Today I was reminded of why Gospel Texts like this one are called the ''hard sayings" of Jesus. The last couple of Sundays we have had some healing words and therapeutic remarks from the Prince of Peace; we’ve heard stories about empowerment and justice: remember the image of the bent-over woman straightening up and praising the Lord? But, this is divisive, almost belligerent -- and a little confusing.
This is the kind of text I look at and say, “Why this, God? What else do you want me to do, Jesus, bleed for you?
What is the meaning of this passage for us today? It’s Labor Day 2010; 2 years into the worst financial meltdown in history. We are still suffering. People are still out there looking for a paycheck. Many people have been frustrated over and over again, and are anxious with anticipation.
Well, I want to tell you about how we can be a part of the solution. But first let’s look at the Gospel passage.
For most of us, this passage is foreign. It’s almost like we don’t believe it. This passage is telling the followers of Jesus to endure three things: Discipline. Sacrifice. Suffering.
Jesus is making us aware that we must be willing to risk our comfort, safety and security and to put ourselves in danger. We ask: Do we really need to give up everything to follow Jesus? Yes! Absolutely! This is the Achilles' heel of the middle class. The avoidance of pain and the fear of suffering are flaws in our characters.
Gandhi led a movement for independence in India. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a movement for freedom in the United States. In each case, discipline, sacrifice and suffering were called for. Who was the primary army of the movement? Poor people — poor people were used to suffering because of their daily experience. They suffered in the streets at the hands of police brutality. They were oppressed and jailed. They were beaten on the back roads of Alabama and Mississippi. Suffering was not a new experience for them. They were ready for it. They had learned freedom would have its cost, and they were willing to pay it.
The great uncertainty of our Gospel movement, today, the great uncertainty for ourselves is this: we are not ready and willing to suffer. Not only is Suffering foreign, it is feared. When (not if) the time comes for the Gospel movement, we need to be prepared to suffer for justice, work diligently for peace, and live sacrificially for the lives of other people.
Discipline comes to us most often when we move away from the comfort of our homes and care of our families. Jesus says we have to hate them. I hate that word. But he said it to teach us that we will never learn discipline and self-sacrifice while we’re under the roof of our mommy & daddy.
And even more than that, we don’t always become aware of the sacrifices and risks until we have left home and have to keep a place, clean our own toilets, pay the bills, do the laundry. Jesus is saying that people will need to be ready, willing and prepared to take risks. Jesus clarifies it, saying:
"For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether you have enough to complete it?"
So here is where I am going to lay on you some heavy statistics about the current job situation in our country and why people suffering and this is going to continue.
“The Great Recession may be over,” says Don Peck, in an article about Joblessness in America, “but this era of high joblessness is probably just beginning. Before it ends, it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults and blue-collar men. It may cripple marriage as an institution in many communities. It may already be plunging many inner cities into a despair not seen for decades. Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years to come.”
Let me break it down for you: we need to be prepared for the worst decade of unemployment that this country has ever seen.
Peck says: “The economy now sits in a hole more than 10 million jobs deep—that’s the number required to get back to 5 percent unemployment, the rate we had before December 2007, when the recession started, and one that’s been more or less typical for a generation. And because the population is growing and new people are continually coming onto the job market, we need to produce roughly 1.5 million new jobs a year—about 125,000 a month—just to keep from sinking deeper.
So what is the engine that will pull the U.S. back onto a strong growth path? This is where the financial meets the spiritual. Change, renewal, retooling our workforce . . . we must fix the errant financial industry that for a generation has focused its talent and resources not on funding business innovation, but on proprietary trading, regulatory arbitrage, and arcane financial engineering.
We must expect that our new workforce will be different, people with new skills, new talents, and companies using new models of working together. “We haven’t seen anything like this before: a really deep recession combined with a really extended period, maybe as much as eight years, all told, of highly elevated unemployment,” Peck says. “We’re about to see a big national experiment on stress.”
An undeniable shift is taking place in the North American work force. We are moving away from being almost totally dependent on companies, CEOs, bosses and foremen to dictate what we need to do to succeed. We need to find freedom and independence in our own work habits and the way we find work.
A comparable shift is taking place in our churches. We are moving from being unaware of the gospel's meaning to a new place. We see it; we see the writing on the walls. The prophets are speaking and it is obvious that we are genuinely interested in spiritual renewal. The good news is that we are moving away from church leaders telling us what to think and how to believe. For the first time people are excited about discipleship. We are willing to go down the path of self-sacrifice, not because we wanted to, but because we were forced to move out of our comfort zones by a devastating recession and what could turn out to be 10 years of high unemployment. The good news is that we need Jesus more than ever and, we are part of a growing multitude following Jesus and trying to live the gospel.
WE ARE IN A TRANSITION. Not Only do we want to hear the Gospel stories of hope and healing, we must learn them, to strengthen our faith and shore up our resolve; and we must remember them to tell them to our families and neighbors who are suffering under the burdens of debt and fear.
Many people these days want to hang around the gospel, hang around the places, people and communities where the gospel is being rediscovered. They want to hear about how to be healed, but when the hard words of Jesus are spoken, the crowds trickle away again, and only a few remain.
Are you interested? Count the cost. Are you excited? Count the cost. Do you think you are ready to follow Jesus? Count the cost. This is Jesus’ message: "Don't be like those who start a building, lay a foundation, but never finish it. People will mock you and your faith."
Finally, Jesus gives us as hard and stark a word as exists in the New Testament. When Jesus says, "So therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all your possessions cannot be my disciple." In other translations it is often rendered, "So therefore, whoever of you who does not renounce all that you have cannot be my disciple."
Jim Wallis, in an editorial from Sojourners Magazine gives us some insight into this. He says: “Anything we cannot give up will certainly get in our way, hold us back, slow us down, be a heavy burden, and be used against us. That is a fundamental principle of the gospel. Those who have many possessions are not free. North Americans are not free.”
Perhaps the reason we speak of freedom so much in this country is because we have so little of it. Freedom is not a license to accumulate, as some free-market capitalists think. Rather, freedom is measured by how much we can give away, how much we give up. We are not free in the United States because we are slaves to our wealth and security. Yet Jesus is asking if we are free enough to follow him.
Jesus also says, "Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest .... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” But to follow him, Jesus asks us to love him more than any other, even more than our own life. He implores us to take up the cross, to bear it as he did, and to be willing to suffer for his sake.
Jesus asks us to count the cost. We cannot know everything that lies ahead, but we need to be ready. He expects that if we start with him, we will finish with him. He asks us to give up everything so we will be free to follow him, not by standing still, not by plodding, or even walking, but by running after him—unfettered, unencumbered, and untired.
When Jesus gave his disciples the great commission, he also gave them an extraordinary promise. He asked them to give up everything else, but he promised to give them the most important thing of all. That promise stands for us as well.
Jesus says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." And then he promises us the best gift of all, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the close of the age."
