Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 5, 2010 - Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Wisdom 9:13-18b; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33]Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, 'This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.'"
This past Summer, when I joined some of my family at an annual gathering in Orange Beach, AL, I noticed a huge, multi-storied, cement building standing vacant along the beach. It had been intended to be a hotel or perhaps condominiums! But it stood there as a cement outline for an unrealized project! The simple expression used by many to describe the situation is, "The developer went broke!" Nowadays this is common enough that developers shrug it off and start scheming about their next project! In Jesus' day, the disgrace(or loss of honor or "face") would have been considerable! Determination to see a commitment through to the end means that one must know oneself to be a dedicated disciple. Why? Jesus gives three very difficult requirements for discipleship. First one must "hate" one's family and even one's own life! "Hate" is too strong a translation but it does mean that one of the most important realities in human life (and in the Middle East, THE priority of priorities) one's tribe, family, clan and closest kin - these must be secondary to following Jesus. Second, one must expect suffering and difficulty - the cross. Third, one must renounce all possessions! Those verbs - hate, carry, renounce - are not the sort of language that most of us want to hear in regard to our daily life, even though we know abstractly that religious faith may require us to separate from family, suffer for the sake of a cause, and do without lots of material things. In point of fact, the community to whom the Gospel of Luke was first addressed was undergoing all three of these challenges: divided family, persecution and loss of property. Jesus is simply speaking a bald truth to us. If we expect to be disciples, we must be prepared to lose everything. Only faith will sustain us when that happens. It makes sense to maintain and strengthen faith so that we will have the resources to finish what we have started. In pastoral life, I have encountered many a devastated person who discovered their neglected faith only when disaster struck. That's like looking for the flashlight only after the lights go out, and discovering the batteries are bad! It's hard to stay in shape, but the consequences of not staying in shape are far worse. AMEN