Luke
14:25-33
Every
morning we have breakfast. Our kitchen
has an island and two bar seats. Jack
refuses to sit in his high chair anymore so he climbs up the big boy seat and
plops down and eats. He is all grown
up. So when he wanted to take his yogurt
down and cruise around the house, I said no.
And he let me have it. He
screamed for the next 20 minutes. He
would climb back grab his yogurt and begin the decent. I would take it from him set it on the
counter, he would scream more and repeat.
He was not a happy camper.
I
think I behaved similarly when I was twelve-years-old. I was in six grade, and invited to my first
concert – two boys who were my age and wore there overalls backwards – Kris
Kross.
Kris Kross was playing a show at
the Memphis fairgrounds and I had some school regulated standardized testing
the next day. My parents said no, and I
threw a fit. I think I told my parents
that I hated them. And therefore I
wanted to leave the house and run away.
I wanted to be off on my own. It
was as if was using hate as a catalyst for my own desire to leave home. I am pretty sure I didn't hate my parents,
and I didn't want to leave home, but I sure tried to convince them
otherwise.
This
Sunday, we hear once again, as we have several of the last few weeks, some
unsettling words from Jesus. A few weeks
ago we were reminded of parents being set against their children and now in the
14th chapter of Luke, Jesus says, “You must hate your father and
your mother if you want to follow me.”
Really Jesus… What happened to love of neighbor or respect your elders? He continues, “Whoever does not carry the
cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
And you must give up all your possessions as well.” That sounds easy. Love Jesus.
Hate your family. Get rid of everything. You are a Christian. Boom.
I
am not sure if Jack’s 20 minute temper tantrum was anything unique, a
characteristic that he has inherited from me.
I am sure that he has inherited a crooked smile and a Burruss nose. People say he has his mother’s eyes. We pass on to our families much and then we
pass on even more.
If
you really want to learn about yourself, you should start with your family and
go back a little ways. One of the ways
people do that is to write out a genogram.
A genogram is a way of making a family tree where you diagram
relationships and other personal characteristics. You draw out your family tree and you make
marks for things such as who served in the military, or who has heart disease
or cancer. Or you mark family members
who have struggled with alcoholism or drug addiction. The process can also ask you to examine
death, children, marriage, divorce, and life expectancy. What we find that often emerges are patterns.
And the study of these patterns can be exceptionally enlightening to who we are
and why we have become the people we are today.
Our
families pass down more than just a few physical characteristics. We share with each other, the good and the
bad, the beautiful and the brokenness.
It all exists in every single family and is experienced from generation
to generation. Friends of mine have opened a ministry in an area of Memphis that was built in the early 1900s. The house across the street from the ministry has been in one family the entire time. At that residence, there have been 100 arrest dating back to 1926 all with people with the same last name. It is hard to break out of certain family systems.
All
this is true. The wonderful parts of
John Burruss and the scary parts of John Burruss that I try to hide yet my
family knows to exist – all of these are in part influenced by our families or
how we were raised, or how we weren't raised. But
hating my parents, now that is a little extreme. And as I hear the words of Jesus, I can only
move forward cautiously, scared of what the implications of his strong bidding
might be for me. And I think to some
extent I agree with many others who believe that his words are only hyperbole –
pointing at the drastic challenge of discipleship.
But
that is what we are asked today - to consider the cost of discipleship. This is the only place in the Gospel that
this phrase is used, yet it is a familiar one. Cost implying that we must give up something,
or some of our resources, for something else.
The word cost implies change.
Change can mean transformation.
It means we lose something else, possibly our possessions and our
families.
For
example – if you are struggling to make sense as a Christian and the looming
possibility of war in Syria, you are not alone. This very dilemma keeps me up at night. On one hand we have heard over and over
“Blessed are the Peacemakers” yet our faith has also taught us that each human
life is precious and worth saving. As
more military intervention draws near, we fear for our loved ones who serve, we
pray for wise judgment for our leaders, and we pray for all who are in harm’s
way. I wish I had a good answer as to
how to respond faithfully, but what I can tell you is that the Gospel reminds
us that there is a cost of being a Disciple that can drive us away from our
friends and families. The cost of
discipleship means that we very likely cannot appease the world, the public,
and even possibly our families if we are to follow Jesus Christ. The Cost of discipleship means that the road
ahead is tough. It means leaving behind
the influences of the world to say that the way we move forward is a response to
our discipleship. What that looks like
is for each of us to prayerfully consider.
But it very well might come at a cost.
Throughout
Luke’s Gospel, we are given a vision of following Christ that is constantly
challenging us. It leads us, over and over
again into places that stir us up and make us uncomfortable. It causes us to
wrestle with the cost of following Jesus.
But the cost ultimately leads us to the cross. And what we must always remember is the gift
of the cross – that is Grace.
Father
Chip is really pushing me to study the Bowen theory of family systems. He, along with many others who have studied
church structures and pastoral theology, believe it to be the key to
understanding congregations. One of the
major concepts in Bowen theory claims that our success in life is predicated on
the ability to function outside of what we have learned or inherited from our
family. If we are able to broaden the
scope of our behavior we have a greater chance at success. If we
can just move beyond all those good and not-so-good traits that we have
inherited from our families, we can more healthily function in society.
And
this is all related to grace – the free gift of salvation. The cost of discipleship must be understood
in light of grace, the other theme of Luke.
I cannot imagine my life without my family, but there is something
liberating about leaving behind what I have inherited from them. Yes, both the good and the not so good. When we truly become a follower of Jesus we
can let go of our identity that is rooted in family and our family
history. We can let go of who everyone
around us expects us to be. Or how they
expect us to function. We can let go of
all the possessions, the gifts, and the burdens because we have taken on a new
identity – as a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Like all things that have a cost – in giving up something we receive
something else. The cost of
discipleship demands that we turn our lives fully over to God. And in that we find grace and salvation.
Sermon Preached on September 8th
Church of the Annunciation
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