Sept 8, 2019        Cost and Joy of Discipleship                         

Yesterday morning, as I was driving to a personnel committee meeting for my church conference, I saw along the highway, what looked like a huge spider made up of steel girders and beams, not glistening in the sunshine, but red with rust and decay. And I remembered when this huge structure was erected back around 1997, it was supposed to be a church, but something happened along the way.

Now the pastor who led this church, had a grand vision of the future, and the church that he would build. He was a shrewd business man as well, making sure he got the financial commitments all lined up, and the pledges needed to make the payments. He even went to some other local independent congregations, and convinced them to sign on to his project, promising that they would all become one in Christ.

It all got off to a grand start, with the churches working together in project, and worshipping together at each other’s buildings. Soon ground was broke, and the foundation was put in place, and the frame of the building was going up. But then something happened, people began to have disagreements about how the church should be furnished, and what could come along from their old churches. And there were arguments about who gave how much, and how their gifts should be remembered. And there were arguments between the church families over who was being given special consideration.

Soon the pledges stopped coming, and the payments were late, and the work ground to a halt. And so, there stood the building, standing like I imagine the cross stood against the sky on Calvary, a testament to what happened, when Christ was crucified.

You know, I think we all as Christians have a certain amount of pride attached to our church. Many of us grew up in the church, our parents and grandparents before us. We are proud of the work they did, and the church community they created. And we probably can relate to the arguments that the church I mentioned above experienced, because we probably have experienced them also. But the difference between that church and our churches, is that we haven’t lost sight of Christ our Savior. Our church is not here to serve us, although some may believe that, but we are here to serve Christ. For without that belief, our churches would be in danger of becoming empty monuments to ourselves, rather than the communities of God’s love and fellowship that we experience.

Now our gospel lesson this morning, has some pretty strong words in it, about hating, …..mother, father, brother, sister,…. even our own lives. These statements of Jesus are pretty tough, aIl in all, I think they are pretty simple. When we walk through the doors of the church, we are there as disciples of Jesus, when we walk out the doors of the church, we are disciples of Jesus. All of the worldly desires for special treatment, because of our families, our giving, the years we have invested, go out the window. We are there to serve Jesus. And in serving Jesus, there will be disagreements, and there will be sacrifices that need to be made, but that is the cost of discipleship, those are the crosses we are called to bear, but then, there is the joy!

One of my colleagues, at the Sandwich/Somonauk lectionary group, which meets every Tuesday at the pancake house noted, that this passage follows on the heels of the great wedding banquet parable. The focal point of that parable is the joy of the great banquet.

We don’t often think of these joys, because as Christians they are all around us -  the joy of knowing God’s love for us, the joy of knowing the peace that Christ gives to us, the joy of our fellowship and church families, the joy of finding the meaning and purpose of our lives in our creator, the joy of living lives of praise, rather than grumbling, the joy of a life that is full and satisfying rather than empty and disappointing. The joy of helping others, and the joy of being helped by others. The joy of being found when we are lost. The joy of being comforted when we are mourning. The joy of forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing when we are broken by sin. The joy of seeing God’s plan for our salvation, and the joy of being a part of that plan, seeing it realized in our lives together, and realized in the world through our Christian service.

Yes, there are a great many joys that God invites all of us to share, the cost is our self-centeredness, and the reward is God’s great banquet of life, and that’s the Good News of Jesus Christ!