BuiltWithNOF

Readings (click here for full text of the readings):
   Deuteronomy 30:15-20, Psalm 1, Philemon 1-20, Luke 14:25-33
 

I.       Intro

    A.  I have to admit: with all due respect to a fellow physician and all, I’m getting a little tired of Luke

      1.    There’s some great parts to his gospel – and I could really use the Prodigal Son right now – but we’re in a rough patch

    B.  And when I read today’s reading, I found myself wondering:

      1.    Was Jesus in a bad mood that day? 

      2.    Or was Luke in a bad mood when he wrote it down?

    C.  The idea that Jesus was trying to get across is pretty clear – different gospels take it to different lengths

      1.    Matthew: more than

        “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.”

      2.    Mark: leave

        “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age ... and in the age to come eternal life.”

      3.    Luke: hate

        “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.”

    D.  And how do we reconcile all this with the 5th Commandment?

      “Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

      1.    Well, if honor just means “obey” …

      2.    Then I have a lot of adolescent patients who are living out the Bible really well

        a)    They obey their parents to get what they want

        b)    But “hate” might be a good word for what they feel in their hearts sometimes

II.    So what are we supposed to do with this seeming contradiction?

    A.  Pick the one we like – mostly 5th Commandment, with a little Matthew thrown in

    B.  Try to write off what Jesus said: not “hate”

      1.    Matthew uses the same word for the exact opposite of agape

      2.    Luke uses the same word later when Jesus says to the disciples:

        “You will be hated by all because of my name.”

      3.    It means turn away from, forsake

    C.  Say that it’s outdated, impractical unfair

      1.    Seems a little too easy – picking and choosing

III.  Let’s imagine what that life would look like, if we really heeded Jesus’ words

    A.  Everything would be about God

    B.  If we weren’t married or parents, we wouldn’t get married or have children

      1.    Which is what St. Paul said was best for us, anyway

    C.  We would look at all that we have – our talents, our resources, our possessions – as tools for God’s use

      1.    Exactly what Jesus said at the end

        “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

    D.  Every moment of every day would be devoted to doing God’s will, with not a single thought to our happiness or well-being

IV.You know what that sounds like: a religious fanatic

    A.  We hear that term a lot nowadays

      1.    Usually not about Christians

        a)    About Jews in the occupied territories

        b)    About Muslims pretty much everywhere

          (1)  Suicide bombers and terrorists

      2.    It’s always negative

        a)    Classic religious fanatic: Osama bin Laden

      3.    A religious fanatic is

        a)    Willing to give up everything that we value in life

          (1)  Family
          (2)  Children
          (3)  Creature comforts

        b)    They pray all the time

          (1)  They talk about their faith all the time
          (2)  They make us a little uncomfortable, because they make us feel like we should be that devoted, too

          c)     Most of all – willing to die for their beliefs, if that’s what it takes

          d)    But ..

            (1)  But wasn’t Martin Luther King, Jr., a religious fanatic?
            (2)  Wasn’t Saint Paul?
            (3)  And most of all, wasn’t Jesus?

    B.  Another way of saying what Jesus said in today’s reading is this: “I want you to be a religious fanatic.”

      1.    I want you to turn your back on everything else.

      2.    Nothing else should matter; only serving God.

    C.  But we recoil from that, because fanatics end up killing people.

      1.    The problem with most religious fanatics, as we think of them, isn’t that they’re fanatics, but what they’re fanatical about.

        a)    This past week in Russia there were three female suicide bombers

          (1)  2 of them brought down airplanes
          (2)  One blew herself up in a crowded street

      b)    These were senseless acts of violence, and God was not a part of any of them

      c)     But no one can doubt that these women believed deeply in something

        (1)  Believed in it so wholeheartedly that they were willing to die for it

      2.    We must weep for the innocent people who died in those attacks

        a)    We must pity the women who were so misled into believing that God wanted them to do that

        b)    We must rage against those who led them to think that way

        c)     But we must also see their ultimate sacrifice, and ask ourselves: What are we willing to die for?

V.    

    A.  Because we can go on and on about God being all about love and hope and salvation, but if people who misunderstand God are willing to do anything, and we’re only willing to do some things, what does that say?

      1.    We cannot criticize others for being fanatical, because that’s exactly what Christ called us to be.

      2.    We must, however, show people what we’re supposed to be fanatical about, and set an example.

    B.  Jesus didn’t mince words, no matter how much we wish he had

      1.    Give everything you have to the poor

      2.    Think of others as better than yourself

      3.    Forgive people no matter how many times they hurt you

      4.    Pick up your cross daily and follow me

    C.  Yet we treat our faith as a hobby, as a sideline

      1.    A nice adjunct to our lives

        a)    I have family

        b)    I have a job

        c)     I have some hobbies

        d)    I should have a church, too

      2.    The thing I do on Sunday morning

        a)    Just for an hour, or perhaps a little longer

        b)    Every once in a while the rest of the week

      3.    I treat Jesus as somebody I can make time for on Sunday mornings, but the rest of the week He’ll have to have His people call my people, and they’ll work out a time for us to get together

    D.  Jesus, though, demands to be at the center of everything

      1.    Nothing can be more important than me, He says

        a)    Not family

        b)    Not job

        c)     Not country

        d)    Not money

      2.    He’s not saying this to be bossy, or demanding

        a)    He’s just speaking the truth

        b)    Bonhoeffer

          “We are separated from one another by an unbridgeable gulf of otherness and strangeness which resists all our attempts to overcome it by means of natural association or emotional or spiritual union.  There is no way from one person to another.  However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, however frank and open our behavior, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him.  That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer, offered in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship.”

VI.We are at war

    A.  Leaders of nations talk that way, in an age of terrorism

    B.  Some Christians in this country talk that way, too

      1.    A war between people of faith and atheists

    C.  I agree that we’re at war, but it’s not between people who believe in God and those who don’t

      1.    It’s between people who believe in God, and it’s for the very name of God itself

        a)    Does God command us to kill innocent people in His name?

        b)    Does God love people of a certain race, or gender, or ethnicity, or sexual orientation more than everybody else?

        c)     Is wealth a sign of God’s blessing, or is the fact that millions die of hunger and starvation every day while others dine in luxury break God’s heart, and convict us of our own greed and sinfulness?

        d)    Is the essence of a Godly life piety and church attendance, or is it the kind of life-altering self-sacrifice that Jesus taught, which asks us to be give up everything we have in order to follow Him?

          In the end, it is a matter of life and death.  And to be true to the gospel of life that Jesus taught, we have to give up not only what we can do without, but also give up what we need, if others need it more. We have to forgive the unforgivable. We have to become religious fanatics, seeking the gospel of Jesus Christ above all else.  We have to be willing to die in the name of God, for others who claim to speak in God’s name are willing to die themselves.  In other words, we have to be willing to take up our Cross and follow Jesus all the way, no matter where that leads us, even to death, trusting in God all the way.

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