September 8, 2019 – The 13th
Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 18C
© 2019 Evan D. Garner
It’s passages like this
one, when Jesus seems to be setting the bar for his followers unattainably
high, that make me think that it’s a shame that Jesus never learned what we say
here every Sunday: “Whoever you are and wherever you are on your pilgrimage of
faith, you are welcome in this place, and you are welcome at God’s table.” He
probably could have doubled or even tripled his number of followers if he had stopped
talking about the requirement that his disciples give up all of their
possessions and, instead, let anyone and everyone follow him.
For too much of Christian
history, the church has placed its emphasis on conforming before communing and believing
before belonging. People who don’t go to St. Paul’s stop me around town to tell
me how much it means to them that we welcome everyone. Quoting our invitation
to the table, they want me to know that, even though they aren’t part of our
church and often identify as atheists, it matters to them that a church like
ours—an icon of established religion—cares more about breaking down historic
barriers than erecting more hurdles to keep people out. Many of you have told
me that those words of invitation have been transformative in your lives—that
you never expected to hear someone tell you that you belonged at God’s table
and that you never would have bothered going to this or any church had you not
heard it.
And that makes me wonder
why more churches haven’t figured it out. Surely they care about hospitality.
Surely they recognize the spiritual, gospel value in declaring that anyone and
everyone is welcome at God’s table. Why, then, do so many churches insist on
putting doctrinal barbed-wire around the altar and guarding the gate to keep
away outsiders? Maybe it’s because they worry that a universal welcome will
hide Communion’s universal cost.
Luke tells us that large
crowds were travelling with Jesus, and, almost as if to scare them off, Jesus
turned to them and said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father, mother,
wife, children, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Wonderful pep
talk, huh? What does Jesus mean? And why does Jesus say these words to the
people who were following him? I presume that some element of hyperbole was
involved—Jesus was known to exaggerate to make a point—but there also must be
an element of truth to these words. What is it? Jesus wants his would-be
disciples to know that following him is a costly endeavor, and, more than that,
that being his disciple will cost them everything they have—especially the
things they hold most dear.
Why? Because you can’t be
a disciple of Jesus and carry on with life as you’ve always known it. You can’t
be a student of the reign of God—a participant in what God is doing in the
world through Jesus Christ—and hang onto the people and possessions you enjoy.
If you’re a citizen in God’s kingdom, those things don’t belong to you anymore.
Not even your own life belongs to you anymore.
Jesus came to enact God’s
great reordering of society, and nothing is left outside of that
transformation. In him, the lost are found, the broken are made whole, and the
poor become rich, but those aren’t hypothetical, metaphorical changes. Just as
the incarnation is a real moment in human history, so, too, is God’s work of
turning the world on its head a movement with real, tangible, financial,
relational consequences. The lifting up of the downtrodden requires the pulling
down of the haughty. The celebration of the vulnerable involves the humiliation
of the strong. Being a disciple of Jesus means being a student of that kind of
transformation, and that’s the kind of transformation that you can’t give part
of yourself to. You’re either all in or all out.
In this gospel lesson, it
feels like Jesus is looking back at the crowd and saying to them, longingly and
lovingly, “I want all of you to be my followers, but you need to know what that
is going to cost you. It’s going to cost you everything—even your own life. If
you want to be my disciples, you have to be willing to let go not only of
everything you have but even the concept of possession itself. If you belong to
me, nothing will belong to you anymore. Be sure that’s what you want. Count the
cost. I’m on my way to Jerusalem, and the fate that awaits me there will catch
you up, too. Don’t come any further unless you’re sure you’re willing to give
up everything you have.”
Maybe that’s what we need
to say every week when we invite people to the table: whoever you are and
wherever you are on your spiritual pilgrimage, you are welcome in this place,
and you are welcome at God’s table, but be careful because coming to this table
will cost you everything. No matter who you are or what you believe, you
already belong to God. Of course, God is beckoning you to come and find your
place at God’s table. But, when you accept that invitation, you invite the
transformation that God is undertaking in the world to take place in your life
as well.
In spiritual terms, we
believe that those who receive the Body of Christ become the Body of Christ. We
who gather at the table, therefore, assemble not only as members of God’s
family but also as members of Christ’s body. And that means that we are the
ones in whom and through whom the work that Jesus came to do continues to be
accomplished. We come to be fed, to be nourished, and to be strengthened, but
we also come to be re-membered, to be re-assembled, and to be re-constituted as
the Body of Christ. Anyone and everyone is welcome to come. You don’t need to
be a saint, and you can bring your doubts with you. But it is a mistake to
think that you can come to the table and not be changed. How can you partake of
the Body of Christ without taking part in the Body of Christ?
Today is our Ministry
Fair. Almost all of the programs and opportunities for service we have are
represented in the parish hall. If you want to give some of your time and
energy to doing good and godly work in this community, go and sign up. It’s
important work, and we need you, and it’s absolutely worth it. But, if you want
to be a part of something even bigger and you’re willing to give your whole
life—all that you have and all that you are—to the transformation God envisions
for the world in the gospel of Jesus Christ—then this is the invitation for
you.
Whoever you are and
wherever you are on your pilgrimage of faith, God is inviting you to lose
yourself in the life-giving work that God is doing in the world. If you want
Jesus’ vision for the world to be your vision for the world, then this is the
place where you can find it and give yourself to it. But be careful: it will
cost you everything.
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