Counting the Cost

Luke 14:25-33
There is a cost to discipleship, as with anything else.

We are in the middle of some major (and minor) repairs and remodeling on our house.  We had to completely replace our porch roof so that we could minimize damage on our foundation and have a porch on which to sit.  We had to replace our waste stack from basement to upstairs guest bathroom, so that we did not have a flood of water in our basement when the tub, toilet or sink were used.  It meant tearing out a couple walls, one of which is in our kitchen.  We had to have a gas line replaced, which meant tearing out basement ceiling.  I tore out an old bar in the basement and we are making it family room space, which has taken no small amount of effort.  Since the kitchen wall is torn out, we decided that now is the time to remodel the kitchen, which is a small space, but which will be re-done from ceiling to floor next month.  We will be paying for this for a while, but it is part of the cost of living in a home.  We knew (some) of that coming into it, and we believe it will be worth it.

I remember Pastor (PhD) Schein telling us in New Testament Theology in Seminary, "You put down your money, you make your choice, and then you live with it."  It was regarding this lesson from Luke.  If we are going to follow Jesus in our lives, there will be a price to pay.  It means leaving behind the ways of life that are not of the Christ and living by a different set of values and rules.  It means obedience to Jesus' command to love (Agape) neighbor as self, even as He loved.  While some try to claim the name of Jesus and still walk in Empire, rather than Kingdom values and live by Empire rules rather than Jesus' "Golden" rule, others find it all just too hard, refuse to be so duplicitous and walk away.  It would seem that very few are willing to be salt and light, or strive to become salt and light in the world as Jesus' followers.  For the few, there is a cost that some find too much to pay.  It means going against the tide or marching to the beat of a different drummer, and that most often leads us to the Cross.

We put down our money and made our choice in the 2016 election, as a nation.  Whether out of adolescent acting out, true greed or blatant bigotry, some voted for a candidate very much more unlike the Christ and His values than the other.  OK, empire values were apparent in both, but certainly not to the same degree.  Now we all must live with it.  Some have become emboldened by their adolescent tantrum and its results, and are now escalating their demands to be recognized above the rest.  Some have become emboldened by the blatant bigoted expressions of our "president" and are now speaking and acting on their own, openly.  Some are taking advantage of the loss of government protections of the most vulnerable through de-regulation and are striving to "make a killing" at the expense of the rest of us.  Many or most people (women, LGBTQ, immigrants, black and brown sisters and brothers, the poor, the middle class, the disabled, the elderly, people not of a fundamentalist "christian" faith, civilians across the world in war zones, other economies) are paying the price for what the nation has done and what it is becoming, here and across the world.  None of it looks like the Agape that Jesus commanded or the Kingdom values that Jesus taught.  Very little of it looks even like Democracy anymore. 

The cost of discipleship is to fly in the face of empire values, speak out, demonstrate, write, refuse to participate, resist and vote differently - to not be compliant through all of that.  Yes, in doing so it will put us at odds with some folk who either are compliant or are complicit in the direction that the nation has chosen.  Yes, it may mean a loss socially, economically and at times emotionally.  Yes, it may even mean going to the Cross.  That is the cost of discipleship (see Bonhoeffer).  Now is the time to "put down your money and make your choice."  Now is the time to stand with the most vulnerable and those held down, back and out, even those oppressed and occupied by empire.  Now is the time to live Kingdom of God values as defined by Jesus in Agape Love, as we have that in the Gospels.  Now is the time to follow Jesus.  When others would follow "every wind of doctrine" and live like "their god is the belly", we must know who we follow and why.  "Put down your money, make your choice and then live with it."

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."  We will follow Jesus, for His way is a better way for the world.  His way is the Just Way, the Loving Way, the Way of Shalom.  His way is sustainable.  Empires fall.  This one will, too.  In the end, the question will not be how much wealth, power or status we had in life, but "how did we treat our neighbor(s)?"  Follow Jesus' Way of Agape Love and Grace.  It will lead you to the Cross, but it will also take you (and your neighbor) beyond it.

Pastor Jamie