God's Realm is our Ultimate Allegiance 9/8/19 (Pentecost 12C)

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser       

God’s Realm is our Ultimate Allegiance

 Sept 8, 2019     Pentecost 12C   Luke 14: 25-33

  

Are there distinctive things about being a Christian?

A friend who’s a professor at VA Wesleyan College, Rev Craig Wansink, tells a story about being in Palestine studying, and taking a taxi to tour around.  His taxi driver was pointing out all the important Muslim sites, and eventually Craig asked, “What about a Christian site?” The taxi driver thought a moment, and then, to Craig’s surprise, the taxi driver took him to a bar.  Craig was confused - why was a bar a Christian site?  Because good Muslims couldn’t drink alcohol. So there were only Christians at the bar.

That’s not the kind of distinctively Christian thing we might want….

  Are Christians just the rest of the people who don’t identify as Jewish, Muslim, Ba’hai, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindu, Neo-Pagan or Wiccan? Or spiritual but not religious?  Or those who check the box “none of the above”? Does just giving gifts at Christmas and eating chocolate eggs at Easter make us Christians? Has being a Christian has gotten tangled up with being a nice person and a good American in our day? 

What is it that makes a Christian a Christian?  Isn’t there something that shows our commitment to follow Christ in our actions and life decisions?

The passage we are considering this morning starts off with Jesus saying one of his out-of-the-box and rather shocking things, as he seems to do.  Its a technique called hyperbolic language, that is, he uses hyperbole, over-the-top or extreme words to make a point. We do it all the time - “If my mom finds out I did that, she will just KILL me!”  That’s hyperbole.  Mom will not really, literally kill her child, although she may well be really angry.   “He’s as skinny as a rail!”  That’s hyperbole - no human gets that skinny.  “Woah, your purse weighs a TON!” That’s hyperbole - although purses can get pretty heavy, its nowhere near a ton. “You live on your phone 24/7 !  Well, that might be too close for comfort….

One time says Jesus says that rich people getting to heaven is harder than a camel going through the little teeny eye of a sewing needle. Yeah - we get it, that is hard to picture!  But then he says, “With God all things are possible.”  Another time, Jesus asks people, “If your child asked for some bread, would you give him a rock? How about a scorpion?”  Duh, no, Jesus!  We love our children.  Jesus says, “Well, God loves you, too!”  Another time Jesus tells people that if their eyes cause them to sin, like envying or lusting, it’s better to pluck that eye out and go to heaven with just one eye… and the same with your hand, he says - cut it off so it doesn’t keep you out of heaven.  This is not a literal command; he’s emphasizing what we may need to let go of in order to walk in the realm of God, that living in the realm of God is vital. 

This morning’s passage says: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  Is this Jesus telling us to hate our parents and siblings?  A new preacher in a facebook group was asking how we other preacher’s took this verse, especially how to use it in a children’s sermon.  Once again, Jesus is using hyperbole, extreme words, comparing our love of God to our love of even our loved ones.  We have to admit that it grabs our attention this way - he could have just said, “I must be your ultimate allegiance,” like my sermon title. 

Jesus is comparing our devotion to God with our devotion to anything else - anything else - possessions, family, time, money, career, fame, whatever….   Our dedication to God, our devotion to God, our loyalty to God will surpass everything else. God wants to be #1 in the life of believers.  Take up this cross, he says, and follow me.  Count the cost of following me.

It seems to me that making God #1 is pretty close to impossible - except as we grow closer to God and grow in faith, it perhaps becomes more possible.  The demands of career, or family, or making a living - these are important to our lives.  Jesus isn’t saying they aren’t important, nor that these obligations and necessities won’t take time and attention.  Jesus IS saying that when they come in conflict with our faith, we’re going to have a tough decision to make.  So count the cost, Jesus says.  Faith means that God is the most vital to the source of Life.  

We understand the way some things are more of a priority than others.  We understand having to prioritize in what gets done in our work day. Lives are busy, and we simply can’t do everything.  We ask ourselves that question everyday: What’s more important -  that pastry or my blood sugar?  What’s more important - my weekend or my kid’s travel soccer game?  What’s more important - extra $$ in retirement savings for my old age, or a gym membership for my health now?

There’s going to be some decisions as a Christ-follower that come out differently from what others decide.  Our faith is going to ask us to be honest in our finances, to think of the others in business, and to give time in our already packed schedules to prayer and worship. The compassion God has shown us and which grows in our hearts might get us in a sticky situation when the folks around us are mocking somebody, or using racist language. Speaking out against what the group is doing is hard.  The Holy Spirit is going to make us look at poor people with caring, which might not be the dominant view of those around us.  Sometimes we’re going to want to lie ourselves out of a mess, but faith tells us to admit the truth.  I turned down a drink one time at a party and was teased and called Miss Goody 2 Shoes, because people getting wasted want everyone else to get wasted with them, and don’t like it if you are different.  I heard my kids telling their friends one time, “Mom doesn’t let people use ‘gay’ as a bad word in her car.”  No one wants to be seen as different in their teens, so blame it on Mom - that’s fine. 

Practicing the values that Jesus taught, the attitudes that Jesus taught - it can make us face difficult choices.   “So count the cost,” Jesus says, of being my disciples. This is a CHALLENGING  set of verses, a DEMANDING view or being Jesus’ disciple.  Jesus is asking us, just how important am I in your life? 

Many church folks assume that accepting a version of being a nice person and a good American is also being a Christian.  People in the Klan think they’re Christian because they are white, no matter how they hate.  Some folks in our country think it doesn’t matter what you do otherwise, just so long as you want prayer in school and are against abortion - litmus tests for being a Christian, in their point of view.  Some of my clergywomen colleagues have been told that they’re headed for hell for claiming God called them preach. When I was a teenager, a good Christian didn’t listen to rock ‘n roll or, if male, have long hair.  And this was the Woodstock era!

What do those things have to do with being a disciple of Christ?  Another of Jesus’ good and pithy sayings was about people who strain out gnats but swallow camels.  Hey, guys, work on living the bigger issues of faith instead of arguing over the minutiae. 

So what makes our life a Christ-centered one?   In many ways, it’s up to us to read scripture, wrestle with Scripture, ask the Spirit of God to let the Scriptures read our hearts and show us the truth of our lives.  Christianity doesn’t have a simplified list of behaviors that say Christian, not Christian. There’s a lot in the Bible, and most of that has to be pondered, because some of what we read is due to the 1st century setting of those first believers, and things going on in their culture.  So the Bible takes some understanding.  It’s difficult to make lists of universal rules because Christianity is first of all a relationship with God, through Jesus the Christ.  Christianity is personal, its relational, and its something we continue to grow into more and more.  Its a revelation, a growing revelation of who God is and what God desires.  Jesus’ way of wording things is meant to draw us in, make us wrestle, make us talk to God about it - not just give a dry list. See how that works? 

This morning, hear the invited from Jesus to ponder what is distinctive about being a disciple of Christ, a follower of Christ - and ask ourselves if we are living into it more day by day.  May these wrestlings be fruitful in growing our relationships with God.  AMEN.