“How Much is that Jesus in the Window?”                                                Vance L. Toivonen

READING                   Luke 14:25-33

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, "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. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

READING                   Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

…there is no road to faith or discipleship, no other road – only obedience to the call of Jesus…Follow me, run along behind me! That is all. To follow in his steps is something which is void of all content. It gives us no intelligible progamme for a way of life, no goal or ideal to strive after. It is not a cause which human calculation might deem worthy of our devotion…The old life is left behind, and completely surrendered. The disciple is dragged out of his relative security into a life of absolute insecurity…from a life which is observable and calculable…into a life where everything is unobservable and fortuitous…out of the realm of finite…into the realm of infinite possibilities…it is no universal law. Rather it is the opposite of all legality. It is nothing else than bondage to Jesus Christ alone, completely breaking through every progamme, every ideal, every set of laws…The grace of his call bursts all bonds of legalism….Christ calls, the disciple follows; that is grace and commandment in one.

SERMON

I must admit at the outset that this book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer was buried on my bookshelves. I had to look for almost 20 minutes before I finally spotted it. Oh, I knew it was there…somewhere; but I had become so unacquainted with it for so long that it simply got lost in the multitude of books that overwhelm my shelving. Its subject matter naturally breeds obscurity, oblivion, and obsolescence. It sits in the background like an alarm early in the morning that we wish to ignore, tapping snooze again and again until the statute of limitations runs out on our snoozing. It calls us to another reality than the one we currently find ourselves in. It was my commitment to preaching this sermon that urged me to continue my search. The only question now is, will it get lost once again on my shelves when this sermon is over?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is a man who practiced what we preached. His response to the call of Christian discipleship pitted him up against the Nazi regime of 1930s and 1940s  Germany, a regime that imprisoned him, and ultimately took his life; ironically just as the war was ending. Because of the shortness of the time this morning I will leave you to do your own exploration of his biographical history. There is one quote I will share from Bonhoeffer’s prison writings, however. After being imprisoned for ten years, and after suggesting the ineffectiveness of reasonableness, fanaticism, conscientiousness, duty, freedom, and virtuosity, Bonhoeffer writes,

Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God – the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God. Where are these responsible people? Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison.

Nazi Germany was rife with citizenry who looked the other way while the Nazi regime came to power. And from what I understand the churches were also quite complacent, content to worship God in their sanctuaries while God’s voice was squashed in the public square. It is no wonder that European churches still find themselves quite empty, and the church finds itself irrelevant. It is an irrelevance that is seeping slowly into the consciousness of the American people today while we continue to insist on our separation of church and state.

It is odd to have such a sermon topic, I suppose, on a Sunday when I have been asked to keep it short in deference to a congregational meeting about building repairs, repairs which are long overdue, I understand. It is ironic because the call of Jesus Christ quite probably has little to do with this building or what goes on here. The early followers of Jesus left family and property in order to answer his call. But then there came a point when they had to stand on their own, at the time of Jesus’ arrest. They had become dependant upon Jesus. They had not yet internalized his teachings and his life. They abandoned him and felt lost and alone.

Bonhoeffer makes it very clear by devoting an entire chapter to the subject, that Christian discipleship is an individual condition. He writes,

Through the call of Jesus men become individuals. Willy-nilly, they are compelled to decide, and that decision can only be made by themselves…Every man is called separately, and must follow alone. But men are frightened of solitude, and try to protect themselves from it by merging themselves in the society…and in their material environment. They become suddenly aware of their responsibilities and duties, and are loath to part with them. But all this is only a cloak to protect them from having to make a decision. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

It is for this reason, I suppose, that we replace loyalty to the call of Jesus Christ with loyalty to a religious denomination or community, or loyalty to a political party, or loyalty to a social group, or even loyalty to family. These institutions have come to replace the call of Jesus Christ with their own call to discipleship, asking of us not what Jesus asks of us, but what best suits the agendas of each institution.

How can we overcome this confusion of calling? If we are Christians, then it is by listening as directly as possible to the voice of Jesus. This will be a challenging process, since so much separates us from the clarity of his presence. If one is a Buddhist, then one does the same thing with the Buddha. If one is a Muslim, then one does the same thing with Mohammed. And so forth. No matter which master one is seeking to follow, each one of us stands by ourselves, alone, in the presence of that master, and must answer the call for ourselves. There will be no one, no group or institution to coddle us or protect us from the challenge of the call. Our reply is our daily living, our choice-making, and the way we seek to influence the world around us.

In a few moments we will be counting the cost in relation to this building we inhabit. Let me suggest that we use this time to look within, to adopt this exercise in building maintenance as an exploration of life maintenance. What are we willing to spend on the call to follow Jesus Christ, or another master of our choosing? What capital investment are we willing to make in response to the wisdom that flows from his life and call? Are we willing or able to follow a Jesus who will not only cost us something, but may cost us everything?

I cannot soften these questions. Please know that they are as painfully difficult for me as they might be for you, for I find myself quite adept at avoiding the call. But also know that we are surrounded by a divine love and grace that is unbounded by our failures to answer the call. Even when we and the world around us, suffer the consequences of our choosing, we are no less the objects of God’s infinite love.

How much is that Jesus in the window at the Christian bookstore, or painted on the stained glass? Not much. But the Jesus in today’s first reading, well, he might just cost us everything. Now, where am I going to put this book?