How Much Will It Cost?

How Much Will It Cost?

Luke 14:25-33[1]

We have a tendency to hear what we want to hear, at least to some extent. There are some things that challenge us deeply, and we don’t much like that. They are hard for us to truly hear. One of the most memorable phrases from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech is, “I have a dream that one day … little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” But there are other parts to the speech. Dr. King also said that in the Declaration of Independence, the “architects of our republic” wrote a “promissory note” that all races “would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And he chided America for writing people of color a “bad check” instead! That's hard for most of us to hear.

I’m afraid we have applied our “selective hearing” to Jesus’ words as well. There are some of Jesus’ teachings that we cherish. Sayings like, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Or “Let the little children come to me” (Matt. 19:14). Or “today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). These are words that reassure us, that comfort us, that encourage us. But there are other teachings of Jesus that we (purposefully I think) ignore. Like the one about tearing out your right eye or cutting off your right hand in order to avoid sin!

Our lesson for today is probably one of the most ignored teachings of Jesus. This chapter contains some of the most deeply challenging demands Jesus makes on those who would follow him as disciples. Here Jesus says to the crowds, “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” (Lk. 14:26)! I would say that has always cut deeply against the grain for those who heard this. In fact, even Matthew’s Gospel softens the harshness of this saying a bit: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matt 10:37).

Of course, in this passage Jesus also says that those who do not bear the burden of the cross and who do not give up all their possessions cannot follow him as disciples. Those are deeply challenging demands as well. But I think the part about hating your parents, your spouse and your children, your brothers and sisters, and even your own life is probably the most challenging to us. It’s positively offensive. Family ties are some of the most important ones to us. Why would Jesus try to sever family ties that the human race has cherished through millennia?

I think part of the answer may be found, as is often the case in Luke’s Gospel, in the introduction to the passage: “Now large crowds were traveling with him” (Lk. 14:25). This isn’t the only place in the Gospels where Jesus speaks rather harshly to the crowds that followed him. On one occasion he scolded them for following him simply because they had their fill of bread (Jn 6:26). On another, he chided them for the fact that “this generation is an evil generation” because they came to him seeking some miraculous sign upon which they could rest their faith (Lk. 11:29). I think Jesus knew that many in the crowds that followed him had their own ideas about who Jesus was and what he had come to bring them. He rather bluntly rebuked that shallow spiritual “thrill-seeking”!

I think, however, that these “hard sayings” Jesus spoke were not just for the spiritual “sightseers” who flocked to him. They were also meant for his disciples. Jesus warned them that his commitment to God’s kingdom and God’s justice meant that he was going to be cruelly executed on a cross. And he also warned them that they would share that fate. Elsewhere he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). Interestingly, the word for “bearing” the cross is a different one here. It is a word that implies bearing a burden that is heavy, and continuing to bear that burden over time. I think Jesus was pressing his own disciples as to whether they were “willing to stay with [him] all the way.” ^[2]

Another part of solving this problem can be found in the parables Jesus tells to explain the point of what he is trying to say. In both of them, the point of the parable is that it’s a normal part of life to calculate the cost before launching a venture. And that seems to be the point of Jesus’ demand that in order to be his disciple one must “hate” one’s family, continually bear up under the burden of the cross, and give away all possessions. More than once, Jesus made it clear to his disciples that they must count the cost of following him. Following Jesus would be the way they would truly find their lives, but it would also cost them all that they held dear.

I don’t believe that Jesus wants any of us to literally hate our families, any more than he literally demanded us to go get ourselves executed or to give up everything we own. I think the point of this passage is that the commitment to following Jesus is one that takes precedence over every other commitment in life. But it also stands as a warning: those who choose to follow a Savior who was cruelly executed must recognize that decision will come with a cost. And yet at the same time, the promise is that, however much it will cost us to follow Jesus, only by losing our lives for his sake will we truly find our lives.

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[1][1] ©Alan Brehm 2019. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 9/8/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Fred Craddock, Luke, 181.

Divided

Divided

Luke 12:49-56[1]

It’s not hard to see that we are a nation divided. This is not a new phenomenon. The “culture war” that’s been going on in this country has been recognized for almost 30 years. Its origins go back before that to the times of social upheaval we went through in the Sixties and Seventies. As opinions about various social issues changed for some, those who hold onto what they consider to be more conservative values pushed back strenuously. We’ve seen this “war” played out primarily on the field of politics, but most families are affected by it as well. We all know there are certain topics you just don’t talk about at family dinners!

This intense division has also affected most Christian denominations. Recent decades have seen divisions in Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Catholic, and Methodist groups. Those churches that have chosen not to follow the majority view have left their denominations. Unfortunately, this kind of division hurts all churches. Those that leave a denomination over disagreements like these typically experience a decline in attendance. Other churches that stay within their denominations have to try to manage the tension within the congregation. The fact of the matter is, like most families, most congregations are not all on the same page regarding the changes that have taken place in our society.

In our lesson from Luke’s Gospel for today, Jesus makes a surprising announcement. He says that he has come not to bring peace but division! If this sounds confusing to you, you’re in good company. How can the one whom the hosts of heaven heralded at his birth with the declaration of peace (Luke 2:14) say he has come to bring division? After sending out his followers with the task of carrying peace to the towns and villages, did Jesus change his mind and decide to scrap that plan? The message of peace is woven into the biblical promises of salvation through the Messiah, from the prophets to Jesus to the Apostles.

How then could Jesus say he has not come to bring peace, but division? I think part of the answer has to do with understanding the meaning of the word peace. In the Bible, peace is the wholeness that comes from knowing God genuinely and living the life God intended for us. Peace is what happens when God’s reign and God’s justice prevail. It includes all that God is working toward in this world. The “peace” of the angels’ song is God’s salvation that brings reconciliation with God and humanity. This kind of peace is clearly at the heart of Jesus’ message and ministry.

I think that the kind of peace Jesus was rejecting is the “peace” that comes from avoiding conflict by going along with things as they are. He was renouncing the approach that seeks to preserve the status quo no matter what the cost. The peace that Jesus criticized was the approach of keeping up appearances and preserving a “business as usual” attitude toward life. Unfortunately, these are values that many of us would endorse. Change is stressful. Maintaining stability is much easier. But when we maintain the status quo at the expense of the people around us, the price for our comfort is too high!

On the other hand, the kind of peace that brings us true wholeness is the peace that happens when God’s reign and God’s justice prevail. The truth behind our Gospel lesson for today is that Jesus does come to bring peace, but it is a kind of peace that comes with a cost. The peace that Jesus brings will only come from righting the wrongs of injustice, especially the injustice that benefits the privileged few. It is a kind of peace that will only come from exposing the untruth that perpetuates the brokenness of our world.  It is a peace that brings with it the strife and division that God’s justice and God’s truth provoke among those who are comfortable with “business as usual.”^[2]

When anyone has the nerve to look at the way things are and say, “this isn’t right,” it has an unavoidable effect: it divides people. Those who benefit from the status quo will fight tooth and nail to oppose anyone who tries to change things. That’s why Jesus said he had come to bring division. He did not shy away from exposing the unjust systems of his day.  He told parables that pointed out how the religious leaders had enriched themselves at the expense of the people, in direct violation of the Torah they claimed to uphold. He pointedly confronted them for abandoning the commandments of God when it was convenient, and yet insisting on keeping the letter of the Law when it suited them. The division Jesus brought was one that came from directly confronting the “powers that be” of his day for abandoning God’s standards of justice.^[3] 

The Gospels make it clear that Jesus came to break down the systems of injustice and untruth that exploit and oppress people, especially the most vulnerable. His intention was not to destroy, but to clear the way for God’s kingdom, for God’s justice, and for God’s peace that brings wholeness and life. If we would follow Jesus in this way of peace, it will mean that we have to repent. We have to repent of the selfishness that seeks our own welfare at the expense of others. We have to repent of the choices we make that reinforce a “business as usual” attitude and ignores the least and the lost and the left out. And when we do repent and follow Jesus in the way of justice he lived and taught, we must expect that it will provoke the division he warned about.

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[1] © 2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/18/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] Cf. J. Moltmann, Crucified God, 39, where he speaks of the necessity of “the painful demonstration of truth in the midst of untruth.”

[3] Cf. Luz, Matthew, 112, where he says, “The message of ultimate peace … and of the love of God for the underprivileged has a political dimension and evokes the resistance of all those who defend power and privileges.”

Charades

“Charades”

Isaiah 1:10-20[1]

For many of us, “Charades” refers to a parlor game that we used to play back in the day. You had to get your “team” to guess a word or phrase based solely on your efforts to act out the idea. It was harmless and fun; at times it could be hilarious. But that rather innocent use of the word “charade” is very different from its true meaning. To put on a charade is to pretend to be something you’re not. It’s a matter of “play-acting” or “faking it” in order to disguise your true identity and intentions. A charade is oftentimes meant to deceive someone. It is a matter of dishonesty at worst, and at the least it is a matter of hypocrisy. The parlor game really has little to do with the charades we play in life.

And, make no mistake about it, we all play charades in life. None of us is as upstanding, as good, or as honest as we’d like to think we are. And we’re certainly not as good as we’d like others to think we are. As much as we’d like to believe we are “what you see is what you get” kind of people, there are parts of our true identity that we conceal from others. As fallen and flawed people, whether we want to admit it or not, we’ve all either done things we shouldn’t have, or we’ve not done things we should have. This applies as much to our practice of faith as it does to any other area of our lives. Perhaps even more so, especially when we come to church.

This is the gist of the message the prophet Isaiah had for the people of Judah. In fact, I would say this was the gist of the message all the prophets delivered to the Jewish people. The people had pledged to be true to God, to love and serve him above all else, and to follow his ways. Those ways were embodied above all in the Torah, the teaching of God. That teaching could be summarized in two great commands: to love God with everything you are and to love others genuinely. But the Jewish people failed to actually fulfill their commitment to live out the faith that they professed.

Like Isaiah, the prophets essentially “called” the people out for the charade that their practice of faith had become. We tend to think of a “prophet” as someone who predicts the future, especially warning of gloom and doom. But the reality was that the prophets were preachers. And their message was the same: the people had pledged to follow God’s ways, they had promised to love God and love others, but their lives betrayed the fact that they really had no intention of making good on that promise. Instead, they thought they could somehow fool God by engaging in worship that was hollow and superficial—simply “going through the motions,” or putting on a charade.

That is the message of our lesson for today: the people of Judah thought they could show up to “worship” God and then they could go out and live their lives however they pleased. But Isaiah says in the name of the Lord that this is nothing more than a “trampling” of his courts (Isa. 1:12)! Thinking they could simply show up for a few religious ceremonies and call it good was something that was “futile,” an “abomination,” and “evil” in God’s eyes (Isa. 1:13). All of those words in the Hebrew Bible are also associated with the worship of false gods. In a way, Isaiah was saying to the people that they came to the temple under the pretense of worshiping God, but the way they lived their lives betrayed the fact that it was not God they were worshiping, but rather the idols of their own making!

We might wonder what it was that made their worship so offensive in God’s sight. I think our lesson makes it clear that the “evil” that they were perpetrating was a failure to follow God’s standards of justice. Rather than caring for the most vulnerable in their society, they were only concerned about getting what they wanted out of life. And they didn’t care whom they trampled in the process. And they didn’t care that it was a direct violation of God’s Torah, God’s commands. Throughout the Bible, caring for the immigrants, the disabled, the widows, and the orphans in society was the benchmark for God’s justice.^[2]

Because the people failed to practice even the most basic aspects of God’s justice, the prophets like Isaiah warned them that they would suffer the consequences. This was not simply an arbitrary punishment. When any society ignores justice, they are headed for collapse. But Jesus went further than that. He said that how we treat the most vulnerable people in our world is the basis upon which we all will be judged! He said it this way: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me” (Matt. 25:35-36). And to make sure we don’t miss the point, he added, “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt. 25:45).

Throughout the Bible, the gift of God’s love and grace and mercy to us calls forth a response: that we love God with all our hearts and that we love others sincerely. But the simple truth is that it is always easier to “honor God with our lips, while our hearts are far from him,” as Isaiah could say elsewhere (Isa. 29:13). The kind of worship that God seeks from us involves devoting our whole hearts to God. And one of the ways we do that is by putting God’s justice into practice in how we treat the most vulnerable people in our world. Anything less amounts to a “charade.” And the only way to change that is to “cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isa. 1:16-17). That won’t happen overnight, and it won’t happen without making an effort to learn to align our hearts with God’s will so deeply that practicing God’s ways becomes like second nature to us. That’s what it takes to live authentically instead of putting on a “charade.”

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[1] © Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/11/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] See Exodus 22:21; 23:9; Leviticus 19:10, 33; 23:22; 24:22; Numbers 15:29; Deuteronomy 1:16; 24:17, 19, 21; 27:19; Jeremiah 7:6; 22:3; Ezekiel 22:7, 29; Zechariah 7:10; Malachi 3:5; James 1:27.

Truly Rich

“Truly Rich”

Luke 12:13-21[1]

I think it’s fair to say that we as a people are obsessed with our possessions. We continually occupy ourselves with getting more—a better computer, a nicer TV, a newer phone, just to mention a few of the “hotter” items on the market. Experts recognize that this consumption of consumer goods is the engine that drives our economy. And this isn’t just about “the one who finishes with the most toys wins.” It’s ingrained into much of our decision-making. In a society where we seek to secure our future by our own efforts, we are constantly calculating ways of ensuring that our account balances are heading upward. And for us, that just makes good sense. It’s hard not to think that our lives consist in “the abundance of possessions.”

Part of this is simply a matter of living in a market economy. But there are many aspects of the way we live in this economy that betray the power of wealth over us. For example, many of us play the lottery. We see it as essentially “free money.” But we fail to recognize the bigger picture: “jackpots” are filled with money from people who buy lottery tickets. And many of them cannot afford to be spending their money that way. So those who “win” get rich at the expense of others. The fact that we rarely stop to consider this bigger picture betrays the way our wealth can influence us to neglect the welfare of others.

In part, that’s one of the reasons that Jesus criticized the rich farmer in our parable from Luke’s Gospel for today. Again, we might think his actions were prudent. Who wouldn’t store up a bumper crop in order to wait to sell for a better price in a lean year? We would see that as simply “good business sense.” But Jesus rather bluntly calls it “greed.” In our world, planning for the future is essential, because we are all aware that there will come a day when we can no longer provide for ourselves. But seeking to secure our own future this way implies that we believe our lives consist in “the abundance of possessions.”

That’s what the farmer in this parable believed. He says to himself, “Self, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry” (Luke 12:19). This might sound like a good thing. Who among us doesn’t want to be able to retire comfortably?^[2] Who among us doesn’t worry at least a little about having “ample goods” to provide for our needs? Like the farmer in the parable, it would seem that many of us believe we can secure our own future through our wealth. And so we occupy ourselves, as he did, with storing up “ample goods” so that we can “relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”

In the parable, there is a background that plays a role here, but it may not be obvious. As in many of Jesus’ parables, the excessive wealth of some meant that others had to do without basic necessities. And one of the flaws in this farmer’s thinking is that he’s thinking all about himself, not about anybody else.^[3] Although he has a bumper crop, he’s obviously wealthy enough that he doesn’t even have to sell his crop to cover his expenses. More than that, given his extensive landholdings, hoarding his crop will very likely adversely affect the food supply of the many others who are his neighbors. But he’s obviously not even thinking about the welfare of these “neighbors.”

The real problem with this outlook on life is that it neglects the dangers of wealth that Jesus so often warns against. Seeking an “abundance of possessions” has a way of turning into hoarding everything we can get our hands on. Finding our security in our wealth can lead us to ignore the source of our true security. It can motivate us to “store up treasures for ourselves” but to ignore what it means to be “rich toward God.” In other settings, Jesus explains that true riches are those that cannot wear out or disappear. Being truly rich comes from knowing God’s unconditional love for us, and sharing that love with those around us.

Although some of us may disagree, in the Bible our faith affects our attitude towards our possessions. When we encounter God’s love in Jesus Christ, it’s supposed to change the way we live our lives. And Jesus makes it abundantly clear throughout the Gospels that this extends to what we do with our possessions. As he pointed out so clearly, we cannot “serve God and wealth” (Luke 16:13). I think at least a part of what he was trying to say to us is that our wealth has a way of mastering us if we’re not wise in the way we use it. That’s why St. Paul warns us that we must “put to death … greed (which is idolatry)” (Col. 3:5). Wealth has a way of going from a simple means of exchange to a golden calf that we serve in place of God.

I think most of us would hear Jesus’ warning, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (Luke 12:15) and think that applies to someone else, someone who is “really” rich. But in reality, it addresses us all with a choice as to which master we will serve. Choosing to serve “the abundance of our possessions” will rob us of the opportunity to be “truly rich.” When we become so consumed by our wealth that we ignore others, we are living in direct contradiction to the will of God. Being “truly rich” comes only as we find our lives in the new life that God offers us all.  It is a life of learning that becoming content with God’s love turns whatever we have into everything we could ever need. It is a life of loving God in return and therefore serving those around us in love—especially by sharing what we have with them.  Jesus calls this “being rich toward God” (Lk 12:21), or truly rich.

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[1] ©2019 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 8/4/2019 at Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.

[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “The Gospel of Luke,” New Interpreters Bible IX: 257: “the rich man’s vision of the future sounds uncomfortably like one that most of us have for our retirement years. Are we really planning prudently? What gives our life meaning now, and what will give it meaning then?”

[3] Cf. Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, 490-91.