Sermon – Called to Discipleship – Luke 14:25-33

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Called to Discipleship – Luke 14:25-33
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Presbyterian Church
September 5, 2010

This morning I am beginning a series of sermons on the topic of calling. Our creator God calls us in many ways and we respond with prayer, worship, tithing, service, and study of scripture. So everything we do starts with God’s call. And today we will be looking at God’s call to discipleship and its cost. But before we get to all of the please pray with me.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

A week ago Saturday an extraordinary event happened in Washington DC. A radio and television talk show host, political commentator, comedian, and entertainer hosted a rally on the mall. Many people expected this to be a political rally, but this was not Glenn Beck’s purpose. Rather he organized the rally to call Americans back to God. Beck has assumed the
role of prophet for our nation. A prophet sees the reality of the situation a society faces and calls that society to return to God.

For too long America has refused to count the costs. States and localities thought they could provide excellent retirement benefit for police, fire and teachers without counting the cost. But now they find themselves unable to pay for both essential services and retirement benefits and they look to the federal government for a handout. Corporations thought that they could offer generous benefits to their union workers without counting the cost, but this has led some to bankruptcy and federal bailouts. And many individuals thought that they could acquire possessions without counting the cost and are now buried under a mountain of credit card debt and home mortgages that they cannot afford.

Even the federal government in Washington has failed to count the costs of wars, Social Security, Medicare, and other services and is faces with accelerating debt and the bleak prospect of depression if it squeezes all of the money out of the economy or inflation if it prints money it does not have.

Glenn Beck has seen all of this clearly and realizes that the solution for all of this lies not in the political process which has led us to this place. Rather the solution rests in our returning to God.

In the scripture that you hear earlier, Jeremiah 18:1-11, another prophet was speaking at another time, but the similarities to today are striking. The people and the government of Judah had indulged themselves for centuries without counting the costs. Their extravagance had finally caught up with them. There was no money left to care for the poor. This injustice was eating the society from the inside just as Assyria was threatening from the outside. Jeremiah was sent by God to call the people to discipleship and count the cost before it was too late.

Five hundred years after Jeremiah God sent another prophet to call the people to discipleship. In the first century BC, King Herod became envious of the great cities of the Roman Empire. He embarked on building programs without counting the cost. He built new cities, new palaces for himself and his family and greatly enlarged the temple in Jerusalem. But as costs increased he heavily taxed his people. The government failed in it responsibility to care for the poor and people became primarily concerned for their own families and their own possessions. People went further and further into debt. Then a prophet arrived and taught the people to pray to their God saying, “Forgive us our debts and we forgive our debtors.” Jesus saw all of this clearly and called the people of his day to discipleship. Listen to what Jesus said about discipleship and counting its cost.

Luke 14:25-33 25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

Jesus was calling people back to God. No longer were they to focus solely on their families, their lives and their possessions. No longer were they to fail to count the cost. Rather they were called to be disciples of God and this required following God's lead at whatever the cost regardless of what happens to families and lives and possessions.

This is a hard message for us in twenty-first century America. We have become used to not counting the costs. We have assumed that everything is free. Consider the church. Someone else will pay for it. Someone else will volunteer. Someone else will pay for our salvation with his life. We enjoy the worship and Bible study but a debt is piling up. We have ignored the cost of being a disciple of God for too long and now the debt is quite high. What are we going to do about it? I am going to suggest four ways we can pay the costs of becoming disciples of God.

The first way we could pay this cost is self denial. Self denial is not the same thing as engaging in self destructive practices. I don’t want you to start drinking alcohol or having sex outside of marriage. Rather self denial is a gift from God that frees us from the deadly poison of love of self. Self denial is a release from selfishness. Maybe you don't need that new car this year. Maybe that vacation should be put off for a little while. With this gift of self denial we are free to love God and our neighbors as much as we love ourselves.

The second way of paying the cost of becoming a disciple of God is cross bearing. Cross bearing is the part of the gift of self denial that allows us to bear suffering. Cross bearing means that we obey God even if it leads to our own suffering of pain and loss. The image of Christ on the Cross helps our imagination to give us patience in bearing pain. We experience cross bearing in a hospital room with a loved one or at a visitation in a funeral home. Cross bearing helps us to heal from the diseases and injuries we suffer, provides punishment and correction for the mistakes we have made, and comforts us when persecuted knowing that Christ is with us in injustice.

In addition to self denial and cross bearing there is also the third way we can bear the cost of becoming a disciple, meditation on eternal life. Meditation on eternal life invites to contemplate the mystery and share in the wonder of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Meditation on eternal life brings us to greater faith which will divide families and communities because radical faith in our risen Lord forces us to make a commitment that surpassed the commitment we have made to our families and to our communities. Sometimes our families and neighbors won't understand our commitment to Christ and and church. We must always remember that anything we might lose when making our commitment to Christ pales in comparison to the rich rewards awaiting us in heaven.

When we contemplate on self denial, cross bearing, and meditation on eternal life we arrive at the fourth way of paying the cost of becoming a disciple, proper use of God’s gifts in our lives. The Bible teaches us that God has given us many blessings for our needs and our delights and we are to use these blessings in the proper way. We should live simple lives balancing undue severity and excessive indulgence. Calvin gave us four rules for living simple lives. First, we should indulge ourselves as little as possible. Second, if we have limited resources we should do without those things patiently. Third, we must remember that everything has been given to us as accountable stewards. And finally, in everything we do we look to our calling from God.

Today as we face rising household and government debt, growing unemployment, and falling stock markets and real estate values we must remember that we are called as disciples of God. We are called to deny ourselves by stopping our practice of assuming that someone else will pay for our needs and desires. We are called to love God and our neighbors even more than ourselves. We are called to face suffering honestly. We are called to faithful stewardship of God’s creation. We are called to use God’s gifts appropriately. Our response to these calls is the cost we pay for discipleship.

Lord Jesus, we follow you as disciples. Prepare us for what this commitment means. Prepared our families and friends to understand our greater commitment to you.
Bless us with self denial, cross bearing, meditation on eternal life and proper use of God's gifts which are the costs of being disciples. And we pray that these gifts of discipleship will pour down on America so that our nation will turn to you. Amen.