Pentecost 15.htm

Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Psalm 1

Philemon 1:1-21

Luke 14:25-33

Aah, the easy life. Who doesn’t want that? Weekends off to rest and relax. Plenty of holidays. Enough money and then some. Happy families grilling in the back yard. Straight A athletic children and well behaved self-grooming pets.

Like “Leave it to Beaver” with a little “Bewitched” thrown in just to keep the house clean.

The easy life. Complete with easy answers. A comforting God to go with it. One who answers every prayer with “yes, of course, how soon?” And asks nothing in return.

You know, the family values God where everyone knows their place and stays there.

This pressure which society puts on us, the pressure to life the good life with the perfect family and yard…was much more intense in Jesus’ world.

Then, you married your first cousin, men stayed with their fathers their entire life. Everything you did was done to bring honor to the “tribe.” Even your profession was set by the family you were born into.

Last week we talked about eating habits. How you could only eat with people of your same status. Life could be very suffocating. But the rules were clear. Deviate from them and you risk loosing it all, family protection, family profession, family money.

Put your family first and followed the rules, you would at least have some security.

Put Jesus first, follow the cross, and you risk it all. It was really that clear. When Jesus says you must “hate” your family, the word would be better translated “prefer”. As in put Jesus first, prefer Jesus and the Jesus group to your family of origin. This family included women! And a wide range of people from other social classes! Folks you could never speak to in your old world.

This could be exhilarating, a taste of freedom, an adventure in new life.

On the other hand, there is a price to pay. If a disciple cut themselves off of their family and social network, they lose their income and must rely on the “hospitality” of strangers.

So Jesus wanted people to count the cost: to be sure they were ready to risk it all and follow him. There would be no going back once you were fully committed.

It is hard to translate that into today’s society. The most we risk in following Jesus is missing Sunday morning TV shows (so much for Zenna the warrior princess (is she still on?)) and Sunday morning soccer games.

If you are the only one in your family that goes to church, others may roll their eyes or tease, but they will still invite you dinner.

But what about the rest of our lives? If we really follow Jesus what do we give up?

Many years ago I had a woman come to my office, very stressed. She worked for the local insurance agent. He was doing some unethical things with his business and she was expected to go alone. She couldn’t do it. But then what? He could damage her chances at getting a new job in that small town. He could even cause harm to her husband’s reputation as a banker in that same little town.

Her faith held her up as she and her husband both quit their jobs and moved away. They started a new life selling Iowa made items in Colorado. A different life, a new life that they now love. It wasn’t easy. Their kids stayed behind to go to college. But they both knew a break had to happen.

I have been blessed to meet a number of people who have courageously made tough choices because of their faith. Often misunderstood, often wondered at…Heidi still works for pennies at an inner-city children’s program in Delaware. Here in town we have people like Vic Moss who raised his family in the men’s shelter he still runs. Others who quietly work hard to make life better for the “least of these.”

Following Jesus isn’t all wine and roses. You may not find easy answers to life’s hard questions. You won’t find Jesus pushing popular family values or encouraging you to make as much money as possible. (The “prosper” in the other texts today is about “thriving.” or “encouragement along the way.”)

You won’t find a call to individual responsibility but rather one to communal life. The “you” in Deuteronomy is plural. God is asking the community to choose life and blessings. God wants the whole community to put God at the center and then grow out from there.

Jesus doesn’t tell us that it will be easy. Preaching the easy life doesn’t do us any favors when life gets tough.

Instead, Jesus promises to be with us, to keep us centered, to help us bear our burdens with dignity and grace. Jesus gives us a new community, a new family to go with us. To encourage us and pray for us and pull us up when the path is too steep.

The God you learn about in this place is the one of real life, of broken relationship and troubled kids. Of daily challenges and life changing choices.

A God who shakes us up and sets us down, facing a new path. One who has Paul taking a slave and making him free. Messing up the economy of the slave owner, by the way.

And so we give it up: our preconceived notions of the way things should be in a perfect world, a perfect society, a perfect family.

And we trust that God will work with what we have, transforming it, building it up in ways we cannot even imagine.

For in great risk, there is also great reward.