15th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon 15th Sunday after Pentecost, 9/5/2010

Location: Immanuel Lutheran Church

Text: Luke 14:25-33

There is a series of Calvin and Hobbes comics the run through a storyline of Calvin attempting to make his life easier, but ending up making it much more difficult. In an earlier story line Calvin has made a “Transmogrifier,” which he uses to change himself into a tiger. To use the transmogrifier, which is just a box turned upside down with the word transmogrifier and a dial drawn on the side, you just get underneath the box and there you go.

In this story-line Calvin makes a duplicator, which is the transmogrifier turned on its side and duplicator written on it. Hobbes, his Tiger, asks “Isn’t this your transmogrifier?” and Calvin answers, “It was, I made some modifications, see the box is on its side now. It’s a duplicator!”

Now Calvin envisions that this duplicator will make his life much easier, as he can make copies of himself to do all his chores, go to school for him and other tasks and then he can just sit around and read comic books and play.

This is not what happens. Calvin forgets that his copies are exact copies, and they go about doing whatever they want. Calvin ends up getting in more trouble than he normally would both at school and at home. In Calvin’s crazy world eventually these duplicates do something to get him in really big trouble with his Mom. When the duplicates come running away to hid in his room, Calvin tricks them to hide under the duplicator which he has turned upside down. With them trapped, Calvin crosses out duplicator and writes “transmogrifier” on the box once again. He then transforms them into worms. Because as he says, “Well, I don’t want them to be unhappy.” When Calvin then goes to explain to his mother that it was not his fault, it was his copies and now they are worms, he gets in trouble one more time as he shoves the worms into his mom’s face to show her.

This story is one example of why the common thought of “Easier is always better” may not be true. Our culture has placed this statement on a pedestal and believes that it is nearly perfect. I did a Google search for the phrase, Easier and better. It was not until the 4th page that I found any articles talking about “Is easier always better?” And the article I found was written by an author who had ads for his books, “Learn More, Study Less!” and “The little book of productivity” on the side of the page. Not sure if he really gets it.

I was talking with some people in the office this week. We got on the subject of visiting people in the nursing home and how rewarding it is to get to be able to know them and be an important part of their lives. But, how hard and difficult it is when the die. We pondered for a second on whether it is indeed worth it to go through such grief in order to care for these people. The thought could enter your head, “It would be much easier to just not go visit.” We would not have to deal with the grief, loss, and pain of that person’s death and them not being physically present in our lives anymore.

This last January one of my best friends, Ben Splichal Larson, died in the earthquake that devastated Haiti, and it still affects me to this day. If I had a time machine would I go back in time and tell myself not to get to know him, making his death not as devastating. I could, but I never would want to do that. I would never want to not have his presence a part of my life. Those I was visiting with and I would never want to have the presence of those nursing home people not in our lives.

That is part of what Jesus is talking about in this text today. Carrying the cross. Taking not the easy route, but the better route, the harder route yes, but the better route. It would be easier to simply not get to know anyone and have people become important parts of your life, but part of our life is to be involved in people’s lives, whether the easy times or the hard times. That is carrying the cross.

That is what this text is about. Jesus is talking to the large crowd that is following him. Telling them that because Jesus has called them to follow him their lives will be hard. They will have to “hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself.” Now this is not quite as violent as it could be taken. The word here is translated as hate, but has more connotations of preference, to put below. Jesus is referring to undivided loyalty. Hate your father and mother if they become a greater focus than your following of Christ

Jesus is on a journey when he speaks this text and that is relevant to us. Jesus is talking about the journey of our lives. He is telling us the path that we follow, in our response to the love of God, is not the easier path, but the better, though harder path.

We are to follow what we as Lutheran’s call the Theology of the Cross, the idea that the life of a Christian is one that should consistently lead to the cross. Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in his book, Discipleship, “When Christ calls a person, he bids them come and die.” It is the same meaning that is found in our understanding of Baptism as a means of Grace. Luther says in his small catechism, “What then is the significance of such a baptism with water? It signifies that the old creature in us with all sins and evil desires is to be drowned and die through daily contrition and repentance, and on the other hand that daily a new person is to come forth and rise up to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” And in the Large Catechism on the same subject, “when we become Christians, the old creature daily decreases until finally destroyed. This is what it means truly to plunge into baptism and daily to come forth again.”

This is against Theology of Glory, which says that the way of the Christian is one of richness and ease. It is in Luther’s words that we remember that each day we are continually sinning, because we often follow the route of ease and personal glory, instead of the path leading to the cross.

In the examples in this text Jesus is talking about making sure that we go through the whole thought process of what it means to be a Christian. But often these examples could be used as reasons to take the easy route vs. the better route.

I personally do not like the example of war here. I think that peace should always be the first resort not only if you look at your troops and see you will lose. I am a pacifist, and feel that war should only be used in dire cases, as the extreme last resort. This is not to say that I am, to use the phrase, “against the troops,” I pray for peace and rejoiced when they began to return home. And I continue to pray for their safety, one of my best friends is a Captain in the Army currently serving his second tour in Afghanistan, I hope and pray for his safety. That is my problem with this part of the text, it could be interpreted as saying that war should be the first choice, and only if you are outnumbered should you give up. I don’t think that is what Jesus is talking about here. I feel that Jesus is using an example of warfare since it was a more common occurrence in that time, and more taken for granted. When we hear this, we need to also remember Christ’s commands to love our enemies, and turn the other cheek.

The example of the house is another one where interpretation is needed. If we see it how Christ implies, as looking within ourselves and seeing if we are ready for this Christian life of walking towards the cross it is fine. But if we use the text to give ourselves reasons to not take the better path, we have misinterpreted it. When we use it to say that if we cannot help completely, then we will not help at all, we take the easy path.

Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, told the story about a local coordinator asking him for advice. The coordinator wanted to know what to do, he had been unable to get enough money for a house they were trying to build. And Millard’s response was, just start. When people see you in trouble they will help more.

In these examples Jesus is showing how it is that we must be ready and know that the life of the Christian may be a hard one. Jesus is calling us to the way of the cross, to look inside ourselves and to see that it is in Christ that we are complete. And because of Christ we take the better path, and we help those in need not knowing whether we will succeed or not.

Jesus is asking a lot in this passage. Not only all that but selling our possessions. Christ is asking us again to look at our priorities and what path we are on. Are we on the path of glory, exalting in our possessions and money, family and our life itself. Or are we on the path of the cross, looking not first to ourselves, but to Christ among the sinners and outcast, Christ among us.

There are two stories that I read this last week. They both involve churches. One church is Lutheran Church of the Master in Edina, Minnesota. It was closing its doors and selling its property. It decided that it would give away one million dollars to global mission and two mission starts in African American communities. The second church is Rolling Hills Baptist Church, in Fayetteville, Georgia, which sold its $1.4 million building to serve more faithfully those in need in their community. They had decided that even though they were a thriving congregation, and not in danger of closing, having their own building was not as important as working to provide for those in their community. These are complete examples of removing possessions.

This is not to say that we should sell our church building, or even all of our possessions. But, they are examples of where our focus should be.

There is the joke that once a chicken and a pig took a trip together. After many miles and many hours on the road, they got hungry. Finally, the sharp-eyed chicken spotted a restaurant. Approaching the door they read a sign which said, "Ham and Eggs: Our Specialty!" "Hold it!" shouted the pig. "What's the matter?" asked the chicken. "Plenty. All they want from you is a little compromise. They are asking me for total commitment!"

Jesus is asking for our total commitment. And through our baptism we give that commitment every day, we daily rise and die through Christ. For it is only through Christ that we are capable of carrying the cross. We pick up the cross, because Christ has already carried it for us. We are called into costly discipleship, but Jesus’ command to follow me is both demand and gift, because the one giving that command is the one who redeems us.

When we feel that we are own our own in carrying this cross, we hear Christ voice by our side calling our name, knowing that through him, we are refreshed, through him we live, through him we serve.

Let us pray,

Lord of strength,

Give us your grace in all our days, hold us when we fear, let us see the grace in each other, working to help those different than ourselves. For in you all are loved, you gave your love to all the world, and sent your Son to the cross. For this we thank you and ask you to be with us when we travel on the way to that cross.

In your Son’s name,

Amen