July 1, 2001
|
|
|
|
July 1, 2001 Gospel Luke 9:51-62 Consider your Call, Count the Cost. "Consider your call" was the theme at the Minneapolis Synod Assembly this year and it is a proper headline for the Gospel for today. At the Call Committee meeting a while ago there were some comments on how one of the candidates presented himself: "He does not sell himself very well". This was certainly true for that particular person. This is certainly true for Jesus and how he responds to three people who asked if they could become his disciples. To the first man he said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." The meaning is while the animals have their places I do not belong to any place. This does not mean that Jesus was homeless and that he did not want to have a pillow. He actually had his home in Capernaum. But he had himself given up home and family life and dedicated himself to traveling around, he was always on his walk. From his answer we learn how he considered himself a stranger and consequently he can not promise his followers a quiet and relaxed life. To follow Him does not secure material and social safety. Jesus obviously did not sell himself very well. But he was very honest. Sometimes I think that we may have done some harm to people by letting them think that to be a Christian and to obtain church membership need not make so very much difference. Is that honest? Christianity proclaims God’s love and the salvation as a merciful gift. But the Gospel also strongly underlines the need of personal response which we must make to Jesus Christ and commit ourselves to his church. Jesus never concealed the fact that in His religion there is a demand as well as an offer. Indeed, the demand is as total as the offer is free. "Before you follow me, count the cost" Jesus said. In Sweden many people cancel their church-membership because they have to pay too much after the Church separated from the State last year. Last Monday I told 106 people from Sogn about how much you as members of Mindekirken have to offer every Sunday to run the church, and they were very amazed. Pay the cost! Not only money, but in many different ways. Christian faith does promise a big income, "I have come in order that you might have life - life in all its fullness" Jesus said. (John 10:10b) But there is some out pay and expense as well, not only dollars, but something else and something deeper in our life. We are called to forsake something and to forsake our self, our egoism and selfishness. Christ offers mankind his salvation, and at the same time he demands our submission. We ought to remind ourselves and to tell people that to follow Jesus should make all the difference in the world. We may receive the greatest gift, and at the same time we are committed to the greatest mission. If we do some people would not join, but many would be really committed to Christ. Jesus’ words to the second person sound hard. The man said to Jesus, "First let me go and bury my Father". The meaning is, I want to follow you, but for the time being I want to stay with my family and wait until after my father has died. Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and tell abroad the news of the Kingdom of God". The claim of Jesus is total. Make no compromise. And to the third man who wanted first to say farewell to those at home Jesus said," No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God". This is true. No plowman ever plowed a strait furrow looking back over his shoulder. There are some people whose hearts are in the past. They walk forever looking backward and thinking of the good old days. But instead we have to face the future. Consider your call! I think we should learn from this about priority. There is always a crucial moment in life and if that moment is missed the thing most likely will never be done at all. If we put it off until tomorrow, it will maybe not be done at all. What young people postpone because they hope for a better opportunity as adult, it often does not happen. This we learn from psychology. And from life experience we learn that many young people did not follow the call, they wanted to come back to it later, but they never did. Jesus wants to tell us how important it is to make the good choices right now. He urges us to act when our hearts are stirred. Today is more important than tomorrow. To follow me is more important than to stay with your family. The Gospel says that it may be good to be single, it may be good for pastors and people that occupy special calls, but in spite of this Jesus does approve marriage as God’s will and he does not require us to break off from family life. Still we are challenged to obey the commandment and to honor our father and mother and we are obligated to do our best as citizens. Our call today implies that we as Christians live not outside but inside home and family and that we do our secular job as well as possible. The responds of Jesus seems to be brutal, but they need not be so. I think they are rooted in love and care. This saying of Jesus is an example of how to understand what Jesus also said , " Be concerned above everything else with the Kingdom of God and with what he requires of you, and he will provide you with all these other things". Matt 6:33 Amen
|
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |