Provisions

Luke 14:25-33
Whatever path we choose, God is offering a way to stay on course.
I was telling the Young Disciples earlier about the call to adventure from God.  God’s love is ever-present and ever wooing us, ever calling us and ever guiding us back, Calling us back to God’s love, Calling us back to demonstrating that love to each other.  Calling us back into harmony with God and the way we were intended to live.  Calling us to listen to God’s guiding voice.  God calls to everyone.  But not everyone listens, not everyone can hear.  Even those that hear sometimes stop listening because they as so distracted by the worries and concerns of this world.
I want to play a little bit of the move Brave for you.  The main Character Mirada is a young Scottish princess who is being prepared to be the future queen and as a part of that is expected to behave in particular ways which goes against her nature. But even more distasteful to her is the fact that she has to choose between one of four boys to marry from the various clans that make up the kingdom.  In this scene she is confronting her mother, the queen and then sets out on her own adventure.
Movie clip.

Ana doing the Robot on a pedestrian bridge after eating some
Ice cream.  Some distractions are just fun. 

This is not a true story.  This is a fanciful legend told for entertainment.  But I love how, even in a commercial movie such as this, there is a sense of leading a sense of calling to adventure.  But the will-o’-the-wisps do not represent the call of God.  They are the distractions in life.  They are those things we follow when we forget to listen for the voice of God.  She was led through the woods to a woodcarver’s house.  The wood carver turns out to be a conjuror who agrees to “Change” Mirada’s mother.  She was indeed changed and in the end so was Mirada.
Is the point of the story that we should listen to our mothers? Listening to our mothers is a good thing.  In fact it’s in the Ten Commandments, “honor your father and you mother, so that you may live long in the land the lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20)
When we fixate on the rule, we miss the point.  In the move mother, daughter and even the father was transformed.   Had Mirada not gone off with the intent to change her mother and honored her mother like she was supposed to she wouldn’t have had all the trouble she did. But there is another side to the coin. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul says to fathers and presumably to all parents, “do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
We can get so fixated on our own agendas and the way we want to see things that we become blind to the possibilities before us and we become deaf to what God is saying to us.
If we insist on perusing a course apart that is apart from God, we are free to do so. But we will also have to live with the consequences of those decisions.  We may separate ourselves from God and God’s way, but God still loves us and God will continually offer guidance and invitation to come back into his will.
Why is my life such a mess?  Why is there so much brokenness in the world?  Why does there have to be civil war in Syria?  Why does the president want to send misses down on them?  Why do some go hungry while others live a life of luxury and waste?  Why are the Copts in Egypt being targeted?  Why is it that Dennis Rodman is the only Westerner to be able to have a conversation with the president of North Korea?
It is because each one of us has free will.  We can choose to follow God or we can choose a myriad of seemingly easier paths, even if we are perfectly obedient, this life can be very difficult. Because it is not just us. We live in a world where we have to interact with those who also have the freedom to choose their own path. And though we may choose to follow gods will, that doesn’t mean that anyone else around us will and we will have to deal with the consequences of their sin. We are to deal with the consequences of their decisions.  Their path cuts across ours and we are forced to deal with it.
In the Gospel lesson today, Jesus said, “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.”  This is harsh stuff! What did Jesus really mean?  Does this mean that when Mirada stormed out of the castle after her fight with her mother that she was the perfect candidate for discipleship under Jesus?  Is Jesus really calling us to reject our families and our lives? 

If we look at a similar saying of Jesus it might shed some light. In Matthew chapter 10 he says, “³⁷ “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.³⁹ Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

Jesus is not telling us to reject those earthly relationships and to despise our earthly life, but to love him more than those.  Our commitment and our love remains for our family but our love for God should exceed this. It needs to.  Our love for God needs to exceed our love for our family because, let’s face it, they aren’t perfect.  The will expect too much and offer too little.  They will let you down, they will judge you, they will make poor choices. You may be the exception and have an entire family where none of that happens.  But isn’t it nice to know that if you failed your family has the forgiveness of God in their hearts that they can look beyond it and love you anyway?  Loving Christ more means that you can love your family with an unconditional love.  They don’t have to measure up. They don’t have to be perfect. When Jesus is your first love you see the world as he sees it: Broken, flawed, but in desperate need of healing love.It is absolutely necessary for the individual, for you to put yourself in alignment with God’s will; to accept the free gift of God’s undeserved love; to confess with your mouth that Jesus is the Son of God and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. That is very important. But in addition to that, we are to look at our neighbors and not fix them, not judge them, not try to convert them but love them and forgive them and offer them the good news about Jesus Christ so that they can make that decision to put Jesus first in their lives. So that they can be open to God’s love and guidance. So that they can come to understand the immensity of what God had done for us. So that they can also believe in their heart and confess with their mouth.Jesus asks us to count the costs of being his disciple, of being fully devoted to him, to love him above all else. It’s a step of faith to follow him down the path that you don’t know where it’s going to lead.  But to trust that God will provide all that you need as you travel that path.God is a god of provisions.God provided the manna for the Hebrews as they wandered in the wilderness.  God provided a way for an unholy people to stand before a holy God.  God will lead us into his mission and if we follow he will provide all that we need.One way to have more confidence in walking down the path of faith and putting faith in Jesus Christ is to walk with a companion.  Walk with some other trusted faithful person to encourage and to be encouraged by.  Wouldn’t be even better if you had two companions on this faith journey to encourage and to be encouraged by?  Wouldn’t it be even better to have a dozen like the lord Jesus had?  How about the 85 or so that show up here every week at St. Paul to journey with or how about the 140 members of this faith community? If we walk this journey of faith together hand in hand, encouraging each other we can face anything any challenge that comes.So how is it with you today?  How is God providing for you?  Each one of has answered the call to adventure.  Each one of you will have all the provisions you will need on this journey with Christ. Each one of you has been lead to this place at this particular season of your life because God is living in you.  God wants to use you. God has gifted you. God has saved you and set you in this community so that we can hear your witness about what he has done in your life.