Jesus’s keeps urging us to see our relationships (to the world, each other, and our stuff) entirely differently.
For Sunday
Proper 18C
Collect
Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
From Luke 14:25-33
“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
Reflection
If we were just jumping into the story here, I suspect we’d have some questions. And assumptions. But if we’ve been following along from the beginning, we have have far fewer of both.
This isn’t the first time Jesus has spoken of division. We covered that three weeks ago. Back when he said he came to divide—because we can’t stay in a family that refuses to move when we are called to follow.
The teaching Jesus offers next masquerades as a proverb. Which is a kind of sensible advice for life.
The thing about proverbs, however, is that they’re essentially agnostic. Wisdom that comes from outside the faith tradition that may nonetheless be true.
This teaching has that kind of universal quality. Jesus certainly seems to be making that appeal. But I suspect, again, if we haven’t been following along, that we’ll read this as just more good advice. Rather than an explanation of why the sacrifice that accompanies discipleship is also sensible.
But most important is the concluding claim: that we must give up all our possessions.
These are not disconnected or separate ideas, but iterations of the same one. That the path to the Kin-dom that they are all on is a life of commitment and sacrifice. It requires choices, movement, and change.
And most importantly, we can’t expect to take anything with us.
Possessions are attachments
The point isn’t so much to have few possessions, but be prepared to give anything up for the sake of the Gospel.
For some, this means literal possessions. Because they have a lot of stuff and invest a lot of themselves into those things.
For others, it means the relationships they accumulated. Friends and family who are not helping them live a Kin-dom-fueled life.
But I suspect that for most of us, our greatest possession is certainty and being right. That sense of commitment to way things are and the ways we need to fix them. This can even include traumas and baggage. Commitments to ways of life that are deeply-rooted.
Perhaps even these need to be on the table. Or, perhaps, in the garbage. So we can adopt a more Kin-dom-centered life.