“What is Most Important"      Pent. 16 C, 1995,   September 9, 2007

Let me begin by asking you this question. What are the three most important things in your life? Don't worry. There are no wrong answers. They don't have to be in any order. Just list the three most important things in your life. Maybe you want to write them down on a blank spot in your bulletin. Got it yet? How many had family as one of those three? I include family and all my relationships as one of the three. Our children, our wives and husbands, our parents, some might even include a close friend or two as part of our family. Perhaps they’re sitting with you in worship this morning. This is a blessing!

How about your possessions and home? I would include that. The poet Robert Frost wrote home is that place that when you go there, they have to take you in. Home could be the place where you grew up, or the place you raised your children. Our homes and the possessions that fill them are important and dear to us. This is also a blessing!

Recently, I overheard two friends talking about their vintage cars. They were going on and on talking about their favorite cars and how they were restored to look like brand new. It was clear from their conversation, they were passionate about their cars. Possessions are important in our lives! This is also a blessing!

How many of you listed your job or career? I would list my call as your pastor as a very important part of my life. I worked hard in college and seminary, with an internship and a residence to be a pastor, and I'm proud of it. Students often like to talk about what their doing at school. Athletes like to talk about their sport. When they get too old to play, they enjoy the memories they had on the field of play. What we do or have done in our lives is important. This is also a blessing!

One more thing that ought to be on our list- our health. Our health is something that might make the list of the top three things we care about. That's important, too, don't you agree? Paul said our bodies are God's temple. This is also a blessing!

In light of these blessings, this reading is one of Jesus' hardest teachings. (Luke 14:26-27 NRSV) "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. {27} Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.... Sell your possessions...."

Did you hear what Jesus was saying? In order to be his disciple, I have give up not only my possessions, but my family and life itself. How can we do that? So how can we follow Christ? That is question I will talk about today. To find the answer, try this. I would like you to imagine we are members of Luke's church in the first century, say about the year 85 when Luke's gospel was being read for the first time. There are no church buildings yet. We are no longer welcome down at the local synagogue. We are meeting in someone's living room. They said that we were trouble makers who were opposed to the Roman and Jewish way of life. Our families, our parents, even our wives and husbands have disowned us because we have followed Jesus Christ.

Imagine that someone told us the story of Jesus Christ just a few years ago. We heard how God's own Son came preaching about God's Kingdom. We were amazed when we heard how he destroyed evil when he died on the cross and then rose from the dead. He gave us hope for a time when there will be no more death or pain, but he will come again to rule heaven and earth. When we heard that good news, we were drawn to Christ and his little group of people that all shared this same hope in him.Now imagine that we are reading Luke's gospel for the first time. What words of comfort they are! "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes even life itself, cannot be my disciple."

Back on that day, there were plenty of curious observers following Jesus and the disciples back then and there are plenty today. They like the power of Jesus to heal us and help us. They were following Jesus by the thousands. They came, and come today to kick the tires of the gospel message, to see if it suites them. This teaching of Jesus makes it clear that following him means taking up your cross and following him to his cross, painful, humiliating, and deadly. After Jesus said that, only a few loyal disciples followed him. After his resurrection, after they received the power of the Holy Spirit, they spread the good news to all the corners of the earth.

For the twelve disciples who did follow him, legend tells us that following Jesus cost Matthew his life by the sword in Ethiopia. St. Mark died at the hands of an angry mob in Egypt. Luke was hanged on an olive tree in Greece. The Apostle John was banished to the island of Patmos. Thomas went to India where he was martyred with a lance that was driven through him. St. Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded outside Rome. And yet, each of them gladly offered their lives that the Gospel might be heard.

Those early Christians endured all kinds of hardship, from the government who thought they were subversive, from the Jews who thought they were a radical religious sect, from even from their own families, who disowned them. In that first century, believers in Jesus understood that persecution and suffering is the mark of Christ upon them. They saw that they way Christ suffered on the cross as God's way of saying I am with you, even when everything else, even your own family is leaving you.

We may not suffer like these first century Christians, but we do suffer times of loss. Family members leave or die, jobs come and go, our neighborhood changes, and sometime we all will lose our earthly home. These words of Jesus point to the truth about the transience of life, of time, our talents and our possessions. Even our family relationships are brief, they only last for our life on earth. The things that were once so important will only become a passing fancy.

For instance, I was going though my boxes in the attic, and found an old trophy I received when I was twelve years old. That year I was in a youth bowling league. I loved being in that league. I practiced hard, and was attended every match. That year, we were the league champions. Now, it’s just a pleasant memory. I haven’t bowled in years. Now, what will I do that trophy? Will I pass it on for future generations? I decided to throw it away.

Ecclesiastes 3 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. You know it, I’m sure.

Some don’t like those words. They say they’re too depressing. I don’t agree. They tell the truth about our life. But there is good news. Notice it refers to our life “under heaven.” Now that Jesus is raised, we know what God will do with us in the kingdom of heaven. Once we accept the transience of this present world this present kingdom, then we are ready to follow Jesus with all our heart, our mind, and our soul in the kingdom of heaven.

My point is this. Our relationship to God is the only thing that lasts more than a lifetime! Once we accept that simple truth, we are ready to finally get real about following Christ. We are ready to look for the kingdom he gave us by his cross. We are willing to give up our family, our relationship, our prize possessions, even our life, and in return Jesus gives us the one thing that will endue forever and ever, the kingdom of heaven.

Let me tell you the story of a Lutheran pastor, Juan Cobrda (pronounced Cha'-bro-da), who was a Bishop in the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Juan was born to in Czechoslovakia. His father was also a pastor. When he was a boy, Juan's family and thousands of other Czech people fled the communists in Czechoslovakia and went to Argentina. Juan became a minister like his father. Eventually Pastor Juan became bishop of the Slovak Lutheran Church in Argentina, a church of about 300,000 members.

Beginning around 1970, there were many refugees coming from Chile to Argentina who were running for their lives. Bishop Cobrda and his church did something the government forbid. They gave these Chilean refugees food and shelter in Argentina. For this crime, the government placed him under house arrest, and ordered his church to stop helping the refugees. They ordered him to stop preaching about feeding the hungry and giving shelter to the homeless. But Juan could not compromise his commitment to the gospel.

Soon after, Bishop Cobrda left for a church meeting in neighboring Brazil. He told them he would return after one week. He kissed his wife and children goodbye, but he did not tell them anything about his plans. He had secretly made a plan to stay Brazil with friends rather than to left his family behind and leave the country. A few months later, he came to the United States after the Lutheran Church secured his visa. Still, his family was not with him. After many appeals his family was also allowed to come with him to the United States, nearly two years later. Juan does not think of himself as a hero for starving people. He would simply say he did what he had to do to remain true to his faith in Christ.

Our faith may not be tested like that, but all of us will have tests of our faith that will cost us. The tests come by way of our possessions, our family, even in the struggle for life itself. When we are tested, take comfort. God is with you! The Holy Spirit will give us the power to see it through. Remember Christ is with you in under heaven and in heaven. Follow him, and we are going the way of the kingdom. The crucified one is living in you and giving you life in him. Be glad because Jesus lives in us and with us now and forever!

Amen,

Pastor Duran