In a recent David Letterman show, Letterman offered his live audience a videotape depicting what he called an incident that took place during a hunting expedition at President Bush's Texas ranch. The clip (actually one that has been around for a while) shows a big, burly hunter, outfitted in the latest camouflage gear, high-powered rifle in hand, being furiously attacked by a deer.

The buck jumps on his hind legs and attacks the hunter, slashing and stomping with his strong front legs. The hunter keeps trying to escape, backing up, falling down, struggling to stand, all the while the fearsome, ferocious Bambi is smacking him in the head, chest, arms, and legs with his flying hooves . . . not to mention a few good antlered head-butts. At the end of the clip the vanquished hunter picks up his rifle and runs away, stumbling and staggering, as fast as he can.

There's nothing like reality to shake us loose from our comfortable, warm, fuzzy preconceptions. No, deer are not always liquid-eyed, shy and retiring, meek and afraid. When threatened they can turn into a whirling Cuisinart of horns and hooves that inflict real injury.

Jesus spent his lifetime challenging preconceptions, shocking sensibilities, upsetting apple-carts (or at least sellers' tables in the Temple), and testing traditions. Although he lived the life of a pious, observant, first-century Jew, Jesus spent his ministry teaching that those categories were not the defining essence of his being, or of his faith. Jesus challenged his people, the people of the Book, to go beyond the written tenets of the Torah and to feel the living heartbeat of faith in their own lives.

Today's gospel text demonstrates vividly how Jesus' fresh definition of faithfulness and his call to discipleship could so unsettle his listeners' preconceptions and predilections that they would flee from his words and presence.

After centuries of celebrating Eucharist ceremonies, Christians no longer appreciate the bizarre, insulting, almost blasphemous nature of Jesus' blood and body language. For Jesus to insist his Jewish followers must drink his blood would be like the President of the United States insisting that true patriots must burn the flag, or Alan Greenspan arguing that responsible corporations must stop investing and spend all of their profits on the salaries of their employees. Such words are totally incongruous with what we expect to hear from our leaders, not to mention from what we understand as reasonable and responsible behavior.

Jesus wasn't concerned with what was reasonable. His understanding of what was responsible looked to God's rules, not human laws, as its ultimate authority. When it came to offering comfortable images of how a life lived in faithfulness to God would look, Jesus blew away all the traditional models.

Jesus called disciples . . .

to righteousness, not respectability; to actions, not assertions; to justice, not jurisprudence; to trust, not tradition; to sacrifice, not sanctimony; to love, not legalism; to compassion, not convention; to prayer, not profits. To everything that the world holds up and holds onto as the symbols of success, of goodness, of power, Jesus declared . . .

DROP IT!

I invited some "Bambis" here to church this morning. One of the hardest lessons to teach an animals is to "DROP IT!" You can teach a dog to sit, to lie down, to roll over. But to drop it?

[Ask a couple of your parishioners who have dogs trained to drop it to bring their dogs to church and go through the drop it routine with them. Experiment with a variety of items that become increasingly difficult to drop, ending with a steak bone.]

Jesus' entire teaching was punctuated with one Drop it! after another.

Jesus said to the disciples, "DROP IT!"

"Don't worry about what you will eat or drink. Is not life more important than food? Look at the birds of the air; they do not so or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them." (Matthew 6:25-26).

This doesn't mean that Jesus wants you to go hungry. This means that Jesus wants you to trust him to feed you.

"DROP IT!" Drop your illusions of self-sufficiency. Trust in God's providence and provisions.

Jesus said to the security-minded, safety-first disciples, "DROP IT!" When you go out into the world, Jesus told his disciples, "take no bread" and "take no bag" for the journey.

This doesn't mean that we should be unconcerned about where our next meal is coming from or not plan ahead for our nation's security, for our physical safety, for our kids' future.

"DROP IT!" means be free to live sacrificially, not driven by how full your pantry, how full your portfolio.

Jesus says to you this morning, "DROP IT!" If you're lugging around bags of guilt and regret, Jesus says, "DROP IT!" Hebrews 12 tells you to "lay aside every weight." PUT IT DOWN.

"DROP IT!"

Jesus says to the self-righteous this morning, "DROP IT!" If you're proud of your spiritual accomplishments, and love to show trophies of your spiritual successes, Jesus says, close your bags and put your prizes away. DROP IT!

What do you need to drop this morning? One of the hardest things in life is to learn to drop it! One of the biggest reasons why people stopped following Jesus was because they couldn't drop their habits and preconceptions.

What are you having trouble dropping? What do you need to drop this morning?

Are you a control freak, a control junkie?

DROP IT!

Do you have a secret sin that no one knows about?

DROP IT!

Is your life trembling from fear and anxiety?

DROP IT!

Are you reluctant to give up your preconceptions?

DROP IT!

Drop it at the foot of the cross.