The cost of discipleship

23rd Sunday “C” September 4, 2022 Luke 14, 25-33 Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Wow! Did Jesus really say that? “Hate” This is awfully harsh and Isn’t Jesus all about love. This weekend I am also preaching in Spanish. Let’s see what the Spanish says, “Si alguno quiere seguirme y no me prefiere a su padre y a su madre, a su esposa y a sus hijos, a sus hermanos y a sus hermanas, más aún, a sí mismo, no puede ser mi discípulo.” Prefiere, I can handle prefiere. I prefer chocolate Ice cream, but I don’t hate Vanilla. I still take it. Prefers! If anyone comes to me and doesn’t prefer me to his father and mother. I can handle that. But if Harsh is too strong, prefer is probably too weak. What Jesus is saying quite simply is that the following of Jesus means the surrender of one’s entire life. No one, no thing, no body can come between you and Jesus. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, Jesus has to be first in your life. Jesus is inviting us to be his disciples and like an architect building a tower or a King going off to war Jesus wants you to know the cost of discipleship. He doesn’t want us to begin following him and then we quit. He wants us to know up front the cost of discipleship. Jesus is telling us to get our values straight. We have to put him first; we have to renounce our possessions and we have to pick up our crosses. Then we can follow Jesus. 1. Jesus doesn’t want us to hate anyone. In fact, we know that Jesus wants us to love everyone. Not just our parents and your spouse or your children. Jesus wants us to love everyone. But… the love of God must be first in our lives. I firmly believe that if you do love God first you will be loving your family. You will love your mom and dad; you will love your spouse; you will love your kids and you will even love your neighbor who gets on your nerves. You might even be able to love the person who voted differently than you. But that I won’t promise you. Look at the great example in today’s second reading. Paul tells of his deep love for Onesimus, no longer a slave but a son or a brother. Paul was able to love Onesimus so deeply because he loved God first. He challenges Philemon to do the same. To love his former slave as a brother in Christ. 2. “Renounce all your possessions.” If you are in love with material things above all else, then renounce them. Get rid of them. If your car, or house your job, or for some it might be their bank book or IRA is the most important thing in your life, then you had better get rid of them. God has to come first in your life, everything else has to come second. Jesus isn’t that you have to get rid of everything to follow him. He isn’t saying that you should give away your house and live on the street. What he is saying is that if there is anything that separates you from him, you have to let go of it. Rosa Pope shared with me this quote from Pope Gregory the Great. “Help us have earthly things for our use, not as objects of desire.” 3. Carry your cross. Why are we supposed to carry a cross? We can’t pretend that suffering isn’t a part of our lives. There is real pain in life, we all suffer. The first reading from Wisdom reminds us of that fact when the author reminds us that we can never really understand God’s will for us. The truth is that we will all suffer in some way during our life. Accepting our crosses joins us with Jesus. When we accept our Crosses, we can go out of ourselves to help others carry their cross as well. The first reading from Wisdom asks to search for the answer to the problems here on earth. What is discipleship about? It is about being humble, loving others putting them first and loving God above all things. If we are willing to put God first, eliminate anything between you and God and If you are willing to carry your cross then you are ready to be Jesus’ disciple. And I am pretty sure that if we ask, Jesus will help us to carry our crosses as well.