14th Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 18
Luke 14:25-33
"Look before You Leap!"
"Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ’This man began to build, and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:25-33, RSV.
Grace and Peace to you fro our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
A very wealthy man lost his wife when their--only child was very young, so the man hired a housekeeper who would take care of the house and also, care for the young boy. The boy and the housekeeper became very close, as a matter of fact, the housekeeper looked upon this child as her very own, and the boy regarded the housekeeper as the mother he never had. But then, strangely, one day, the boy also died before be reached manhood. The housekeeper stayed on caring for the wealthy man who now was in such an emotional state having lost his wife and his son, that he soon died of a broken heart.
When the man died, his lawyer and his business partners began looking for the will which they were certain he had made out years before, but which no one had seen. They looked everywhere but they could find the will. The estate was eventually taken over by the state and an auction was held to dispose of the man’s personal property and his mansion.
The house keeper went to the sale, not because she had so much money to spent, but their was one item that she hoped she could get, there was a picture of the little boy that hung on the wall that she desperately wanted. She loved that boy and still carried fond memories of the times she had spent with, him. When the picture came to the auction block, nobody else wanted it so she bought it for a few pennies. She brought it home and since no one had cared for the house in many years, the picture had become very dirty, so she decided to take it apart, clean the frame and the glass, put in new backing and then find a place to hang it so that she might have the memories of those wonderful years. As she was taking the picture apart, some very important looking papers fell out of the back of the picture. At first she didn’t know what to make of them, so she brought them to the family lawyer of the rich man.
As the lawyer read the papers, he soon discover it was the long lost will which everyone had searched for, but could not find. There was a note with the will which said, "I leave all my wealth to the one who loved my son enough to buy that picture."
This lady had a love that carried her over the rough times, that carried her over the sad moments, a love ’for that boy that continued to after her life every moment she lived. It was a love that moved her to attend that auction, to give up some of her resources, her pennies, which meant more to her than the thousands others were willing to spent and because of her love, because her love was turned into action, she was rewarded beyond her wildest dreams.
This story tries to paint a picture of what Jesus was talking about in our gospel lesson. Jesus is talking about how we translate his love for us into our love for our neighbor. Jesus is talking about counting the cost to be his disciple.
The lady in our story counted the cost of her love for that son and was willing to spend some of her hard earned money to keep the memory of that son alive.
In our gospel lesson, Jesus is trying to tell us the price we must pay to be his disciple. He says, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple".
That is a harsh statement. Does Jesus really mean we should hate our families, we should hate ourselves?
Jesus is trying to drive home a point that to follow Him, to be a disciple of His one must put everything else second in life.
Jesus is saying we need to put at arms length, to put in second place everything in our lives except him. He comes first. He comes first before family, he comes first before our relatives, he comes first before our own lives. As we let the impact of that statement filter into our hearts, we see that Jesus is calling us to a radical kind of life. A life that is lived which sets those who believe in Him apart from,the rest of society. Then in the last part of this text, Jesus, is asking, are you willing :to pay that kind price o follow me? In a sense the two parables, or illustrations Jesus uses is asking us if we are willing to pay that, kind of cost to be his follower? Are we willing to turn the love we have for him into an action that will separate us, or set, us apart from, our families and even from those values and ideals we. hold, dear in our’ own life?
Jesus is saying, if you want to be my disciple, if you want to follow me, here is what you are called to do. Place,me first above everything else in your life and then before you say you are willing to do that, you better look before you leap, you had better count the cost, see if you are willing to make such a sacrifice :or me, see if you are really willing to pay that kind of price?
As Bonhoeffer says in his book Cost of Discipleship, on p.47
"We have cheapen grace and cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting for costly grace. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. Costly grace is the living word, the Word of God. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
We have made the gift so cheap, we have watered it down so much that if has lost its meaning and its greatness for many people. We have watered down this grace to such an extent that I fear we have become universities meaning that everyone is going to heaven, everyone regardless of their belief or their actions.
But that is not the message of the bible, that is not the message of this text, Jesus says it costs something. There is a price to be paid. You must be willing to p;ace Jesus and his will above all else in your life. that is the price, that is the cost.
But we don’t say that loud and clear, we don’t tell people about that, we make this so cheap that for some people belief is Jesus becomes like the line in our church constitution:
"If I give my penny to the church and communion once a year that is all there is to it."
Some feel that they don’t need to be associated with the worshiping community, I don’t need to change my lifestyle, I can cheat my neighbor, I can gossip, I can hold grudges, I can be greedy and not share my wealth with the Lord. I can be disrespectful, I can abuse my body, because god’s grace is cheap, freely given.
Cheap grace does more harm than good. Sure we can say look at all the people who are on our church rolls, but when it come right down to it, if a church gets half of its member to worship the God they believe in, they feel really good. Maybe even 30% is great!
But Jesus isn’t asking for half or 30%, He wants His grace to motivate our lives all the time, every day 24 hours a day, each day that we live on this earth.
Jesus wants us to remember the cost He paid for our lives, so that we don’t cheapen this grace, but value it to the highest degree.
What does it take to follow Jesus? Know that it won’t be cheap, and you can’t get by with half or what’s needed, and that your lackluster, mediocre resolve won’t save you when the great battle of life have to be fought.1
A closing story speaks to just one part of this costly grace.
Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece.
But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship.
"Each time you are here’" the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God’s house will be dark"
Are you willing to live by costly grace, the grace that was paid for by the love of Christ and which asks us to pay the same price by surrendering all to Him?
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale August 30, 2004
1From Augsburg Sermon series
