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KINGDOM MARKETING ~ September 5, 2010 ~ CYCLE C
www.graceworkspublishing.com
Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ The Text:
Luke 14:25-33
What do the following three advertisements have in common?
●Miracle
pill helps you lose weight while you sleep! No exercise. No dieting.
●Huge
Labor Day sale on all cars in stock! No money down, and no payments
until 2011. No credit, bad credit, no problem.
●Earn
huge money from home. No experience necessary. Guaranteed profits
within 30 days.
Did you hear the
common theme? They all promise big benefit with little effort or
expense. And the appeal of this type of advertisement is obvious. It
works. Or at least it works if the measurement of success is
increased sales and profits for the merchant who paid for the
advertisement campaign. For it is true, many people will be drawn to
quick fixes and easy answers, like flies drawn to the smell of a
picnic. But such advertisements, though they may create “ka-ching”
for the cash register at the merchant’s shop, they usually create
frustration and failure for the customer. The hard and wise truths
are still true; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
There is no free lunch. When the advertisement promises easy
shortcuts to solutions which are earned normally only through hard
work and lasting commitment, remember the Latin warning,
Caveat emptor
(“let the buyer beware”).
Contrast this
marketing strategy with the invitation to the Kingdom of God offered
by Jesus in our Gospel lesson today. Great crowds were swelling
around Jesus already, which would have been success enough for most
modern marketing campaigns. But then, just as he had the multitude
hanging on his every word, with the tipping point for market
dominance at hand, Jesus offered this trifecta of requirements for
entrance to his disciple band:
●Unless
you hate your mother and father, you cannot be my disciple.
●Unless
you deny your life, take up a cross and follow me, you cannot be my
disciple.
●Unless
you renounce all of your worldly possessions, you cannot be my
disciple.
Wow. Can you image
how stunned the crowd must have been to hear that set of
requirements! You can be sure Madison Avenue did not create that
advertisement campaign for Jesus.
What is Jesus doing
here? Does he really mean that we must hate our parents, renounce
all earthly possessions, and give up our very lives, if we are to
follow him? Who could be a Christian, and who would want to, if that
is the criteria for following Christ? What are we to do, and how do
we respond, to such a hard saying from Jesus?
First, in order to understand these statements, we must understand
the Semitic
idiom Jesus employs.
Do not get hung up on
the harsh word, “hate”, Jesus uses in reference to
the relationship one
has with parents, and even one’s own life. In the language patterns
of first century
Palestine, the use of
the word pair “love-hate” was often used simply to exaggerate a
comparison between two levels of love. So, when Jesus calls would-be
followers to “hate” their parents and “love” the Kingdom of God, he
is simply making the strong point that the relationship with God
must be the highest priority, the greatest love, of a person’s
life—even greater than the highest and noblest of earthly
relationships like parent/child, or husband/wife, or a teenager’s
BFFL (“best friends for life” for those of you who do not text or
tweet). In a backhanded way, the fact that Jesus chose to illustrate
his point with the love one has, and should have, for one’s parents,
is a high compliment to that relationship. And in case we need an
illustration of how this command of Jesus is lived out, all we have
to do is witness the faithful and consistent love Jesus had for his
mother, and for Joseph, to know he does not advocate some sort of
destruction of family values in order to be a Christian. So, it is
not that we must hate our parents, or our own life, in order to be a
follower of Christ, but that our love for God must be greater even
than the highest, the most noble, of earthly relationships. If we
love our country, our careers, our NFL team, our addictions, more
than Christ, our priorities are out of sync with being a follower of
Christ. And even our love for family, and our sense of
self-preservation and self love, however important these are, must
pale in significance when placed side-by-side with the love we have
for God and His Kingdom. This is Jesus’ point in these sayings.
Second, even when we understand the Semitic idiom Jesus used in
these statements, we must not lose the stunning high calling he
demands of his followers.
Jesus was not harsh
with his language, but that does not mean he was soft or easy
either. Even those who heard Jesus utter these words that day in
Galilee would have been shocked by his words. He clearly was not
marketing the Kingdom of God with an easy call, a free lunch, and a
quick fix. Quite the contrary, these words of Jesus are meant to
stir us from slumber, like a crisp trumpet call of reveille, or a
slap of cold water on the face. He deliberately means to set the bar
high for entrance to his disciple band. And the very fact that
following Jesus will require sacrifice is the reason for the brief
parables of the unfinished tower or the general going to war. Jesus
wants us to count the cost, to weigh the offer he makes, to decide
whether we are really willing to follow him all the way. Better to
waver and waffle prior to the decision, than to do so after the
commitment. Just ask a golfer who must commit to her swing after
deciding what club and ball flight she wants. The time for second
thoughts is over once the club begins to swing. Even so, Jesus is
calling followers who intend to finish, not just start and make up
their minds along the way. Because the way behind Jesus is steep at
times, and the path is strewn with perils, even as it is with
enormous joys.
So, that is the
marketing call of Jesus. If we look for similar marketing today, the
examples are much fewer and far between. But you might remember the
Peace Corps slogan, as young people are asked to consider giving up
a few years of their lives for little pay in an impoverished part of
the world, with the phrase, “It is the hardest job you will ever
love.” Or the recent Marines ad, “We don’t accept applications—only
commitments.” This is more like the spirit of Jesus’ invitation to
discipleship. He too is looking for the few who are daring and
willing to be part of something difficult, something remarkable,
something eternal. Is that person you? Or me? Are we ready to say
yes to the hardest, and the most rewarding, life possible? |