|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Deuteronomy 30:15-20 |
Psalm 1 |
Philemon 1-21
|
Luke 14:25-33 |
I enjoyed last Thursday’s little story in the daily devotional Forward Day By Day about the first class business traveler and the young monk. If I may modify and punch it up a bit, picture a crowded airplane in the late afternoon. A high-powered businessman in an immaculately tailored suit is bumped from business class and has to ride in a middle seat of the cramped coach section. Boy is he annoyed! Right before the cabin door is closed a disheveled young monk, whose robe is crumpled, worn, and obviously second hand sits down in the aisle seat. The businessman, over his Wall Street Journal, looks his neighbor up and down and then condescendingly says, “And what do you think you are supposed to be?” The monk smiles and says, “polite”. That is not what the world would ever expect to be said in coach class on a crowded airplane, is it?
Today's Gospel is set late in Jesus’ ministry as he is making plans to go to Jerusalem. He has already cautioned his disciples on more than one occasion that the mission in Jerusalem is going to be dangerous and traumatic. It is not going to be the grand triumph in the manner the disciples had hoped for. But while he was teaching this to his disciples, the enthusiasm of the crowds in all likelihood tended to counterbalance Jesus' warnings and to dull the disciples' understanding.
The crowds were very high on emotion and very low on comprehending Jesus' message. Inevitably, crowds fed on unrealistic expectations that grew larger and larger. Jesus' mission was mistakenly seen as a big parade, a march on Jerusalem. People kept blowing their ideologies and agendas into a balloon that was sure to burst. For some, this was a contest of Galilee versus Jerusalem, or peasant farmer versus urban merchant, Jews versus Romans, lay people versus the clerical religious establishment, or those out of power versus those in power. The raw stuff ideologies are made of hasn’t changed very much over the centuries. The cause becomes all consuming.
What does Jesus do in the face of this emotional pressure? He issues a stern warning that God’s mission to humanity is more than our projections. Jesus is not like a politician running for re-election who speaks to one constituency after another, tailoring the speech to the individual concerns of the specific constituency. Jesus never tells us simply what we expect or want to hear.
The expression “to hate one’s family” needs some translation. It was meant to jar somewhat, but it also appears to be a Semitic idiomatic expression meaning something else than the common and literal meaning of the English word hate. We have similar idiomatic expressions in English. To say, “I am sick and tired of you never finishing your broccoli” doesn’t mean every time you see a leftover broccoli stalk on your child’s plate that you get physically ill or need to take a long nap. In the context of Jesus’ culture, this expression to hate one’s family refers to the ability to detach oneself from one’s family, and maintain a sense of perspective. In popular psychological language, it means to be able to differentiate ourselves from others, especially those close to us. Our family is very important to us, but it isn’t everything, our culture is important to us, but it isn’t everything, our job may be very important to us, but it isn’t everything, and we need to acknowledge a certain distance or we will never recognize when any of them may make unreasonable and ultimately destructive demands upon us. Sometimes no is a good thing to say.
Jesus’ warning is especially apt in our time and culture. People get provoked at the Gospel when it doesn’t go along and support our march, when it counsels a certain detachment and balance, when it suggests one grand parade is not to be identified with the inaugural ball of God’s new earth.
Today’s particular Gospel passage always seems to come up on occasions like this morning when children begin Sunday School. It’s not the passage I would have chosen to be read. Let’s face it. It costs something to be a Christian today, and you are swimming against the current of our culture. Those who teach Sunday School or sing in the choir or who take their job seriously as wardens, vestry, and altar guild members know that. Decades past, when society encouraged church involvement and made all sorts of provisions for people to give their time for church work, it wasn’t quite as obvious as it is now. We are a society that strives to be all consuming of us, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Today people of God are constantly pressured to join the world’s parades. The pull of self-interest is able to delude us and the winds of mob psychology can whip up our anger. Our frustration often shows through, and not only at airports and on planes,
Discipleship leads to a life that the world neither can conceive of nor promise. Jesus warns us never to worship and be consumed by idols. The idols of our own heart often conspire with the world’s idols, demanding that we conform to them. They become very angry when we hear the voice of Jesus to refuse. A characteristic of idols is that they always insist there is only one way. Idols insist that everything is placed at their level of importance. When, in our anger and temptation, we want everyone and everything to only make way for us, perhaps the simple reply of the monk may be a wise thing to remember.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
