Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C 4th September 2022
Lectionary Readings: Deuteronomy 30 v15-20; Psalm 1; Philemon v1-21; Luke 14 v25-33.
The seemingly impossible demands of being a disciple.
Jesus said, “You cannot be my disciples unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life. You cannot be my disciples unless you carry your own cross and come with me. You cannot be my disciples unless you give away everything you own”. (Luke 14, v26,27, 33).
Jesus was asking a lot of his would be disciples. He asked them to place him above family and loved ones, to give away their worldly goods and to follow him, carrying their own cross.
By using the phrase ‘their own cross’, I think he means their fears and failings, their regrets and feelings of inadequacy. In other words, to surrender their all to Jesus.
The reading from Luke’s gospel doesn’t say what Jesus will give them in return. But if we look back a few verses and forward a few verses we find Jesus’ teachings about the ‘Great Banquet’ (Luke 14 v15-23) and his ‘Lost and Found’ stories, (Luke 15 v1-32). Jesus was inviting his followers to look beyond their narrow vision of how the world seems to be and appreciate the riches of God’s vision for us, as children of his family and citizens of his kingdom.
Many years before Jesus, Moses said to the people of Israel, “Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster”. (Deuteronomy 30 v15). Moses urged the people of Israel to obey God’s commands and not to reject him by worshipping other gods. Moses ends his plea by saying, “Be completely faithful to the Lord your God, love him and do whatever he tells you. The Lord is the only one who can give life”. (Deuteronomy 30 v20a).
The Psalmist takes up this theme by comparing a person who is obedient to God’s commands with a fruit-bearing tree. (Psalm 1)
Jesus challenges us with a choice today. We can choose ‘life’ by following him, or ‘death’ by worshipping our own man-made gods.
God’s vision for our world as a place where justice and mercy reign supreme, where we can live in harmony with others and our environment, will only be realised if we are willing to play our part.
Hymn writer Fred Pratt Green reminds us who the world belongs to and how we can play our part: (Singing the Faith 705)
It is God who holds the nations in the hollow of his hand;
it is God whose light is shining in the darkness of the land;
it is God who builds the City on the rock and not on sand: may the living God be praised!
It is God whose purpose summons us to use the present hour;
who recalls us to our senses when a nation’s life turns sour;
in the discipline of freedom we shall know God’s saving power: may the living God be praised!
When a thankful nation, looking back, has cause to celebrate
those who win our admiration by their giving to the state;
when self-giving is a measure of the greatness of the great: may the living God be praised!
God reminds us every sunrise that the world is ours on lease:
for the sake of life tomorrow may our love for it increase;
may all races live together, share it riches, be at peace: may the living God be praised!
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English version.