uroperC18
Readings:
Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Psalm 1 Philemon 1-21 Luke 14:25-33
The Prayer for the week: Almigty God, whose Son has opened up for us a new and living way into your presence; give us pure hearts and steadfast wills to worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jess Chrsit ourLord. Amen. Let me count the ways in today' readings:
In the Collect - Jesus has opend for us a new and living WAY into God's presence.
In Deuteronomy - For I command you today to love theLord yur God, to walk in his WAYS ..
In Psalm 1 - Blessed are they who have not walked in the counsel of the wicked, not lingered in te WAY of sinners ........ The Lord nows th WAY of the righteous but the WAY of the wicked shall perish. Linking these WAYS and the COST of DISCIPLESHIP it is wort reflecting on the choices we have to make. The fork in the road. The easy road or the hard path. Which one is it to be. If w "hate" our life we won't mind travelling the hard path. If we "love" ourlife, we will choose the easy way, and more likely the wrong way. | A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing. M. Luther. There are two kinds of churches: Visible..people gather in God's name, you can see who they are by going to church. Invisible: people who are God's hand and feet, only God knows who they are. Buechner "And I looked around and nobody was laughing" says this, "I went into church and sat on the velvet pew. I watched as the sun came shining through the stained glass windows. The minister dressed in a velvet robe opened the golden gilded Bible, marked it with a silk bookmark and said, "If any man will be my disciple, said Jesus, let him deny himself, take up his cross, sell what he has, give it to the poor, and follow me." Kierkagaard Christian discipleship is costly. That is the message of the twin parables - "Don't start to build a tower you cannot afford to finish. Don't wage a war you do not have the resources to win." So far, my Christian allegiance has cost me little. Is there any sacrifice so small, I wonder, that I would not still be reluctant to make it? The gospel says that to be a disciple of Jesus, one must be willing to let go of what one values most: familiar relationships, possessions, and even one?s own life. Jesus names three of the strongest attachments that would be difficult for anyone to leave aside when called into the community of believers and to participate in the mission of Jesus. The cost is particularly high for any who have riches, power, privilege and status. Barbara E. Reid, PARABLES FOR PREACHERS: YEAR C. (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press), ISBN 0-8146-2552-5, page 174. |
Dietrich Bonhoeffer's great work was The Cost of Discipleship - a cost he himself bore when he was hung in the Flossenburg Concentration Camp on April 9th 1945. |
