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| "Moses Viewing the Promised" Land J. Tissot (French, 19th Cent) |
25Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and
said to them, 26“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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple. 28For 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? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is
not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not
able to finish.’ 31Or 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? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far
away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions. (Luke 14:25-33)
Whenever this Gospel lesson comes up I like to start with a standard disclaimer: The word “hate” in verse 26 doesn’t mean hate. My man Luke is writing in a first century Greek, a language that has a whole boatload of words to describe different types of love, but only one word for “not loving.[i]” In English we translate “not loving” as “hate,” but the real opposite of hate is actually indifference, don’t you think? Jesus is saying you’re not really a disciple if you care more about your stuff or financial gain or the opinion of people—even your family—than you care about following him. It’s still a pretty tough ask, but not as nasty as asking you to hate your mom or dad.
The good folks who composed our Revised Common Lectionary hooked up this Gospel lesson with a lesson from Moses (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Okay, it’s not really from Moses. The book of Deuteronomy[ii] was probably written around the eighth century BCE. This was centuries after the time of Moses—about eight hundred years give or take. The book was composed at a time of political crisis when the governments of Judah and Israel were seen to be corrupt and lots of folks were languishing in poverty. It seems the rulers were more into holding onto power and filling their own pockets than helping out the poor and destitute (Sound familiar?). Some unknown religious guys figured the Hebrew people really needed some reforms, so they cooked up this book and made Moses the hero. After all, what self-respecting member of God’s Chosen People would want to go against Moses? Their point was pretty clear: Love God, put God first, obey God’s commandments to love others, and you’ll save the nation. Keep being greedy, power-hungry slobs and the nation will perish (which it kind of did).
The problem I always have with the reading from Deuteronomy is that it almost sounds a bit superstitious. It’s like Moses is saying, “Hey! Obey the rules and everything will be groovy. Step out of line and God will squash you like a cockroach.” But I have to ask if it’s really that simple. I’ve said before that trying to influence God is not really religion. We don’t earn our way to paradise in the next world and good fortune in the present by what we do. It’s silly to see ourselves as appeasing an angry God.[iii] I think the lesson we should always take from this reading from Deuteronomy is a lesson more for society as a whole (but not wasted on American voters) then for us as individuals. Mercy, compassion, fairness, and justice work well for a nation. Greed, intolerance, domination, bigotry, and corruption don’t.
But for us as individuals these passages are still rather prickly. Moses tells us to do right and be rewarded, but what happens when we do right and get screwed anyway? Jesus talks about the cost of following him, which always makes me think of the great Lutheran martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his book The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer wrote this masterpiece of Christian theology in 1937 during the reign of Hitler and the Nazis. In it he argued that sacrifice was essential for the life of a Christian:
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| Dietrich Bonhoeffer |
“Cheap
grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap
grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus
Christ, living and incarnate.”
And
“Costly
grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of
forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because
it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him.”
Bonhoeffer put his money where his mouth was. He could’ve stayed in the US when the Nazis came to power, but he returned to Germany. He could’ve kept his mouth shut instead of speaking out against the abuses of that regime, but he openly preached confrontation. The result? His church was shut down by the police and he was officially prohibited from preaching, speaking publicly, or publishing. He could’ve just taken his punishment and kept quiet, but he joined the underground opposition, aided the Jews, and was imprisoned and ultimately hanged for his trouble. His discipleship cost him everything.
I certainly can’t promise that obedience to Christ will be a day at Disneyland. We all have to accept that, at some time or another, it’s going to cost us something.
As I muse (and I frequently muse) about the future of the ELCA, all I see is a metric ton of sacrifice ahead of us. We’re going to have ask ourselves if we love the Gospel more than we love our gorgeous church buildings with stained glass windows dedicated in memory of dead Lutherans. Are we ready to do away with organ music masses? With professional paid clergy? Can we part with the smug superiority that comes from preaching we’re going to Heaven and godless heathens aren’t? Are we willing to create new spaces based primarily on mission to neighbors who may not share our story?
There are two things we’ll have to embrace: First, there will be sacrifices we won’t want to make. Second, Christ promises us the sacrifices will be worth it.
Keep the faith, my friend. Thanks for reading.
[i]
The word in Greek is miseo (misew for you
Greek lovers out there!)
[ii]
Fun fact: The word “Deuteronomy” literally means Second Law. The Ten Commandments
appear in the book of Exodus, but the guys who wrote Deuteronomy really wanted
to put a contemporary spin on the Law of Moses. Sort of Ten Commandments 2.0.
[iii]
It’s also very un-Lutheran!
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