“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.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to preach on the Epistle today?
After all, when was the last time you heard a sermon on Philemon?
It’s a great little epistle to study.
It shows a very human side of Paul,
how he very adroitly twists Philemon’s arm regarding a runaway slave
and lays it on rather thick:
Paul writes:
“When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God…
I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed - through you,
my brother…
For this reason, though I am bold enough in Christ
to command you to do your duty,
yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love—
and I, Paul, do this as an old man,
and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus,
whose father I have become during my imprisonment.
Formerly he was useless to you (a pun on the name Onesiums, which means useful),
but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me.
I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
I wanted to keep him with me,
so that he might be of service to me in your place
during my imprisonment for the gospel;
but I preferred to do nothing without your consent,
in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced.
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—
especially to me but how much more to you,
both in the flesh and in the Lord.
So if you consider me your partner,
welcome him as you would welcome me.
If he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything,
charge that to my account.
I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it.
I say nothing about your owing me even your own self.
Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord!
Refresh my heart in Christ.
Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you,
knowing that you will do even more than I say.
One thing more--prepare a guest room for me,
for I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you.”
Well, who can say no to all that?!
Paul asks a lot of Philemon, and I bet he got it all.
But then there is the Gospel for today,
this message of Jesus that we don’t want to hear.
“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
is not able to be my disciple.”
“…none of you is able to become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.”
This is the message of Jesus that we don’t want to hear.
If we take his words seriously,
then it sure looks like Jesus is asking too much.
Paul comes across a lot more pastoral and understanding of our humanity
than Jesus appears here.
Paul may ask a lot of Philemon,
but Jesus demands even more from his disciples.
And this Gospel reading for today is not the only passage
in which this radical message appears.
It’s in all four Gospels in eight different places!
Well, we do need first of all to look at that word “hate” that appears here.
Does Jesus really mean for us to hate father and mother,
spouse and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself?
Consider two kinds of hate.
One is the emotion of hate in which one person is reacting to another.
There is a relationship there, a connection and a violation.
The reaction of hate comes about because there has been connection,
and so it ties the one hating even more to the one hated.
There is very strong attachment in this kind of hate.
The other is what is indicated in this passage here in the Greek.
It means to turn forcefully away from, to renounce,
to turn away from attachment.
This is a kind of repentance, a letting go of prior circumstances,
a letting go of the way in which all prior relationships had been held.
Jesus is asking his disciples for this kind of repentance.
But even at that, this is still extreme.
Disciples are asked to reframe all prior relationships
with family, with possessions, with job identity,
- which feeds a lot of our own sense of self-worth –
reframe our relationship with self.
How can we possibly measure up to what Jesus is asking?
Very, very few have shown such utter abandonment of self
in following Jesus –
maybe Francis of Assisi and a few others.
So for the rest of us, we need to be in a continual process
of spiritual formation, of spiritual growth
- working towards becoming a disciple, seeking to become a disciple -
as a life long process
until we are fully converted,
until we have finally become disciples.
Make no assumptions about your spiritual state
You’re not as fully advanced as a Christian as you may think.
The more I experience faith and trust in Jesus,
and the more I become aware of the Divine Presence,
the more I realize how utterly ignorant I am,
how far I have to go to become an authentic disciple.
This passage is about the willingness to give up self identity
in terms of ego centric attachment to body and mind,
to let that go in devotion to Jesus,
to lose one’s self in Jesus,
to call nothing “mine”
because there is no “me” left.
When there is no me left
then we are like Jesus,
then we are true disciples.
Well, you can’t get there from here.
This is not anything we can accomplish by ourselves.
But we can cooperate in the process of formation,
being formed as disciples,
being formed into the image of God,
being formed as a new being in Christ.
Think of the image of clay in the hands of the potter – this is process of formation.
Translate that into the human situation:
We need to be as pliable as clay in order to be formed,
that is, we need to be open and willing to be changed.
Truthfully there is very little substantial change that we can accomplish for ourselves
but we can discover the way of letting go
of our own self improvement projects
in order to be in that wonderful flow of life in the Spirit.
So the question is, do we want to follow Jesus?
Jesus tells the parable of counting the cost:
whether building a tower or waging a war
some forethought is called for.
Once you get started, you better be prepared
to see it through to the end,
to be ready to accept all the consequences for your choice,
and to do that it will cost you everything.
So in counting the cost
part of making it possible to meet that cost
is the conscious decision
to be active in fostering spiritual growth
now and in the future and for your whole life time.
Spiritual growth and Christian formation
is not about learning more and more facts and figures
about the Bible or the Church or liturgy,
although that can provide a context for spiritual discovery.
Formation happens through the spiritual disciplines
of prayer and meditation
and reflection on the texts of the Bible
and on the texts of our lives and where they intersect.
I have to ask myself,
am I a disciple of Jesus
or a disciple of the institution?
The institution of the Church may be very good and helpful
in supporting our whole spiritual lives,
but it is not the same as Jesus himself
and can be a step toward him, or a step in between him and us.
I think Jesus might rather prefer to have a raw disciple
than to have to un-teach us,
to strip off layers of learning that have become so imbedded
that they have become unconscious assumptions,
learning that make us good churchmen and churchwomen,
but which haven’t necessarily brought us face to face with Jesus
in the same way this Gospel lesson for today does.
Moses says, in the reading from Deuteronomy for today,
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses.
Choose life!”
Choose life.
Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”
Jesus said, “I am the Bread of Life.”
Jesus said, “I am Resurrection and I am Life.”
Choose life.
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