The Servers

Scripture.  Luke 14:25-33 Common English Bible  

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.

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I have to laugh every time this passage comes around in the lectionary, the list of scriptures to choose from for preaching, which happens once every three years.  Because the first time I preached this was also my first time preaching outside of the classroom,  in front of a congregation - not counting the time I preached in my home church on Lay Sunday, when I even put myself to sleep.  The congregation consisted of the independent and assisted living folks at Robin Run Retirement Community, a community of retired seminary professors, missionaries, pastors and their wives, plus a very few retired female pastors.   I was so excited to be told that as Student Chaplain I was to preach once a month!   It was possibly even more exciting to discover that my first Sunday preaching in a retirement community was Grandparents Day!   As I started to prepare I looked up the passage and found, “Hate your father and your mother.”   On Grandparents Day.  In a retirement community.  For my first sermon as their Student Chaplain.  God, really?  *sigh*   It turned out ok.  They understood.  

Jesus said, “None of you who are unwilling to give up all your possessions can be my disciple.” 

It’s important to note that there is a difference between wanting to do something and being willing to do something.  It’s kind of one thing to do things you do not want to do at work.  If you have ever watched Downton Abbey you will recognize the women in the picture as house servants.   They were up before dawn, cleaning the house before the family rose and stayed up until their duties were done, which in the case of the ladies’ maid could be very late indeed if the family was out a party.   I am quite sure they did not want to do all the things they had to do, but they were willing to do these things in order to keep their job.  Their job was to serve the family at Downton Abbey.

Our job is to serve Christ.  Because willingness is not the same as wanting-ness, very often serving Christ is a matter of doing a thing even though we do not want to.  When I came to the realization that I had been called to the ordained ministry, that I would have to move across country to start my education, and that I would possibly never be back home again, I really didn’t want to.  “God”, I said, “I don’t want to give up everything — family, friends, home, job, income, stuff, even my dog.”  But I did, grumbling all the while, because I was willing to follow God’s call, even though I really did not want to be a minister, probably until my 2nd year in seminary!   I had learned that as a follower of Christ, my job was to serve.

In seminary we studied the lives of Christian martyrs Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr, and Archbishop Oscar Romero.  All three were killed while fighting against the powers of oppression in the name of Christ.  Bonhoeffer, a leader of the Christian Churches in Germany who openly opposed the Nazi regime, was executed at Flossenburg Concentration Camp in 1945 - two weeks before it was liberated by the Americans.  Romero, who has now been sainted by the Roman Catholic Church, spoke out against the government’s treatment of the poor in El Salvador and was shot by a sniper while celebrating Mass in 1980.  King, American civil rights leader, was  shot to death in 1968 while in Memphis for a sanitation workers strike.  There are stories about each man telling how they really did not want to accept the call to lead, but that each nevertheless became willing to do whatever was needed to oppose the oppression the people of their country endured, no matter the threats that faced them personally.  They knew without any doubt what could happen to them. Bonhoeffer even wrote a book titled The Cost of Discipleship in 1937 which laid out just how costly following Christ could be.  But like the person building the tower and the king going to war, they counted the cost, figured it out ahead of time, and decided to go forward.   As followers of Christ, their job was to serve in whatever way they were called.

For Bonhoeffer, Romero, and King, the cost of discipleship was death.  Luckily, we do not have to go to such lengths.   Our burden, our cross to bear, is much lighter.   There are those who speak of various things as being their cross to bear.  Things like chronic illness, caring for a loved one, a rebellious child, an addicted family member, all these are sometimes described as a cross to bear.  While it is true that the struggles, trials, difficulties, and heartaches of this life can indeed be difficult to bear, none of these things are the “cross” Jesus commanded His followers to carry.  Rather, it is our obedience to Jesus and to the commandments he laid out for us that are our burden, our cross.  Our job, as followers of Christ, is to love our neighbor, to serve without recompense, and with as little complaint as possible.  After all, even Jesus complained a little.

Serving others.  That doesn’t sound so burdensome.  It certainly isn’t nearly as difficult as what Bonhoeffer, Romero and King faced.  Doesn’t sound like much of a cross.  And yet, we have to look back at the beginning of this passage to see that perhaps it is more of a burden than it first seems.  “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.”   Wait.  Hate my family?  What happened to the “Honor your father and your mother” commandment?  Actually, serving Christ in such a way as to put his will first, before family and job and personal desires, is honoring your parents, for surely loving parents would want you to do good for others first, to follow Christ first.  Sometimes serving others will conflict with things you would prefer to do.  I know that happens to me with some regularity.  I’m pretty sure it happens to you, too.  I have heard you tell the stories about how you stopped on the way to somewhere to help someone in need, or how you bought lunch and then gave it to the hungry person you passed on the road.  

And how often does your phone ring, or a text message come through, asking for your help with something that is well within your abilities and you say to yourself, “Oh Man, I do not want to do this.  i have stuff to do.  I need to be someplace.  I want to take a nap.”  But you do it anyway.  You help the person who needs help, because it is the right thing to do.  Because you are a follower of Christ and as a follower of Christ, your job is to serve.

And sometimes your burden, your cross, is to ask for help.  Sometimes you need to let others serve you.  That’s hard, I know.  We all want to be able to help everyone else and also do everything for ourselves that needs to be done.  But even though we can do it all ourselves, we don’t have to. Sometimes we need to let others care for us as well.  Sometimes, we need to allow others to serve.   Just as Jesus washed his disciples feet, but also allowed the woman with the alabaster jar to wash his feet with her tears and dry them with her hair, so we too must sometimes allow others to care for us.   Sometimes we need to share the burden of service, so that others may know the blessing of serving, too.

When we go from this place, let us pick up the burden of servanthood and make the world a better place.   Because that is our cross.  Not an illness. Not an out of control family member.  Not a disability.  Our burden, like that of Christ, is to change hearts and minds through our actions, as he did.  He taught, he healed, he gave up his life, in order that the world might be changed, healed, saved.  And so we also must give up our lives in his service, in order that the world might be changed.  So that it may become as the kingdom of heaven, God’s beloved community, through Christ our Lord.