September 5, 2010 Cycle C Revised!
Wisdom 9:13-18 Philemon 9:10,12-17 Luke 14:25-33
At the pearly gates St. Peter greeted a priest and a congressman and gave them their room assignments. “Father, here are the keys to one of our nicest efficiency units,” Peter said with a smile. “And for you Mr. Congressman here are the keys to our finest penthouse suite.”
Well, the priest did not want to appear disappointed but the look on his face gave it away. So St. Peter took him aside and said, “Listen Father, Priests are a dime a dozen up here, but this is the first Congressman we’ve ever seen.”
Then there’s the story about a monastery in Europe perched high on a cliff, hundreds of feet in the air. And the only way to reach the monastery was to be suspended in a basket that was pulled to the top by several monks who tugged with all their strength.
Obviously the ride up the steep cliff in the basket was terrifying him. About half way up one tourist became nervous when he noticed that the rope was old and frayed.
With a trembling voice he asked the monk with him in the basket how often do they change the rope? The monk thought for a moment and answered, “Whenever it breaks.”
As I gave my opening introduction today you immediately and unconsciously suspended judgment. You knew right off that I was not speaking factually, or literally. After all, speaking about the pearly gates and the priest and the congressman, or a monk and a tourist, hardly sounded like something coming from our scriptures today. You knew you were in some kind of story land and not newspaper land. We all enjoy a story as we wait for the punch line
Well, you got something like that going on in the Gospel today. A Gospel that startlingly has a loving Jesus preaching hate as He announces to the crowd following Him: unless they hate their parents and family they can’t be counted on as His disciples. What kind of talk is that? It is like the tourist in the basket with the monk. You see it’s ancient nonliteral Semitic talk. It’s the kind of exaggeration, or hyperbole that a first century Jew would use to press a deeper point like “If your eye is a source of scandal, pluck it out; your hand, cut it off.” So what is precisely the deeper point? It is repeatedly made by Jesus here and there in the Gospels. Jesus uses words to tell us that we must make choices in establishing our priorities. Commitment to Christ will involve putting Him first in all our relationships.
Life experience teaches us that one important choice often excludes others. For example: to marry means to put husband or wife before parents. Or, to allow our children their freedom as adults means not keeping them dependent on us. Or, a decision for a single lifestyle means foregoing marriage. But no matter what our human relationships, Jesus says, “Christians have to yield first place to Him.”
We know how we can get into trouble by neglecting to read the small print on documents like our guarantees, the book or CD Club memberships, or advertisements for apparently wonderful bargains. Jesus wants us to be quite sure that we understand the “small print” of the Gospel demands on His disciples.
There are three conditions that disciples must be clear about:
The first is to prefer intimacy with Jesus to all other intimacies.
The second is to accept the Cross. Not only that of the ordinary painful suffering that is part of being human, becoming sick and dying, but also the Cross of the persecution, ridicule and conflict that may come with discipleship. And the third condition is to surrender possessions and possessiveness. To impress all of this on the hearers and the importance of these conditions and teachings, Jesus then gives two parables about two possible fools - one at work and the other at war.
The first foolish man is a landowner who decides to build a tower, probably a watchtower, on his property. He is a captive of his wild, momentary enthusiasms. He wants the tower, “so, let there be tower!” But he has no finances to raise anything on the foundations and is ridiculed by the onlookers who scoff at his lack of foresight and planning.
The other man is the king who engages in the serious business of war. He would be a fool not to weigh the possibilities of succeeding with a smaller army than his opponent and try to negotiate for peace, rather than engage in war. As builder and king, both the men are people of some substance, so to fail in what they set out to do will be cause of great shame.
In today’s Gospel with its exaggerated talk of hating one’s family and renouncing possessions, we need to understand that underneath this teaching it’s about commitment, observing priorities, and allegiance. You see the bottom line challenge to this is “what is the cost to us of being a Christian? Has our fidelity to the Gospel ever cost us money, reputation, the possibility of advancement, property, and even family harmony?
The Gospel message today is about cost. Does being a Christian cost us anything? Looking back over the past week or month to examine your life you might ask “Was there anytime when you felt you had to pay a price, even a small one, for being a Christian?” Think about it. Then pray at this Eucharist that we each will be up to the challenge.
Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor Christ the King