The Cost of Discipleship
Sermon
Mission Possible!
Cycle B sermons for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany Based on Gospel Texts
Sha Jahan was the emperor of India during the 1600s. When he lost his wife he was devastated. In fact, his grief was so great that he decided to build a grand temple that would serve as her tomb. Her coffin was placed in the center of a large piece of land and a big temple was built around it. The emperor was determined to build a magnificent resting place for his wife.
However, as the weeks turned into months the emperor’s grief was overshadowed by his passion for the project. He was obsessed with the construction. One day, while walking from one side of the construction site to the other, he tripped over a wooden box. In frustration he ordered that the box be thrown out. What he did not realize was that he had ordered the disposal of his wife’s coffin. The person the temple was supposed to honor was forgotten, but it was built anyway.
This story haunts me. Could someone build an elaborate tribute and forget the hero? Yes, it can happen. The scary thing is that it can happen to our faith. It is possible to practice faith and forget who we put our faith in. It is possible to sing the hymns and forget the one we are singing to. It is possible to say a prayer and forget who we are praying to.
It’s possible to get lost in the midst of our faith. In fact, it has been my experience that sometimes those who seem to have the strongest faith are the most lost. Sometimes in our ambition to follow God we forget who God is, what God wants us to do, and why he wants us to do it. We stumble. We make mistakes. Our relationships get tangled up. We find ourselves in a mess wondering how we got so lost. We went to worship. We read the Bible. We prayed. We thought we were doing the right thing. We followed the rules. Where did it all go wrong? How did it get so confusing? How did we stray so far from the path?
Maybe you made a decision thinking it was the right thing to do and it has just made things worse. Maybe you said something you thought needed to be said and it blew up in your face. Maybe you have done something you thought would please God and now you know in your heart you should have handled things differently. You have hurt yourself and others.
Living out our faith in this messy world can be difficult. It is easy to lose our way. This is why from time to time we need to find “true north” for our faith (actually I mean “magnetic north” but true north sounds better!). A compass always points to magnetic north to help us travel in the right direction. The good news is Jesus gave us “true north” in his teachings. When we are lost and confused all we have to do is remember Jesus’ most important lesson and we can get on the right path again.
We get lost when we forget this lesson from Jesus. We can study the Bible and still get lost. We can go to worship every week and still get lost. We can follow the rules and behave and still get lost. We can look religious, keep our noses clean, and follow all ten of the commandments and still miss who God is and what his desire is for us.
In the second chapter of the gospel of Mark we see an example of how the most religious people can be the most lost. The Pharisees were chastising Jesus’ disciples for plucking the heads of grain to eat on the sabbath. According to their strict interpretation of the law, the Pharisees considered this work and no one was allowed to work on the sabbath. Jesus told them to get some perspective. He mentioned a time when David broke ceremonial law to feed hungry people. He told the Pharisees, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
We can get spiritually lost like the Pharisees if we don’t remember Jesus’ most important lesson. If you will take this lesson to heart it will never fail to guide you. If you will remember this lesson you can always find your way back home. If you will internalize this lesson from Jesus, your faith will always find the path that God desires. Take this compass to work where things get difficult and confusing and you will find clarity. Take this compass when you are out with friends and family and see the difference it makes in your relationships. Keep this compass with you when you are with your spouse and experience the happiness of your marriage increase. Keep this compass with you at all times and watch your life take on new meaning and significance.
So let’s find “true north” for our faith. Let’s find our internal compass from God. We find it in chapter 22 of the gospel of Matthew. Jesus had just finished debating the Sadducees, the wealthy Jewish aristocrats. They tried to stump Jesus with theological questions but Jesus’ answers rendered them speechless.
It was now the Pharisees’ turn to test Jesus. As we saw earlier in Mark, the Pharisees were experts in the Jewish Law. They knew the law backward and forward. They classified over 600 laws and often listed them in order of importance. They loved to debate which laws were the most important. One Pharisee said sarcastically, “Well if this Jesus of Nazareth is so smart surely he can tell us which law is the most important of all.” He was trying to test Jesus:
Now, count on a lawyer to stir the pot and cause trouble! You can hear the sarcasm, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?” He thought, “I got him. No matter what he says he’s going to be trapped. He can’t get this right! If he says one rule is more important, people are going to get mad that he is disregarding all the other laws.”
The Pharisee was a lot like people today who see religion as a set of rules and laws and God as the punisher of those who break the rules. I know many folks who grew up thinking that religion was about following the rules and staying out of trouble. “Don’t do this and don’t do that!” Maybe you sat in church terrified. Maybe you went to private religious school and have bad memories of teachers punishing you for being bad. Maybe you still find it hard to shake those memories and those ideas about religion. Perhaps you have family and friends who haven’t darkened the door of a church in years because of such memories.
Ironically, Jesus was the greatest rule breaker in history! That’s what got him killed! You don’t get flogged and crucified for following the rules. For example, Jesus broke another rule when he responded to the Pharisee’s question. The response Jesus gave astounded the Pharisees:
Jesus’ answer was revolutionary. He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He said if someone follows these two commands he or she will keep the essence of the law. Jesus was saying, “You want the CliffsNotes™ version of the law? You want me to sum it up for you? You don’t have to memorize all these little rules and laws and worry yourself sick. All you have to do is two things and you have it. Here it is: Love God with all your being and love other people like you would love yourself. You do that you have the law down.”
You can see the Pharisees’ jaws drop. They had dedicated their lives to poring over 613 laws. They interpreted them and debated them. Along comes this carpenter from Nazareth and he wraps them all up in one sentence!
The Pharisees were so preoccupied with the details of the law that they failed to see the heart of the law. Jesus was a master at bringing out the heart of the matter. His answer shows us that the purpose of the law is to bring us closer to God and our neighbor. If we love God and our neighbor we are fulfilling what God desires. That’s it! That was the heart to all of it.
One time the Pharisees chastised Jesus and his disciples for breaking a dietary law. Jesus told them to get some perspective. He said it is not what you eat that makes you unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that makes you unclean. In other words, it is what is in your heart that matters.
The Pharisees had lost their way. They had good intentions. They wanted to follow the law but in their desire to do so they missed that the point of all those laws was to love God and one another. They missed the forest for the trees. In trying to fulfill the law they were disregarding their love for God and others. Sound familiar?
So many Christians get lost putting rules, doctrine, theology, and judgments over loving God and neighbor. They start off with good intentions. They take a stand and express their position. But often over time their position, theology, and ideas become more important than their relationship with God and others. It can happen to all of us. What troubles me about the Christian church today is how often we put interpretations of our faith over the heart of our faith. Theology and interpretation are important but they never supersede the greatest commandment.
I knew a guy when I was in college who would debate anybody on theology and the Bible. He would take on anyone who disagreed with him. One day we were sitting at a table in a courtyard and he was debating with this guy. They had a class together and were always disagreeing with each other. He said something to my friend that got him really angry. My friend went off on him, “The Bible says… The Bible says…” He was almost screaming. When he was done pontificating, his classmate looked at my friend and asked, “Why do you hate me so much?” My friend stuttered, “I, I, I don’t hate you… I just disagree with you.” His classmate replied, “I’ve never been able to tell the difference.” Then he walked off. I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.
Jesus said that people will know we are his followers not by our hatred, not by our judgments, not by our theology, not by our pride, not by our interpretation of scripture, but by our love for one another. In glory, God is not going to say, “Well done child, you were correct in the way you interpreted the book of Revelation… Well done child, you were part of a denomination that was my favorite... Well done child, your theology was perfect.” No, God is going to say, “Well done child, you loved me with all of your heart and you loved my children.”
Love is the highest law! Can you imagine how much energy the church would save and could use for better purposes by embracing Jesus’ call to release judgment and love the world? Imagine all the energy that is wasted when Christians have crusades against something. Imagine saving that energy and using it for ministries and causes that infuse the world with the love of Jesus!
If the church spent as much energy taking care of the poor as we do on justifying prejudice, the world would be a different place. If the church spent as much time loving the least, last, and lost as we do on crusades against something, the world would be a different place. If the church spent as much time bringing healing and compassion to those who are suffering as we do on debating the interpretation of scripture, the world would be a different place. If Christians spent as much time loving God as we do condemning those who sin differently than we do, the world would be a better place.
Jesus’ true north (the greatest commandment) does not contain the words “don’t” or “should not” anywhere. Following God is not about not doing this or not doing that; it is about doing all we can to love God and others. Those who follow Christ are not worried about what they should not do; they are focused on what they can do for God and what God can do through them. Christ’s followers should not be known by what they don’t do but by what they do! Christ’s followers should not only be known by what they are against but by what they are for!
How do we use this compass in our daily lives? How do we find true north as we go to work and school, deal with deadlines, kids, bills, in-laws, and annoying neighbors? Well, it is pretty simple. Before you speak at a pivotal moment — before you make a decision — before you choose a path — before you respond in the heat of the moment — before you make a business transaction ask yourself, “Will this honor God? What is the loving thing to do?” Ninety-nine percent of the time you will be confident about your decisions and actions if you ask these two questions. And that one percent? Well, if you happen to face that one percent call a pastor or counselor and ask them to help you.
One of the things I do is ask myself these questions before I begin my day. During my quiet time with God in the morning I ask myself, “How will I honor God today? How will my words and actions be a reflection of love to those around me?” Those questions have gotten me out of more trouble than you can imagine!
But the days I am rushed and I skip that quiet time, I don’t ask myself those questions and my day is off-balance. I don’t have the clarity I need. It is not as if God is not with me; it is that my heart has not been prepared for the day. And when our hearts are not prepared every day to honor God and love others, then our days can become a trip without a compass.
Think of professional athletes. Have you ever gone to a major league baseball game and arrived before the game started? What did you see? You saw the players on the field contorting themselves in all kinds of positions. You saw them sprinting all over the field. What were they doing? They were stretching and warming up. A professional athlete would never start playing a game without first warming up.
Spending time with God is our time to stretch our souls and warm up our hearts before God. It prepares us for our day. Christ’s followers should never begin a day without first warming up before God. This is how our souls become sensitized to God’s guidance each day.
Imagine how different your days would be if you were guided by the greatest commandment. Imagine the change in your attitude when you truly love God with all your being each day — when your heart feels God’s love, when your soul is guided by God’s love, and when your mind thinks and meditates on God’s love. Imagine the healing that would come to your relationships when you choose to do the most loving thing to others. Imagine the joy, meaning, and significance that will come into your life when you live on God’s wavelength.
Will this honor God? What is the loving thing to do? Those two questions will change your life. Amen.
However, as the weeks turned into months the emperor’s grief was overshadowed by his passion for the project. He was obsessed with the construction. One day, while walking from one side of the construction site to the other, he tripped over a wooden box. In frustration he ordered that the box be thrown out. What he did not realize was that he had ordered the disposal of his wife’s coffin. The person the temple was supposed to honor was forgotten, but it was built anyway.
This story haunts me. Could someone build an elaborate tribute and forget the hero? Yes, it can happen. The scary thing is that it can happen to our faith. It is possible to practice faith and forget who we put our faith in. It is possible to sing the hymns and forget the one we are singing to. It is possible to say a prayer and forget who we are praying to.
It’s possible to get lost in the midst of our faith. In fact, it has been my experience that sometimes those who seem to have the strongest faith are the most lost. Sometimes in our ambition to follow God we forget who God is, what God wants us to do, and why he wants us to do it. We stumble. We make mistakes. Our relationships get tangled up. We find ourselves in a mess wondering how we got so lost. We went to worship. We read the Bible. We prayed. We thought we were doing the right thing. We followed the rules. Where did it all go wrong? How did it get so confusing? How did we stray so far from the path?
Maybe you made a decision thinking it was the right thing to do and it has just made things worse. Maybe you said something you thought needed to be said and it blew up in your face. Maybe you have done something you thought would please God and now you know in your heart you should have handled things differently. You have hurt yourself and others.
Living out our faith in this messy world can be difficult. It is easy to lose our way. This is why from time to time we need to find “true north” for our faith (actually I mean “magnetic north” but true north sounds better!). A compass always points to magnetic north to help us travel in the right direction. The good news is Jesus gave us “true north” in his teachings. When we are lost and confused all we have to do is remember Jesus’ most important lesson and we can get on the right path again.
We get lost when we forget this lesson from Jesus. We can study the Bible and still get lost. We can go to worship every week and still get lost. We can follow the rules and behave and still get lost. We can look religious, keep our noses clean, and follow all ten of the commandments and still miss who God is and what his desire is for us.
In the second chapter of the gospel of Mark we see an example of how the most religious people can be the most lost. The Pharisees were chastising Jesus’ disciples for plucking the heads of grain to eat on the sabbath. According to their strict interpretation of the law, the Pharisees considered this work and no one was allowed to work on the sabbath. Jesus told them to get some perspective. He mentioned a time when David broke ceremonial law to feed hungry people. He told the Pharisees, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
We can get spiritually lost like the Pharisees if we don’t remember Jesus’ most important lesson. If you will take this lesson to heart it will never fail to guide you. If you will remember this lesson you can always find your way back home. If you will internalize this lesson from Jesus, your faith will always find the path that God desires. Take this compass to work where things get difficult and confusing and you will find clarity. Take this compass when you are out with friends and family and see the difference it makes in your relationships. Keep this compass with you when you are with your spouse and experience the happiness of your marriage increase. Keep this compass with you at all times and watch your life take on new meaning and significance.
So let’s find “true north” for our faith. Let’s find our internal compass from God. We find it in chapter 22 of the gospel of Matthew. Jesus had just finished debating the Sadducees, the wealthy Jewish aristocrats. They tried to stump Jesus with theological questions but Jesus’ answers rendered them speechless.
It was now the Pharisees’ turn to test Jesus. As we saw earlier in Mark, the Pharisees were experts in the Jewish Law. They knew the law backward and forward. They classified over 600 laws and often listed them in order of importance. They loved to debate which laws were the most important. One Pharisee said sarcastically, “Well if this Jesus of Nazareth is so smart surely he can tell us which law is the most important of all.” He was trying to test Jesus:
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?”
(Matthew 22:34-36)
Now, count on a lawyer to stir the pot and cause trouble! You can hear the sarcasm, “Teacher, which commandment is the greatest?” He thought, “I got him. No matter what he says he’s going to be trapped. He can’t get this right! If he says one rule is more important, people are going to get mad that he is disregarding all the other laws.”
The Pharisee was a lot like people today who see religion as a set of rules and laws and God as the punisher of those who break the rules. I know many folks who grew up thinking that religion was about following the rules and staying out of trouble. “Don’t do this and don’t do that!” Maybe you sat in church terrified. Maybe you went to private religious school and have bad memories of teachers punishing you for being bad. Maybe you still find it hard to shake those memories and those ideas about religion. Perhaps you have family and friends who haven’t darkened the door of a church in years because of such memories.
Ironically, Jesus was the greatest rule breaker in history! That’s what got him killed! You don’t get flogged and crucified for following the rules. For example, Jesus broke another rule when he responded to the Pharisee’s question. The response Jesus gave astounded the Pharisees:
Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37-40)
Jesus’ answer was revolutionary. He quoted from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. He said if someone follows these two commands he or she will keep the essence of the law. Jesus was saying, “You want the CliffsNotes™ version of the law? You want me to sum it up for you? You don’t have to memorize all these little rules and laws and worry yourself sick. All you have to do is two things and you have it. Here it is: Love God with all your being and love other people like you would love yourself. You do that you have the law down.”
You can see the Pharisees’ jaws drop. They had dedicated their lives to poring over 613 laws. They interpreted them and debated them. Along comes this carpenter from Nazareth and he wraps them all up in one sentence!
The Pharisees were so preoccupied with the details of the law that they failed to see the heart of the law. Jesus was a master at bringing out the heart of the matter. His answer shows us that the purpose of the law is to bring us closer to God and our neighbor. If we love God and our neighbor we are fulfilling what God desires. That’s it! That was the heart to all of it.
One time the Pharisees chastised Jesus and his disciples for breaking a dietary law. Jesus told them to get some perspective. He said it is not what you eat that makes you unclean; it is what comes out of your mouth that makes you unclean. In other words, it is what is in your heart that matters.
The Pharisees had lost their way. They had good intentions. They wanted to follow the law but in their desire to do so they missed that the point of all those laws was to love God and one another. They missed the forest for the trees. In trying to fulfill the law they were disregarding their love for God and others. Sound familiar?
So many Christians get lost putting rules, doctrine, theology, and judgments over loving God and neighbor. They start off with good intentions. They take a stand and express their position. But often over time their position, theology, and ideas become more important than their relationship with God and others. It can happen to all of us. What troubles me about the Christian church today is how often we put interpretations of our faith over the heart of our faith. Theology and interpretation are important but they never supersede the greatest commandment.
I knew a guy when I was in college who would debate anybody on theology and the Bible. He would take on anyone who disagreed with him. One day we were sitting at a table in a courtyard and he was debating with this guy. They had a class together and were always disagreeing with each other. He said something to my friend that got him really angry. My friend went off on him, “The Bible says… The Bible says…” He was almost screaming. When he was done pontificating, his classmate looked at my friend and asked, “Why do you hate me so much?” My friend stuttered, “I, I, I don’t hate you… I just disagree with you.” His classmate replied, “I’ve never been able to tell the difference.” Then he walked off. I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.
Jesus said that people will know we are his followers not by our hatred, not by our judgments, not by our theology, not by our pride, not by our interpretation of scripture, but by our love for one another. In glory, God is not going to say, “Well done child, you were correct in the way you interpreted the book of Revelation… Well done child, you were part of a denomination that was my favorite... Well done child, your theology was perfect.” No, God is going to say, “Well done child, you loved me with all of your heart and you loved my children.”
Love is the highest law! Can you imagine how much energy the church would save and could use for better purposes by embracing Jesus’ call to release judgment and love the world? Imagine all the energy that is wasted when Christians have crusades against something. Imagine saving that energy and using it for ministries and causes that infuse the world with the love of Jesus!
If the church spent as much energy taking care of the poor as we do on justifying prejudice, the world would be a different place. If the church spent as much time loving the least, last, and lost as we do on crusades against something, the world would be a different place. If the church spent as much time bringing healing and compassion to those who are suffering as we do on debating the interpretation of scripture, the world would be a different place. If Christians spent as much time loving God as we do condemning those who sin differently than we do, the world would be a better place.
Jesus’ true north (the greatest commandment) does not contain the words “don’t” or “should not” anywhere. Following God is not about not doing this or not doing that; it is about doing all we can to love God and others. Those who follow Christ are not worried about what they should not do; they are focused on what they can do for God and what God can do through them. Christ’s followers should not be known by what they don’t do but by what they do! Christ’s followers should not only be known by what they are against but by what they are for!
How do we use this compass in our daily lives? How do we find true north as we go to work and school, deal with deadlines, kids, bills, in-laws, and annoying neighbors? Well, it is pretty simple. Before you speak at a pivotal moment — before you make a decision — before you choose a path — before you respond in the heat of the moment — before you make a business transaction ask yourself, “Will this honor God? What is the loving thing to do?” Ninety-nine percent of the time you will be confident about your decisions and actions if you ask these two questions. And that one percent? Well, if you happen to face that one percent call a pastor or counselor and ask them to help you.
One of the things I do is ask myself these questions before I begin my day. During my quiet time with God in the morning I ask myself, “How will I honor God today? How will my words and actions be a reflection of love to those around me?” Those questions have gotten me out of more trouble than you can imagine!
But the days I am rushed and I skip that quiet time, I don’t ask myself those questions and my day is off-balance. I don’t have the clarity I need. It is not as if God is not with me; it is that my heart has not been prepared for the day. And when our hearts are not prepared every day to honor God and love others, then our days can become a trip without a compass.
Think of professional athletes. Have you ever gone to a major league baseball game and arrived before the game started? What did you see? You saw the players on the field contorting themselves in all kinds of positions. You saw them sprinting all over the field. What were they doing? They were stretching and warming up. A professional athlete would never start playing a game without first warming up.
Spending time with God is our time to stretch our souls and warm up our hearts before God. It prepares us for our day. Christ’s followers should never begin a day without first warming up before God. This is how our souls become sensitized to God’s guidance each day.
Imagine how different your days would be if you were guided by the greatest commandment. Imagine the change in your attitude when you truly love God with all your being each day — when your heart feels God’s love, when your soul is guided by God’s love, and when your mind thinks and meditates on God’s love. Imagine the healing that would come to your relationships when you choose to do the most loving thing to others. Imagine the joy, meaning, and significance that will come into your life when you live on God’s wavelength.
Will this honor God? What is the loving thing to do? Those two questions will change your life. Amen.
