Hard Work

The Chapel of the Incarnation, Gainesville FL
September 5, 2010

Year C, Proper 18: The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Jeremiah 18:1-11
Psalm 139: 1-5, 13-17
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14: 25-33

Hard Work

It’s Labor Day weekend and sure enough today’s three Scripture readings are about hard work. It’s hard work to be a student and it’s hard work to be out in the world trying to earn a living. (And I guess today it’s especially hard work to be a Gator football player!) And it’s also hard work to be a person of faith. It’s hard work to be a Christian. It’s hard work because over and over God calls us to open our hearts, to deepen our love of God and to deepen our love for one another. It’s hard work to be a Christian.

All three of the readings: Jeremiah’s powerful image of God as the potter, Paul’s letter to Philemon, and Jesus’ tough teaching on discipleship, remind us that over and over God calls us to the hard work of opening our hearts. And like any other kind of hard work, we can choose to do it or choose not to do it.

The passage we heard from the Prophet Jeremiah probably took its final form around the 6th Century BC, when Judah had been defeated and most of its people were sent into exile in Babylon. Then and now, whenever bad things happen to us, we ask why? Or, more specifically, we ask, why me?

Well, the same was true for the Jewish people during the Babylonian exile. Why had this calamity happened? Why had God allowed this to happen?

First, the prophet Jeremiah makes it very clear that God is ultimately in control. Through Jeremiah, God says, “Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand…”

God can do whatever God wants. But, first Jeremiah understands that God offers the people an opportunity, a choice. God reaches out, calls the people to open their hearts. God says, “Turn now, all of you from your evil way, and amend your ways and doings.”

Of course, then and now people can - and do - say no to God. Jeremiah understood that the people of Israel at that time had failed to open their hearts to God, had failed to amend their ways and doings.

But, the story of Israel didn’t end with the Babylonian Exile. No matter what, God continues to reach out to us, calling us to the hard work of opening our hearts.

God’s ultimate way of reaching out to us is Jesus. In the gospel lesson I just read, Jesus lays out the very stark reality of what it means to be his disciple. Talk about hard work! Luke mentions that, amazingly, Jesus is addressing large crowds. You’d think, considering how many people were listening, that Jesus might want to sugarcoat things a little. You know, tell people it’ll be easy to be a disciple; tell people if they follow him they’ll be rich, successful and happy.

Instead, Jesus is brutally honest about what it means to follow him. Jesus is brutally honest about the hard work of opening our hearts to God.

“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.”

We have here some very hard and brutally honest teaching from Jesus. Jesus calls us to the hard work of opening our hearts. When Jesus calls us to hate the people we love, he’s not talking about emotion. Instead, he’s using a bit of exaggeration – very common in the ancient world – to make a point.

Jesus is calling us to the hard work of opening our hearts to God. It’s hard work to open our hearts to God, to put God above all the attachments and cares – even the good attachments and cares – of this world.

But Jesus knows being open to God is worth the hard work. Jesus knows that being open to God allows us to live more fully and to love our families and friends more deeply than we ever thought possible.

Still, being a disciple will cost us. So Jesus urges us to consider carefully the costs of following him. Jesus advises us to be like the person building a tower or the king planning to wage war. Consider the costs, then make the free choice to open our hearts to God.

But, wait, there’s more! Opening our hearts to God is not a once-in-a-lifetime event that happens at our baptism or when we are “born again.” Instead, God is always calling us to the hard work of opening our hearts.

And we heard an amazing example about the ongoing hard work of opening our hearts in Paul’s letter to Philemon. Here’s the story in a nutshell.

Paul had taught Philemon about Jesus and maybe had also baptized him. Now, Paul refers to Philemon as his “dear friend and co-worker.” Philemon is a leader of a house church. Philemon is also the owner of at least one slave, named Onesimus.
It’s not clear why, but the slave Onesimus had fled from Philemon and had gone to be with Paul in prison. There, thanks to Paul, Onesimus also became a disciple of Jesus. Now Philemon the owner and Onesimus the slave are both brothers in Christ. Starting to see the problem?

Now, Paul writes this letter to his “dear friend and co-worker” Philemon. By becoming a disciple of Jesus, Philemon had already considered the cost of discipleship and opened his heart to God in Christ. But, now Paul is calling Philemon to the hard work of opening his heart a little more.

Paul is clear that he could order Philemon to welcome back Onesimus but instead has chosen to ask Philemon to open his heart a little more. Philemon is free to say no.

Paul is calling Philemon to the hard work of opening his heart – to love Onesimus, as his brother in Christ. Paul is calling Philemon to open his heart a little more – to love his runaway slave, as himself. Paul writes,

“Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother…”

Hard work. For Philemon, the cost of opening his heart - the cost of being a disciple of Jesus - has just gone up.
So, what about us? In what ways is God calling us to open our hearts? In what ways are we being called to deepen our commitment to being a disciple of Jesus?

What’s our hard work?

Are we too attached to material things – or too attached to certain people in our lives?

Do we really try to put God first and to love others as we love ourselves?

Are there some people we just can’t forgive?

Can we accept that God really loves us for who we are?

Do we have trouble forgiving ourselves for something we’ve done or not done?

We call ourselves Christians, but really, what difference does that make in our everyday lives?

Honestly, how much does it really cost us to be a disciple of Jesus?

What’s our hard work?

Just as Jeremiah heard God calling the people of Israel to open their hearts, God is calling us to the hard work of opening our hearts and deepening our love of God and deepening our love for one another. Just as Jesus told the crowds that following him would cost, Jesus is telling us here in the chapel today about the cost of discipleship. And just as Philemon the Christian disciple found out that the call to open our hearts never ends, so too for us on this Labor Day weekend the call to open our hearts never ends.

Yes, it’s hard work to be a Christian. But if we answer God’s call and do the hard work of opening our hearts, then it’s possible for us to live more fully and love more deeply, than we ever thought possible.

Amen.