These illustrations are based on Luke 14:25-33
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Sermon Opener - The Cost of Discipleship - Luke 14:25-33

The mark of a great leader is the demands he makes upon his followers. The Italian freedom fighter Garibaldi offered his men only hunger and death to free Italy. Winston Churchill told the English people that he had nothing to offer them but "blood, sweat, toil, and tears" in their fight against the enemies of England. Jesus demanded that his followers carry a cross. A sign of death.

Andrew died on a cross
Simon was crucified
Bartholomew was flayed alive
James (son of Zebedee) was beheaded
The other James (son of Alphaeus) was beaten to death
Thomas was run through with a lance
Matthias was stoned and then beheaded
Matthew was slain by the sword
Peter was crucified upside down
Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows
Philip was hanged

The demands that Jesus makes upon those who would follow him are extreme. Christianity is not a Sunday morning religion. It is a hungering after God to the point of death if need be. It shakes our foundations, topples our priorities, pits us against friend and family, and makes us strangers in this world…

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Counting the Cost - Luke 14:25-33

Jesus certainly cannot be accused of using a “soft sell” approach when it comes to calling folks to discipleship. While salespeople are taught to extol the good points, ignore the bad points, and wait until you have your customer hooked before you deliver the price to them, Jesus comes out with the price right up front. And it is steep. Jesus doesn’t offer us a sign-and-drive option to follow him. He tells us this is going to be a costly adventure and we better be willing to ante up if we are going to join. The cost? Everything. Family, friends, comfort, and even our own lives are to be offered up for this chance to follow Jesus on the way into the reign of God. That certainly makes it easy for those of us in congregations and denominations of declining memberships! That should have them flocking to us in droves!

The problem for us is that we are too often focused on the organization and its needs. We don’t have enough members to fill all the leadership spots and the choir numbers are way down. We have had to reduce the hours the secretary is in the church office and do away with the youth pastor because the budget just couldn’t sustain them anymore. The building is in need of repair and we can’t even keep up with the regular maintenance costs. All of these things are filling our minds while Jesus is focused on one thing and one thing only: the reign of God. Bringing the reign of God into the lives of people and into the life of the world is all that really matters.

Jesus understands that many things compete for our attention. There are lots of important things happening in our lives. Some of them may be destructive to us but most of them are good things. The problem isn’t the things but the importance we put on them….

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A Picture of Discipleship Drawn from the Military

Jesus draws a picture of discipleship from the military. To be a soldier means getting into battle, risking your life. In other words, Christianity isn't lived in a vacuum. There are struggles and conflicts. Our hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers," reflects the fact that we must fight when demonic forces attack us in life. A Christian must be willing to do spiritual battle for Christ. That's a high cost.

Soren Kierkegaard said that there are a lot of parade-ground Christians who wear the uniforms of Christianity, but few who are willing to do battle for Christ and his kingdom. When it comes to doing battle for the Lord, too many church members are just sitting on the premises instead of leaning on the promises of God.

Ron Lavin, Sermons for Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third): Only the Lonely, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Quotes

A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.

- Martin Luther

The Word became flesh and then through theologians it became words again.    

- Karl Barth

It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder.   

- Moody

A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.

- Mildred Witte Struven

The demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship

There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the mind and the purse. Of these three, it may well be that we moderns find the conversion of the purse the most difficult.

- Martin Luther

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How Will the Church Be Lighted?

Several centuries ago in a mountain village in Europe, a wealthy nobleman wondered what legacy he should leave to his townspeople. He made a good decision. He decided to build them a church. No one was permitted to see the plans or the inside of the church until it was finished. At its grand opening, the people gathered and marveled at the beauty of the new church. Everything had been thought of and included. It was a masterpiece.

But then someone said, "Wait a minute! Where are the lamps? It is really quite dark in here. How will the church be lighted?" The nobleman pointed to some brackets in the walls, and then he gave each family a lamp, which they were to bring with them each time they came to worship.

"Each time you are here'" the nobleman said, "the place where you are seated will be lighted. Each time you are not here, that place will be dark. This is to remind you that whenever you fail to come to church, some part of God's house will be dark"

That's a poignant story, isn't it? And it makes a very significant point about the importance of our commitment and loyalty to the church. The poet Edward Everett Hale put it like this:

I am only one,
but still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something I can do.

What if every member of your church supported the church just as you do? What kind of church would you have? What if every single member served the church, attended the church, loved the church, shared the church, and gave to the church exactly as you do? What kind of church would you be?

James W. Moore, Some Things Are Too Good Not To Be True, Dimensions: Nashville, 1994. pp. 117-118.

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The Right Stuff

"The right stuff" describes the qualities of character, competence, and temperament possessed by the early astronauts. They had "the right stuff" for the job and all of us admired them for this. In terms of American history, they are kin to those sturdy folk who first settled this nation, as well as those who later broke out of the confines of the eastern seaboard and courageously headed into the western wilderness. Some years ago there was a book about these latter heroes titled Men to Match My Mountains, telling the story of those who had the tough, "right stuff" to stretch this country from coast to coast.

Jesus is certainly talking about having "the right stuff" in this passage. He is telling us what it would take then, and what it takes now, to be his follower. There is no soft sentimentalism in these words of his. He says that the disciple must be prepared to part with family, to endure suffering, to face enormity of the task, and to give up everything for the sake of the Kingdom. Here, compressed in these brief verses, is the delineation of the "right stuff" required of anyone who accepts Jesus’ offer to follow him.

Wallace H. Kirby, If Only..., CSS Publishing Company

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Are You God’s Wife?

A little boy about 10 years old was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, “My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?” “I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes,” was the boys reply. The lady took him by the hand and went into the store and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. She took the little guy to the back part of the store and removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk returned with the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes. She tied up the remaining pairs of socks and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, “No doubt, my little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?” As she turned to go, the astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, said, "Are you God’s wife?"

Traditional

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Unexpected Cost

When I was in college I was one of several young men who decided to go to work on the section gang of the railroad during the summer vacation. At that time, there was very little automation on the railroad, and most of the work was done by manual labor. Many people warned us about the job. It was a hot job ... very, very hot. It was difficult. Everything out there was heavy. It was a dirty job, and to some extent, it was dangerous. But the pay was most attractive. None of us could make as much money doing anything else in the summer. So we went to work on the railroad, and only one of the five of us lasted the first week. It was too tough or we were too weak. We thought we were ready for this tough job, but we were not. We had not accurately counted the cost.

Thomas C. Short, Good News for the Multitudes, CSS Publishing

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What Does It Cost to Follow Jesus?

We need to talk about evangelism and the Christian cultural push for larger growth and larger churches. It seems to me that we, the contemporary American church, are forever talking about the pleasures and benefits of belonging to a particular Christian congregation. We hear such phrases in our congregation as “We have a great schedule and you can even come for the “early bird special” when the church is open for business at the 7:30 AM worship. At the next service, we have a great church choir and the quality of music rivals the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. At the next worship service, we have a great contemporary worship service with a band that excels all others. We have a great senior’s program with so many activities that a senior has an activity planned once or twice a week. We have a great youth program and your child will be influenced by Christian values and Christian friends.” And so information about a congregation is presented in such a way as to persuade people to join our congregation. … All the while, no one seems to talk about the fine print as to what this will cost. No, I am not referring to offerings to pay the bills, but what it means to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus Christ - what's it going to COST to follow Jesus?

Edward F. Markquart, The Cost of Discipleship

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Knowing Our Business

Some of us had the joy of listening to one of our generation's truly great preachers, Fred Craddock when he was chaplain at Chautauqua for a week. One morning he told a story from the early years of his ministry in Custer City, Oklahoma, a town of about 450 souls. There were four churches there, a Methodist church, a Baptist church, a Nazarene church, and a Christian church (where Fred served). Each had its share of the population on Wednesday night, Sunday morning, and Sunday evening. Each had a small collection of young people, and the attendance rose and fell according to the weather and whether it was time to harvest the wheat.

But the most consistent attendance in town was at the little café where all the pickup trucks were parked, and all the men were inside discussing the weather, and the cattle, and the wheat bugs, and the hail, and the wind, and is there going to be a crop. All their wives and sons and daughters were in one of those four churches. The churches had good attendance and poor attendance, but the café had consistently good attendance, better attendance than some of the churches. They were always there - not bad men, but good men, family men, hard-working men.

Fred says the patron saint of the group that met at the café was named Frank. Frank was seventy-seven when they first met. He was a good, strong man, a pioneer, a rancher and farmer, and a prospering cattle man too. He had been born in a sod house; he had his credentials, and all the men there at the café considered him their patron saint. "Ha! Old Frank will never go to church."

Fred says, "I met Frank on the street one time. He knew I was a preacher, but it has never been my custom to accost people in the name of Jesus, so I just was shaking hands and visiting with him, but he took the offensive. He said, "I work hard, I take care of my family and I mind my own business. Far as I'm concerned, everything else is fluff." You see what he told me? "Leave me alone, I'm not a prospect." I didn't bother Frank. That's why the entire church, and the whole town were surprised, and the men at the café church were absolutely bumfuzzled when old Frank, seventy-seven years old, presented himself before me one Sunday morning for baptism. I baptized Frank. Some of the talk in the community was, "Frank must be sick. Guess he's scared to meet his maker. They say he's got heart trouble. Going up there and being baptized, well, I never thought ol' Frank would do that, but I guess when you get scared..." All kinds of stories.

Dr. Craddock goes on: "We were talking the next day after his baptism, and I said, 'Uh, Frank, you remember that little saying you used to give me so much: "I work hard, I take care of my family, I mind my own business?"'

He said, "Yeah, I remember. I said that a lot."

I said, "You still say that?"

He said, "Yeah."

I said, "Then what's the difference?"

He said, "I didn't know then what my business was."

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.esermons.com

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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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“Refresh Your Heart” - Philemon 1:1-21

You know the feeling.

It is between 2 and 3 in the afternoon — the “pit in the pm” in the words of biorhythm experts. Energy ebbs. Eyelids sag. Your attention span becomes goldfish-short (3 seconds). You are wiped out, wozzy and snoozy. The urge to grab a cat-nap becomes overwhelming. God invented coffee, and energy drinks, for this time of day. Fighting fatigue we all look for ways to revive, reboot, refresh ourselves for the second half of our day.

How many of us this morning long to revive, reboot, refresh ourselves for the second half of our lives? The second half of high school? The second half of college? The second half of our career path? The second half of our family’s life? The second half our retirement plan? The most basic law of life is that “things change” and “nothing stays the same.” But the most challenging aspect of life is how we deal with this “law of life.” Things change. In the words of our kids, “Deal with it. Get over it. Or get help.”

From prison Paul wrote a letter to his friend, his co-worker, his trusted church and Christian community leader. In this letter Paul challenges Philemon to “refresh” himself and reboot his attitudes and expectations. But instead of being confrontational or combative, Paul’s highly personal letter is a model of how much easier it is to attract flies with honey than with vinegar. Paul’s focus is not on confronting Philemon, but on congratulating and celebrating this Christian colleague.

From the initial greeting Paul asserts that Philemon is a “dear friend and co-worker.” In the “thanksgiving” section (vss. 4-7) of this letter, Paul praises Philemon for his “love” (“agape”) and his faith (“pistos”) towards “all the saints” and towards “the Lord Jesus.” Paul also thanks Philemon for “sharing” his faith and for making his faith “effective” — that is, active — in the world. Faith alive is not static. Faith alive is an active, growing, dynamic thing…

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The Word Hate

"If anyone comes after me and does not hate ..." "Hate" is not primarily a feeling word in the Aramaic language, the language Jesus spoke. It is primarily a priority word. It means to abandon or to leave aside; the way a sailor needs to abandon a sinking ship or the way a general needs to leave aside distracting things to win his battle.

John G. Lynch, Troubled Journey, CSS Publishing Company.

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Breaking Away to Follow Christ

A while back Will Willimon, Dean of the Chapel down at Duke University, got a call from an upset parent, a VERY upset parent. "I hold you personally responsible for this," he said.

"Me?" Will asked.

The father was hot, upset because his graduate school bound daughter had just informed him that she was going to chuck it all ("throw it all away" was the way the father described it) and go do mission work with the Presbyterians in Haiti. "Isn't that absurd!" shouted the father. "A BS degree in mechanical engineering from Duke and she's going to dig ditches in Haiti."

"Well, I doubt that she's received much training in the Engineering Department here for that kind of work, but she's probably a fast learner and will probably get the hang of ditch-digging in a few months," Will said.

"Look," said the father, "this is no laughing matter. You are completely irresponsible to have encouraged her to do this. I hold you personally responsible," he said.

As the conversation went on, Dr. Willimon pointed out that the well-meaning but obviously unprepared parents were the ones who had started this ball rolling. THEY were the ones who had her baptized, read Bible stories to her, took her to Sunday School, let her go with the Presbyterian Youth Fellowship to ski in Vail. Will said, "You're the one who introduced her to Jesus, not me."

"But all we ever wanted her to be was a Presbyterian," said the father, meekly. Hmm.

David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, Adapted from William Willimon, Pulpit Resources, September 10, 1995, p. 45.

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The Challenge of Discipleship

Churches sometimes go to great lengths to get people to come to their church. Not long ago on a church called the Positive Impact Christian Church offered a door prize of $1,000. All the local newspapers reported this unusual approach to evangelism. However, the preacher was deeply disappointed when only thirty people showed up when he was anticipating hundreds. After all, he thought, who could resist the appeal of a $1,000 door prize for a lucky worshiper.

Contrast that experience with a newspaper ad that appeared in London in the 1800s which said, "Men wanted for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." Thousands of men lined up to volunteer because the ad was signed by Sir Ernest Shackleton preparing for his sea voyage seeking the Northwest Passage.

Which approach do we take in the church today? Do we make discipleship easy or challenging? Well, our text today leaves no doubt about the method Jesus took. Instead of giving something away, he demanded that his followers give everything up - or did he?

Mickey Anders, The Cost of Discipleship

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Scattershot Christianity

There is a story about a mountaineer who was noted for his marksmanship. When asked about his prowess, he said that it was rather simple: "I just fire a round into a large tree and then draw a bulls-eye around it." Most of us want our discipleship to come so easily and so cheaply. We really don’t appreciate it. Bonhoeffer tells us, "When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die." But Jesus is telling us that "the right stuff" can mean the sacrifice of everything for his sake.

Wallace H. Kirby, If Only..., CSS Publishing Company

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What about the Children?

Years ago a man named Millard Fuller was pretty near the apex of an American success story. He was a high-octane corporate executive working eight days a week and pulling down close to a million bucks a year. But then one day he heard God calling to him, telling him his life was overfull and his priorities out of whack. So in prayer with his wife one day, Fuller re-committed his life to Christ. He quit his job, moved to a more modest house, and wondered what to do next. What he ended up doing next was building affordable houses for low-income families who could purchase these homes interest-free. Today we are most of us well aware of the great good Habitat for Humanity has done.

A preacher once re-counted Fuller's story but was later approached by someone who asked, "How old were Fuller's children when he quit his job like that?" It took this preacher a minute to appreciate what lay behind this query: how dare Fuller uproot his kids and subject them to a less lavish lifestyle just so that he could serve God?! That is just the way lots of people think these days.

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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Hungry to Give

"People are hungry to give their lives to something more important than themselves. It is a fact of life, not only that everything costs us something, but that, in our better moments, we are even eager to pay the cost."

William Willimon

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Counting the Cost in Marriage

In order to live life fully and happily, we must be people who are able to count the cost in almost every area of living.

Marriage is one of those institutions which demands a high personal cost. The church's wedding ritual begins with these sobering words, words that are so often taken too lightly. It says, marriage is "not to be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, and in the fear of God." Each person makes a covenant to love, comfort, honor and take care of the other in sickness and in health. That can be a difficult commitment to keep if a spouse becomes critically ill or severely disabled. The husband and wife agree to stay with each other "for better, for worse, for richer for poorer ... till death do us part." A man and woman must count the cost of what they are getting into in marriage.

So it is also with having children. Did you see a recent letter to Ann Landers in the paper? It struck a chord with this expectant father heading toward his 40th birthday. The writer was talking about the mixed blessings of raising children in your 40s and 50s. It is true, I think, that an older father is more patient, and in a way, more appreciative of children.

However, as this letter-writer rightly suggests, raising children at a later age is also more difficult in many ways. Men or women in their 40s and 50s generally have a lower energy level, so taking the kids to Little League, attending PTA meetings and so forth tires parents much more.

Indeed, there are tremendous physical, emotional, and financial costs to raising children. Before having them, a couple should count the cost. There are just too many lonely and neglected and deprived children out there with parents who have not done so.

Donald William Dotterer, Living the Easter Faith, CSS Publishing Company.

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Would You Still Be His Disciple If You Lost Your All?

Jesus doesn’t call us to be "convenient Christians", he calls us to be committed Christians who put Him first above everything else — even if that means dad, mom, siblings, kids, work, vacations, playtime, money, homes, friends. This is where the Living Bible translation fits in. Jesus is saying to us as His followers, “Sit down, count your blessings and then renounce them all for me.” Would you still be His disciple if you lost your job? If you lost your savings? If you lost your health? If you lost your home? If you lost your wife and kids? Job said, “Though [God] slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Horatio Spafford lost all his earthly possessions in the Great Chicago fire. A short time later his wife and children were sailing to England when the ship sank and his children were lost. Immediately he went to join his wife in England. As his ship got to the spot where his children drowned he wrote these words, “When peace like a river attendeth my way. When sorrows like sea billows roll — whatever my lot thou has taught me to say, ‘It is well, it is well with my soul.’”

It is this kind of Christianity Jesus is looking for ... not a convenience thing, not a faith that we turn on when we want to or when we need it! Jesus is not looking for followers. He is looking for disciples. He is looking for people who will count the cost of being His disciple who will then say, “Yes!”

Jerry Ruff, Counting the Costs.

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Christians on a Pedestal

Have you ever had someone "put you up on a pedestal" for being a Christian? As much as you may protest, that person acts different around you. And treats you different from others. After all, you might go to church on Sunday, pray daily, and read Scripture regularly. You might even be involved in a renewal movement like the Charismatic Movement, Cursillo, or Marriage Encounter. That person admires you for being closer to God than he or she is. After all, you have a spiritual resume.

Unfortunately, people like those who put "good" Christians on pedestals miss the point. These behaviors and habits are good. But they do not define what makes a true follower. Devotion defines discipleship. The Christian makes Jesus the center of his or her life.

Larry Broding, What Makes A Disciple?

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Patronage

One of the facts of political life is patronage. When a party member works and contributes and votes for a candidate, he expects to get something out of it - a contract for his company, a job for his son, help in getting a bill passed. We accept it as a matter of course in political life. However, unfortunately this attitude carries over into other areas of life. For example, our community honored one of its famous citizens with a huge banquet for six hundred people. This person has many friends and even more "followers." It would be extremely difficult to compose a guest list. With that many involved there were bound to be some mix-ups.

On the day after the dinner I remarked to a friend in casual conversation, "I received two invitations, and I don't know why. I have not contributed to the cause."

He replied, "I have contributed several times, and I received no invitation." Then he added this significant statement: "Of course, they'll never get another dime from me. You see? I voted for them. Where is my patronage?"

It is most unfortunate when this attitude carries over into our relationship with God. Some of us look on our church membership and occasional contributions as a vote for Jesus. Sometimes we look on our church attendance as a favor to God or the minister, and on our prayers as a bargaining session with God. It becomes a give-and-take experience. I am voting for Jesus. Where is my patronage? I've been on your side all my life, God. How about a little pay-back?

Carveth Mitchell, The Sign in the Subway, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Absolute Devotion

I was reading one time about Alexander the Great, who was carrying his triumphant military campaign into a certain city. It was a strongly fortified walled city. Alexander approached the city and demanded to see the king and set out his terms of surrender. The king laughed at him and said, "Why should I surrender to you? You can't do us any harm! We can endure any siege."

Alexander said to the king, "I want you to watch this." Nearby within sight of the city walls was a sheer cliff. He ordered his men to line up in single file and to March towards the cliff. The city's citizens watched with horrified fascination as one by one Alexander the Great's men marched over the edge of that cliff and plunged to their deaths. After several men had obeyed his orders, he commanded them to halt. He then called his troops back to his side and stood silently facing the city.

The effect on the citizens and the king was stunning. From spell bound silence they moved to absolute terror. They realized they had no walls thick enough and no defense strong enough to protect themselves against that kind of commitment and that kind of devotion. Spontaneously they rushed through the gates to surrender themselves to Alexander the great.

That is the kind of surrender and sacrifice that Jesus is asking for. One thing you have to say about these terrorists, they are willing to die for what they believe. The tragedy is that terrorists are more willing to pay a price and are more willing to die for a lie than Christians are to live for the truth.

James Merritt, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Rebuilding a World View

In Lucien Price's The Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead, Whitehead tells how his personal and intellectual world came apart when the system of Newtonian physics proved inadequate to new research and experimentation. It was a time of great anguish and crisis for Whitehead. Anytime our world-view crumbles, it is a shattering experience. But we know that out of Whitehead's shambles came a new philosophic vision of the universe that has proved more satisfying and useful than the one that crumbled. Life's personal sufferings, hurts, defeats, and mistakes all have the possibility of being shaped into new perspectives and new visions. This is part of what the resurrection means.

Wallace H. Kirby, If Only..., CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Choices and Priorities

Sometimes when you have to choose between two things, you waver and hesitate: shall our siding be vinyl or aluminum? Should we heat with oil or gas? But in other cases, the choice is clear, and the decision is made without hesitation. You aren’t plagued with indecision about leaving work to tend to your child who suddenly falls very ill. Learn from your dog: drop a raw hamburger and his favorite toy on the floor in front of him, and see if he has any difficulty deciding what to do! Are your priorities that clear to you? Are spiritual things as important to you as food is to your dog? Do you react to spiritual things the way your dog reacts to the sound of the can opener?

Ken Collins, Family Values?

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Imagine If We Told the Whole Truth

Barbara Brown Taylor says Jesus wouldn’t have made a very good parish minister, andjudging from what he says here, I think she has a pretty good point. And that was just for starters. He goes on to talk about carrying one’s cross, about counting the cost, about giving up all one’s possessions. “Whoever does not...” Jesus is saying to them, “cannot.”

Yeah, I would think that would thin out the crowd in a hurry, don’t you? In fact, some of you, after hearing these words, might even be tempted not to come back to church. We certainly hope that won’t be the case, of course, but you never know.

If Jesus wouldn’t have made a very good parish minister, you can also figure he wouldn’t be an effective church-growth consultant. I’ve been to the seminars, have read the books and articles. I know what it takes, according to the experts, to build a church these days. In addition to the right demographics (I wonder if Jesus would appreciate or use that word, “demographics”), you have to create an environment where people feel accepted and have their primary needs met. Coffee shops in the foyer, that sort of thing, with the church’s own unique “house blend.”

In other words, you have to give them what they want, which appears to be the exact opposite of what Jesus is doing. “Whoever does not... cannot.”

Imagine if we told our greeters in the foyer to welcome our guests by saying something like this... “Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? After all, the Jesus whose name we are about to invoke in worship says we’ve got to hate our families and ourselves in order to follow him, and we have to give up our possessions. Think twice about it now, three times even. This is a hard, hard life you are being asked to choose. Sit down right now, before you go into the sanctuary, and check off the list of things you like most about your life, and then be willing to give them up. So think about it. Really think about it. Oh, and just in case you don’t understand where all this leads, remember that you have to pick up your cross daily in order to follow Jesus.”

Randy L. Hyde, Riot Control

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Is It Too Easy?

For those of us who preach, this passage has a lot of relevance. After all, how many of us in the church today are not there in large part because we were raised in the church? Yes, at some point most of us made some kind of conscious decision to be a follower of Jesus: we willingly went through confirmation, we initiated our own profession of faith, we underwent the sacrament of baptism, etc. But do those formal, “typical” ways of growing up into church membership rise to the level of thoughtful seriousness and astute calculations that Jesus talks about in Luke 14?

In short, do WE find it altogether too easy to fall into line behind Jesus? Especially in America, is it relatively painless to join the vast throngs that crowd into the more popular churches in the land? Many churches have in recent years and decades done all in their power to make it convenient to be a member of the church: they have established excellent parking lot flow patterns, they have greeters and Information Booths and family-friendly programming for every conceivable need for every possible age group and offer sermons guaranteed to provide advice for things like “Five Ways to Grow Your Business” and “Seven Ways to a Healthy Marriage” and “Four Ways to Raise Successful Children.”

With programming like this, it seems unlikely that once people enter into these churches that they will hear pastors saying things that appear calculated to make them walk right back out the door. Indeed, a well-known pastor of a large church in Minneapolis recently had over 1,000 members leave his church after he shared some political thoughts that the pastor knew up front would not sit well with his congregation but that he believed were true to the gospel message he was charged to preach truthfully. The spectacle of a pastor willingly sacrificing some members was so rare, it made headlines all around the nation

The relative rarity of that kind of thing makes news. And that kind of makes you wonder…

Scott Hoezee, Comments and Observations

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Courage to Commit: Stand Up and Be Counted

Some years ago Premier Khrushchev was speaking before the Supreme Soviet and was severely critical of the late Premier Stalin. While he was speaking someone from the audience sent up a note: "What were you doing when Stalin committed all these atrocities?" Khrushchev shouted, "Who sent up that note?" Not a person stirred.

"I'll give him one minute to stand up!" The seconds ticked off. Still no one moved.

"All right, I'll tell you what I was doing. I was doing exactly what the writer of this note was doing--exactly nothing! I was afraid to be counted!"

James Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited, Tyndale, p. 128.

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Trusting in the Best of Things at the Worst of Times

The year 1653 was not a good time for religion in England. Destruction and apathy about the faith and the church were widespread. But Sir Robert Shirley saw beyond the evil and chaos - he founded a church. And on a plaque in that church is this tribute to this man: "He stood for the best of things in the worst of times." Trusting in the resurrection can bring us to heroism large and small.

Wallace H. Kirby, If Only..., CSS Publishing Company

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Working Hard

David Livingston, one of the most virile Christian leaders of all time, had as his motto "Fear God, and work hard." He learned it in his austere home in Scotland and practiced it all his life. Livingston belongs to that select company of souls who not only know that not only good intentions are not enough but know also that their most strenuous efforts will not complete the really big jobs. Even so, they tackle them with all the energy they have and for all the days God gives them to live.

Harold A. Bosley, The Minister's Manuel 1993, HarperSanFrancisco, p. 169.

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Sometimes Love Does Not Count The Cost of Its Commitment

William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her life by breathing the child's breath. Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, the child said, "Momma, kiss me!" Without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter she went to be forever with the Lord. Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn't count the cost. The Bible says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it."

Source Unknown

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Different Priorities

Off to college she went, but not just any college. She went to one of the elite schools, one that just this week made U.S. News and World Report’s Top 10. What was all the more impressive was that she was the first in her family to even go beyond high school. Never before had it happened, and her family was rightly proud. They looked forward to her future. They just knew that someday they would introduce her as "Our daughter the doctor" or "Our daughter the lawyer." And it was possible. She had that kind of mind and drive.

But something happened there at college. Something got into her—and it was God. She became a disciple of Jesus Christ. And that changed everything—even her relationship to her parents. No longer was their dream her dream. No longer was what they wanted for her what she wanted. She had different priorities, priorities that turned her away from them. And so today, when her parents are asked about her, they have had to learn to say, "Our daughter? Oh, she’s a Peace Corp volunteer digging ditches in Ethiopia."

Her allegiance was to Christ, even at the cost of her family’s dream.

Donald M. Tuttle

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The Little Things

It is folly to think that because I am only one and can do very little, and that what I do counts for little, I need not do anything. As if a soldier should say that, since he is only one man, he might as well knock off and go to the movies. It would mean that the battle would be lost. All of us are ready to do some big spectacular thing--to go into the spotlight. But it is the tireless doing of obscure, unknown things, the endless hidden fidelities and goodnesses, that really count. That things are as well with us as they are is due to quiet, anonymous loyalties.

Joseph Fort Newton, The Minister's Manuel, HarperSanFrancisco, p. 169.

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The Cosmic Truth of the Cross

The cross symbolizes a cosmic as well as historic truth. Love conquers the world, but its victory is not an easy one. The old does not give way to the new without trying to overcome it.

Reinhold Niebuhr

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Crucified Followers

What the Lord here commands is, that each follower should take up, not his Savior's cross, but his own. The requirement is, that as Christ bore his own cross to his own crucifixion, so his followers should bear each his own cross to his own crucifixion. So the great crucified leader is followed by an endless train of crucified followers. They are crucified symbolically, in all their sufferings of mind or body, in behalf of Christ and of truth. Each follower who hath the spirit of his Master, is crucified in fact or in readiness of spirit. The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of martyrdom.

D.D. Whedon, Commentary on the Gospels, Vol. Matthew-Mark, p. 137

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Making Sacrifices

We are not a people generally who are willing to make sacrifices. I know there are exceptions, but as a whole we have become a people in love with comfort. We drive comfortable automobiles and we live in comfortable houses and we even belong to comfortable churches. Doesn't it concern you at times that perhaps we have chosen the wide gate and not the narrow one, the easy road and not the road that leads to life?

Chiune Sugihara was born on a day of new beginnings January 1, 1900. As a boy, he cherished the dream of becoming the Japanese ambassador to Russia. By the 1930s, he was the ambassador to Lithuania, just a step away from Russia.

One morning, a huge throng of people gathered outside his home. They were Jews who had made their way across treacherous terrain from Poland, desperately seeking his help. They wanted Japanese visas, which would enable them to flee Eastern Europe and the Gestapo.

Three times Sugihara wired Tokyo for permission to provide the visas; three times he was rejected. He had to choose between the fulfillment of his dream as an ambassador and people's lives. He chose the latter. He dared to disobey orders. For twentyeight days he wrote visas by hand, barely sleeping or eating. Recalled to Berlin, he was still writing visas and shoving them through the train windows into the hands of the refugees who ran alongside. Ultimately he saved six thousand lives.

Sugihara was not only a courageous Japanese; he was also a committed Christian. He spent his remaining days in Japan, humbly selling lightbulbs. When his story was finally told, his son was asked, "How did your father feel about his choice?" The young man replied, "My father's life was fulfilled. When God needed him to do the right thing, he was available to do it."

King Duncan, adapting Stephen Arterburn, The Power Book (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996),www.Sermons.com

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Missing the Obvious

Martin Marty, in "Context" (November 1997), spoke of a financial planner who observed after many years of advise giving "When clients talk to me about their estates, they usually say, 'If I die,' not 'when I die.' Even 80-year-olds use the conditional."

Brett Blair, www.Sermons.com

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Are You Available?

Writer Frederick Buechner tells about his wife's greatgrandfather, a man named George Shinn. Shinn was a pastor back in 1880. He was summoned one midnight to the bedside of an old woman who lived by herself. She had little money and few friends, and she was dying. She told Shinn that she wanted another woman to come stay with her for such time as she might have left, so Shinn and the old woman's doctor struck out in the darkness to try to dig one up for her. It sounds like a parable the way it is told. They knocked at doors and threw pebbles at second story windows. One woman said she couldn't come because she had children. Another said she simply wouldn't know what to do, what to be, in a crisis like that. Another was suspicious of two men prowling around at that hour of night and wouldn't even talk to them. But finally, as the memoir of Dr. Shinn puts it in the prose of another age, "They rapped at the humble door of an Irish woman, the mother of a brood of children. She put her head out of the window. “Who's there?' she said. “And what can you want at this time of night?” They tell her the situation, her warm, Irish heart cannot resist. “Will you come?” “Sure and I'll come, and I'll do the best I can.” And she did come," the account ends. "She did the best she could."

This woman was willing. She was available. Is there a warmer word in our language? Available. It means, I'm here when you call. I'm ready, willing, able.

Great crowds were following Jesus. He turned around and said to them: "Anyone who wants to be my follower must love me far more than he does his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, or sisters yes, more than his own life otherwise he cannot be my disciple."

Jesus was asking, "Are you available?"

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Planning for the Crisis

Failing to plan, the old adage goes, is planning to fail. And it’s true whether we are talking about starting a business or finishing a life.

There are probably a couple of reasons why some people refuse to plan. One is a feeling of helplessness. You probably have heard that cry of despair that goes like this: “If you want to make God laugh, show him your calendar.” That is, you’ve made plans and then, Whack!, out of the blue an event occurs--a crisis with your health, or the loss of a job, or a divorce or a problem with one of your kids--and all your well-made plans are knocked askew. It happens to us all.

It’s like the story of two explorers who were on a jungle safari when suddenly a ferocious lion jumped in front of them.

“Keep calm,” the first explorer whispered. “Remember what we read in that book on wild animals? If you stand perfectly still and look the lion in the eye, he will turn and run.”

“Sure,” replied his companion. “You’ve read the book, and I’ve read the book. But has the lion read the book?”

That’s how some of us feel about long-term planning. Why make plans that you probably will not be able to see through to fruition? And it’s true that life does have a way of knocking us off course. That is why part of our planning and preparation should take into consideration life crises, for surely they will come.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons,www.Sermons.com

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Bearing the Cross

At long last, Laura McDermott had fulfilled her lifelong dream. All she could ever think of doing with her life since she was a kid was to be a doctor. Now no one in the McDermott family had ever been to college before, let alone medical school. Her parents, therefore, were constantly reminding her of the obstacles in her path. "Are you sure you know what you are getting into?" her parents would quiz her periodically. Laura's friends pointed to other obstacles. "Are you sure you want to put yourself through that much schooling? It's really hard work. Is it worth it?"

Laura McDermott persisted. She got through college and medical school. Laura McDermott was a doctor at last. She had lived her dream. But the dream soon turned into a nightmare. Dr. McDermott was hired to work with a group of physicians. That's exactly as she had imagined it. She would be one of two general practitioners in a group which included many specialists as well. An ideal work environment she thought. And it started out well. Soon enough, however, problems began to emerge.

The first problem that faced Dr. McDermott was that she was one of only two women doctors on the clinic staff. The other G.P. was a man with a few years' experience. It became clear to her quite soon that he was getting far more referrals than she was from the other physicians at the clinic. What was even worse, however, was that when she referred patients to some of the specialists they would quite often check out her referral with the other G.P. Her peers clearly did not trust her judgment.

Laura did not know what to make of this situation. Was it because she was young that this happened or because she was a woman? She tried to find out. She asked hard questions around the clinic. But she got no straight answers. It was like a conspiracy of silence had formed around her. Dr. McDermott was devastated.

The other problem was that she just didn't like some of the doctors with whom she worked. They were just not nice people she thought. Friction was in the air at the clinic all the time because of the personalities that worked there. It was not a good work atmosphere. She hated to go to work each day. The whole situation was just awful.

The situation got so bad, in fact, that Dr. McDermott just had to talk to somebody about it. At her church she had met and made friends with another woman about her age, Doris Pagel, who worked for the local chamber of commerce. Laura thought that Doris might have some insights for her about the kind of people that made up their town. Maybe she had the situation figured out all wrong. She hoped Doris could help.

Dr. McDermott took Doris Pagel out for dinner one night and told her sad tale. Doris' first reaction caught Laura by surprise. "Nobody ever said being a doctor would be easy," she said. Laura assured Doris that she knew that. It's just that so many other things had entered the picture that surprised her with the reality of just how hard it was for her to serve God by living out her vocation as a doctor.

"Well you know," said Doris, "I read somewhere that we don't choose our own crosses. God just lays crosses upon us in the midst of our attempts to serve. Through our struggles God is often at work molding us into the kind of person God wants us to be.""

Richard A. Jensen, Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit