Proper 18 Year C

September 9th, 2007

Luke 14:25-33 (The Message)
One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.

“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’

“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce?

“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.

Great idea, let’s get the Youth and Children’s Ministry worker to preach on one of those gospel readings that tell people to hate (or in the Message translation “let go”) their families, their parents, their father, their mother… Surely they’ll help us make sense of this, and with their family values I’m sure they’ll encourage the young around us not to take the words as written, surely they’ll encourage the kids to stay with their folks, that family is central to the faith…

*Cough*

See, here’s the thing… What if Jesus really meant “hate”?

We’re not talking about the leader of the Family First political party here, this is a man who’s own home town tried killing him, the man who didn’t do the respectable thing and learn and stay in his father’s trade, who instead of hanging at home looking after his family (in particular his mother) wandered the land eating with low lives and prostitutes, who lived with homeless people and encouraged others to leave their families and follow him. This is a man who is the dictionary definition of the family’s “black sheep.”

So, what to do with a passage like this?

Dylan’s written a great couple of posts on what she calls EAFQuAL sermons that might give some ideas on how we can work with passages like this that require us to delve into some of the things that Jesus had to say that might be a little too counter cultural for us to handle… She’s also written a piece on this week’s readings for those that are keen.

One of my key phrases I like to use when preaching the Word is “It’s not all about you,” it’s something that I think we conveniently forget quite easily. Somehow we’ve got this idea that being Christian means that we’ll be blessed if we do good, that our job is to maintain family values, that our moral and ethical responsibility is to preach good, Christian values. Yet, it’s times like this that has us wondering about Jesus’ own values, own morals, own family relationships… And then we read the final paragraph “if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.”

How counter cultural is the message “give up all you own”? Then, contemplate how much more counter culture the words “leave your family” are to a culture in which family was a the central to everything that their culture. People would get married and move into their own father’s house, the family’s livelihood relied on the child taking on the father’s craft, the father’s place in the family was the head, he would give (or sell) his daughters for marriage, his was the role that was to be respected over all, except for, of course Ceasar.

So… What is Jesus on about?

I find the two examples that Jesus mentions remarkable, both are talking about starting something new, about planning ahead for something, whether it be a new building, or a new battle, and both seem to be pointing towards the idea that Jesus is on about creating something new.

Jesus is on about starting something new, the new family, the new kingdom, God’s kingdom. The new family is one where everyone cares for each other as they are brothers or sisters, equal, on the same level, the common purse seems to be a model of community that Jesus tried living out with his followers, his brothers. Of course his call to the child to follow him is also the same call that he gives to the father and mother, they too are able to join in this community but once again, they are then entering into a brother relationship in the new family Jesus is creating, with God as the father, the head and everyone else on the same level, caring for each other.

Which is why I find it amusing when Jesus is used as the saviour of family values, surely someone’s misunderstood something here, this isn’t about good morals or being culturally relevant, it’s about being counter-cultural, about a new kind of family.

Which is why I find it frightening when we promote the idea of being blessed financially because of our faith, our blessings are of a new family, not of resources or finance.

Denying yourself, taking on our cross, leaving our family are amongst the most counter cultural things that we can do in a consumer driven society in which we’re told “it’s all about you and your happiness.” Jesus’s new family, new kingdom, new call in life is about suffering, caring for one another, letting go of all that is expected of us by our society and only concentrating on that which is of God.

It’s in this reading that Jesus asks us “So, are you ready to be my brother?” and we’re faced with the frightening fact that to do so means to leave everything that we know behind whether it be our father, our mother, our new car or our community’s respect and understanding…

Amen