cost estimates

from my sermon on 9.5.10 from Luke 14:25-33

It hurts my heart to hear Jesus talk this way to us, "You cannot be my disciple." The Greek literally says, "You are not able." I want to push back and say, "We are not like those crowds back then. We know that to follow you it is more than a parade, more than a protest march. We know what it costs. We are able."

I can hear the song playing in my head, maybe you know it:
Are ye able said the Master, to be crucified with me?
Yea, the sturdy dreamers anwered, to the death we follow thee.

Lord, we are able, our spirits are thine, remold them, make us, like thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance, above us shall be, a beacon to God, to love and loyalty.

So, when Jesus says, you must hate your family members or you are not able to be my disciple, we are ready with our reply. We have read the commentaries, we know that "hate" doesn't mean abhor. It is a semitic expression meaning to turn away from, to detach. We have strong ties to families. We even talk in glowing terms about family values. Does Jesus really mean that we are to put Him above our families? Does it cost that much? Are we able to do that?

And Jesus says, we cannot be his disciples unless we take up our cross. Literally, the text says each one of us must take up his or her own cross. We say, "We wear the cross as jewelry. We put a cross in the front of the sanctuary." We know that it is more than the old phrase, "I guess that is just my cross to bear" when talking about an illness, or situation. It may mean surrending our wills, our need to get our way. Does it really cost that much? Are we able to do that?

And then if we haven't gotten it, Jesus tells 2 parables. One is about starting to build a tower but not being able to finish it. This was probably a tower that a farmer would build in his fields in order to keep thieves and varmint out. He didn't calculate the cost and so only had a foundation built, nothing more. Let me say that every church building project I have ever been a part of has come in over budget.....except for Bldg. M. I am so grateful to our Trustees for watching over this project and for getting us back into the building today. But the point is, how many things in the faith have we started and not be able to finish because we did not count the cost?

The other parable is about a king going into battle against another king whose army is twice as large. How many times have we tried to face enemies larger than us and been humbled because we did not count the cost?

Finally, Jesus says we are not able to be His disciples if we do not renounce all our possessions. the way Luke remembers Jesus is that He is very concerned with this world, concrete things like money. We respond by saying that we are learning to be generous. I as your pastor have challenged you to be a 50/50 church where we spend 50 percent of our offerings our our local church ministries and 50% on others. You have not thrown me out. I am not sure that we are tithing. I know we get more concerned with meeting the budget than seeing how much more we can give. Does it really cost this much? Are we able to give this much?

Many years ago I attended a Good Friday service at Bethany UMC in Austin. You remember what happens on Good Friday, when Jesus goes to the cross? The piano was playing that hymn "Are Ye Able?" We would sing the verses and the piano would play the refrain by itself. The second verse talks about when a repentant thief dies can you see that his soul is bound for paradise. The third verse talks about being laid in death in the sod and being commended unto God. It got darker and darker as we sang.

Then we sang the 4th verse:
Are ye able still the Master whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer, now as then in Galilee....

And the piano tune started to crumble and go into dissonance and finally die with no resolution. It was an awful sound. We were left in the dark to consider......we are exactly the same people now as then in Galilee.

There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. We throw ourselves into the arms of mercy, into the outstretched arms of the crucified Christ. He alone has counted the cost.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has written the classic, The Cost of Disipleship. In it he says that grace is free, but it is never cheap.

I must leave you with some good news that sometimes we get it, we understand what it costs. This past Thursday evening, I was here in the front of the sanctuary to bless the parents and teachers of our preschool. It is something I do every year at the start of their school year. A man from the Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) came to me and asked if he could talk to me. Now you know that we convert 4 our our Sunday School rooms into bedrooms where homeless people live for a week while they get on their feet. This man was one of our residents. He said, "Pastor, I am a member of a church, but it is a long way off. I know what it says in Malachi about bringing your tithes and offerings into the storehouse of God. I was wondering if I could give mine to this church." He put a $50 bill into my hand. Are you getting this? This homeless man living at our church is so grateful that he gives $50 to Christ and His Church. I put it in an envelop and placed in the office. Sometimes, when everything is stripped away, and we realize we live by grace alone, we know what it costs, and we are able to follow Christ.