Proper 18

Preparation

    Please begin by reading Luke 14:25-33 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Getting Kicked Out of the Nest

    There are words from Jesus that comfort me. There are words from Jesus that reassure me. There are words from Jesus that give me great hope. These words from Luke 14 are definitely not those words. These are words that make me extremely uncomfortable. They conjure up visions of the scene depicted in the fifth chapter of the Old Testament book of Daniel where these words appeared on the walls of the palace of King Belshazzar, written by the hand of God: “You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.”

    Many times Jesus calls to people “follow me.” We can imagine him saying those words to us. And in truth he does, day in and day out. It is easy to romantically picture ourselves saying “yes” without questions, without reservations.

    But this message from Jesus is a warning to people with such romantic notions. Before you say yes, make sure that you are really know what you are doing. Like a person who sets out to construct a building or a ruler getting ready for war, make sure you know what you are getting in to. Make sure that you have planned and prepared. Make sure that you are willing to do what is necessary to get the job done — because this business of following Jesus is not something you begin but do not finish. Be prepared to give up all your possessions, if it comes to that. Be prepared to be separated from friends and family, if it comes to that. Be prepared to give up life itself, if it comes to that.

    The potential losses Jesus describes might certainly be unpleasant, but they do not strike terror in my heart. God has graciously provided for me more generously that I could have ever imagined years ago. But I have lived modestly before and I could again. I have friends and family I hold dear, but I know from experience that should following Jesus cost me those relationships it is highly probable that God would provide even richer relationships.

    It is not even failure that I fear. I know that God is faithful. I know from the lives of others and even from my own past experience that when we do say yes and set out firmly following Jesus that God is able to accomplish truly amazing things; amazing things within us and amazing things in the world through us.

    What I fear the most right now is the deadly attraction of inertia. I keep holding back, living out each day in my comfortable existence, unwilling to be stretched and challenged. I do not know why that is. Experience tells me that when I invite Jesus to stretch and challenge me and I take on the discomfort needed to get to the next level life always takes on new richness.

    But once again, here I am stuck in my rut. And it is from that place that the words in today’s text from Luke’s gospel make me very uncomfortable. Perhaps they make you very uncomfortable too.

    But then I don’t doubt that Jesus meant for them to make us uncomfortable. Hannah Whitall Smith, a nineteenth century evangelist and reformer, provided this apt illustration. “The mother eagle teaches her little ones to fly by making their nest so uncomfortable that they are forced to leave it and commit themselves to the unknown world of air outside. And just so does our God to us.”

    So, with some fear and trembling, perhaps you and I should pray for God to make our own particular nests uncomfortable; so uncomfortable that we spread our wings and follow Jesus into the fresh pure air of service and growth that will made a difference in the world.

revclay

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Luke 14:25-33

   Now large crowds were traveling with [Jesus]; and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

    “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’

    “Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” [NRSV]