God the Re-builder
From Wellington Cathedral of St Paul
5 September 2010 The Revd Jenny Wilkens
- Jeremiah 18:1-11
- Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18
- Philemon 1-21
- Luke 14:25-33
http://wellingtoncathedral.org.nz/index.php/Sermons
Well, what a difference a day makes! Our hearts and thoughts are so much with the people of Christchurch at this time after the earthquake there, and I do encourage you to keep them in your prayers, and to give generously to support our Bishop's emergency appeal to support the Diocese of Christchurch in its ongoing ministry.
We might have hoped for some 'comfortable words' in our Gospel reading today, but instead we have a startling wake-up call, which stirs us up out of complacency, as we confront some of the 'hard sayings' of the gospel.
What is Jesus on about as he says we cannot be his disciples unless we hate our nearest and dearest - that is hardly the sort of feel-good message we expect for Fathers' Day! That is not the sort of family values message we would expect to hear from one of our local politicians standing for election, now would we!
First of all it is important we get hold of the context of this passage: Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, his face fixed towards the future that awaits him there, and yet there are large crowds trailing him, caught up in the excitement and momentum of Jesus' ministry, enjoying the buzz but oblivious to what lies ahead.
Jesus is on the way to the cross, which one of our hymns today calls 'our crisis for judgement for gain or for loss' . A crisis point is a moment of opportunity, when decisions must be made and risks taken, choices must be made and priorities established.
And this is what Jesus is doing here. We know enough from the rest of the Gospel message that Jesus' call to love our neighbour would not mean literally hating our family. Matthew (10:37)'s version of this same story softens it rather to a question of priority: 'Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me'. When it comes to relatives, our love for them must be relative to our love for Jesus, who must hold first allegiance in our life.
Some of us may still find this rather hard to swallow, and it does seem in the Gospels that Jesus is making a radical challenge to concepts of family, saying that the family of disciples is a new surrogate family for us. This of course has often been of great comfort to those who face opposition from their own families when they join the family of Christ. And part of our welcome here is to those who find themselves for whatever reason without a close family support network, or without family members with whom they have a shared faith.
But there is still an element of challenge for us in Jesus' words: belonging to Christ does affect the way in which we belong to others. And of course we see this played out today in that wonderful story of Philemon the slave-owner, challenged by Paul to receive back the runaway slave Onesimus as a dear brother in Christ. There's a rather lovely happy ending in church tradition that tells us that Onesimus the slave later become the Bishop of Ephesus.
'Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple' (Lk 14:27). And we know Jesus is not speaking figuratively here. Crosses were well-recognised means of punishment and deterrent, set up at the cross-roads on the way into cities like Jerusalem. The cross - 'our crisis of judgement for gain or for loss'.
Count the cost of discipleship, gain or loss. Jesus goes on to give two graphic little illustrations of counting the cost, going into discipleship with our eyes open.
The first about estimating the cost of a building project seems rather appropriate to our current cityscape with some unfinished building developments and apartment blocks, their cranes idle. The most significant building project of Jesus' time was of course the rebuilding and embellishing of the Jerusalem Temple, begun by King Herod the Great, and carried on by his heirs. It was about 2/3 finished in Jesus' time, and not completed till 64CE, only to be destroyed by the Roman armies in 70CE.
The Herods were wanting to ingratiate themselves with the Jewish people, claiming to be King of the Jews, but Jesus would soon be hailed as King of the Jews on the cross, and the Temple of his body would be destroyed but rebuilt in three days. This is what it means to be a disciple, to follow this Jesus, this King, to the cross.
Then we hear the tale of a king considering whether to go to war with 10,000 against the 20,000 of the enemy. Jesus speaks now to those in his entourage who like the Zealots were keen to take up arms against the power of the Roman empire and its legions. Those who followed Jesus risked incurring the wrath of fellow Jews who did not think they were patriotic enough, and of Romans who feared a kingdom-movement arising in their midst.
Count the cost, Jesus says, of following him, even to a cross. All this would be deeply alarming if we did not have the encouragement of our reading from the prophet Jeremiah. It too is deeply challenging - just as we say to children and teenagers, the choices we make in our lives have consequences, and we have to live with them.
But there is also that wonderful picture of God as the potter, able to take the broken, mucked-up parts of our lives and to rebuild us with infinite love and creativity. God doesn't give up on us, but is always in the re-building business. God is not capricious with us, but always works for our good, for our rebuilding and for our becoming a vessel of usefulness and beauty.
This too is the message of our Psalm 139, a favourite of many, which assures us of God's intimate knowledge of us, and his ever-present care and protection of us.
The words of our Sentence for today: 'If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast' have been important to me ever since I went to live in France in 1982, which was certainly at the other end of the earth. I know for others of you these same words have encouraged you in journeying to these shores, to what seemed like the farthest limits of the sea, or as the AV puts it, the uttermost parts of the sea, surrounding these shaky isles!
May we hear today the challenge of God's word, but also the comfort; the 'crisis of judgement for gain or for loss' with which the cross presents us, but also the reminder that the cross means our crucified God knows what it is like to live in this world. May we know today that we belong to God, that God knows us and loves us, and calls us into the great family of faith of which we are a part.
I want to end with the words of one of my favourite songs, which hails from the people of Mexico who have faced not a few challenges in their own country and lives, including earthquakes:
When we are living, we are in the Lord, and when we’re dying, we are in the Lord; for in our living and in our dying we belong to God, we belong to God.
Each day allows us to decide for good, loving and serving as we know we should; in thankful giving, in hopeful living, we belong to God, we belong to God.
Sometimes we sorrow, other times embrace, sometimes we question everything we face; yet in our yearning is deeper learning: we belong to God, we belong to God.
Till earth is over, may we always know love never fails us: God has made it so. Hard times will prove us, never remove us; We belong to God, we belong to God.
