Taking Stock – sermon on September 4, 2016
Luke 14: 25-33 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and spoke to them. He said,“Anyone who comes to me must hate their father and mother. They must hate their wife and children. They must hate their brothers and sisters. And they must hate even their own life. Unless they do this, they can’t be my disciple. Whoever doesn’t carry their cross and follow me can’t be my disciple.
Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you sit down first and figure out how much it will cost? Then you will see whether you have enough money to finish it. Suppose you start building and are not able to finish. Then everyone who sees what you have done will laugh at you. They will say, ‘This person started to build but wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. And suppose he has 10,000 men, while the other has 20,000 coming against him. Won’t he first sit down and think about whether he can win? And suppose he decides he can’t win. Then he will send some men to ask how peace can be made. He will do this while the other king is still far away. In the same way, you must give up everything you have. Those of you who don’t cannot be my disciple.”
Sermon: Taking Stock by Rev. Doreen Oughton
My niece and nephew spent about 10 months in Australia this past year. They quit their jobs and flew to Sydney. Got an apartment and some under the table work, and soaked up the culture. In the spring my nephew decided he wanted to visit the wilds of Australia – the Outback. He had his small backpack and his walking shoes, hopped on a train and was off. He said that people on the train were shocked to hear he planned on hiking through the Outback with his meager supplies. They pretty much told him he couldn’t do it. He needed good sturdy boots, and the supplies one would need could never fit in such a tiny backpack. He tried to prove them wrong, but really struggled. He had to return and get more supplies and better boots, and didn’t stay out as long as he’d hoped.
In our gospel passage this morning, Jesus takes note of the crowds traveling with him. Like the Australians on the train advising my nephew, he tells them what it takes to be a true disciple. They must be willing to let go – let go of father and mother, sister and brother, spouse and child, even let go of their very lives. Without this willingness to let go, they will never make it. Then he gives some examples of when people would take stock before beginning a project – a building project or a war.
Much of the commentary on this passage focused on how we, like the disciples, need to take stock of our readiness for discipleship. Have we let go of parents, spouse, children, even protection of our lives? But I wonder if Jesus was also taking stock of his supplies. Did he have the resources to go forward with his mission? Were there enough people who understood his goal and would carry on when necessary, no matter the personal costs to them? Which of course leads to the question of what Jesus’ mission was. What do you think? Some will say that he came to die for our sins, but if that was the only thing, what else would he need besides his own willingness? Why would he need disciples at all?
What has Jesus said about his mission? Back in chapter 4 of Luke’s gospel, Jesus declared, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. God has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” In Mark’s gospel he declares, “The time has come – the kindom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” So it seems clear to me that his mission was to proclaim the good news of God’s love and mercy as far and wide as possible. He would die in the process, and the message needed to continue to be carried. Who, among all those traveling with him, understood the good news, believed the good news, had repented enough to proclaim the kindom?
As we read through the gospels, the answer is not very heartening. The twelve and other close followers miss the point so often, try to talk Jesus out of his plan to go to Jerusalem where he would be in mortal danger, talk about taking positions of honor at his right and his left when the kindom comes, when Rome is overthrown. Jesus gets very frustrated with them at times.
In order for Jesus to be prepared to carry out his mission, he needed to prepare his disciples. And yes, he asks them to take stock. Little by little he tells them what his mission is, and what they will need to be ready for it. There were certain worldly ideas and values that would get in their way. One was attachment to family, to safety. How would this be a problem? I wonder. As it turned out, many of the disciples stepped up. After the resurrection, and with the anointing by the Holy Spirit, they did carry on with the mission, they did surrender everything to go about proclaiming the good news. More and more people believed and repented, and the kindom drew nearer.
I wonder what the mission is now for disciples of Jesus. Christianity has spread to all parts of the world and is thriving in places that have lived under oppression – China, Nepal, Latin America, Africa. But here in the US, in Canada and Europe, it is fading. Churches are closing, attendance dwindling. But perhaps keeping butts in the pews is not what our mission is meant to be. Could it be that our mission is still the same as it was for the early disciples, who had no church building, who didn’t focus at all on how many programs they had, or whether the roof was leaking? Perhaps it is still all about proclaiming the good news to the poor, the captives, the oppressed. What would it mean to take stock with that as our mission? What worldly ideas and values do we need to let go of to succeed at this mission?
It’s interesting that in the examples Jesus used about taking stock to see if one is ready to proceed, he seems to be discouraging people from moving forward if they are not prepared. He tells the followers that indeed they can not be his disciples if they do not hate their families and their very lives. He talks about the half-built tower drawing ridicule, or the king sending a peace brigade instead of a war brigade. But Jesus went ahead with his mission, even though he must have wondered about who was really with him. He didn’t give up. He didn’t settle for a lesser goal. He set about preparing his disciples, continuing to teach them, encouraging them, giving them chances to go out and heal and teach and cast out demons on their own.
Taking stock is an incredibly valuable exercise – not just around discipleship, but around any goal or mission. What is going on inside of you? What patterns of behavior, what fears, what character traits are in there? If you don’t like what you find, you can change, but you can’t change if you don’t even know what is there. In the 12-step recovery programs, step four is understood to be very important. If the mission is to live life sober and free from addiction, a person has to understand what is inside. After building a spiritual foundation with steps 1, 2 & 3, one is asked to make a “searching and fearless moral inventory.” Only by knowing oneself can one begin to change. How are we equipped or not for the mission of discipleship? Have we built a solid enough spiritual foundation to start really taking stock? Can we ask what gets in the way of our making God’s love and justice real in this world? Does our attachment to family enhance our commitment to God, or get in the way? Does our attachment to our security, to our lives get in the way? What would be different about our service to God if we were able to let go of those things? What would it take to be able to let go of those things? I don’t have the answers, but I pray the questions inspire you to take stock. May it be so.
