“Now, What Is This Gonna Cost Me?”

(Luke 14:25-33)

 Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “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.  Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?  If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.  So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”

            I’m warning you upfront.  This is an oldie, but goodie.  I preached it on Sept 4, 2016, and I think it was here, so for those of you who remember it, I apologize upfront for you having to listen again.  But if you’re like me, you’re not going to remember much from 9 years ago, especially a sermon!!

So, some of you recall the name Rex Humbard, right?  For those who don’t or who need a little reminder of the details, back in the 1940’s, Rex and his younger brother, Clem, arrived in northeast Ohio from Arkansas.  Clem led tent revivals in Youngstown and ultimately built a big church over there, and Rex was an evangelist in Akron.  Rex did so well that he eventually built the Cathedral of Tomorrow in Cuyahoga Falls and was a pioneer in the business of TV evangelism.  He was amazingly successful at reaching out to people across the air waves and, as a result, touched a lot of lives and raised a lot of money.

            My family would sometimes visit my grandparents on Saturday evenings, and they would be gathered around the TV watching Rex preach which I thought was pretty boring.  But then he and his wife Maude Aimee would sing after the sermonizing.  Maude Aimee with her big 1960’s hairdo and long sparkly dresses, Rex, handsome in a sort of slick way, were good singers and they did seem like dedicated and sincere people.

            In the course of time, Rex got involved in some non-religious ventures.  He built the State Road plaza (which was recently razed and the popular Portage Crossing rose up from its ashes).  He invested in a women’s underwear factory in Indiana, and, what I’m about to tell you is why I mention him today.  Something in today’s lesson reminded me of this thing.  ???

            Yes, so Rex kicked off the ground-breaking of his tower structure beside the Cathedral of Tomorrow.  But… he began building it before he had secured the full funding of the project.  Rex promised his adoring public that atop that tower would be built a restaurant that would slowly turn and that the view from the top would be magnificent.  But, alas, he got into financial troubles and had more than a few problems with the IRS, and, as you all know, the tower still stands unfinished, part of kind of a sad landscape.

            So, let’s see, what’s that quote again from Jesus in today’s Luke reading?  “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?”

            Now, this sermon is not primarily about how Rex Humbard overextended himself, although it certainly makes a statement about people who put money and possessions before their love of God.  Instead, it’s really about all of us and about how we need to know exactly what the cost of following Jesus is.

            Jesus starts all this by saying, “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate everyone who is precious to her or him cannot be my disciple.” Now this is just extreme language that Jesus uses to knock us against the wall.  While we are picking ourselves up, we might reflect on it all, thinking, “Could Jesus have meant, that we must put God absolutely first in our lives?  Could Jesus have thought that he had to be THAT radical in his language so that he could get across the message that being a disciple is THAT tough and THAT important?  Could we human beings be so dense that we need to hear extreme language in order to understand the message?  Yes, to all of the above.

            Once Jesus has our attention, he then makes his case in a more typical way.  He gives us what we will henceforth call the Humbard Argument about counting the cost before you build a tower.

            Logic tells us we must count the cost before we sign a contract to build, before we go to war, before we follow Jesus on the way to the cross. In Jesus’ words, whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”  But we need to be clear about what’s at stake.

            I’ve noticed over the past few years that silver crosses have become quite popular, not only as jewelry but as home décor, as well.  On the one hand, this is kind of cool.  The sign of our faith is everywhere.  On the other hand, it’s a little spooky.  Do we, do they, really know what the cross represents?  It’s not just an attractive symbol of the Christian faith.  It is a reminder of the difficult road, the self-sacrificing way, the non-materialistic lifestyle, the denial of self, the risk-of-ridicule-when-we-love everyone, especially those who don’t look or act like us.  The cross is a reminder of the God-first life that a disciple of Christ chooses.  It’s a reminder that, if we adopt Jesus’ way of living, it will instill hatred among those who disagree with us.  It’s a sign of the danger that comes when we choose a life that is in contrast to what the world thinks is important. 

Those Christians who sheltered slaves before and during the Civil War could teach us a thing or two about being disciples of Christ.  The Christians who hid Jews in Eastern Europe during Hitler’s reign in Germany paid dearly for following a moral compass of love and compassion.  Firefighters and police officers who risk their lives for others everyday know what could happen when they put others first.  All of these understand the high cost of discipleship. 

            Jesus lays it on the line.  He is calling us to a life in which nothing comes before our faith in God and how that governs our lives.  Jesus’ last line is a tough one to hear, as well.  “You may as well know, none of you can become my disciples if you don’t give up all your possessions.”

            The thing is, none of us is going to be able to achieve discipleship fully.  Oh yeah, we’re told that the disciples dropped everything and followed Jesus early on, but then, later we hear them argue about who’s going to sit on what side of Jesus in paradise or complain to Jesus about going to town to spend money to get enough food to feed the crowds.

            We are all going to lose sight of God’s vision for our world and Jesus’ example sometimes.  Even St. Mother Teresa, claimed she was out of touch with God in her last years of ministry; all the while she continued her extreme, self-sacrificing mission.  We have to know that no one of us will be able to fully earn the title of disciple.  It’s important, though, to realize what we’re up against, to know the sort of allegiance that is needed, to count the cost of being a disciple of Christ.

            And so I got to thinking about all this and began to wonder “what is the cost to our humanity, to our souls, of choosing against being a disciple of Christ?  Now, hang in with me as I work through this.  So far I’ve spent a lot of time talking about the cost of being a disciple, but I’ll take it a little further.  Disciples have to be willing to give their lives for the sake of the Gospel message, which is essentially, love God, love one another.  And this is not simply wearing a cross around our necks or putting a bumper sticker on our cars, or spouting cheap words about how religious we are. This is caring so much for all God’s children that we make it our mission to know that they will be able to live as well as we do.  This is standing up so that others are not treated like garbage.  It is being generous enough so that refugees have a place of refuge, it is refusing to join any outfit that vilifies a whole group of people, it is giving of ourselves so that all of us can live in a just society.

            So, what is the cost of saying, “It is too darned hard to be a disciple?”  What is the cost of giving up on Jesus’ hope and vision for us?  The cost is that we will be living in a world in which the people with money and goods hold all the power, and they will hold on for dear life to protect their money and power.  It is a world of hatred of others who may threaten our wealth or power.  It is a world in which people WILL die and do die because of that hatred and ugliness.  It is a world in which the lives of those who are not us become cheap and disposable to us.  This is the cost of non-discipleship, of turning our backs on the loving, self-giving message of the Gospel.  We become heartless, and our souls die.  I contend that it is better that our bodies die than our souls.

            The message of the Gospel is the life, death and resurrection of Christ.  It is Jesus saying when you have done a deed of loving and caring to the least of these, you have done it to me.  It is the message of today’s reading from the Gospel of Luke.  Christianity is a way of being, of living, a way of doing things differently from the world’s ways.  Being a disciple demands sacrifice, undivided loyalty to a higher purpose.  It is putting our money, power and time into something that is bigger than us as individuals. Disciples put God first before everything else. 

I want you to think really hard about this all this through this week.  I want you to listen with new ears to what is going on in our world, and I want you to imagine how we can save the soul of ourselves, our nation and our world—working alongside Jesus.