6th
after Pentecost / Proper 8 — 30 June 2013
[Track 2] 1 Kings
19:15-16, 19-21 | Psalm 16
| Galatians 5:1, 13-25 | Luke
9:51-62
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit
for the kingdom
of God
Have you ever gone into a restaurant that charges maybe twenty
or twenty-five bucks for a steak; bad enough, but that's just a la carte; and
you discover after you've had a beverage (depending on whether you have a glass
of pinot noir or a Diet Coke) and an appetizer and soup and a salad and dessert
and coffee and the sales tax and the tip, that the two of you have just dropped
coming up on a hundred bucks! But you
can't really complain: the prices were
all right there in the menu; you've nobody to blame but yourself if you're
shocked when the tab comes. (That’s why my
wife and I often go to the Midtown Family Restaurant in Iowa City , on the east edge of town just off Scott Boulevard . (That explains why it’s named the Midtown Family Restaurant.) We call it the “Codger Café.” You all know the kind of place it is. We like it.
You’d probably like it.)
Or buying a new car.
The hyped-up ads on TV talk about a base price of, say, $22,499, but we
all know perfectly well that by the time you get any kind of optional features
on it at all and pay transportation and dealer prep and sales tax, by the time you
drive the thing off the lot you’re talking thirty thou. Step up to the model you really wanted, and you’re
pushing forty. You may not like that,
but you understand that that's how it is.
It's all right there on the sticker on the car window.
There is a profession among the many jobs and occupations
and professions in the world, a profession called “cost accounting.” Some of you probably know a good bit more
about it than I do. Are or were any of
you cost accountants? As I understand
it, a cost accountant uses his or her special financial and analytical skills
to determine, for instance for a manufacturer, exactly what it costs to make
the product – not only the direct costs for materials, wages, overhead, and so
on, but all the hidden indirect costs that can swallow up any hope of
profitable return. Continual monitoring
of costs is necessary if a company is to succeed. Or, a manufacturer may have an idea for a new
product; but before they can put it into production they must have some notion
as to what it will cost to make it, what it will cost to distribute it, what it
will cost to advertise it so people will know about it, and therefore what
price they will have to sell it for in order to make a profit. And they must then judge whether enough
people are likely to want the product at that price to make it worthwhile for
the manufacturer to get into this market at all. The cost accountants provide the data and the
analysis for the decision. I assume that
cost accountants are reasonably well paid, and are worth it.
In today's Gospel Jesus is also talking about cost
accounting, and about sticker shock, and about reading the menu. People come to Jesus and say, “I want to
follow you, Lord.” But Jesus says, “Can
you meet the cost of following me? Do
you know what following me involves? Are
you prepared to put God's sovereignty ahead even of your home and family if
need be? Remember, if you come with me,
that I’m homeless – I don't have anywhere to lay my head! I don't promise you a rose garden - at least
not without a lot of thorns! No one who
puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Reign of God.”
A lot of people seem to want to be followers of Jesus, but
when they discover what it costs, they are surprised, upset, hurt, dismayed,
even angry. Apparently they didn't read
the menu. We promised to follow Jesus,
but we sometimes forget just where it was that Jesus went – and where following
Jesus is likely to lead us.
A rich young man once came to Jesus once, and asked, “What
do I need to do in order to have eternal life?”
Jesus looked at him and saw what he needed, and he told him. “What you need is to sell off everything you
own, and then come and follow me.” “Oh, no,
I can't do that!” said the rich young man.
And so he went away. And Jesus let him go.
I think many folks come to the Church because they expect
to get something out of it. They expect
to be given something. They expect simply to be ministered to. They come as customers. They think
“church” is something which somebody else
is supposed to do for them – not something that they are to be and to do for the world, on behalf of God. They come to the Church, but they don't count
the cost of discipleship.
Well, heck, we don't care why people first come into the
Church. Any old reason will do to start
with. Jesus wants a crack at us any way
he can get us. But we need to be
warned! Once we’re here, God will start
drawing us into God’s reasons for
bringing us here -- and what our
reasons were don't really matter so much.
God cares a lot about what we need. God does not care a lot about what we think we want.
Oh, yes, we’ll get something out of Church. We’ll get a ministry – not a ministry for us
to receive, but a ministry for us to do, all of us. Christian ministry is primarily something the
Church does to, for, in the world - something we the Church do to, for, in the
world, in God's cause. And ministry
within the Church, our ministry to each other, much of the particular ministry
of those who are ordained within the Church, is primarily for the purpose of
equipping us all and strengthening us all for our shared ministry in the world.
But we must count the cost.
Following Jesus can be a very expensive business. The Body of Christ is a glorious Body, but it
still bears the wounds of the Cross. No
one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for God's Reign. Real discipleship costs us everything we
have, everything we are. In return, God
gives back to us everything we can be!
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