CEC News Update and Father Riley's homily from September 8, 2019

CEC News Update!

…   Father Riley will lead us in Holy Eucharist September 15^th; 29th.  Mrs. Jane Barnett will lead us in Morning Prayer September 22^th

…The vestry has approved a contract with Pearl River Glass Studios to repair our stained glass windows and to add new exterior protection.  Work will begin soon.

…Please check out the diocesan website at  http://www.epiwla.org/  and register for  the upcoming evangelism event at Camp Hardtner, September 28.  Some of us have already registered.  The event features The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers. Here is the note from the diocesan website:

Come to Camp Hardtner on September 28 to discover a fresh, humble, effective and Episcopal approach to the spiritual practice of evangelism. The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers - Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation and Stewardship of Creation - will lead an engaging and practical workshop that will offer basic training in evangelism as well as the Way of Love. This workshop is for everyone: clergy, lay leaders, and anyone else who desires to deepen their faith and learn how to share their faith story with others.

13 PENTECOST, PROPER XVIII - C - 19             LUKE 14. 25-33

As we approach the election cycle, the political ads are becoming more numerous. Imagine if you will, a politician standing on a soapbox addressing a crowd. “If you are going to vote for me,’ he says, ‘you are voting to lose your homes and families; you are asking for higher taxes and lower wages; you are choosing to lose all you love and hold dear. Can I count on your vote?”

Why would anyone advertise himself in that way? Moreover, who would be foolish enough to vote for him? That is exactly what Jesus is doing and saying in today’s gospel passage. ‘Want to be my disciple? Hate you family. Give up your possessions. Take up your cross and follow me.’

Pretty harsh words aren’t they. Jesus makes it clear that there is a cost to discipleship. And if one chooses to follow him, they must count that cost before hand and know what they are getting themselves into.

In the preceding verses, Jesus has announced that the kingdom is open to all. This leads to the assembling of great multitudes that follow along behind him as he makes his way to the Holy City and the fate that awaits him.

The large crowds that accompany him are made up of individuals who have their reason for being there. Some are attracted to him because of the miracles he is doing, others, partly because of their curiosity. Some are following partly because he took the side of the poor, and partly because some of them have a half-hearted desire to be one of his disciples.

That’s when he turned to address them with the sternest claim - the claim for absolute renunciation of all natural ties and every kind of self-interest as the first condition of discipleship. Let us understand that we are not to take the word hate literally. In this case, it comes from the Aramaic word meaning, “love-less.”

When Jesus speaks of “loving and hating”, it is the will directed toward action that he is thinking of, not the feeling or the emotion.

Nothing is more important than following Jesus. To be a disciple requires total commitment. Christ is on his way to Jerusalem and the cross. The carrying of one’s own cross is then presented as a condition of discipleship. That alone should have been enough to thin the crowd.

There was not one present that had not heard of the crucified bodies that lined the Appian Way leading to Rome or perhaps seen those that hung on the outskirts of Jerusalem. They knew the condemned were required to carry their own cross. Why then, would anyone even think of doing such a thing?

Jesus follows his claim with two illustrations that give us a vivid picture of the cost involved in following Him, the tower and the war; together they reiterate the claim for absolute renunciation.

Our choice to follow Jesus was made at the font. The Baptismal office begins with a question to those adults who are being presented to receive the sacrament. “Do you desire to be baptized?” The proper response is “I do.”

As a priest of almost forty years now, I have asked that question of many adults and witnessed countless children being presented by parents and godparents who have answered on behalf of those children. By doing so they have made the commitment for them by renewing their own baptismal vows.

What I have really wanted to ask is “why, why do you desire to be baptized? Do you truly understand what you are getting yourself into?"

I can only imagine that the responses would be just as varied as the reasons why those in the crowd followed Jesus on his way to the cross. Just as I would imagine that after he delivered his stern warnings in today’s passage concerning the cost of discipleship the crowds were indeed thinned.

How seriously do we take our baptismal vows and promises? People expect that their lives will be better, that their lives will hold more meaning when they become a Christian. An abundant life is always part of the gospel promise, but it is only part.

The other part, Jesus makes clear in today’s reading, that is, everything we value is qualified by the demands of discipleship. The cost involved may include the giving up of one’s life. Look at the world around us it happens everyday. The cost may involve a limit on what we posses. Most certainly, it will change every significant relationship one has.

Most, however, do not want life to be too heavy. Nor do we like to be told what to do and how to live. Nor do we take to the idea of carrying a cross through life as being something positive.

We want all that God can give, discipleship and the good life and especially the fulfillment of the promise of eternal life. However, Jesus is telling us plainly that it is not like that. One had better count the cost before making the commitment.

Baptism is not, as it sometimes seems to be, a social event in the life of an individual. It is a lifetime commitment to one’s following Jesus and obeying Him as Lord and Savior. It is not a one time “yes” to God in Christ, but a commitment to live each day, with God’s help, in renewal of those vows and promises we made at our baptisms and the renunciations that accompany them.

Why, then, would anyone count the cost from the beginning and still choose to follow Jesus? Because in a curiously paradoxical way, it is to choose life rather than death. The choice is ours to make.

The command given to Israel remains. To love and obey God, that is life rather than death. To keep God’s commandments, that is life rather than death. To make good on our baptismal vows and promises, is to choose life rather than death.

At the font of life, we were buried with Christ in the waters of Holy Baptism and raised to new life in Him. From the font, our lifetime journey to God takes us to the altar to participate in the death of Jesus by receiving the sacrament of His Body and Blood.

Each Eucharist we participate in is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet we have all been invited to, and brings us closer to the Day when the new life we now live will be exchanged for the glory of the eternal life Jesus promises to all who chose Him. AMEN+