MCC St. Louis - Check Us Out!
Get your own, Free HomepageIt's pretty interesting what it says here on the package, though. "Safety and Security. No more stumbling through darkness." "Reassuring. Keeps children company throughout the night." Also, it's "sensible and efficient." Well...now that's Jesus! There is a word of caution, though: Warning! May cause shock! Well, Jesus does have a way of doing that! And in all capital letters: "NOT A TOY." Now that's for sure: when you start messing with Jesus, it's best to take it seriously... because He's not just kidding around!
Jesus, actually, wants us to know exactly what we're getting into when we choose to make Him the "light" of our lives! And, although Halloween is purely a secular diversion that has nothing to do with our spiritual lives really, it does seem like the perfect day to tell you that, when it comes to following Jesus...when it comes to being a disciple...well, Jesus "don't want no freaks or zombies." Let me explain.
After the massacre/suicide of about 1,000 people in Jonestown, Guyana, Russell Baker, a columnist for The New York Times wrote an article in which he compared freaks to zombies. He defined a freak as a person who turned individuality into social excess. The freak is all hyped up about something but they become solely focused on doing their own thing and what starts as strong interest and enthusiasm soon turns into self- involvement and near lunacy! You may have heard the expression "Jesus freak." That's pretty much along the same lines as being a sports fanatic or a shop-aholic...only religion becomes the obsession instead of watching sports or spending money. But its still an obsession.
The zombie, on the other hand, has sacrificed his or her individuality and his or her mind to a master who demands and receives total and unquestioned obedience. In some popular cults, individual thought is labeled as "a tool of Satan." David Koresh was able to lay claim to that kind of unblinking devotion from the members of his Branch Davidian group in Waco, Texas. Most ofthem were willing to kill and be killed in the name of their leader/messiah, and we all know about their tragic end. Zombies have no will oftheir own; their will is manipulated by the one they claim as their master.
But, you see, according to Jesus, there is no place among His disciples for freaks or zombies. Christ seeks our obedience but it is certainly not unthinking devotion. There's no place for wild and impulsive obsession in the Realm of God and neither does Christ seek to obliterate our will. To the contrary: Jesus urges those who follow Him to first weigh the cost carefully. That's what our Scripture reading this morning from the Gospel of Luke is all about.
The Scripture starts out "Large crowds followed Jesus." As He went around preaching and teaching and healing, by this point in His ministry, Jesus has started to attract quite a crowd of followers and curiosity seekers. Many of them had come along looking for an easy path to happiness. Just prior to this reading we heard todagr from the 14th chapter of Luke, we can find Jesus telling the crowds the story of the Great Banquet that Rev. Bumgardner referenced last week. Remember? It was a story about the incredible, gracious character of God...a God who invites even the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind to the great eternal banquet table. Now all these people have heard the invitation, and they're excited to know that they can be included in God's realm. And that's wonderful.
But Jesus also doesn't want them to get the wrong idea; in today's reading He was trying to give the crowds a more realistic understanding of what it means to be His disciple. He tells them that discipleship will require them to (1) count the cost and (2) set priorities for their lives. This particular reading says some hard things. It says a disciple must "turn your back" on loved ones, self and possessions. Some translations actually say, "Any one who comes after me must HATE" family, self and possessions. Now this is an instance where a little Biblical scholarship is important.
Jesus often used a kind of "figure of speech" called hvperbole. That's when you use an exaggeration in order to achieve an effect or make a strong point. That was a common communication technique in ancient Eastern languages. We still do that today: We say, "Oh, I've got to hurry! I'm late and my boss is gonna kill me!" Now here's hoping that's an exaggeration!
Jesus never, ever called anyone to, as we think of it today, "HATE" anyone or anything...least of all ourselves. Let's be really clear about that! What he means is that nothing in our lives can mean more to us than God...than Jesus...if we are to truly be disciples. He's talking about the necessity of placing God first and getting our priorities in order.
This teaching applies as much to us today--to you and to me --as it did to those crowds traveling along after Jesus in the first century. We, here, have been given the Good News that we are all invited and welcomed to the Great Banquet Table of God, too! "Just as I am..." we sang a few minutes ago. Only we sang a new version: "This love I've found has broken every barrier down!"
But we also sang, "You've called me onto Holy Ground. O Christ of God, I come, I come." And if that's true...if we accept the invitation, then we, too, are being warned to count the cost and examine our priorities...because the opportunity to follow Christ may be given freely...but, believe me, doing it ain't cheap! We might think of someone who is a "freak" about something diving in without worry or consideration of what that commitment will mean. That's not what Jesus asks of us; we are told to "count the cost."
Not long ago, here in St. Louis, hundreds, maybe thousands, of people came forward to "give their lives to Jesus" during the appearances of the Rev. Billy Graham. And that's fine. But the reality is that all those people are not really going to grow into disciples of Jesus. Sometimes people respond to the emotion of the moment without really "counting the cost."
Another good example of this is something that's been going on this past week in my parent's church in a small town in Alabama. They've been having this little attraction known as "Judgement House." Instead of a Halloween "haunted house" this is a "house" that you walk through and, like a "haunted house," you go from room to room seeing different "scenes." But in this case, the scenes are the "bad" things a person might do in their life and, in the final room ofthe house, you see that person screaming and writhing in the torments of hell...and you're given the very clear warning: "Come to Jesus or this will be you!"
The idea behind this "Judgement House," supposedly, is to "invite" people into a relationship with Christ! Somewhat I guess the way you might "invite" someone to give you their wallet using a .357 magnum!! And no doubt, in a moment of fear and desperation, a lot of folks will "be saved," as they call it.
But you know what? Discipleship doesn't work that way! It's not something you commit to on the basis of either an emotional high or an impulsive moment of fear. A real commitment to Christ requires a mature decision. It requires a dedication of reason...and emotion...and will to an on-going process of giving over our lives to Christ, step by step, day by day. Jesus wanted His followers in the days of His earthly ministry to consider carefully what discipleship meant. Christ asks no less of us today.
"Counting the cost" is not something many people seem to do very well. Credit card debt in this country has reached record levels. People are often unwilling to postpone gratification and so get themselves caught in paying exorbitant interest rates. They dig themselves deeper and deeper into debt since, many times, they can't even really afford to pay the interest rate much less the original expense! (And believe me...that's not a judgement, just an observation. I spent most of my thirties paying off the fun I had in my twenties!)
Groups and governments are often no better than individuals at "counting the cost." In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, a four-lane highway leads...to nowhere. It dead ends in the middle of some farm land with no connection to anything. A bypass around Ft. Wayne, Indiana, was held up for a number of months because a connecting road couldn't be built. It was finally opened with an interchange at that location, but the exit ramps go nowhere but out into a field. No one had calculated the costs for those roads and so they sit idle and unfinished. Sometimes people's personal spiritualjourneys end up like that. Started with great enthusiasm, then eventually left abandoned, leading to nowhere.
As much as we must "count the cost" in our personal lives, if we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must also do that as a church. It would be easy to get excited about every possible ministry idea...to start new things all the time and do everything anyone suggests in a moment of inspiration but what kind of a leader would I be if I let that happen? This church doesn't need to have a "freak" leading you into implosion from overload! We all must carefully "count the cost" of what we do here if we are to be effective disciples for Christ.
And that means, as a church and as individuals, setting particular priorities in our lives. We're not called to be zombies, mindlessly going through the motions that some master forces us to, whether that "master" is religion or work or partner or material desires; we are to think and reason and make careful choices about what our priorities are going to be.
Sometimes people can let things really get out of whack. The founder of McDonald's was once quoted as saying, "I speak of faith in McDonald's as if it were a religion. I believe in God, family and McDonald's - and in the office that order is reversed." I don't know about you but I don't really care to have a mental image of Jesus saying, "You want fries with that?"
If our whole life is meant to reflect our active discipleship, then that's going to involve making certain choices. For example, there's how we spend our time. With the average adult American working longer hours and, in addition, watching an average of twenty-five hours of television a week, time has become our most precious commodity. Yet it takes time to cultivate a life of discipleship. We need - all of us, myself very much included - to develop regular patterns of prayer, study and reflection that become an integral part of our schedules. In addition, we need to learn to use the gaps in our day for reflection and prayer: driving to work (just remember you don't have to close your eyes to pray!), waiting in line, at lunch, before going to sleep at night and so on. If we are going to be serious disciples of Jesus, then we must choose what the priorities in our lives will be.
Again...we also have to choose our priorities as a church. As the pastor ofthis church, I have two spiritualjourneys for which I am accountable to God: my own and this church's. During the past year and a half or so, we've placed a high priority on getting more people into our church...on growing in numbers. And we've done well. Numerical growth is a wonderful thing. I hope it continues. But it cannot be the only thing...or the most important thing. Numbers for the sake of numbers cannot be our top priority if we are to be the group of disciples I believe we are called to be.
That's why, as we begin not just a new year but a new century, we are going to make a conscious shift in our focus toward two things: (1) strengthening the infra-structure of the church through staffing and programs so that we can truly care for and serve the people who come here and (2) working on the development of deeper personal discipleship through prayer and study, service and giving.
The Scripture says, "Large crowds gathered around Jesus." Jesus then told those crowds what real discipleship was all about. Jesus is telling us the same things: count the cost and set your priorities because no one who places anything before their relationship with God and serving God can truly be Christ's disciple.
A relationship with God...being a disciple of Jesus...these things are a process - a life-long process. No freak's ecstatic zeal will last for the whole journey. No zombie's mindless following will overcome the challenges along the way. This thing called "living in Christ" is no short-lived costume party...it's a way of life, every day of life...it's the way TO life and it's the greatest life we could ever know. Amen.
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