Luke 14:25-33
Now large crowds were traveling with him; 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.”
This bit about building a tower you can’t finish had me Googling “failed business ventures” this week to find a contemporary comparison for Jesus’ example. It may not be completely fair, but I found a list of well-known, previously successful businesses that bit the dust in the last 15-20 years. I wondered if maybe their owners/CEOs/Boards of Directors, or whatever, failed to sit down to see whether they could finish or build on what they had started.
Blockbuster Video, of course, got creamed by the digital streaming industry. Places like Toy’s R Us and Border’s Books couldn’t possibly keep up with the convenience and efficiency of Amazon. Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey’s Circus succumbed to pressure from animal rights organizations. I don’t know what happened to Dress Barn exactly – do you remember Dress Barn? – but I remember my sister-in-law joking once about refusing to buy her clothes in a barn, which does seem like pretty bad marketing when you think about it.
And more seriously, I thought about Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine when I read that other example Jesus uses about a king who wages war against another king without sitting down and considering just exactly what he might be getting himself into. Putin may have done the math enough to believe he had the numbers to win the war. But he couldn’t have accounted for the immeasurable, intangible will and spirit and resilience of the Ukrainian people – or the support of the rest of the world they inspired – to resist his attacks and defend themselves for as long as they have.
But what do my examples – or the examples of Jesus – have to do with the rest of what he’s trying to preach and teach to the crowds this morning? I suspect many of them were asking the same thing.
For me, this is a “be careful what you ask for” moment between Jesus and whoever’s paying attention to him. These are “fair warning” words from Jesus. All of this sounds like a “don’t say I never warned you,” “cover your behind” sort of proclamation, to me. And Jesus doesn’t seem happy about it.
Because just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard about him in the synagogue arguing with the powers that be who were trying to keep him from healing sick people.
Last week he was at the dinner banquet where people were pride-fully, selfishly Boss-Hogging the best seats at the party.
Right before what we just heard, he tells a parable about a bunch of knuckleheads who get invited to another important banquet but who make all sorts of excuses about what they would/could/should be doing instead. And now he’s out and about in the world again, being followed around by God-knows-who … crowds of hangers-on, it seems … looking to get a piece of whatever they believe he has to offer them.
And you get the impression that he’s over it. That he’s had enough. That he’s less than impressed with the willingness or ability or intentions of those who follow him to really follow him; to fully grasp what this discipleship means; to truly wrap their heads and their hearts and their lives around what the new life of God’s grace might do for them – and do to them – if they were to really, truly, fully receive it – and let it have its way with them.
And I think there’s a message for the 21st Century church in all of this, too. And a message for each of us as wannabe disciples of Jesus – faithful followers – just the same. And yes, it’s about money. After all Jesus says we can’t be his disciples if we don’t give up our possessions. Sacrificing our things and our stuff and our money is part and parcel of what it means to follow Jesus. But it’s not all or only about our money and our things and our stuff.
When I was reading about those companies that failed … those big businesses who couldn’t survive … those institutions that are no more…. The thing their respective downfalls all have in common was their failure to innovate; their inability to adapt to the needs of the world around them; their neglect of the desires and longings of the people they hoped would avail themselves of their services.
Netflix was more like Blockbuster in the beginning – renting DVDs through the mail, remember. But Netflix upped their game with the whole streaming thing while Blockbuster kept doing what they always did … and died trying.
Stores like Toys ‘R’ Us and Borders were just unable to offer the same affordable convenience that Amazon could.
I guess Ringling Brothers and Barnham and Bailey’s Circus just hoped people would never find out or care enough about the treatment of the animals it requires to make a circus a circus.
And Dress Barn? Who knows what a simple name change or a more flattering marketing plan might have done for their success and longevity.
So, I think Jesus might be inviting us to think differently, more practically, more shrewdly and simply, even, about what we’re up to as his disciples and as part of God’s Church in the world.
Yes, and again, it is about money. We can’t do what we want and need to do as God’s church in the world without the financial means to do it. But more importantly, the faithful practice of giving our money and our things and our stuff away is about the faithful practice of doing with less; of sacrificing for the sake of something bigger than ourselves; of doing without so that others might have what they need; of practicing generosity for the sake of generosity; of giving back with gratitude what has first been given to us; and of acknowledging our excess and standing in solidarity with the poor.
But, again, while our relationship with our wealth is paramount to Jesus, it’s not all or only about money.
It’s also about innovating and expanding our reach – we’ve done that in the last few years, thanks to the COVID crisis, by going online with our worship, giving, and other ministry options around here.
It’s about paying attention to, being vocal about, and addressing the needs of the world around us. Who’s hungry? Who’s hurting? Who’s being left out of circles of faith? How do we as individuals and as a congregation find them, listen to them, and bring them into our fold?
It’s also about not doing what we’ve always done, just because that’s the way we’ve always done it. Tradition for the sake of tradition is the most dangerous elephant in every church sanctuary this morning and something we should avoid at all costs, if you ask me.
And none of this is about surviving as an institution, just for the sake of surviving as an institution. It’s about following Jesus. It’s about seeking, receiving and celebrating God’s love for us to the extent that it’s not about us any longer. That’s the innovation Jesus calls us to. That’s the cost he warns us about and invites us to count on, to consider, and to plan for – if we want to get serious about this discipleship thing.
The evolution and innovation of our faith as followers of Jesus is about allowing all of this to cease being about us – to stop following Jesus around to see what we can get out of it, but to follow Jesus until our faith is about humbly and generously loving and serving the other.
It’s about being the body of Christ. It’s about changing the world with the kind of grace and mercy, love and hope he came to share. It’s about letting the fullness of the grace we claim for ourselves change us … utterly … to such a degree that the world around us is different and better and blessed and more like the Kingdom of God, because we are a part of it and because we share it – without shame, without reservation, without limits – in his name.
Amen
