What
connections do you hear today between the first reading and the gospel? What connections can you make between this
portion of Moses’ long sermon we call Deuteronomy with its focus on blessings and
curses, and that of Luke’s’ gospel with Jesus telling us to hate both family
and life as well as asking us to give up all our possessions?
As
you might imagine, this is one of the more difficult Sundays in which to make a
connection. The first time I read
through the lessons, I’m sure I made some comment wondering what the committee
was thinking when they paired these two readings together.
The
Israelites are about to cross over into the Promised Land and Moses comes down
on them with benedictions and maledictions, blessings and curses, warning them
that they will perish if they stray. Moses
advises his people to choose God so that they and their descendants may live
long in the land God is giving them. And
in the gospel lesson, we get Jesus telling a group of followers that they must
hate family members and life, they must count the cost of discipleship, and
they must be willing to give up all they have for the sake of the gospel.
And
therein lays the connection – counting the cost and making a daily choice to
follow God.
In
the lesson from Deuteronomy we hear the word “today” four times. In Deuteronomy as a whole, we hear that word
59 times; that’s just under twice as many times as its next closest
competitor. That’s significant. It’s significant because Moses (or whoever
wrote this) is reiterating God’s covenant with his people. He is reminding them that this is doable –
God’s commands are not beyond the people’s ability to understand and act on
them. Before crossing into the Promised
Land, they must decide who they will follow – God or self. They, and all readers of Deuteronomy, are
called to make that decision every day.
Today choose God.
Some
scholars believe that these later parts of Deuteronomy were written after the
Exile. I mention this because, if true,
we have a book that lays out a choice for those people standing on the border
of the Promised Land, as well as laying out a reminder of how previous
generations could have chosen better. These
later audiences were left to wonder, “Can we succeed when our parents failed?”
But
for everyone who reads Deuteronomy – the original audience, a later post-exilic
audience, or ourselves – these words stand out: This commandment today is not
too hard nor too far away. And that
choice to follow God’s commandment is made every day.
In
today’s gospel we are also asked to make choices. At this point in Luke’s gospel we are past
the point of no return. In other words,
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and can’t, or won’t, be turned aside. In today’s passage we hear that large crowds
have gathered around and are now traveling with him. It is to these newly formed followers that
Jesus addresses his comments.
It
seems these followers making up the crowds are new to the mission. They have heard of his miraculous works and
his debates with the Pharisees and other leaders, and they decide this is who
they want to side with. They see Jesus
as a winner and they want to be on the winning side. The problem is, though, that they have no
idea what being on the winning side entails.
In this case, being on the winning side ultimately means death by
crucifixion.
When
Jesus addresses the crowd, he is putting forth extreme, but realistic,
expectations on his would-be followers.
“You think you want to follow me?
This is what you must be prepared for.”
You
must be prepared to tell your family that I am more important than them. You must be prepared to stand in the face of
intense opposition. You must be prepared
to give up your very life for my sake.
At
last Wednesday’s Eucharist we commemorated Paul Jones, Episcopal bishop to the
missionary district of Utah. His
understanding of the gospel led him to oppose WWI and publically claim that war
is unchristian. Because of his anti-war
stance in the face of a pro-war majority, the House of Bishops forced him to
resign as bishop of Utah. He was
prepared to give up everything for the sake of a gospel that commands us to
love our neighbors and enemies.
If
you want to follow Jesus, you must be willing to carry the cross to Jerusalem.
Like
the man who wanted to build a tower, or a king faced with invaders, we must
count the cost and make a decision to follow Christ every day. What will it take to be a disciple? What must I give up? Am I willing to pay the price, make the
sacrifice or meet the demands of discipleship?
This
is what we must do every day, because every day presents us with new challenges
and new distractions. Every day we are
confronted with competing loyalties – family, friends, work, hobbies, or other
distractions. Every day we choose which
of these take precedence. And every day
we must realize that the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ must not only
take precedence, it must redefine all other aspects of our life.
With
that in mind, the connection and mandate of these two passages is clear: count
the cost of discipleship; redefine your priorities in light of the gospel;
choose this day to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, strength
and soul, and to love you neighbor as yourself.
Today
the gospel is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. And as always, the choice is yours.
Amen.
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4 comments:
Amen indeed. A different direction than the sermon here, but still a solid angle. (That's one of the awesome things about Episcopalians - there's so many different angles and approaches to Scripture, and none of them are seen as lesser. It's awesome.)
Mostly though I'm commenting because I just noticed something, and was wondering if you could clear it up. You title your sermon here "Proper 18C," which I assume means the Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost, because the bulletins here for today were titled "The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (18th Proper)," or something very like that, I may be misremembering slightly. We had two weeks that the rector was on vacation and we had a lay preacher rather than an ordained priest to give the homily, and therefore no Eucharist - is that why the count would be different?
(Er, sorry for the long-winded thing. Just curious.)
Thanks for your comment.
Let me see if I can give a succinct answer to your question (which is never certain when dealing with the calendar).
Your bulletins were titled correctly: today is the 16th Sunday after Pentecost, and the 18th Proper. We are in Year C, so today is Proper 18C.
The Sundays after Pentecost are numbered consecutively from, well, the first Sunday after Pentecost (which is also Trinity Sunday). Because Easter moves from year to year, Pentecost also moves from year to year, so the actual dates of the Sundays after Pentecost change.
The Sunday Propers, though, are always fixed around a particular day. So Proper 18 is the Sunday closest to September 7.
Regardless of what Sunday after Pentecost today would have been (14, 16, 15, 13), the Sunday closest to September 7 will always be Proper 18.
Hope that clears it up for you.
Ah! That does make sense - thank you muchly for the explanation. (I'm still a bit fuzzy on Sunday Propers, but I suspect looking at a pen-and-ink calendar will fix that one.)
...er, follow-up question, though, sorry. Why is this Year C?
To answer your second question, the Sunday Lectionary is divided up into a three-year cycle: A, B & C. Page 888 of the BCP tells you how to figure out which year, but I always found that to be complicated. So here's how I do it:
With the exception of Advent (and basically Christmas), take the year and divide it by three. If there is a remainder of 1, it's Year A; a remainder of 2, it's Year B; no remainder is Year C.
2013 is evenly divisible by 3, so we are in Year C. We will change to Year A on 1 Advent (Dec. 1 this year).
On a related note, the Daily Lectionary is a two-year cycle, Years 1 & 2. Again, except for Advent, if the year is odd, use Year 1; if the year is even, use Year 2.
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