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HOLY
HYPERBOLE! THE REV. JOHN E. KITAGAWA ____ WELCOME SUNDAY THE FIFTEENTH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST ____ JEREMIAH 18: 1-11 PHILEMON 1-21 LUKE 14: 25-33
P.O. VOICE: 520-299-6421 FAX: 520-299-0712 E-MAIL: WEB SITE: WWW.STPHILIPSTUCSON.ORG |
O.K.
You have heard what Jesus said about discipleship. In order to be his disciple, you have to
give up all your possessions. So,
later, when the ushers pass the baskets around, drop in your wallets, your
money clips, your checkbooks and purses; do not hold back your jewelry and
your car keys. The parish office will
be open for extended hours this week so you can drop off the deeds to your
houses, boats, real estate and any other property you own. If you remember the 1960’s Batman TV show,
you can imagine the boy crusader, Robin, saying, “Holy Hyperbole!” In fact, Biblical scholars tell us people
in Jesus’ time and culture were given to hyperbole to make their points. Hyperbole or not, there is no denying Jesus
is talking about the costs of discipleship.
He is telling us to forsake anyone or anything that gets in the way of
making and living-out a full commitment to discipleship. Referring to this passage as “holy
hyperbole” takes off some of the edge.
But, deep in our gut, we know that Jesus was not grandstanding for
attention. So, we need to discern what
Jesus had in mind. He was making a
serious point, and outlining some of the terms of the discipleship
covenant. I want to spend a few minutes on this
Biblical concept of covenant because it is fundamental to our faith, and
because you will hear the word, covenant, quite a bit this Fall. Let us reflect on aspects of the
discipleship covenant. Jesus first
asks us to forsake our most cherished relationships (14: 26). Given the
cultural norms of his community, this would seem unreasonably demanding. On the other side of the equation, however,
when we follow Jesus, we gain a new family, grounded in its love for Jesus
and his love for it—a new family that thrives on the mutual love of members,
and their shared commitment to Christ’s mission in the world. In this Lucan
passage, Jesus is up front about the possibility we will be called to give up
one’s life—“to bear our crosses” (14: 27).
On the other hand, as in Philemon’s story about Onesimus,
God’s love in Christ frees us in ways we can neither expect or imagine. The relationship between discipleship and
possessions is an ongoing gospel theme, especially in Luke, [1]. In today’s text, Jesus asks us to forsake
our material possessions (Luke 14: 33).
On the other hand, weigh the significance of the requested sacrifice
against the perspective expressed in Psalm 19 (7-11): The
law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul; the
testimony of the Lord is sure and gives wisdom to the innocent. The
statues of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart; the
commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes. The
fear of the Lord is clean and endures for ever; the
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More
to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold, sweeter
[by] far than honey, than honey in the comb. By
them also is your servant enlightened; and
in keeping them there is great reward. Sure, one can moan and groan at the
demands of today’s Gospel. Or, we can
see the passage “is about … clarity …”
…
not about misery or about some incredibly dreadful price that one must pay to
be Jesus’ [disciple]. … The point is simply that unless we clearly
see the superiority of what we receive as his [disciples] over other things
that might be valued, we cannot succeed in our discipleship[2]. The demands of the
discipleship covenant “are great and call for radical changes in our
lives. But the promises are likewise
great, and the blessings eternal”[3]. I want to connect the discipleship
covenant with the slogan, “Maintenance To Mission”, or its abbreviated form,
“M2M.” Some misconstrue M2M to mean we
will no longer perform the necessary maintenance of our treasured facilities. In truth, “we believe our communal treasures:
art, architecture and gardens are a gift from God that
provide a place of safety and beauty—a sanctuary—for all to experience God.”[4] M2M is a call to refocus on the Great
Commission to baptize and make disciples, and on the Great Commandment to
love one another as Christ loved us.
The call to the transformation from Maintenance To Mission does not
come in a vacuum. The context is a world, a nation, a state, a city, and a
community desperately in need of the healing, transforming and reconciling
work of God through us. The essential
difference between the Maintenance model and the Mission model is that the
first maintains the status quo, and
the latter forms disciples engaged in
transforming the lives of individuals and the wider community. |
A Maintenance centered church ministers primarily
to those already in the fold. A Mission
oriented church sees itself on the front line of God’s penetration and
transformation of the world.
I began this sermon by calling attention to
what Jesus says about our individual or family material resources. The lessons about focus and priorities
equally apply to our communal resources.
If we are serious about M2M, we have to talk about mobilizing all of St. Philip’s resources
for the mission and ministry God sends us into the world to do. To that end, on behalf of the Vestry, I
invite you to discuss the stewardship of our financial resources at the 10:15
am forum on Sunday, 23 September 2007.
In my view, there is a creative tension between two approaches to the
stewardship of our community’s financial resources. At one end of the continuum are those who
would freely spend the resources at hand, arguing that we could do a lot to
grow and develop this community of faith, and to have a greater impact
on the lives of the poor and dispossessed in our community. At the other end of the spectrum are those
who would have us guard and protect the resources we have at hand, arguing that
spending down these funds will result in the demise of the parish. As currently constituted, the Vestry has
taken a middle position, attempting to support ministry without spending down
resources too quickly. My goal is to
place the Forum discussion about fiduciary and financial responsibility into
the context of the Maintenance to Mission process. To date, the discussion has principally been
within the Vestry, its Finance and Budget Committees, with reports to you, the
congregation. In order to have the
broadest possible discussion, the Executive Committee of the Vestry has invited
our significant partner, the Board of the Preservation and Endowment
Foundation, to join us in these important Forum discussions.
I do not want to create the impression that
our most significant resources are financial.
As a community of faith, we have two greater resources. The first is our faith. The second is you—not just some of you, not
just a select few, not just the most active amongst us—no, all of you, and each
of you. I know, I know. The idea of being a disciple is challenging
and daunting, perhaps intimidating when one reads passages like today’s
Gospel. Be of good courage. You are not alone. This parish is full of people ready, willing
and able to be companions on the journey.
You do not have to be spiritually stuck. You are blessed with
opportunities to be touched by the love of God, and to grow into “the full
stature of Christ”[5], whether
through the healing ministries of our Pastoral Care team, or through the
growing, exciting and diverse Christian Formation offerings and opportunities
for people of all ages. Our diverse
worship services offer other ways to experience the power of God to touch, mark
and bless our lives. All this is meant
to strengthen you as disciples, and to help you transition from a Maintenance
Model to a Missionary Model. The current
issue of Loaves & Fishes contains references to Bishop Claude Payne’s book,
Reclaiming the Great Commission. Here are two comparisons he makes between the
role of the laity in the Maintenance Model versus
the Mission Model. In the Maintenance Model,
he labels your primary role as “churchgoers”.
In the Missionary Model, he refers “disciples making disciples”. He refers to other roles in the Maintenance
Model as “volunteers”. He describes
other roles in the Missionary Model as “living examples of the power of the
Christian life; service to others through ministries; providers of pastoral
care; communicators of the missionary vision”[6].
I have thrown a lot of conceptual stuff at
you this morning, and too often we think of discipleship on too grand a
scale. So, let me call to mind a verse
of an African American spiritual:
If
you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can tell the
love of Jesus, and say, “He died for all”[7].
And, noting St. Francis’
injunction “to preach the Gospel always, use words if you have to”, let
me share an illustrative
story, taken from a recent Christian
Century magazine[8].
The
other day I got on the bus … At the next
stop I watched as an elderly white woman boarded and wasn’t sure about how to use
her transit card. She inserted it upside
down, then backward. While the other
passengers became increasingly distressed by the delay, the driver, a very
pleasant African-American woman, patiently explained how to use the card. “Here, honey, let me do it for you,” she
said, leaning out of her seat, one hand on the wheel.
The
woman finally walked toward a seat but then turned back. “Are you sure you took only one fare from my
card” she asked the driver. “I heard it
beep twice.” “Yes, I’m sure,” the driver
answered. “But I heard it beep twice, it
took two fares.” “No, honey; it only
took one fare. It always beeps twice.” “How do you know?” “Here, let me show you. Come on up here and look at the
indicator. There it is, your one
fare.” By this time the stoplight had
cycled from red to green twice. Finally
we were under way.
At
the [next stop] a man in a motorized chair pulled the chord. He was frail, and one could see the tubes
from the oxygen tank. “I’m on my way to
the V.A. hospital and I’m going to need some help,” he announced. Again the driver responded graciously. She helped him negotiate his motorized chair
to the door … and then activated the lift.
The
process took a long time. You could
sense the tension and impatience of the people on the bus. The stoplight cycled a few more times and
motorists honked. The driver, unfazed,
remained infinitely patient. She was a
note of grace on that busy urban thoroughfare.
As I got off the bus, I thanked her for her kindness. “just doing my job,” she said. “You have a blessed day now, honey.”[9]
May you allow the potter to shape you. May you learn to get your priorities straight
and let go of everything that keeps you from focusing on God’s call to
discipleship. May you be a note of grace
and a reflection of God’s love today and everyday. May you be a blessing to those you encounter
this day and everyday. Then you will be
blessed in ways you cannot anticipate or expect.
AMEN.