Sermon Q&A: The Parables of the Tower-Builder & the Warring King

Two questions were submitted in response to the sermon from February 4th on Luke 14, the parables of the Tower-Builder and the Warring King.

1) How does the challenge to 'renounce your possessions' (verse 33) connect with the challenge to 'hate his own father, mother, wife and children' (verse 26)? 

I'm glad someone asked about this, because it gives me a chance to underline a point that I glossed over in the sermon itself. It does seem like a bit of a non-sequitur from our vantage point, in our cultural setting, because we immediately think of our connections with our family members as purely emotional/relational - but in Jesus' time and place, there would have also been an undeniable economic security dimension to these family connections. The family was the source of one's livelihood, future career/work options, inheritance, and "safety net" if something difficult occurred, like a disease or injury. There was really nothing equivalent to "unemployment" or "life insurance" or "retirement accounts" in the social fabric of the time, so if someone did something that put them at odds with their family members, that meant their very livelihood and economic security would be at serious risk. This was not a small challenge! So Jesus' challenge here is poignant, and for his followers at the time, would have been a sharp challenge. At times, your commitment to following Christ might put you at odds with your own family, and for those people in his time and place, that also meant your "possessions." This was part of the "cost" he was urging those in the crowd to consider.

2) Any advice for approaching conversations with culturally-Christian friends who are unwilling to acknowledge the cost of discipleship? Such as saying things like "I'm afraid that if I pursue God, He'll make me give up all the things I love to do."

Oh my, I love this question! First of all, I feel the limitations in responding in written form (rather than in-person, over coffee - which I would love to do!), but I will offer three quick thoughts....

In general, my primary advice for these kinds of interactions is to always ask more questions! In pretty much any conversation about spirituality or religion, I find that asking questions is typically much, much more fruitful than immediately jumping in with ideas or advice for the other person. So, in this scenario, I can imagine a ton of questions that would help dig a bit deeper, like: "What do you have in mind that you are afraid to give up? Why do you think God would ask you to renounce those things specifically? What is driving your connection to those things? What would it look like to not have those things anymore? Why does that make you 'afraid'? Etc, etc...."

My second thought is to be ready to offer your own experiences and story, and particularly your own examples of struggling to follow Christ in the same way. How have you wrestled with this same challenge in your life? What does that look like on a daily basis for you? Why do you still feel like it's worth following him? The more honest you can be with your conversation partner on this stuff, the more it will feel like a "real" invitation for them to consider.

Third and final, and something I briefly touched on in my sermon, is to consider the cost of not following Jesus. This could only be discussed in the context of a pretty safe and trusting relationship, but there is a real cost to not giving up whatever it is the individual is afraid to give up, and perhaps they need to be challenged on that! Perhaps there are areas of addiction or comfort or simple pleasure that they do not want to relinquish, but continuing to feed those areas in one's life will also bear a significant cost down the road. Perhaps you have a vantage point on their life in which you can speak to this, and perhaps considering that will help the person reframe the challenge in their own mind.

But at the end of the day, like I mentioned in the sermon itself, I really believe that most folks will be attracted to following Christ through their relational connection to someone who already follows him and loves them as well. My prayer for all of us in our community is that we would develop these types of connections with others, and find ourselves in relationships in which these kinds of conversations happen naturally and freely. The cost of discipleship is worth it!