Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 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. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
“Choose life so that you and your descendants may live”
At least two questions immediately come to mind. First: Who would choose anything else? Second: Why do I choose so many other things?
As I have wondered homiletically for the coming Rally Sunday, I wonder at how we might preach Jesus’ call to carry your cross. . .
Over and over, as I read reflections for this coming Sunday, commentators want to speak of the cost of discipleship.
I’m not sure that is the most profitable way to look at it. (pun intended) Seems priceless to me.
Is Jesus’ call to carry your cross, a call for the journey? A journey which we make in the company of Jesus? This is not a knowledge thing, it is not a place one arrives at. This is an invitation to a pilgrimage, but not to some Holy Land, but to self giving love. It might well be difficult, since Jesus is the one who gives his life for the world, and pronounces forgiveness to all, even those who persecute him.
In a nice insight, Loader speaks of the call to carry your cross as one that is not a call to fanaticism that ends up “running roughshod over people for its cause...” It is a call to “engagement in a radically inclusive love, living from the life of the God of love...”
Choose life. Hate Family. Take up your cross and die. Give up all your possessions.
All these impossible requirements might well cause despair, or they might throw us on the grace of God alone.
4 comments:
A thought: I often look at Lent as a "journey to the cross" Might this text speak more of a "journey "with the cross"? A matter, not of arriving at the cross, but of bearing it, as we are accompanied by Jesus...
I saw this Bruggeman comment in the new good.preacher.com site I joined
World Unraveling
2007-09-03 by David Howell
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September 9, 07…14th Sunday of Pentecost
(Jeremiah 18:1-11; Deuteronomy 30:15-20; Luke 14:25-33)
by Walter Brueggemann
I would begin my pondering with the Jeremiah text, because Jeremiah’s time is like our own with a world unraveling. While the metaphor of “potter” is useful, too much should not be made of it, because the text moves beyond that image. The remarkable claim of verses 7-10 is that Israel (the clay) can impact YHWH (the potter). The accent point is that even though YHWH makes decisions about the future according to hard norms, Israel’s fresh decision can “change God’s mind.” In context, God has decided to “pluck up” (destroy) Jerusalem; but Israel can now decide differently. (The preacher can peek beyond the lectionary verses to verse 12 to notice that, in context, Israel refused a new decision that could have saved its life: “It is no use.” Stubborn resistance will bring divine trouble, according to the prophet.)
If we read backward from Jeremiah we reach Deuteronomy 30, in which Moses enjoins Israel to decide for life or for death. The issue is a distinct Torah identity in an ocean of Canaanite technological manipulation and consumer indulgence (sound familiar?). The alternative is Torah that, in Deuteronomy, means viable neighborly relationships enacted as economic generosity toward the needy.
If we read forward from Jeremiah, we come to the Gospel reading in Luke 14. In the middle of the textual unit, Jesus offers two examples of intentionality, the building of a tower (vv. 28-30) and a king going to war (vv. 31-32). The point of the two images should not be lost: intentionality in running risks for the sake of the future. These two images are sandwiched in the narrative in verses 27 and 33 by two summons to discipleship that consists in the sacrifice of the self on “the cross” and the divestment of “all your possessions.” Clearly Jesus is summoning “large crowds” to new intentional decisions that invite to a new life alongside Jesus.
The theme recurs:
Jeremiah: new decisions can change God;
Deuteronomy: a decision is required for life or for death;
Jesus: a decision to follow a new life is on offer.
The preacher can reflect, from these texts, on (a) the state we are in in our social crisis, (b) the past decisions—social, economic, political, military—that have gotten us there, and (c) the new decisions in the Gospel that might reverse the current mess. The text has immense implications for public policy; it also makes an ecclesial bid that the people close to Jesus have an alternative identity that has concrete implications. The awareness at the Jordan (Deuteronomy), in Jerusalem (Jeremiah), and with large crowds (Jesus) is that we may keep on doing business as usual on the way to a shriveled life. The preachable good news is that we can decide again…about Torah, about Jesus, about the way of our society and the chance to be different. The preacher could wind up talking about baptismal identity and life under the promise in obedience. It is a very hard word…but it surely is an urgent word among us just now.
I'm working on the OT Deut theme of choosing life. Because God has chosen us, we are free to follow God on the pathway to life. The irony comes that choosing life comes hidden beneath choosing death-the way of the cross. In dying to self, and choosing to love God and neighbor we find life. It's funny how we choose death when the God of life chooses to give us life. PTL for grace for Nimrods like me (and Nimrods like you!)
I haven't worked much with the "give up all your possessions" stuff. hmmmmmm...
this is interesting from Nuechterlein's Girardian work:
"The "therefore" in vs. 33 might provide the key to interpretation: "So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions." Our fallenness might be posed in terms of the problems we have with possessions. Think of the things that are most dear to us: mother & father, spouse & children, brothers & sisters, yes, even life itself. Couldn't our problem be defined as wanting to possess these people? We don't want to simply live our lives as gift, we want to possess our lives as something we earn. We cling to our lives. These sayings, then, would carry a similar message as, "Those who cling to their lives will lose them, & those who give up their lives for my sake will gain them." Life is not something to grasp after. It is something to give away & then receive back as a free gift."
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