St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church

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Discipleship: A Heart for Christ Alone

Luke 14:26-27

April 3, 2005

1. This is probably not your favorite verse in the Bible, is it? After all, we learned to "Honor your father and mother" in the Ten Commandments, and "Love the Lord your God and your neighbors as yourself" in The Great Commandment. Now, to hear Jesus say "If you want to be my disciple, you must hate your family" is a real jolt. How can Jesus say "love your family" on one occasion, then say "hate your family" on another? It reminds me a bit of last year’s election! However, I can explain what Jesus said better than I can explain the presidential debates!

2. But before I explain those verses, I need to explain something else. So hold that place in your Bible for a minute. Last Sunday we began rehearsing for a musical to get out the greatest story ever told, about the greatest life ever lived. This room is our stage, you all are the actors, Rodgers and Dan and Kathy and I are coaches and musicians. And God is the audience . . . the producer/director who moves all about the theater to keep us going. Our "script" is the bulletin. We will rehearse every Sunday morning between 10 and 11, until "opening night" which is that moment Christ comes again, whenever that is. If you weren’t here last Sunday, you can go to our website and read the particulars.

3. Some of you may be feeling a bit anxious, but not to worry! Together we can do it! The most important component of any musical is commitment, and we all have that, or we wouldn’t be here today. Commitment to this project is even more important than ability. Rodgers and my part of our musical will be to coach all you actors as we read and interpret this Book from which our musical is taken. And to help us get "in character," as they say, help us perform for God, I’m devoting these six weeks of Easter to the subject of discipleship. Glenn McDonald has written a book called The Disciple Making Church, which he hopes will help congregations in becoming real disciples of Jesus. His instruction will be a springboard for mine.

4. He writes, "What should the typical, healthy follower of Jesus look like? Pretty good question, don’t you think? Fortunately, he answers it quickly. He says an acceptable profile would have to be biblical (that is, an accurate reflection of Jesus’ own teaching); simple (understandable by adults and children alike); teachable (easy to grasp and a chinch to memorize); practical (useful for a disciple’s self-evaluation); balanced (respectful of all the historical schools of Christian thought and practice that have taught us the richness of what it means to follow Jesus); and visionary (able to [support] everything a congregation might attempt to do and to be). Just as McDonald identifies characteristics of a follower of Jesus; he also names six marks of a disciple: A heart for Christ Alone; A Mind Transformed by the Word; Arms of Love; Knees for Prayer; A Voice to Speak the Good News; and A Spirit of Servanthood and Stewardship.

5. A Heart for Christ Alone is the most essential mark; all the others can come in any order, but this one comes first. If we want to be part of this musical, we must organize our lives around Jesus. He alone gives meaning to our existence; he alone is the "actor’s actor." This is where these verses from Luke come into the conversation. So go back to where you marked your place in the Bible. We began reading in the middle of a section about the challenge of following Jesus, the risk of being a disciple. Jesus begins with a parable about someone giving a dinner and inviting many people who end up not being able to come. One after another, each offers an excuse. One of them says "Gosh, I’d love to come, but I just bought a new house, and I the people are coming to lay a new carpet." And another one said, "Caught me at a bad time! I just bought a new car, and I need to take it for a spin." When Jesus finished with the story, he turned to the people and said, "If any of you want to be my disciple, your primary commitment has to be following me." Then we see, printed right before our eyes, "hate your family," and we think, "Oh, dear! Do I have to hate my family?" And the answer is, "No." The word Jesus used can be translated "hate," but not in the sense we usually think. It’s more "separate yourself." Much like the words from Genesis about a man leaving his parents and being joined with his wife. He still loves his parents, but his primary focus now is his wife. So Jesus is telling them, and us by extension, that becoming his disciple creates a new priority in our lives. We don’t have to detest our families, by any means, and we don’t have to desert them. But we do need to be firm with them. We need to be willing to say out loud, "I have put myself under God’s direction. I’m going to learn all I can about the roll I have in this production, so I can be ready for opening night." Having a heart for Christ alone will never make sense to the world, but that doesn’t matter. God is the only one we need to please. That’s verse 26.

5. And the next verse, 27, gives us another unfortunate translation! We read "pick up your cross and follow me," and immediately believe he’s referring to the cross upon which he died. And we think of all the times people have referred to "the crosses we have to bear." However, the first definition of the word "cross" is simply a pointed stake, like the stake used to tie down a tent. You’ve heard the term "pull up stakes," haven’t you? It harkens back to the days when everyone lived in tents which were anchored to the ground by tent stakes. So, to "pull up stakes" meant literally pull up those stakes and fold up your tent so you could move to a new location. And because this verse is in the middle of a longer section about the cost of following Jesus, it should be translated "Whoever does not ‘pull up stakes’ and follow me cannot be my disciple." Over and over and over, this story speaks of leaving the past behind and moving forward into the future.

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