Facing Crisis, Living Wisdom: Sacrifice

The New Revised Standard Version The Cost of Discipleship

25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26 “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30 saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33 So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Dumpster

This month, we’re looking at the Parables of Jesus from Luke and wondering at this question: How do Jesus’ parables invite us to engage the issue of climate change, environmental disaster, and our participation in the restoration of the created world?

Last week, we saw that a first step is humility: we must engage the wicked problems of the world from a humble stance.

This week, we hear a parable about sacrifice. We must give up all that we have.

Before we jump in, I’ve got to tell you a story about...a dumpster.

As if a prophetic sign or divine nudge…a few weeks ago, Stacy and I both arrived home to find a large, 12 yard dumpster blocking our driveway. Couldn’t pull into the garage…couldn’t park in the driveway. Just a big ‘ol dumpster.

My immediate thought was to look around the neighborhood and guess which neighbor had decided my yard had gotten too out of control and was now passive-aggressively insisting that I do something about it.

Then I wondered if Stacy had finally gotten fed up of me leaving my shoes and books all over the house…it was time for a great purge! Give up all your possessions!

A neighbor across the street wandered over to ask about it, as she could see I was somewhat confused as to its presence. She expressed concern: You haven’t been living here that long, you aren’t moving are you? How could you have enough to fill a dumpster, you’ve only been here a few years!

Thankfully — all was made clear …a call to Sanitary Service revealed a mixed up reading of our house number and, within the hour, the dumpster was transported to the correct house down the street.

But it left me wondering — could I hear that call to give up what I have, sacrifice my needs for something greater, for this way of Jesus that calls us to leave it all behind. Could I?

But it left me thinking — would I be willing to give up my stuff? Could I turn from what I hold

The Parable

This morning Jesus speaks to us about the Cost of Discipleship. What does it cost to follow in his way? Very clearly, from his opening words “whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” we hear that their is immense cost to the Christian way.

From here, we can get a true sense for the phrase “count the cost”. Think about it, to follow the way of Jesus, it seems, we are being told we must leave behind all that we love. To hate it.

Other translations (NLT) say “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else..” or the Message, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother”…etc.

Hating Other People

Let’s not do two things with this passage: First, let’s not simply dismiss this word Hate as an ancient teaching that doesn’t require something of us today, because we’ve evolved past such petty attitudes (because let’s be honest, we haven’t). And second, let’s not get hung up on the word and misuse it to justify sin — destructive readings of Scripture have led Christians for centuries to do things that ought not do, like hate, despise, turn their backs on those in need, and ruin relationships that could, instead, be redeemed through the loving power of the Gospel, had we simply put a little more prayer and thought into how we read the text.

How about we look at this parable like this — It costs something to follow Jesus. And it needs to cost something dear to us. The formal relationships of family, parents, siblings, friends, even our own self — these need to be completely reevaluated in their priority when we encounter the love of Christ and seek to truly follow in that way.

Another word commonly used in the discussion of Christian discipleship is repent - to turn away from, to go 180 degrees in the other direction. There is a similarity in sense to what Jesus seems to be telling us about hating others in this passage — turn from them as your priority. If you cannot, you cannot be a disciple.

Without following this tangent too much further — I just want to say that by turning to Christ in discipleship, away from others like mother, father, child…we can find a way of life that actually brings more fullness to those relationships.

When I perform a marriage ceremony, I make a strong point to the couple and to their family that in the moment of their commitment, they are turning their backs on all others, forsaking is the word we use. In doing this, they can commit fully to each other. AND…in doing this, it allows them to reenter the world of relationship with greater fullness and engagement. Their other relationships get better because of their firm bond to one another.

The parable goes on to make it clear — the work of discipleship is going to cost something, so we must count the cost, consider it, plan for it.

We are called to give it up, all of it, in the name of Christ, in the name of being Christ’s disciple. This is the way, the only way into life. To experience and accept the cost of sacrifice of all that we would otherwise hold dear, to let it go.

And…to find that we receive it back in blessing and fullness, only when we do.

[The Gift and philosophy of giving without expecting return]

Losing Sacrifice

Unfortunately, we live in a society that does not value such sacrifice. It seems the days are gone when it was a commonly held value that we be willing to give up of our selves, to let go of what we have, for the greater needs of our community and the world.

As promised, my hope is to examine our world’s climate crisis through the lens of the Parables of Jesus. To read the culture and social sway these days, I see that we have, on the whole, decided that Sacrifice is someone else’s task, someone else’s problem. To give up what we possess or to give of our lives in the name of care and concern and support — that is for someone else to do.

Let me put it a different way — People most deeply impacted by climate change, the poor, those without adequate resources or shelter, those displaced by war because of drought and famine and rising coastlines — those are the people who we allow to Sacrifice. It is their problem. They built their houses in the flood plain; their nations didn’t plan for population growth properly; it’s their war, it’s their corruption.

As I mentioned before, we misread this call to turn Jesus before all other people and things as a call to turn our back on those in greatest need, those most other from us, in the name of turning to Jesus as “faithful followers.” We say, “well, I’ve repented, I’ve turned away from worldly things, my heart is set on Christ…so I know I’m safe and sound…I can’t really worry about that guy’s problem, because I’m supposed to hate him.”

Hear again the list of people Jesus tells us to hate and turn from: “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes…even life itself...”

These are people and social relationships that we all benefit from, right? They are the ones we run to in times of crisis. “Well, if I lose my job, I always know I could move back in with mom and dad.” “You know, when I’m old, at least my son will take care of me and make sure I’m safe.” Or how about this, “I don’t know if I can trust anyone, but I always know I’ve got myself.”

No where in this list are the “others” — the least of these. The cost of discipleship is to give up the guarantee of safety and security that family or self provide and risk the trust in Jesus — who then leads us where? Into the homes of the sick, the orphan, the widow, the refugee and the lonely.

What if the turning away from those safe relationships is actually the invitation to turn towards those in greatest need?

Even Life Itself - Self-Interest

When we hear the call to give up even life itself, even all our possessions, it should make us uncomfortable. Doesn’t it?

In the middle of this parable, Jesus asks questions of the listeners — which one of you wouldn’t plan out the building of the tower to make sure you have enough resources? Or who would go to war with an undermanned army? The answers to these riddles are shining light on how, according to standard operating procedure we wouldn’t act in such a way. We’d plan out, gather all we need, take stock of our resources, trust in what we possess and the skills we have.

This section of the parable is provoking the listeners — it’s the status quo!

Jesus has told them to leave it all behind and then he shows them how the practice of trusting in their own self-interest, their own social standing, is getting in their way everywhere they go!

So he kicks it once more time in verse 33 — “So, therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

Restoring Sacrifice

To a world that has lost a sense of the value of sacrifice, Jesus is inviting us to restore it. To a world that has become so concerned with protecting its own, Jesus is inviting us to trust in God’s abundance alone.

Think about the Crisis we face on a global scale: Aren’t so many of our problems fed by our nation’s and our own self-interest and desire to hoard and control our own little sphere of the world? Remember, sacrifice is what other people do. It’s their problem.

And so my carbon footprint doesn’t matter — it’s someone else’s job to change theirs.

And so what my company dumps in the river doesn’t matter — it’s someone else who’s actually causing the problem.

And so my participation in the regulation and clean up of wetlands and the air and reducing deforestation and driving less — that’s not that important, that’s someone else’s sacrifice to make.

It is so easy to distance ourselves from the wicked problems of the world — they’re not mine, they’re not in my backyard, my sphere of influence, so I can ignore them.

It’s so easy…and it’s so misguided.

I want to play with a word this morning that I hope illuminates this “other” way Jesus is inviting us to, this way of sacrifice for the good of all, this invitation in to care for creation and care for one another, this common participation in the restoration of all things.

The word is Ecology.

We think of this word and think of living systems, the environment and plant life and animals and people and all the interconnectedness of them.

The word combines a Greek root, oikos (which translates as house or home) and the English suffix, “ology” (which applies to studies of a particular science or topic).

Oikos is such a rich word — so let’s explore it briefly. It translates throughout the Scriptures as dwelling, household, temple, family, live, palace, residence. People oikoumene — they inhabit a place. Or oikonomos - the steward or manager of a property or residence.

It is also applied to the place of the church, the dwelling where God’s people gather. I commonly use the benediction in church that invites you all to come “once again into our home.” If this were a Greek sentence, it would be a call to come into our oikos.

Ok — where am I going with all of this? How do all of these pieces fit together?

Here we go:

Jesus is calling us to a radical reordering of our lives around his way, a discipleship that involves learning to leave behind everything else for the sake of God’s reign and loving care for the world.

We turn our backs on everything else — but in doing so, we also turn our lives toward, or reorder our lives around, a different kind of ecology, a home making, a living in community with, a household way that sees our inherent interconnectedness with every living thing AND, because of this ecological understanding of how the world works — we follow Jesus by sacrificing on our world’s behalf, for each other, for the other, for the ones in greatest need.

How does this impact us in our daily lives?

We stop caring so much about our own needs and start sacrificing for each other. We make it a priority to help the ones displaced by rising seas or war and genocide. We make sacrifices of how we spend our resources or impact the earth by our carbon footprint, not because our one contribution is going to change it all, but because we believe in a household way, an oikos that is oriented around giving up our privilege to not care. We give up our resources to the plight of those most in need. We give up our time and money and care to each other here, in the church, where we can collectively foster another kind of community, this discipleship kind of place where the good news reigns and where our sacrifice helps generate new life for each other. We inspire one another in action and hope — knowing that through sacrifice, we are all collectively participating in the restoring of all things, not simply hoarding our resources, but giving freely of what we have because God can use even the smallest of gifts to reverberate and echo out change, right here and now.

Restoring Relationship

I hope you hear that as you sacrifice, as you find a way to give up all that you have, you find so much more. Relationships are restored, actually. When you give up your position and privilege, isn’t it often that friendship opens up, healing begins? I know at least in my life it does.

We seek to be an oikos where we will give away our privilege, possessions, and power knowing full well that this requires sacrifice, pain, and letting go. And we will do so trusting in God’s goodness, which is restoring all things through that giving away.

Hope for Future - A Community of Sacrifice

I have hope for such a community of sacrifice. Hope for a future where we learn to give up all we have because God blesses it as it leaves our hands. I have hope for a new kind of ecology, where we see our common belonging and discover that in our common sacrifice, the world can be saved, the environment can be cared for, stewarded well. It may seem naive — but it is not. It is faith. Trust that God is up to something, that God is powerful, that God is bigger than me and you and God is inviting us into more, through the giving away of all we have.

Let’s pray.