… that all may thrive and live fully into the beings we were each and all created to be. As followers of Jesus, faithful discipleship is working towards the fulfillment of God’s dream, in whatever ways we are called and able, with efforts large or small. God’s dream is big and beautiful and we are the beloved workers called to do our part in helping to make God’s dream a reality.
To be a disciple is to take in all that Jesus is saying and to live it. To be a disciple is to have a vision of God’s dream for God’s people and creation and to have that vision front and center. To be a disciple it is to cut through the world’s noise and chatter that seeks to scramble the Gospel message. The dream gets down to the basics for which Jesus and so many of God’s people have given their lives. And what does the Gospel teach us about those basics?
…we are called to be a people of caring and compassion
…we are called to feed one another
…and welcome the foreigner
…tend to the outcast
…care for the grieving
…welcome the children
…live into the light
…and welcome the abundance that is promised in God’s love that we know in Christ Jesus. Let us sit with this vision for a brief moment…. …and with that grand Gospel vision in view…
I ask: … is the cost of being a disciple too high?
I would like to end with a poem by Steve Garnaas-Holmes entitled “What You Can Do” that, I believe, speaks of the meaning of discipleship:
What You Can Do
by Steve Garnaas-Holmes
When injustice strides so easily,
when evil reigns
and you feel there’s little you can do,
remember we are all one.
You are part of the Great Oneness
—some call it the Body of Christ—
and what you do affects the whole.
You can choose goodness.
When you change your life you change the world.
An immense grace hums beneath
the noise of this world.
When you live in harmony with it,
you intensify the great music of life
that renews the earth.
You are a voice in the chorus,
a string on the Beloved’s guitar;
when you change your note
you change the whole chord.
Amen.
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