With urgency!

A third potential disciple asks for a little time to get other affairs in order to which Jesus relies; “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is for for the kingdom of God.”

Those paintings of Jesus that are done in soft pastels do not seem to fit this scene, do they?

For Jesus calls us away from things that are “comfortable” to challenges where we have never been.

Only God knows what may be in store when Jesus says “Follow me.”

I have a happy job now and again to introduce visitors and friends to St. Mark's.

When the person is potentially a member of the congregation, though, I get an oddly uncomfortable feeling.

I can tell that person about the wonderful people of St. Mark's.

I can show them the beautiful buildings and facilities, and I can describe to them lively programs and activities.

I try to be winsomely inviting and persuasive, and there is much about which we can be justly proud.

I'm uncomfortable, though, because all of the

descriptions I have done, the encouragement I have given, and all the need-meeting options I have suggested to them, have not really gotten to the point.

For when Jesus says “Follow me,” he is not really asking what needs you want to be met by a church; you are not the center of things.

It is Jesus' goal for the whole of creation and not our short term wishes which are foremost here.

I should be even more direct with potential members.

I should tell them “This is a great place with wonderful people, but it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is after you, not me.

You will get what you need, not necessarily what you want, and what is asked of you is a whole life, nothing less.

How that will work out, I don't know; let's find out, together.

Will this be persuasive?

We'll find out, but at least it will be more truthful.

We are constantly trying to make this faith—discipleship--church thing to be more appealing.

The growth experts have lists of things that a congregation should do to be attractive to folks.

You figure out what people want to hear, and speak it to them.

They say we should entertain the adults, do recreation with the kids, avoid anything that could be labeled “boring,” fit everything around the myriad sports schedules so that no one is inconvenienced.

It is not that those are “bad” things, they just don't seem to interest Jesus.

What Jesus says is so strange, different, and downright unreasonable.

Instead of making things easy, he makes them hard.

Instead of making his way fit in with our other commitments and loyalties, he puts his way against them.

Instead of merely reinforcing our resolve to do better, he asks the radical thing of having us choose him over any other obligation at all.

At this point, lots of folks get up and head for the door – this is not their idea of what they want to get out of church.

But we don't hear Jesus change his ways, do we?

Often, it seems that folks are like the young man who questioned Jesus and upon hearing what Jesus was asking, “went away sorrowful,” as scripture says.[Mark 10:22]

Of course, we want to be writing and encouraging, welcoming and educating, with a dash of entertaining and recreating thrown in, too...

But, we should never forget that our deepest need is to hear Jesus' call and to give ourselves wholly to it – so completely that nothing is left over – to the Lord Jesus when he says to us as he does in Holy Baptism, and regularly since then, “Follow me!”

It plays out in so many ways.

Let's touch briefly on three:

1.Prayer

One of the things that we can do is to remember one another and the whole world in prayer.

--A little time and thoughtfulness qualify anyone for being part of the Prayer Chain.

--Persons and causes can be proposed for inclusion in the Prayer of the Church.

--Join me for Morning Prayer almost every week-day at 9AM on your way to other places,

--or use the lessons and hymns that we list each week in the bulletin and pray Morning Prayer on your own at home.

2.Financial stewardship

Sometimes the challenges involve how we use the money that has been entrusted to us.

I read one time about an old pastor who was called into a congregation to help with a capital campaign.

Among the things that he brought from his years of experience was a sheet with the word “excuses” written across the top.

It then listed all of the plausible and reasonable things that folks usually say so as not to be involved financially in the church's work.

He gave responses for each of them, and then wrote at the bottom of the page “All excuses should be treated as a sign of insufficient commitment.”

That was not very gentle, but it is exactly the kind of truth-telling that Jesus does, the kind of expectation he makes without apology, the kind of commitment he asks:

a whole life and all of its components of time, prayer, money, thoughts, skills, laughter, joy, companionship, mutual up building, and all the rest.

3.Practical tasks

There are the un-glamorous things that simply need to be done on a consistent basis:

washing windows, watering plants, picking up trash, feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, welcoming the stranger, and on and on.

We know people who dive right in, and other who rigorously avoid any of them.

OK, enough! We get the idea.

In summary, Jesus' shocking challenge to those folks walking on the road to Jerusalem, and to us tagging along two millennia later is this:

Discipleship is not easy – conflicts are inevitable, and difficulty is to be expected.

But it is a loving Lord who is pursuing us, one who not only makes great demands but who has first given us great gifts,

which we can pretend are our own, or which we can use as he commissions us.

What will we do this week because Jesus says “Follow me!”? Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.