September 7, 2025
Pentecost 13/ Proper 18, Year C
The Rev. Dr. Elaine Ellis Thomas
St. John’s Episcopal Church, Essex CT
Jeremiah 18:1-11; Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17; Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33
Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. (Jeremiah 18:11).
“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.(Luke:14:26)
I’m just taking a wild guess here, but I don’t imagine these are words you were hoping to hear as we celebrate the kickoff of a new program year here at St. John’s. And that makes two of us.
Sometimes I think that one of the most challenging aspects of studying the bible is finding a way to wrestle Good News from some really discouraging texts. I’ll deal with Jeremiah another time, but we all know that gospel means good news, not bad, so how do we go from this difficult teaching from Jesus to something that might point us forward as we launch our first full season of life and ministry together?
As often happens, our selection for this morning leaves out some pretty important information. Last week, Jesus was telling a privileged religious leader to invite all the poor and sick to dinner because they would not be able to repay him. That way, he (the rich guy) would be greatly blessed. The part that comes next that we did not hear is the story of a great dinner to which someone’s friends had been invited. One declined because he had just closed on some land he needed to go see, another had purchased some livestock he needed to try out, and another had just gotten married so declined the invitation. So, the host sent his servant out into the streets to invite all the unhoused and rejected ones, and when the table was still not full, he sent the servant out to invite in still more. That’s when this line about hating your family and even your life comes.
One thing you need to understand about Jesus’s teaching style, and that of many of his contemporaries, is that it was customary to contrast things in a wildly hyperbolic manner in order to drive home a point. You remember all those sayings about cutting off hands or poking out eyes if they cause you to sin? They are intended to highlight just how difficult following Jesus can be. But those sayings are not to be taken literally. In the context of the whole gospel with Jesus saying love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength and love your neighbor as yourself, do we really believe that now he is telling us to love everyone except those closest to us? And not even not to love them, but to hate them?
NO!
Of course not.
Well, what is he saying then? It’s right there in black and white.
Remember all those people who refused the dinner invitations because they had more important things to do? That’s what Jesus is talking about. There is nothing more important than accepting Jesus’s invitation to the party. Jesus knows that people have land and livestock to tend to and families to love and spend time with, and that’s okay. But we gotta get our priorities straight, and for Jesus and his followers, time’s growing short.
Jesus and his merry band of disciples are somewhere on the road to Jerusalem. They may not know what lies ahead, but he certainly does. He has told them twice already that he is going to suffer, get rejected, arrested, killed, and will rise again, but they don’t get that. Not really. I mean, would any of us if we had never heard of such a thing? I don’t think so.
He says we are to take up our cross and follow, but at this point in the narrative, does anyone understand what that really means? A cross is an instrument of torture and execution. Your “cross to bear” is not a recalcitrant child or a difficult relationship or even a chronic illness. It is a burden unto death, but they didn’t know that it meant his death and maybe theirs, too. But, whether we know what it means or not, this is step one: take up the cross.
Step two, according to Jesus, is counting the cost. Do we build the tower and then worry about whether or not we can finish it, or do we count the cost first? Do we go into whatever battle confronts us and only then wonder if we have the supply lines to finish it?
Step three is following, and it only comes after taking up the cross, counting the cost, and then and only then, following. How Trinitarian of him.
So where are we, as a congregation, in this process? I think that, given our long and deep history here in this community, we have decided to take up that cross, come what may.
We have counted the cost of building programs to deepen our knowledge and love of God, increasing of care for our neighbors, and reaching out in love to those who are unhoused or imprisoned.
We have counted the cost of building new ministries, trying new things, even calling a new rector who is committed to being a priest in and for the world.
You, the good people of St. John’s, have counted the cost and taken the risk of supporting and challenging yourselves to the possibilities that lie before us.
And now it is time to follow.
If you have decided to take up the cross, wherever it leads, and you have considered well what the cost might be to you, and I mean financially, socially, in time and effort, the question now is will you follow, no matter where that leads you?
For those of you who do not know much of my story, when I decided to follow discernment to ordination lo those many years ago, I could not have imagined that it would have brought me here, to St. John’s Episcopal Church in Essex, Connecticut. What I did know is that I was willing to follow where it led. And I am not alone in this. I imagine if I asked each of you where you thought your life might lead, right here today may not be what you would have answered ten or twenty or forty years ago.
And yet, here we are.
I don’t want you to hate your family or the life that you have. But I do want you to make sure your priorities in order. That’s what this gospel is about. Can we take up the cross? Can we consider the cost? And then, can we do it anyway, and follow wherever Jesus leads us.
I hope and pray that the answer is “yes.” As we move into our first full year of programs and ministries, I am so ready to partner with you in the work that lies ahead. Yes, the cross is daunting, yet Jesus promised that his yoke is easy. His burden is light. And it is light because we share it as a community of faith.
A few weeks ago, we heard Jesus say, “Do not be afraid, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:22).
Friends, that victory has already been won. Our job, our work, is to live into it. We can take up our cross, count the cost, and follow because we do these things together.
Thanks be to God.