Proper
18 (2013) Year C RCL Principal
Count the
cost. Or not.
OK,
how’s the lego – have you had fun building?
Show me what you’ve made… What do you mean you’ve not made
anything??? Why is that?
Hmmm.
So we will have to do something – any suggestions?
Work
together, now there is a good suggestion.
And if there are any young people, say, elementary and middle school
kids, perhaps you’d like to go around the Church and ask folk if they would be
good enough to give you their lego blocks.
I believe Craig is going to help you with some construction work at the
back….
And
for the rest of us. What does this
mean? Why lego?
Well
let me start with a little more of my story.
When I was first being encouraged to consider looking at this position
of Rector I discussed it with Jo, who very quickly said that I needed to talk
it over with my Spiritual Director. My
Spiritual Director is a very thoughtful woman with a lot of wisdom and grace
which she shares generously. I explained
what I had learned of St John’s via the profile and various conversations and
her response was ‘I’m not trying to sway you,but you must go, and be prepared
for the cost.’
She
carried on – this is a great opportunity for you, and may very well be where
God is calling you. It is exciting and
will be challenging and whether you take it or not there will be grief and
loss. If you don’t take this
opportunity, or they don’t appoint you, then you will wonder what you have
missed. It will probably be something
that will always be a ‘what if’. If you
do go then you will have to deal with losing everything that you are used
to. You will move away from family, from
the security and success (and even failures) that are a part of your present
position. You will leave your home and
family and friends.
But
I think you should go.
Elizabeth
was right, as it turns out… But what I really really appreciated was someone
laying out in start terms exactly what the cost of following this process of
job application and discernment might be.
Sound
familiar. Well it’s Jesus way of doing
things as well. He says we must count
the cost of being disciples, of being his followers. In no more stark terms than in today’s Gospel
reading. Whoever does not take up their
cross cannot be my disciple.
Crumbs,
Christian life is hard.
Jesus
doesn’t pull any punches. Jesus compares
following him to setting off to war, or preparing a major building operation,
not something to be taken lightly, and not something to be undertaken without
planning to see it through to the end.
Even more so he says ‘Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me
cannot be my disciple’.
Crosses
would have been a relatively familiar sight to the people Jesus was speaking
to. A grisly, agonising and long lasting
form of execution it was used as much as a deterrent to those thinking of
disobeying Roman law as a way of punishing lawbreakers. Crosses were put in prominent places where
people would see them, and before each crucifixion the condemned would be
forced, as in the Good Friday story we know so well, to carry their cross to
their place of execution – a very public spectacle.
So
Jesus refers to something that is both familiar and shocking to try and give
some idea of the cost of discipleship.
There is no hint in this passage, or indeed in any of Jesus words, that
being a disciple is an easy option, or the route to a cushy life. In fact throughout the Gospels Jesus talks of
his own homeless status, about the need to endure suffering, about the threat
of persecution, about working hard and about absolute devotion to God’s cause –
a devotion that is equivalent to hating family, friends and even life itself. It’s not an easy thing to hear, it’s not an
easy thing to preach and it is a subject that Jesus touches on repeatedly
throughout the Gospels. Being a faithful
follower is hard. It will involve
sacrifice, letting go, openness to God’s way of doing things, loving the
loveless and the unlovely. Being a
disciple will involve suffering.
But
this suffering is not an end in itself,
it often comes as a part of the life of the disciple, part of every life – but
we don’t follow in order that we might suffer, but we endure suffering that we
might be faithful. Our call is not to
suffer, but to remain true to our faith and to the truth of Christ no matter
what we endure.
And
even from suffering God can bring life.
Jesus suffered and died on the cross that he might defeat the greatest
suffering, that of death and the power of sin.
Then through his faithfulness was brought back to life again through the
power and the love of God.
“But
what has all this got to do with lego blocks?” you may ask. Well, our life of discipleship is costly and
we must be realistic about this. We are
facing change in our Parish and we must be prepared for the cost of that. As individual followers of Jesus we are told
through the Gospel, and in our reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah
today, that being formed into the likeness of Christ can be, indeed will be,
painful. Like a potter who needs to
break the clay, and mould it and shape it in order to create an item of beauty
or usefulness, or both, then God’s work in us, calling us to let go of the
things which distract and divert us from being formed into Christlikeness and
in learning to seek and serve Christ in one another.
But
even more as a community we are being called to consider the cost of our
discipleship. We are undergoing a major
building project here, and no I don’t just mean the redevelopment project, but
we are seeking to build up our community of faith, our community of worship,
our community of worship. This endeavour
is something we have to mindfully set ourselves to doing, and to count to the
cost.
Which
brings me back to the lego blocks. They
didn’t have a lot to offer when we gave you each a brick on the way in. But in working together, and in some of us
giving up our bricks, and in some of us sharing our resources we, I hope have
managed to create something….
In
the church we must all take responsibility for the ministry of the Church
and no longer leave it to someone at the front, or that the work of
ministry will be done only by clergy, staff, or wardens – we all have some
responsibility for our own spiritual growth, our education, our calling to
serve in the name of Christ here in St John’s and the community to which God
has called us.
It
means being willing to take up our cross and follow.
Let’s
pray not that we might escape all the troubles of the world, but rather that
through everything we may endure and be faithful, allowing the potter to
reshape and create something new, fashioning from the struggle something
beautiful and filled with purpose. That
we may mature through good and bad and grow up into Christ our head. And let’s pray that we will have the faith to
see God at work, even when it seems the struggle is too much. Let us pray that we will be realistic about
the cost of our discipleship, of being community, of serving our sister and
brother in need and of becoming the people we are called to be.
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