Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C

11K

THE FLOW TO/FROM FAITH

Luke 14:25-33
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C
Analysis by Shaun O’Reilly    

25Now 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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For 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? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31Or 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? 32If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions. 

“In humanity’s fallenness the arms of Christ catch up the crowds into the gift of love. Ours are the arms outstretched to catch up the broken world, to bless and baptize them in the name of Christ, and to raise to life what falls under the weight of the world.”

DIAGNOSIS: The demand of God is a breaking point 

Step One: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Jesus goes where large crowds cannot 
There was an advice for preteens printed on posters in classrooms in the 1980’s showing one fish swimming in the opposite direction of a large group of other fish and the poster advised: “Go against the flow.” And Jesus seems to be saying that too. Our Lord is not shy. And he doesn’t shy away from calling the crowds to costly venture of discipleship (v. 27).  Might this thin out the crowds?  Certainly, at the cross the crowds will be much thinner.  Again and again, he says the unpopular thing, the hard truth, and decidedly makes the route confusing.  And is there any better way to thin out a crowd than by telling followers to disown family and give up all possessions? (vs. 26, 33) While it’s not how I would talk to the crowds, I can get excited about his boldness to them all.  

Step Two: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Jesus goes where I cannot 
But it’s not just the crowds. Actually, I don’t see how I can go the way he’s leading either. Our leader is asking us to count the cost but telling us his way costs everything. And I can’t pay that. I can’t conceive of it or weigh it in a way where I get “the good” out of the deal. How often he’s told us to love and care for others and now I also have to hate my family? If he’s testing me, I’m failing because he’s asking too much. It was better when it was just about the others. You only keep demanding more, and I’m supposed to blindly trust – but I cannot. 

Step Three: Final Diagnosis (Ultimate Problem) – Walking away is what I do best 
So I go with the flow. I go away now. I’m done following the nonsense and I’ll enact my “delegation for peace” by following the crowds that now disband from Jesus. Yeah, see? You’ve told us to love and serve and care for others all along and you haven’t loved and served us, nor me!  (I forget that you did in feeding and healing and welcoming the crowds – and me.) You mention what a smart king or leader would do, and I know this: they wouldn’t do what you’re doing. You are impossible. How can love incarnate ask so much of me? Love is impossible, I suppose.  Yet how much in my own walking away is it that God has left me now in silence. 

PROGNOSIS: God’s faithfulness renews 

Step Four: Initial Prognosis (Ultimate Solution) – Jesus finds me in the flow 
The movement of the incarnation of God in Jesus through Mary particularly wondered how all this could be, and yet it was and it is. It is the gift of the grace of God that while I am yet a hard-hearted, hard-headed sinner Christ loves me, even in the flow. I leave God and go away with the world-loving crowd and Christ’s love still flows to me, saves me. For me Christ takes up the cross before him and declares the way of abandonment closed. I cannot see or hear the disobedient crowds with the clarity and strength of the Love of God before me in the Cross-bearing way of Jesus. And I’m brought to the waters of his kind of faith! 

Step Five: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – Faith is so busy 
On my own I still balk at the way Jesus calls disciples to unfettered giving. But we have died with this giving death, and we are resurrected with his life. We are made new into the YES that was Jesus’ way to be faithful when we could not. I still cannot, but God still does the impossible and makes us active for good. Jesus and his cross lead me to trust his promise.  And such faith is never alone.  Faith is ever active, leading us to love. 

Step Six: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Catching and Raising 
As Luther wrote in his commentary on Romans: “Oh, faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, so it is impossible for it not to be constantly doing what is good. Faith does not ask if good works are to be done, but before one can ask, faith has already done them and is constantly active.” Crowds still surround us, some full of nonsense that is antithetical to the self-giving way of the crucified guy we follow. But “in the flow” of these crowds we live as the hands and feet of the giver of good gifts. All around us folks try at life, try at love and work, try at success, and failures and self-doubt abound. In humanity’s fallenness the arms of Christ catch up the crowds into the gift of love. Ours are the arms outstretched to catch up the broken world, to bless and baptize them in the name of Christ, and to raise to life what falls under the weight of the world.