Scripture/Sermon of the Day.  September 4, 2022

Deuteronomy 30:15-20a

Life and death

15 Look here! Today I’ve set before you life and what’s good versus death and what’s wrong. 16 If you obey the Lord your God’s commandments that I’m commanding you right now by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments, his regulations, and his laws, then you will live and thrive, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you refuse to listen, and so are misled, worshipping other gods and serving them, 18 I’m telling you right now that you will die. I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you. Now choose life—so that you and your descendants will live— 20 by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him.

Luke 14:25-27,33

Discipleship’s demands

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus. Turning to them, he said, 26 “Whoever comes to me and doesn’t hate father and mother, spouse and children, and brothers and sisters—yes, even one’s own life—cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever doesn’t carry their own cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

33 In the same way, none of you who are unwilling to give up all of your possessions can be my disciple.

Reflection/Sermon:

I.      My mother raised me and my sister in the Christian faith.  She took us to different churches, depending on where we lived.  We were Greek Orthodox but in the places we lived overseas there usually wasn’t one of those so we went to whatever she found.  We said prayers every night and I felt blessed, like God would protect me and everything would be ok.

II.     Some time around junior high school, I lost my religion.  Like that song by R.E.M. — Losing My Religion.  That was me in high school.  Then in my late teens my faith came back and I had a conversion where I believed everything I read in the Bible literally.  So if Jesus said “give up all your possessions if you want to be my disciple” — I thought I had to do that.  I was still living with my parents and while they visited family in Greece, I called up Goodwill and told them to bring one of their big trucks to my parent’s home and take everything in my room except my bed and some clothes.  I told them to take a lot of my parent’s things too because I wanted mom and dad to get closer to Jesus.  When they returned from Greece, my father wanted to kill me.  He didn’t want to get closer to Jesus, he wanted his stuff back. They didn’t take any more trips till I moved out of the house.

III.    So don’t read this passage today literally and give all your stuff away.  Take Jesus seriously, but not literally.

But there are possessions we have that Jesus does want us to get rid of — like our racism and how we feel superior to other people — our feeling that our race is better than other races, that our color is the best and our nationality, first.  These are possessions that poison our soul so Jesus wants us to get rid of them.

And other possessions like our ANGER, our ARGUMENTATIVENESS, our GOSSIP — Jesus wants us to get rid of these.  Paul says that love does not insist on its own way.  Get rid of insisting on your own way!

V.      Two weeks ago I was in the process of ruining my daughter Maria’s wedding because I was insisting on my own way.  At the rehearsal, the wedding planner told us how to do all the details of the wedding, where to walk, where to stand, etc. — but then she started telling me how to do the service.  I told her I did it differently and we started arguing about it — and I could see people were getting upset — especially Maria.  Later I realized I could have just gone along with the planner — it was no big deal — it wasn’t important.  I just wanted to do it my way.  The next day I actually read the scripture passage where Paul said: “Love insists not on its own way.”  Look at that — after all these years I’m still learning that.  My insistence on having things my own way is a possession Jesus wants me to get rid of.

VI.     So please don’t take the Bible or Jesus literally.  Jesus says hate your parents — but he doesn’t mean that literally.  He wants us to love our parents and spouse and children — but when they differ from Jesus, listen to Jesus.  JESUS FIRST. GOD FIRST. LOVE FIRST.