Prayer: Come Holy Spirit, come.  Take my lips and speak with them.  Take our minds and think with them.  Take our hearts and set them on fire with love for you.  In Christ’s name, we ask it.  Amen

During my days as a Youth Minister, one of the areas of responsibility assigned to me was being the Acolyte Master.  I was in charge of recruiting, training and scheduling Acolytes to serve at the Sunday services.  Now, being an Acolyte Master has its pros and cons.  On the one hand, the blessing of working with the Acolytes is getting to know the students individually while helping them learn a whole lot about how and why we worship the way we do as Episcopalians.  On the other hand, the negative is, or at least was for me, putting together the weekly schedule and, even more challenging, being sure that the acolytes got out of bed at home and into their robes at church before their service began.  If any of you grew up as acolytes (If any of you are currently an acolyte or are the parent of an acolyte), you will know what I am talking about.  A young acolyte running into the vesting room 2 minutes before the service starts, hair standing straight up, sleep in their eyes, a dazed look on their face—as an Acolyte Master this is a stressful moment.

Now, occasionally an acolyte would have to call me a week or so before their scheduled service to tell me they had a conflict.  There were all sorts of reasons for this and almost all of them were good.  Going out of town with the family…leaving for a school trip…visiting Grandma in Dallas…etc…  However, there was a call that I got from time to time that always made me a little sad.  It made my heart ache just a bit.  It was when a parent would call me on a Thursday or Friday, leaving me little time to find a substitute, to tell me that their son or daughter just couldn’t make it to his or her scheduled service on Sunday morning.  You see, Johnny or Sally or whoever it was simply could not make it to church at 11:15 AM on Sunday morning because Senior Girl’s formal was Saturday night.  The poor child would be up all night at the party and simply could not be asked to get up early the next morning to fulfill his or her ministry. 

Now before any of you mistakenly take me for an overly pious fuddy-duddy.  Remember, I’m Episcopalian, and I love a great party.  What made me a little sad were the disordered priorities of both the parent and the child.  My solution would not have been to miss the party.  My solution would have been to do both.  Acolyting tired and taking a nap after church would have been a perfectly acceptable option in my opinion (I’m pretty sure that happens all the time!).  This solution would have fulfilled his or her obligation to the ministry…and saved room for the party!  But that was clearly not an option for these families.  These disordered priorities are what made my heart ache a bit.

Today’s Gospel lesson is about weighing the options presented to us in life and then ordering them.  Jesus is in affect saying to us today that there is one priority for us would be Christians that stands before all others, one priority that should sit at the top of the heap, one priority that should be valued more than anything else in our lives.  That priority is of course following Jesus—becoming what I like to call a Christ follower. 

When I was a child at summer camp, and perhaps the same it true for you, we would talk about the big three—the three most significant priorities in the lives of a Christ follower.  In order of importance, they are God (number 1), other people (number 2), and myself (number 3).  We would all walk around camp holding up three fingers to remind each other of these most important priorities with God in Christ always first. 

Now I wish I could sort of end here and say that being a Christ follower is as simple as showing up for some ministry that we sighed up for in church or going to a Christian summer camp or holding up three fingers, but we know that is untrue.  In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus says further that being a disciple—being a Christ follower—involves real and significant commitment—perhaps even sacrifice.  Therefore, we should not enter into a relationship with God in Christ unadvisedly or lightly but reverently and deliberately.  Too often, churches and preachers present the Gospel of Jesus Christ as though they are selling a used car or refinancing a home loan.  They make it sound as easy as possible, as though no real commitments are required.  Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel lesson says something altogether different.  Jesus is not looking for superficial commitments or a band of tag-a-longs.  Instead, Jesus requires his followers to be totally committed to living his ethic of self-giving love—in all that they do and all that they are.

Jesus says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”  This call to total commitment discipleship is difficult for us to hear because it sounds so extreme.  The word hate coming from the mouth of Jesus sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.  Nonetheless, Jesus is intentionally being extreme.  This lesson should not be soft peddled.  Christ followers should be willing to give up everything, even our very lives, for the welfare of God’s people and the furtherance of God’s kingdom on earth.  If we want to confront this Gospel lesson with integrity, we must ask ourselves, “How far am I willing to go?  How much am I willing to give up? How far am I willing to go to follow Jesus?” 

It is important to note that the word translated hate into English from the Greek does not mean anger or hostility.  It means that if there is a conflict between being a Christ follower and anything else, one’s response to the demands of following Jesus must take precedence—even over the most sacred of human relationships.  We are not to despise our loved ones, but we are not to worship them either.  There is no duty higher than our commitment to follow Jesus. 

Jesus continues his teaching by telling two parables that might aptly be entitled, “Fools at Work and at War.”  Jesus is drawing our intention to a simple observation: A prudent person would not begin a project until first being sure that it could be completed.  A man would not lay a foundation for a tower unless he was sure that the tower could be built.  Likewise, a king would not go into battle unless he was sure he had enough soldiers to resist the opposing force.  By the same token, Jesus did not go to Jerusalem and ultimately the cross without first being prepared to face the sacrifice that would be required of him there.  The application for our lives is that we should be prepared to forsake any and everything before stepping forward to be a disciple of Jesus. 

Now before everybody is totally distressed and freaked out, let me say that no person can really know whether he or she will be able to completely fulfill the commitment required of Christ followers.  Jesus is not asking for a guarantee in advance from you and me to an unfailing discipleship before becoming a Christian.  If Jesus were looking for that kind of commitment from anyone of us, no one would qualify.  Jesus is simply calling those of us who want to be his followers to consider reverently and deliberately what that commitment requires—and to follow through on that commitment with our very best.  Jesus is reminding us that our faith, our relationship with him, and our participation in church, which is his body, should have a direct impact on the way we order our lives.  In other words, being a Christ follower is more than what we profess with our lips on Sunday—it is also about how we chose to live our lives in each and every moment.

There was an article several years ago in USA Today about a retired woman named Eleanor Boyer.  She is a 73-year-old woman who won the state lottery and created a sensation by saying she’d give the money to her church and charity.  And she has.  Mrs. Boyer explains, “I have my pension and Social Security.  I have everything I need.  Why let the money sit in the bank till I die?”  “Which explains why,” the article says, “three weeks after hitting the jackpot, she signed over $5.9 million to her parish church, which has 2,800 families and a day school (it would be real cool if she went to church here!).  Since then, she has been giving what’s left to various charitable organizations, to needy individuals in her neighborhood and to her three nephews—her only close relatives.”  The article continues, “She still drives the same faded yellow 1969 Chevy Malibu with a peeling white vinyl roof, still wears the same sensible shoes, beige trench coat and mustard yellow hat, and she still lives in the same gray [house] where she was born in 1924.”

Mrs. Boyer truly believes that she does not need the lottery winnings, and so she is using her fortune, as a Christ follower should: to support the ministry of the church and to help others.  Along with this effort comes for Mrs. Boyer a sense of satisfaction that no luxury limo or marble-floored mansion could ever provide.  That’s the great paradox discovered when one chooses to follow Christ.  Those who are willing to lose their lives discover a new life that is full of joy—a life that is rare and rich with meaning. 

Reordering our lives to make following Christ the number one priority will look different for each of us.  For some people, a redirection of time and energy might be required, for others a change in a personal relationship or a change in vocation could be in order, and still for others a commitment of financial resources might be what is needed; but for each of us the call to be a Christ follower is all consuming.  It is priority number one.  Amen.      

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