5. Discipleship is more than Chee-tos and TV preachers. Comedian Ron White of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour tells the story of the time he was home, in a beanbag chair, eating Chee-tos and watching TV. He was flipping through the channels when he came to Robert Tilton, the TV evangelist from Dallas, who was looking right at him. He said, “Are you lonely?” “Yeah.” “Have you spent half your life in bars, pursuing sins of the flesh?” “This guy’s good.” “Are you sitting in a beanbag chair, eating Chee-tos?” “YES SIR!” “Do you have the urge to send me $1000?” “CLOSE! I thought he was talking about me there for a minute.” I get the impression that Ron White isn’t a very committed churchgoer. Chee-tos and TV evangelists seem to be about the extent of his interest in things religious. How many people today are like that? They think that the Chee-tos and TV evangelists are about all the religion they need. They think a “casual acquaintance” kind of relationship with Jesus is fine with them. It may be fine with them, but it’s not fine with Him. Our Lord isn’t looking for casual acquaintances. He’s looking for disciples. Discipleship means more than Chee-tos and TV evangelists. 4. Discipleship is total commitment. St. Luke writes, “Now great crowds accompanied (Jesus), and He turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes after Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.’” What “hate” means here is that Christ comes first and everything else comes second. Given the choice between Jesus and something else, Jesus wins and something else loses. Well, that’s not the way things are done in this day and age. If you have a part-time job, you don’t even bother asking for Sunday off. If your team is playing on Sunday morning, you’re there, without even a second thought about what you’re missing, or who’s missing you. In this world, when we’re given the choice between Jesus and something else, too often something else wins and Jesus loses. Discipleship isn’t something you do halfway, half-baked, or half-hearted. Discipleship is a total commitment. Is your commitment total? Given the choice between Christ and something else, do you choose Christ? I know my commitment isn’t total. Given the choice between my Lord and something else, too often, I’ve chosen something else. I know I can say the same for you. Furthermore, even though you made it here for worship, I’m guessing that some of you are wishing you were home with the Chee-tos and the TV evangelists. The Master tells us, “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away.” I know there are times I’ve been non-salty salt. The same can be said for you. 3. On our own, we can’t do it. Jesus says, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.” The Master is asking us to count the cost. So we count the cost, and what do we see? We see that on our own, we can’t do it. If we were builders, we’d end up looking like jerks with half-completed towers. If we were kings going to war, we’d be outnumbered and out-gunned. When we bear our crosses, we feel they’re too much for us. We’re tempted to conclude that it’s just not worth the bother. 2. Christ is totally committed to us. We may not have been totally committed to Christ. Given the choice between Him and something else, too often, we have chosen something else. It seemed to us that He just wasn’t worth the bother. But we were worth the bother to Him. We were worth the pain and suffering. We were worth the cross. We were worth the tomb. Given the choice between throwing us away like non-salty salt and keeping us, He chose to keep us. He chose to die for us. He chose to rise for us. He was and is totally committed to us. 1. He gives us what we need. So you’re going to build a tower, but you don’t have the money to see it to completion. Or you’re a king going to war, but your enemy has you outnumbered and out-gunned. What does that tell you? Many of us would say it tells us that it isn’t worth the bother. But that isn’t the conclusion Christ wants us to draw. He wants us to say that, if we can’t do it on our own, we should seek help. If we can’t build that tower on our own, we should find some wealthy donors. If we can’t fight that battle on our own, we should call for reinforcements. If we can’t bear the cross on our own, we should turn to the One who bore the cross for us. We should turn to the One who bore the weight of our sin and our non-salty, non-total non-commitments. We should turn to the One who hung with our sin on the cross and buried it in the tomb. And when we do, what do we find? He gives us what we need. In His Means of Grace, our Savior gives us the strength to build the tower, fight the battle, and bear the cross. He gives us the strength that comes from having our old nature drowned in the waters of Holy Baptism, and being raised up with Him as new people. He gives us the strength that comes from feasting on His body and blood. He gives us the strength to do things we never could do on our own, and even to renounce all that we have for His sake, as He tells us to. The late writer Lewis Grizzard once said, “Unless you’re the lead sled dog, the view never changes.” Well, when you follow Jesus, everything looks different. German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that Christ isn’t just the mediator between us and God, He’s also the mediator between us and the world. As His followers, we see, hear, and relate to the world thorough Him. As His followers, we see, hear, and relate through Him to our fathers, mothers, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, and even our very selves. Through Him, we see a world where He comes first and everything else comes second. And the view has never been better. + In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. + - Ward I. Yunker, Pastor
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 17:51:11 +0000
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