Discipleship Ain’t Cheap

²⁵ Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Turning to them, he said, ²⁶ “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, even one’s own life—cannot be my disciple. ²⁷ Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
²⁸ “If one of you wanted to build a tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the cost, to determine whether you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when you have laid the foundation but couldn’t finish the tower, all who see it will begin to belittle you. ³⁰ They will say, ‘Here’s the person who began construction and couldn’t complete it!’ ³¹ Or what king would go to war against another king without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand soldiers could go up against the twenty thousand coming against him? ³² And if he didn’t think he could win, he would send a representative to discuss terms of peace while his enemy was still a long way off. ³³ In the same way, none of you who are unwilling to give up all of your possessions can be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-33 (CEB)

Imagine that becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ was a service available to be purchased on an online auction site like eBay.

I know, I know. It sounds ridiculous, but just go along with me on this for a minute.

You do a search for “Jesus” and suddenly you find a listing for an auction where you can bid on an opening to become Jesus’ newest disciple. You click on the link and read the following description:

Up for auction: One spot as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth who is called CHRIST, the one and only Savior of humankind, the Holy Son of God, the Divine Word made flesh, crucified, dead and buried and resurrected on the third day. DON’T WAIT UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!!! Secure your eternal future NOW while Jesus is still seated at the right hand of God, BEFORE he comes back to judge the living and the dead! ALL SALES ARE FINAL!!! THIS SELLER DOES NOT ACCEPT RETURNS. PLEASE READ THE AUCTION LISTING CAREFULLY BEFORE BIDDING. PAYMENT REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY! GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY BIDDING!!

Sounds good, right? Then you go to click the button to enter your bid, but you stop because you see the following:

Starting Bid: Everything You Have

You think to yourself, “That’s a high price to pay!” You begin to consider the cost. Maybe you decide to sleep on it and make a decision tomorrow. Surely no one will bid ahead of you and win the auction overnight.

When you click that “Bid” button or “Buy It Now” and you click “Submit” on a site like eBay, you are entering into an agreement to purchase the item listed for that amount should you win the auction, or for that price if it is a “Buy It Now” listing. In other words, you are making a commitment.

Discipleship is a commitment. Jesus does not ask that we give away all of our money, or that we give away all of our possessions, or that we sell all of our possessions and then give away the proceeds. Nor is Jesus actually commanding us to hate our families. The point that Jesus is making is that, in order to be one of his disciples, Jesus must be the single most important thing in your life. Our discipleship takes precedence over everything else. That does not mean that we are to neglect our families or live in poverty. Quite the opposite, in fact. However, it does mean that when anything else conflicts with our discipleship, we are called to choose our covenant relationship with Jesus over and above that other thing.

This Sunday, we will gather together once again at the table of Holy Communion. It is an outward sign of an inward grace, a sign of the covenant God has made with us through Jesus Christ. We come to the table having made a decision to enter into and honor that covenant as disciples.

Whoever you are, you have a place at that table. I hope to see you there.

The Most Important Place

¹ One Sabbath, when Jesus went to share a meal in the home of one of the leaders of the Pharisees, they were watching him closely.

⁷ When Jesus noticed how the guests sought out the best seats at the table, he told them a parable. ⁸ “When someone invites you to a wedding celebration, don’t take your seat in the place of honor. Someone more highly regarded than you could have been invited by your host. ⁹ The host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give your seat to this other person.’ Embarrassed, you will take your seat in the least important place. ¹⁰ Instead, when you receive an invitation, go and sit in the least important place. When your host approaches you, he will say, ‘Friend, move up here to a better seat.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all your fellow guests. ¹¹ All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.”
¹² Then Jesus said to the person who had invited him, “When you host a lunch or dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers and sisters, your relatives, or rich neighbors. If you do, they will invite you in return and that will be your reward. ¹³ Instead, when you give a banquet, invite the poor, crippled, lame, and blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed because they can’t repay you. Instead, you will be repaid when the just are resurrected.”
Luke 14:7-14 (CEB)

I don’t know about you, but some people fight their toughest battles on a daily basis in the most unlikely of places: the grocery store parking lot.

I’ve witnessed it first-hand. People will drive around the lot, sneaking around corners, cutting through empty parking spaces instead of driving along the proper lanes, cut in front of people, sit in their cars and wait in the middle of the driving lane for another car to pull out, holding up other drivers in the process, and a host of other behaviors in the name of getting the best parking space.

I try not to do that. Sometimes I want to get a closer parking space for some specific reason, but generally I try to park and walk recognizing that there are other people who need the closer space more than I do. I must confess, however, that I have on occasion engaged in some of the aforementioned parking lot maneuvers in an effort to secure a more desirable parking space for myself.

The question is: Why? The Luke 14 text this week begs the question. What is it about the “place of honor” that is so attractive to us? Is it out-and-out wrong to desire to be the one in the most honorable position available?

Maybe it’s not so much a question of right versus wrong as it is a question of what one’s priority is. What is one’s ultimate goal, really? In this parable, Jesus strongly suggests that our ultimate goal should not be to sit in that one highly coveted seat, but that if we do the opposite, then we might get to sit in the seat of honor after all. He goes on to add some instruction about inviting people, the crux of which is to invite people who can’t offer you anything in return. What in the world is Jesus talking about, anyway?

The answer, at least for our purposes, can be found in what Jesus says in verse 11, “All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up” (Luke 14:11, emphasis mine). Notice that whatever the person is trying to do themselves, the opposite will be done to them by someone else. The people of first-century Judea were living under the captive rule of the highly corrupt Roman empire, an organization that was accustomed to taking what they want by one form of attrition or another. Jesus came teaching and preaching a radically different way of being in the world, starting with the famed Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus basically preached against the tyranny of Rome by telling people that the kingdom of God was completely different – that is, completely opposite – of what they were hearing from their captors. The reality of the world was not what it appeared to be: Taking care of oneself did not mean neglecting the other. Bettering oneself did not equate to trampling on someone else. The, “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine,” mentality was not the way people were meant to live because it emphasizes self-preservation and self-advancement as the priority to the exclusion of everything – and everyone – else.

Not so, says Jesus. To sit in the seat of honor is not ours to take for ourselves. It is the good gift of God that has already been given to us when we feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked, and welcome the sinner. It is a seat of honor that does not match the description of it that we have always heard. Instead, it is a place of honor that can only be found in answering the invitation of Christ the Resurrected Lord to follow him into the world and walk alongside people that no one else wants to be associated with. We do not choose to sit in the seat of honor. We are invited to sit in a place that, should we accept the invitation do so, will change our perspective, allow us to see others less from a self point of view and more from a God point of view, and transform our hearts and minds…and our priorities.

Jesus Saves, Jesus Saves

¹⁰ Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. ¹¹ A woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and couldn’t stand up straight. ¹² When he saw her, Jesus called her to him and said, “Woman, you are set free from your sickness.” ¹³ He placed his hands on her and she straightened up at once and praised God.
¹⁴ The synagogue leader, incensed that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, responded, “There are six days during which work is permitted. Come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath day.”
¹⁵ The Lord replied, “Hypocrites! Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead it out to get a drink? ¹⁶ Then isn’t it necessary that this woman, a daughter of Abraham, bound by Satan for eighteen long years, be set free from her bondage on the Sabbath day?” ¹⁷ When he said these things, all his opponents were put to shame, but all those in the crowd rejoiced at all the extraordinary things he was doing.
Luke 13:10-17 (CEB)

We often like to wait for the right time to do things. Maybe you’ve had someone ask you, “When are you going to do this or that?” and you answered, “I’m waiting for the right time.” Often this happens with regard to delivering some kind of news to someone that may or may not be a good thing. When a couple finds out they are having a new baby, they often wait for the right time to let everyone know the good news.

In this text, Luke reminds us that Jesus does not wait until the time is right. The woman was in the synagogue at that very moment, on that very day, and it didn’t matter to Jesus that it happened to be the Sabbath. This unnamed woman needed healing and Jesus healed her immediately, without hesitation. He didn’t pause to wonder whether it was the right time or not. He didn’t consider whether or not he should heal her since it would mean doing work on the Sabbath. He wasn’t afraid of what the synagogue leader might think if he healed her on the Sabbath. Jesus saw this woman’s need for healing and healed her. It reminds me of the old hymn “Jesus Saves”, especially the third verse:

Sing above the battle strife:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
By His death and endless life:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Sing it softly through the gloom,
When the heart for mercy craves;
Sing in triumph o’er the tomb:
Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
https://hymnary.org/text/we_have_heard_the_joyful_sound

While the battle is still raging in our hearts and minds, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

When we feel trapped in the gloom and darkness, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

While our hearts are still crying out for mercy, Jesus does not wait. Jesus saves.

We can, right this very minute, stand in triumph at the mouth of the empty tomb of the resurrection and boldly proclaim, “Jesus saves, Jesus saves!” because right now is the right time.

Jesus doesn’t wait. Neither should we, because there is someone out there right now who needs healing, and Christ has no hands nor feet in this world but ours. Let us go and, through our service as disciples of Jesus Christ, proclaim to the lost, the hurting, the sick, the grieving, the hungry, the thirsty, the lonely, the broken hearted, “Jesus saves! Jesus saves!”

Learning To Count

¹After these events, the LORD’s word came to Abram in a vision, “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your protector. Your reward will be very great.”
² But Abram said, “LORD God, what can you possibly give me, since I still have no children? The head of my household is Eliezer, a man from Damascus.” ³ He continued, “Since you haven’t given me any children, the head of my household will be my heir.”
⁴ The LORD’s word came immediately to him, “This man will not be your heir. Your heir will definitely be your very own biological child.” ⁵ Then he brought Abram outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars if you think you can count them.” He continued, “This is how many children you will have.” ⁶ Abram trusted the LORD, and the LORD recognized Abram’s high moral character.
Genesis 15:1-6 (CEB)

It used to fascinate me that there were people who had memorized Pi out to so many digits. If you are reading this and are not familiar with Pi, here is Pi listed out to 1000 decimal places:

3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510
  58209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
  82148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128
  48111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
  44288109756659334461284756482337867831652712019091
  45648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
  72458700660631558817488152092096282925409171536436
  78925903600113305305488204665213841469519415116094
  33057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548
  07446237996274956735188575272489122793818301194912
  98336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798
  60943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132
  00056812714526356082778577134275778960917363717872
  14684409012249534301465495853710507922796892589235
  42019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960
  51870721134999999837297804995105973173281609631859
  50244594553469083026425223082533446850352619311881
  71010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303
  59825349042875546873115956286388235378759375195778
  18577805321712268066130019278766111959092164201989

That’s a lot! If you search further on the internet, you can find Pi written out even further. Here is a link to Pi out to 100,000 digits: http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/~huberty/math5337/groupe/digits.html Take a moment to click on this link and see if you can count the digits yourself. Then come back here.

Were you able to do it? Even though that expression of Pi stops after “only” 100,000 places, you probably were not able to count them all. I tried, but stopped after only a few digits. For me, it was the enormity of the task before me, and the sense that trying to count all of those digits just didn’t make any sense, nor did it serve any useful purpose as far as I could see.

In Genesis 15, God hears Abram’s concern about not having an heir. Abram decides that he is going to simply leave everything to Eliezer, the head of his household. God, however, has other ideas for Abram and Sarai.

So, to make a point, God instructs Abram to go outside and try to count the number of stars in the sky, if he thinks he can do it. The thing about the stars as they appear to us from earth is that they seem to keep appearing out of nowhere as our eyes acclimate to the darkness. It’s just like Pi: just when you think you have made progress, you are reminded that Pi is a non-terminating number. In other words, the digits of Pi go on forever. No one can ever possibly hope to count them all simply because there is no “all”. From our vantage point, there is no “all” with regard to the stars in the heavens, and with God, there is also no “all”.

God is infinite by nature and eternally existent.

God has no beginning and no end. Nor will God ever have an end. It is impossible to count the years, ages or eons of God because God exists outside of our concept of time. We express this concept of the nature of God in short by saying that God is eternal. It is also well worth reminding ourselves that God is also infinite, which is another way of saying that God has no end. We can no more measure the totality of God’s being than we can count all the digits of Pi, no more than we can count all the stars in the heavens. Our God is not an awesome God just because of how God loves us. Our God is an awesome God simply because God is.

God’s creative involvement in our finite human existence is incapable of being measured or counted and needs no qualification.

In some ways, Abram was misunderstanding God’s nature by proclaiming his decision to leave everything to his head of household Eliezer. Abram only decided to do this because he believed it was impossible for him to ever conceive a child with his wife Sarai based on Abram’s advanced age (which is capable of being counted and measured) and the physical condition of Sarai (which is also capable of being observed, quantified, and documented) with regard to the possibility of pregnancy. Abram’s limited understanding of the world and of the nature of God made it virtually impossible for Abram to see past the physical limitations of his own finite human nature to imagine anything being possible beyond what his own experience could confirm and support.

God, however, is. Thus, God is not limited to the same constraints we humans are. God’s vision of what is possible is unlimited. God’s creative power is limitless. As the great preacher Rev. S.M. Lockridge once said in a famous sermon about the nature of the Christ, “No far-seeing telescope can bring into visibility the coastline of his shoreless supply.” That’s because there is no coastline. There is no limit to God’s love for God’s creation, of which we are an integral part, made in the very image of God.

Abram and Sarai did end up having a child. In Genesis 17, God would tell Abram, “I am El Shaddai,” and give them both new names: Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah would go on to give birth to Issac. In Exodus, God would say to Moses, “I AM who I AM. So say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you,'” (Exodus 3:14) and Moses would go on to lead God’s people out of Egyptian bondage. In the Gospel narrative, Jesus would tell his disciples, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35) and again in John 9, “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world,” and then he used the dirt of the earth and the spit of his own mouth to make mud and gave sight to a blind man.

Go outside tonight. Bring what is bothering you along. Look up at the night sky, find a star, and start counting. Count until the stars become blurry from tears of joy and you just stop counting. Be reminded of the eternal, infinite, limitless nature of God and God’s love for you, a love that cannot be counted but can always be counted on, and that come death or hell or high water, God always has been, is now, and always will be, the great I AM.

Finding Faith In Days Like These

We all know that these days are quite stressful. Different people are dealing with different sources of anxiety, fear, etc.

This morning, the day I’m writing this post, the anxiety was centered around finding a UPS drop-off location for a package.

I found it, finally. I kept looking for a building of some kind with the UPS sign on it. The location turned out to just be a drop box outside the bank. Such things seem very serious when we are in the moment, and the stress can be amplified when we assume that what we are looking for is one thing (a building with a sign) when in fact it is actually something else (a drop box outside a totally unrelated business).

The key to finding faith in days like these is to know what you are looking for.

Faith at its core is not exactly what most people think it is. When we go looking for our faith in situations and circumstances that are challenging, we often have trouble finding it because we are actually looking for the wrong thing.

Faith is not so much about knowing what is going to happen, or knowing that everything is going to be okay. Faith as described in Scripture actually goes much deeper than that.

Faith is another way of talking about our relationship with God.

When you think about all of the people mentioned in Hebrews 11, what do they all have in common? It is their deep and abiding relationship with God. The only way these people could possibly have brought themselves to actually follow God’s call on their life is because they had a very close, personal relationship with God, and through that relationship they trusted that God would not lead them into temptation, but deliver them from evil. Through knowing God, they knew that they were not alone in the world, and they did not have to face adversity on their own.

Faith is found by cultivating a deep and abiding relationship with God…

…because faith, fundamentally speaking, just is a deep and abiding relationship with God. If one wants to have a healthy and loving relationship with a spouse, then it is necessary for both people to get to know each other deeply, which builds trust. Any kind of positive, healthy relationship involves all parties involved knowing, trusting, and caring about each other. The same is true concerning our relationship with God. Finding our faith is only as difficult as participating in what is known in the Wesleyan tradition as the means of grace. Some of these means of grace include prayer, Bible study, worship, Holy Communion, and there are many others. By participating in these things and by being in fellowship with other believers, we are growing in the grace and love of God, and we are growing in our faith — that is, growing our relationship with God.

If you are looking for a way to start building a deeper relationship with God and growing in your faith, here are a couple of prayers that are excellent starting points. The first is, of course, The Lord’s Prayer, which so many know by heart:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name.
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the Kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

When you pray, really dwell on the words and think about what you are actually saying. For example, when we pray, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, what are we really saying? Do we, in fact, forgive others? Are there people out there we have been withholding forgiveness from? If so, what are we asking God to do with regard to forgiving us? Such care and consideration and deeper meditation on our prayers serves to deepen our relationship with God.

Another prayer is the Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition, commonly referred to simply as The Wesleyan Covenant Prayer:

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things
to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
thou are mine, and I am thine. So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
“A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition,” United Methodist Hymnal #607.

Try praying the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer first thing in the morning when you wake up and see how starting your day with prayer changes how you see the world and other people throughout your day.

I could go on with recommendations for how to grow your relationship with God, how to grow in your faith, but prayer is always a great place to start. The key is to be intentional, to actively participate with God in this thing called life. Finding our faith is not as difficult as you might think.

And it sure beats driving around in the rain looking for a UPS drop-off.

New Creations

For the past few weeks, we have been working on creating a new website that is up-to-date and working to provide information about FUMC Mountain View to anyone who wants to learn more about our local church. This new website is a new creation: We have retired the old website and published a new one.

As such, the new website doesn’t work in the same way the old website did. That’s because it is entirely new. It really is a new creation.

A new creation does not operate in the same way its predecessor did.

In his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul encourages them to “get rid” of the way they once conducted themselves because they have “clothed [themselves] with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:7-10). As the creator of our new website, I had to spend time designing the site to function in the way I intended it to function. Everything about the new design is aimed toward having the site provide certain types of information in certain ways. That’s how it was designed and created.

You and I are designed and created to glorify God by being who we were created to be. As disciples of Jesus Christ who have been raised with Christ and whose lives are hidden with Christ in God (3:1-3), we are being continually renewed by God’s sanctifying grace, renewed in the imago Dei – the image of God in which we were created – to bring glory to the Creator as new creations.

Renewal is a process that takes a lifetime.

I didn’t just get up one morning, drive to the church office, and sit down and throw up a website. It took time to design, create, and publish it. What we refer to in the Methodist tradition as entire sanctification, or sometimes Christian perfection – that is, being made perfect in love of God and neighbor by the sanctifying grace of God at work within us – does not happen overnight either. It is a process that lasts a lifetime. During that time, we are consistently growing in the grace and love of God, reflecting the image of God as new creatures justified by the righteousness of Christ our Lord. We are new creatures who are being continually renewed as we grow in the grace of God.

May we continue growing in the grace of God together, seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, being made new each day by the power of the Holy Spirit.