15 Pentecost Yr C

Hate is such a strong word. It’s a word we hate to use, unless we thrust it in anger, as a weapon to injure. I hate you is used to rip and tear at the one who struck first; it is used by the child to make a deep impression on the parent. Hate is a word that is banned in some households, and yet here it is, right in our bible, read loudly and clearly by (Virginia) (Marty). Whoever does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sister, yes-even life itself, cannot be my disciple. We may as well get up and leave now, because how many of us are willing to be disciples if this is what we must do? What in the world is Jesus saying?

At the very least Jesus is saying that being a disciple is not easy work. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple, Jesus says. What Jesus is saying is that sometimes you really do have to choose. You can’t have it both ways; you can’t be a disciple and expect the easy path. It’s about embracing a life that constantly and consistently chooses mercy and compassion. Jesus presents in this passage, similar to what we heard a few weeks back, the idea that the kingdom of God is about redefining relationships, it is a radical realignment of family and kinship, of possessions, power, and priority, and it is ultimately about stewardship.

This gospel is a challenge; it is about where God is calling us to, not where we’ve been on our own. It is about the present and future kingdom, the kingdom in which we are citizens, disciples, and what that needs to look like. Discipleship is about changing the way we see the world, and being changed by that radical realignment.

This gospel demands that we change our understanding of ownership and our attachment to things. It demands that we change our understanding of kinship, and it demands that we re-prioritize. The difficulty, the hard part of discipleship, is making this radically counter cultural choice, and turning from the cultural message of possession, of ownership, of prosperity, and of greed; to an understanding of stewardship. Stewardship is a biblical priority. Stewardship is who we are as Christian disciples; it is a way of being. Stewardship does not define any one dimension of the Christian life; it describes the whole of being Christian. It is based on Jesus presented in the New Testament not in the role of owner, but as the authentic and preeminent steward, the Great Steward. And we, who are incorporated into the life and work of the Great Steward have been given much, and our failure to give much in return is especially serious. Stewardship is a function of our relationship with God. Stewardship has to do with the ordering of our lives, it impacts how we set our priorities and how we spend our time.

These verses are so difficult, and others like it as well, because this radical realignment away from possessing and toward stewardship is so not valued in our culture. This is not about getting rid of everything we have; it is about putting what we have in its proper place. This is not about getting rid of our parents, our spouse, our siblings or our children, it is about priority. There are cultures today as there have been cultures throughout history that consider wives and children possessions. The 1st century Mediterranean culture in which the gospels arose was that way. You may chuckle at that today, but we have not moved very far away from that reality. We are not far beyond the language in marriage that asks who gives this woman to be married to this man? This is not a question of sentimentality; it is a question of possession. A woman is transferred from the possession of her father to the possession of her husband. And we often hear reference to our children belonging to us.

The false illusion of our culture lies even more clearly in our relationship with our things and our money. This is the relationship for us that needs to be radically realigned. This is the relationship that needs to have proper priority in our lives. All that we are and all that we have is gift. Taking that reality seriously causes us to realign our priorities. We begin to make our choices and decisions through mercy and compassion, instead of greed and prosperity.

But most importantly, the radical realignment of relationship and priority has everything to do with how the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, the Good News of the cross and resurrection, shapes every aspect of our lives and relationships. It has everything to do with our work and our school and our play. What you do with your work and your life is your discipleship, it is your ministry. How you let the reality of this relationship shape your labor is stewardship. Voters and volunteers, website managers and temp workers, bus drivers and barbers, students and secretaries, parents and payroll officers, ranchers and farmers, teachers and musicians, all of what you do, when you offer your time, talent, and labor to God, is bearing your cross by allowing the whole of your lives to be shaped by your commitment to Christ. That is amazing. What you do, how you arrange your priorities matters to God and makes a difference in the world.

I am imagining all of you our there, in this community, treating the people you work with, you go to school with, you play with, with mercy and compassion, with respect and dignity. I am imagining all of you out there in this community making a difference in your piece of the kingdom.

Amen