C, Post-Pentecost 16 Proper 21 - Luke 16 "Rich in God"

In Psalm 116:12 the psalmist asks a question, “What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me?”  Another way of asking the question. “What can I do for God as I ponder all that he is doing for me?”    The psalmist in answer to the question then looks out from himself for his answer,   “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD,  I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.”  (Psalm 116:12–15 ESV)

The psalmist thinks about his death.  He calls on God’s name as he ponders his mortality, lifting up God’s cup of salvation.  In the presence of his people, he peacefully can make promises to God.  A confession made, and paid with God’s peace, even while he remembers his forthcoming death.

Elsewhere in the Psalm he cries out to the Lord, “The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.  Then I called on the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I pray, deliver my soul!”  For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;  I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.”  (Psalm 116: 3–4, 8–9 ESV)

In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, Jesus focuses us on death, heaven and hell, or Hades.  This parable follows on from the beginning of Luke chapter sixteen, where Jesus tells of another rich man who recalls the management of his dishonest servant.

Both these texts put life in context with our upcoming death.  In the parable of the dishonest manager, which we heard as our Gospel reading last week, the rich man says, ‘What is this that I hear about you?  Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’  (Luke 16:2 ESV)

Jesus puts it to us that one day our management will end.  We hear how the manager reacts; how do you react as Jesus puts the question of your death before you?  What has your management of God’s gifts been like?  Digging or begging like the dishonest manager is not going to work.  After all, the more you dig the more you realise you are only digging you way further into dishonesty!  And begging seems shameful because of corrupt pride within.

The dishonest manager then decided to cut the rich man’s debts in half so the rich man’s debtors will receive the dishonest man into their houses.  The dishonest man can’t dig or beg, so he does what he is good at!  He is dishonest with the rich man’s money!

This parable messes with our heads, because we think the dishonest manager should be disciplined for his dishonest affairs with the rich man’s debtors.  But no!  The master commends the dishonest manager for his shrewdness, his thoughtful actions.  Why does he praise him?  Why does it mess with our heads?

Jesus sets us up in this parable, to expose the reality of our human nature.  Our sense of human justice and the richness of our righteousness is cornered by our human-centred sense of right and wrong; good and evil.  This parable messes with our heads because our focus is on ourselves and money, rather than God or the rich man’s mercy.

The parable starts to swing into context when we realise, we are the dishonest managers and death recalls our management.  Payment of debt is not money, but rather the cost of sin before God.  The dishonest manager acts shrewdly by not exacting the full debt from the rich man’s debtors.  Likewise, we who have wittingly and unwittingly misused God’s gifts, dishonest managers in God’s eyes, forgive others their debts just as our debts are forgiven, by he who honestly manages our affairs.  

Jesus is the one true honest manager serving God in the face of death.  He ends by saying, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”  (Luke 16:13 ESV)

However, Luke reveals not just the disciples were listening to Jesus but also the pharisees who were lovers of money, and they ridiculed Jesus.  These temple men saw themselves as rich men.  Like us their focus and perspective was wrong.  Their sense of right and wrong was built on a richness other than the mercy of God and his love.

He addresses the pharisees with the Gospel reading for today, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.  But in doing so introduces the parable with four very unusual verses. 

“The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.  And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.  “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.  But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void.  “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”  (Luke 16:14–18 ESV)

Jesus, who brings the good news of the kingdom of God, speaks to those under the Law and the Prophets.  But their justification and righteousness was not looking for a Saviour through the Law and the Prophets.  Instead, the dishonest pharisees were seeking to force their way into the kingdom of heaven, through their own richness.

Then there is the strange inclusion of verse eighteen about divorce and adultery.  It seems completely out of place.  However, this is the link verse for the dishonest ones who don’t see God as the merciful rich man.  Those whose earthly management of God’s gifts has been dishonest and are seeking to violently push their way into his eternal dwelling.  All but Jesus Christ have divorced themselves from God and were yoking themselves in adultery to their riches.

Both parables have rich men in them, showing they are linked, but where the rich man in the parable of the dishonest manager is God, here in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man is not God but one under Abraham having descended into hell.  The theme is still death, but this parable speaks to the pharisees, and us, from the other side of death from two eternal  dwellings.

Here on the other side the rich man is nameless in Hades, literally the place “unknown below existence and on the bottom”.  He looks up and sees Lazarus with Abraham.  The poor man has a name in the parable, unlike the rich man unknown by God.  Lazarus is with Abraham the father of God’s promise, the father of Israel, who was rich in both possessions and faith.  Jesus sets the richness of the rich man against the richness of Abraham and now Lazarus.

The rich man appeals to Abraham to send Lazarus back, to be resurrected to save his brothers.  But Jesus ends the parable, saying, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31 ESV)

Jesus has risen from death, and the Holy Spirit encourages us to hear these words of Jesus as we ponder our death, what our wealth and treasure is, and the great chasm that exists between eternal life with God and the eternal separation from God.

We cannot force our way into the Kingdom of God, the Law of God cannot be avoided, only those who are holy can be in the presence of a God who is holy.  However, we are received into God’s holy and eternal dwelling through the richness of Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit wants and wills each of us to turn over our management to Jesus Christ who has bridged death’s great divide, the great chasm between sin and salvation, with his cross.

The psalmist in psalm one hundred and forty-six praises God for his existence even while he is in the prison of death and a tired traveller on the road of salvation, from death to life eternal in ever-present richness of God.     

Praise the LORD!  Praise the LORD, O my soul!  I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.  Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.  When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.  Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,  who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever;  who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free;  the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous.  The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.  The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.  Praise the LORD!  (Psalm 146 ESV)

Let us pray.  Heavenly Father infuse within us, the righteousness of Jesus, godliness, faith, steadfastness, and gentleness.  Continue to fight in us the good fight of faith with your Holy Spirit.  Help us to use the richness you have given to us to love and serve one another.  To your glory, Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 15 Proper 20 - 1 Timothy 2:1-7 "Our Common Wealth"

1 Timothy 2:1–7 (ESV)  First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,  who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,  who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.  For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Being a King, Queen, President, a leader of people, presents with it, a whole bunch of pressures that can render their office of leadership dysfunctional.

Dysfunction of the office of a leader might occur for many different reasons.  It might be dysfunctional because it’s not performing its proper function, not doing what it was originally intended to do.  It might be socially malignant, sapping society of the things it needs to remain balanced and stable.  It could be disobedient or rebellious in some way.  Or it might exist for no particular reason, good for nothing, unproductive and a waste of everyone’s time and energy.

There’s cause for us to reflect on the leadership under which our nation lives.  The royal monarchical system in the wake of Queen Elizabeth II’s death and the succession of King Charles III.

Before we go any further this is not going to be a sermon on the benefits of a monarchy over against a republic.  This issue is already a discussion in the media and public galleries.  But our focus here today is on the status quo, and it would be the same if we were a republic and our president had died.

That aside, the pressure of leadership to remain functional is one a leader has to take seriously.  Throughout history many a leader has had his or her leadership overthrown because it has become dysfunctional.  Sometimes the leader has been dethroned by being decapitated, literally beheaded. 

Deposition of a leader happens for a number of different reasons.  Coveting power, some will seek to seize control by overthrowing a leader, regardless of their office being functional or dysfunctional.  A revolution might occur, and a leader is deposed.  Or, at an election, a leader might be voted out democratically.

On the other hand, the leader might be a tyrant, a psychopath, a sociopath, or a fool.  These leaders are narcissist, egotistical, and self-absorbed.  Their leadership is one driven by the principal that there is no one greater than them.  Often, they live with a “saviour complex” or a “white knight syndrome”.   This might be as subtle as a desire to help someone that really does not want help, or it might be as extreme as Adolph Hitler and his Führer Principal.

Our focus is not on leaders who get thrown out for whatever reason.  But rather, what makes a good leader, how we benefit under this said good leader, and what we can do to encourage them in their leadership.

Jesus Christ is our obvious “go to”, as the benchmark for a truly good king.  He is the King of kings and Lord of lords.  His leadership is truly impartial, for the benefit of all people, just, reconciliatory, all-conquering, enduring, leading to a peace that is eternal which surpasses all human understanding.

Why is his leadership, the go-to leadership of all leaderships?  Jesus’ leadership is one of complete transparency.  God has no hidden desire in Jesus’ mediation between himself and humanity.  Jesus hides nothing!  He brings sin out of darkness and into the light.   He goes into the hearts of men and women, exposing sin and shame, and takes it to the cross  for all to see forgiveness in his death.

This leadership is second to none because not only does he mediate between God and humanity, in his death, but that he is  both innocent in himself and God the Son, holy and eternal.

It is leadership many believe too good to be true!  Why?

Because if you or I were a leader we would place ourselves in a  favourable position.  We would take privileges, not give them up.  We would seek pleasures rather than endure suffering and pain.  We would enjoy our rights rather than give them up and serve in second place.  That’s why, for some, it is easier to believe Jesus’ leadership is too good to be true!

But Jesus did this, as God the Son, in the Man of Nazareth, born to Mary, laid in a humble feed trough, and enthroned as King on the cross.  And we put him there because  we deemed his leadership as useless, joining in with his people, saying, “we have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15 ESV)

You might say, “O, but I was not there, I am not a Jewish leader.”  But your human spirit is no different to that of the scribes and the pharisees who condemned his leadership, nor Peter and the disciples who fled in fear! 

That’s why Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to convict all people of sin, and bring to repentance, those who bow down in the exposing light of our true Leader’s Love and life giving.

Because Jesus is our King of Kings, truly unhiding the reality of our sinful being, we can learn a lot from King David also.  Even though he was before Jesus Christ in a chronological sense, Jesus was before him and above him, even though Jesus was born as a human, after David.

When Jesus was born, he could have easily made himself second to none, but he gave up his divinity as the Son of God and placed himself under humanity, as the Son of Man, the servant Saviour of sinners.  In doing this he fully submitted to the will of God the Father.

Unlike Jesus, David was a sinful man, his being was sinful, and he did sinful things.    But despite his sinfulness he, like Jesus, placed himself under the authority of God.  When he sinned, he received God’s correction.  When he was successful, he gave the glory to God.  David was honestly aware of his humanity, its weakness, its desire, and its sinfulness.   David knew he was not second to none, but that he was a distant second to God his Father.

The un-hiddenness of David’s kingship was blessed by God as David collected and penned Jesus’ prayers in the Psalms.  The reality of David’s great joys and deep sorrows are ours in the Psalms.  We hear the heart of David, but even more so, we hear the heart of Jesus Christ, God the Son.

How amazing we have the Word of God, in the heartfelt words of these kings who placed themselves under the authority of God the Father.  Especially since the greatest threat to us is not what is going on outwardly with others, but inwardly within us!

Leaders, even more so than us, deal with the demons within, as those without, seek to disrupt faithful leadership.  It’s very real that the Old Adam, the human spirit within, finds allies with the spirit of the world, and spirits within the world.  Even when the world attacks us, we often find the Old Adam within, joins in with the attack on our new nature in Jesus.

When King David wrote the imprecatory Psalms, Psalms denouncing his enemies, David wanted God to have victory over the enemy within him, just as much as he wanted a kingdom without the threat of his enemies.  David wanted to be without chaos within as well!  He wanted peace with his God.

Jesus and King David stand as examples of good leaders because they, having the authority to be second to none, willingly placed themselves under the authority of someone greater.  We can too, being voluntary princes and princesses in God’s kingdom!  In fact, we have the authority from God to be such!  We are his people, allowing the Holy Spirit to place us under God’s supreme rule.

We can praise God like David and Jesus did to others, and we can intercede for those around us, faithfully praying to our Heavenly Father to bless our enemies and our friends.

Like Paul encourages Timothy, we too are encouraged, “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Saviour,  who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  (1 Timothy 2:1–4 ESV)

We pray for our leaders knowing that both us and our leaders are under the one head, Jesus Christ.

We do so with hearts of praise like King David who calls us to, “Praise the LORD! Praise, O servants of the LORD, praise the name of the LORD!  Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forevermore!  From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the LORD is to be praised!”  (Psalm 113:1–3 ESV)

In these days remembering Elizabeth our Queen of blessed memory, we realise and praise God for her faithful service under God.  We could see her position as Queen of Australia and the Commonwealth as not being very functional.  Indeed, that is why some are calling for Australia to become a republic. 

You might be tempted to see her leadership, King Charles III’s leadership, a republican leadership or even the political landscape at home as useless and dysfunctional.  But you and I need to remember we live under our common wealth of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

Queen Elizabeth II could very well have seen her royal duty as redundant in this age.  But like Jesus she served her people before God the Father, regardless of them serving her or not.

We praise God that under her submission to him we have lived peaceful and quiet lives.  And now that we have a King its time for us to join under our common wealth in Jesus Christ to hold up in prayer King Charles III, that he too might follow in his mother’s footsteps of submission and servitude to our Heavenly Father.  Amen.

C, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 19 - 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "Jesus' Perfect Patience"

1 Timothy 1:15–16 (ESV) The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.  But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.

Saint Paul’s ministry was one of patience!  Jesus had to be perfectly patient with Paul as an example to those who were to believe Jesus for eternal life.

We might think the patience needed, is what was required of Paul to perform his ministry.  He definitely was taught to be patient, but this was only secondary to Jesus’ perfect patience with him. 

After his conversion on the road to Damascus, you might expect, there was preaching to do, and people to seek, now that Saul the persecutor of Christ and his church had become Paul the proselyte of this fledgeling movement centred on Jesus’ life and death, resurrection and ascension.

However, if Saint Paul’s ministry, or any ministry is to be effective in the Lord, God’s patience needs to be demonstrated with us who share the gospel, whether we are pastors, lay leaders in congregations, youth leaders, parents and grandparents praying for their prodigals to return, or young kids telling their friends about Jesus in the playground.

When God was handing out patience, I reckon I must have been away that day!  I, like so many in our society today, desire immediate results, or I get impatient.

As I get older the need to –go, go, go– is slowing, physically!  But mentally and emotionally my patience is slowing too.  Or my impatience is growing proportionally to the years I live or the hairs that are getting greyer.  The slower I go, the slower I am at being patient.  Or the quicker I run out of puff, the quicker I expect others to pick up their act and get going.

The old Adam in us, our human spirit, turns its expectation into a god.  Unfortunately, sin has rewired our brains and hearts this way.  But the Holy Spirit leads us back to Christ’s overflowing love. 

When the god of our expectations is not met, we get frustrated and impassioned with each other.  In our minds we become impatient and secretly judge, “I expected so much more from you!  Or, I didn’t expect you to do something like that!”  Our expectations can be idols in our lives that cause us to sin against others and God.

After Saint Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, at the least, he spent fourteen years away from Jerusalem in Arabia, Syria, and Cilicia.  God was patiently preparing Paul for his ministry, and no doubt Paul too was learning patience having been shown patience.  It’s believed during these fourteen years; God was patiently preparing him as an apostle.  Saul the Pharisee who knew the Law was being patiently revealed by the Holy Spirit that Jesus Christ is the only fulfiller of the Law.

Sometime later Paul confesses to young pastor Timothy, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

What a way to start off!  Confession that he is not just a sinner but the prototype of sinners!  Only through Jesus’ perfect patience does someone learn this, and, have the willingness to confess it.

Paul prefaces his confession as the prototype sinner stating, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15 ESV)

He confesses to Timothy that Jesus Christ, this Saviour of sinners, and his sinfulness, is proclaimed in faith and this deserves Timothy’s full reception.  Paul wants Timothy to perfectly understand what he is saying here! 

In naming himself a sinner, Paul does a number of things.  He’s no longer ignorant in his unbelief.  He now has faith that he’s a sinner.  His sinful being is now covered by Jesus’ death and resurrection.  His former sinful deeds are also covered by Jesus’ forgiveness.  He’s no longer a servant of his sinfulness, but rather a servant of sinners needing the same forgiveness as him.

Paul places himself under the authority of God’s word.  One might think that he was already doing this since he was a Pharisee.  However, Paul was using the Law of God to justify himself and his position.  This made him guilty of blasphemy and idolatry.   As a ruthless Pharisee he was worshipping a graven image, not made with his hands, but with his mind.  And in breathing murderous threats against the followers of Christ, he was blaspheming God the Son.  

From Pauls legal background as an Old Testament Lawyer, he knew very well that God is impartial.  And so, with sound teaching in the Law and knowledge of Jesus’ overflowing grace he knew God had to continue being patient with him because his human nature would still strive to be partial to wrongly justify or condemn those with whom God is perfectly patient. 

It was no longer about his Law or justification, but about Jesus’ fulfilment of the Law through his righteousness and our justification through his sacrificial death on the cross.  And this wasn’t done to Paul’s timeframe but in the fullness of God’s time it was finished by Jesus Christ.   This perfection continues to be finished by the power of the Holy Spirit, who seeks to bring the human spirit to the fullness of Jesus’ perfect patience.

Paul goes out of his way to embellish just who he is to Timothy, so Timothy does not place an expectation on Paul that makes Paul a god in Timothy’s eyes.  And so, Timothy does not make himself an impatient presumptuous super apostle to those to whom God calls him.

Patience goes hand in hand with forgiveness!  So too, impatience and frustration go hand in hand with unforgiveness.  Patience grows out of our judgement!  Judge one way and we forgive, judge the other way we don’t forgive.   However, Jesus’ perfect patience with Paul is an enduring lesson in love.

In his letter to the Romans Paul speaks of Jesus’ all-encompassing love.  But before he does, he speaks about the all-encompassing debased love of each human for themselves.  (Romans 1:21-32)

He says, “For there is no distinction:  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”  (Romans 3:22–24 ESV)

Impatience goes hand in hand with presumption.  Paul knew this too well when he acted with zealous fervour in ignorance under the Law.  He says, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”  (Romans 2:3–4 ESV)

Paul was acutely aware of Jesus’ perfect patience of him in his ministry.  There was no presumption he was any better than those he taught regardless of them being Jew or Greek, young or old, pastor or parishioner.  They all needed Jesus’ perfect patience, as did he!

Jesus’ perfect patience not only manifested itself in love at the cross.  But also, in his sending of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is the helper of sinners who trust in Jesus Christ.

The writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, “we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,  so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.” (Hebrews 6:11–12 ESV)

The writer goes on to cite Abraham as one who inherits through patience.  Abraham was patient but the greater weight of patience was from God who not only witnessed Abraham and Sarah’s disastrous affairs with Hagar and Ishmael, but also the nation that grew out of him all the way down to Paul.

Peter says in his second Epistle, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

Jesus’ perfect patience is also a perfect faithfulness too.  Not only does he send the Holy Spirit to give us faith, but he also remains faithful to us as well.  Rather than expectation, he serves with example and is patient with us.

He gives us the fullness of time as he peels back the layers of our sinfulness while bringing this sinfulness into the light of his revelation and his forgiveness of our sin. 

We’re all on different parts of God’s road to salvation.  Some are more mature in the faith.  Like Saint Paul, we are called to recognise with ever increasing clarity the weakness in which we walk.  But at the same time learn with increasing knowledge the overflowing grace that shows its perfection in Jesus’ patience. 

The fullness of time will come for us all.  Only then will we know who has believed they’re sinners and who trusted Jesus’ perfect patience.  Till then let us, in the complete knowledge and acceptance of our weakness, walk together sharing with each other the perfect patience of Jesus Christ, who walks in our midst as our forgiving Saviour God, and gathers us together in him with the Holy Spirit.

To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever.  Amen.  (1 Timothy 1:17 ESV)

C, Post-Pentecost 13 Proper 18 - Luke 14:25-35 "Counting the Cost"

Jesus had gained a following.  A great crowd of disciples and people were following him.  To where were they following him?  But could they follow him?  Or was he really following them?

The Gospel text before us today has a threefold warning written into it.  Three times Jesus says, “If you do x, y, or z, you cannot be my disciple”.  Let’s examine the X, Y, and Z of why he says one cannot be his disciple.

The first “cannot” word Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:26 ESV)

Luke records the harshness of Jesus’ words with the call to hate.  How can this be?  Mathew’s Gospel softens this harshness by replacing  whoever “hates” with whoever “loves (x) more than me”.  So, Jesus’ first call to discipleship is not to love one’s family and life more than Jesus. 

It seems Jesus seeks to scatter us from our relationships.  But Jesus walked towards Jerusalem to do something so much greater than this.  He needs to take us from our family heritage, our culture, and our identity.  Then he can awaken us with his life, in the Holy Spirit, in our eternal heritage with the Father, and in our adopted identity through his suffering and death.  After this he gives us back to our families, our nation, and our society as agents of his supreme love.

In our age of individualism and our regression into social tribalism, Jesus is exposing our idols of pride built on one’s identity; be it race, class, family.  Or, even today as some think we have freewill to choose what we identify ourselves as!  Also, Jesus is laying bare, the shame that comes from our fallen identity’s narrowness and individuality.

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel, just after Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, he also spoke about taking up the cross and following him.  Jesus then says, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels”.  (Luke 9:26 ESV)

God’s intention for us is that being firstly a member of his heavenly family, like Paul, we confess to the Romans, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16 ESV)

And as Paul says to young Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth”.  (2 Timothy 2:15 ESV)

And the writer of Hebrews says of Jesus and us who allow him to make us holy, “For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source.  That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:11 ESV)

Peter in his epistle to the persecuted church says, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” (1 Peter 4:16 ESV)

With the weight of God’s word just heard, are you more ashamed of the gospel or your family?  Is honour before the world more important than honour before God in his church,  including those in this church our shame and pride would naturally exclude.

Like Paul who formerly prided himself, as a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees blameless under the law, confesses to the Philippians, that hanging onto his former identity is as shameful as keeping and showing your poo[1]. 

Jesus calls you to hate your own life like your manure or that which is cast aside as waste.  And he is not just talking about the things you consider as evil or shameful.  But also, the things in which you seek honour, and deem as good, shaming God to second place.

His call to hate others or love him the most, then flows into his second impediment statement for discipleship, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14: 27 ESV)

Earlier in Luke’s Gospel when Jesus speaks to his disciples about those ashamed of him and his words, the Son of Man will be ashamed on his return.  Just before saying this, he invites them to take up their cross (Luke 9:23).  But here in the second of his “cannot” discipleship statements his call is not just to “take up” one’s cross but “to carry” or “bear it”. 

This is stronger language again.  The disciples knew to carry a cross was the Roman way of making one carry one’s instrument of death to the place of their crucifixion and death.  Jesus makes it clear, if you are going to walk with me, death will occur! 

Hate your family, now make a faithful stand which will lead to death!  What?

It’s here Jesus takes a break before pointing out the third reason why one cannot be his disciple, his learner, or one who truly understands, to do the will of the Father.

Jesus says, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,  saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.”  (Luke 14:28–30 ESV)

Counting the cost of loving Jesus more than anyone or anything!  Hating my life so much I would forsake it and follow Jesus to death!  It makes you wonder, “How on earth can I do this?  How can I make this work?”

The picture of building a tower and being humiliated by not being able to finish its city, immediately makes us think of the Tower of Babel.  The spirit of humanity collectively sought to work their way up to God, but God confused their language and dispersed them before they could build themselves up as a collective human god.

As the Babel event rings in our ears, know that just as Jesus says, those who cannot “finish their towers will be humiliated”, they too will be shamed like those of Babel whom God mocks.   After they built their tower “up to heaven”, God still has to “come down” to see what they were doing.  They are humiliated and dispersed!  

Surely before you or I work to love Jesus more than our family, social status, or state, before we seek to die for our sin, we might sit down and count the cost. 

Jesus then paints another picture for us saying, “what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” (Luke 14:31–32 ESV)

We might regard King David as the greatest king of the Old Testament who battled and overcame hundreds of thousands in battle.  Yet before God he cries out, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” (Psalm 51:2, 7 ESV)

Here is God’s chosen King of Israel, trembling and found short before God!  Crying out for peace before God!  No sacrifice could please God, no offering could cleanse, nothing he did could recoup the cost!  And David knew it!

What is the cost of our unfinished work?  Can I pay to have peace within?  How can I have terms of peace without God?

This brings us to Jesus’ last hindrance on being his disciple.  Counting the cost and seeking terms of peace, Jesus says, “therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”  (Luke 14:33 ESV)

The deeds, intellect, and the life one lives, will only bring shame if we try to use them as a bargaining chip at the table of life and death.

This is well and truly proven by the Israelites, who, on entering the promised land, heard Moses say, “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil.” (Deuteronomy 30:15 ESV)  But they lost their land of milk and honey, first to the Assyrians and Babylonians, and finally to the Romans. 

God set before them life and death, living a life of good over evil under the Law.  Yet the good they lived was for themselves, and they lost their land, the paradise of God being with them in the temple in Jerusalem and received payment for their sin.  God’s wages for sin, is always death!

Jesus then says, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?  It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.  It is thrown away.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  (Luke 14:34–35 ESV)

If Israel’s good was not good enough, and our good, is not good enough either, if our lack of saltiness is too shameful to put on the dung heap, consider the cost, seek terms of true peace!

Those who have ears let them hear!  Taste and see it is the Lord who is good!  No one could follow Jesus to the cross, just as none of us can make salt, salty again if it loses it saltiness.  We lose favour and flavour with God, when we seek the poopy pleasures of good and evil. 

God gives our flavour back, in a cleansing bath in baptism, rejuvenating saltiness, preserved “with and in” his word.  He flavours you once again and delights in you as his own, with the work of the Holy Spirit and our risen ascended Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus counted the cost and paid the price. He was cast out of the city like poo and nailed to the cross, clean and innocent, in the place of uncleanness and shame.

Now the shame of our sin is not confessing it and repenting.  True discipleship relies on the Holy Spirit to honour God through our confession as sinners being daily forgiven!

As King David said, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.  For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.  I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”  (Psalm 32:1–5 ESV)

In Jesus Christ, the guilt and shame of your sin is taken away.  By allowing the Holy Spirit to bring you daily to Jesus, in confession and repentance, making him your Messiah, is the highest form of worshipping and following God.  Amen.

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[1] Philippians 3:8 “rubbish” here in the Greek is vulgar meaning “excrement/filth”.