Wednesday, September 4, 2019

It's Going to Cost You (Reflections on Pentecost 13, Year C)

Image result for images of st. paul and onesimus
St. Paul and Onesimus
“Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26)

Well ain’t that a kick in the butt! The above quote is from the Gospel lesson assigned in the Revised Common Lectionary for Pentecost 13, Year C (Luke 14: 25-33). I don’t think I’m going to be preaching that lesson at my late mass on September 8, as we’re including in the celebration the wedding of two members of our church’s Praise Team. I can’t quite send them off on their married life together with Jesus telling them they have to hate each other in order to be disciples, now can I?

I will, however, preach this gospel at my early mass. No wedding vows at that one, but we will be having a baptism so this lesson is pretty appropriate. In this section of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is talking about the cost of discipleship. When I use that phrase “cost of discipleship,” I always think of the great Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer[i] who sacrificed his life to help rid the world of Hitler and his myrmidons. Bonhoeffer knew that following Jesus meant paying a price. Being baptized as a Christian won’t cost anything at Faith Lutheran of Philadelphia because salvation is the free gift of God’s grace. Being a disciple, however, means giving up everything you have. I really hope the parents of the little girl getting baptized this Sunday know what they’re getting their daughter in for!

First, however, let me digress (and I do so love to digress) and take a little bit of the nastiness out of the quote at the top of this post. Yes, it is true that Jesus is challenging us to “hate” our family members[ii]. You need to know that the word used in the Greek New Testament which we translate as “hate” is misew  (or “miseo” if you don’t read Greek). It can mean “despise,” but it can also mean to disregard or be indifferent to something or someone. The Greeks just didn’t have a word to express a big, fat “whatever.”

Still, disregarding your family is a pretty serious matter. It’s not something nice people do. But in New Testament times, choosing to be a follower of Jesus could mean that your folks would turn on you or kick you out of the clan. For us—even though it may not mean giving our lives like Dietrich Bonhoeffer—it can mean making a painful choice to confront someone or call them out on their destructive behavior and risk getting shut out of the group. It may mean practicing some tough love, quitting a job, dropping a friendship, or even leaving a club, neighborhood, political party, or a church because you recognize that what’s going on there isn’t something you can square up with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It can mean swallowing some pride, asking or granting some forgiveness, or parting with some cash you’d much rather hold onto because someone else needs it more than you. Following Jesus is going to cost you. If it doesn’t, you may not be doing it right.

The smart guys who cook up the Revised Common Lectionary have chosen to marry this Gospel lesson with Saint Paul’s epistle to Philemon. If you read this little letter, you’ll see that Paul is writing to a slaveholder named Philemon whose slave, Onesimus, has run away and is now hanging out with Paul in some jail somewhere (Paul got himself arrested a lot!). Both Philemon and Onesimus are Christians, but it’s pretty clear that they’re not getting along. You don’t run away from someone who treats you well, and you don’t take kindly to someone who is supposed to work for you taking off without your permission.

(Yes, slavery is a terrible thing. Onesimus may have been a captive or he may have been a bound servant, one who was forced to work to pay off a debt. The letter doesn’t tell us. We can only assume that Paul takes no issue with involuntary servitude because it was something that existed in his day and he never thought there was anything to do about it.[iii])

What we learn from this letter is that Paul has convinced Onesimus to forgive Philemon and return to him. This must’ve been a pretty hard sell to get a slave to go back to his master, but Onesimus is willing to pay the cost of being Christ’s disciple and will forgive the wrong done to him. Paul’s purpose in writing the letter is to get Philemon to forgive Onesimus, and to receive him as an equal (v.16). This is a costly thing for Philemon’s ego, but discipleship demands that there is no distinction among us. Paul himself is willing to pay the price by promising to either pay back anything Onesimus took from his master (if that be the case) or, perhaps, to pay off his debt and buy his freedom (vv.18-19). Each man has to give up something in order to be a brother in Christ to the others.

That’s one cost of baptism right there—the recognition that God has no grandchildren. All of us are his children, all equally loved and precious in his eyes. My baptism has made me no more holy or special than the baptism I’ll preside over for this lovely little girl this coming Sunday. For the thing which must drown in the waters of the font is our selfish sense of pride.

I’m glad you checked in on me this week. May God bless you ‘til we meet again!



[i] Bonhoeffer’s most famous book is called The Cost of Discipleship. He wrote it in 1937 when the Nazis controlled Germany, but it is still in print today. You can get it at Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
[ii] For some people, this may not be much of a challenge.
[iii] Rather like Walmart. I don’t like it, but it looks like it’s here to stay.

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