25 Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, 26‘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. 27Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 28For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? 29Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, 30saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” 31Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. 33So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

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• What does it mean to give up everything to follow Jesus?
• What do we do with the “hard words” of Jesus in the gospels?
• What practical applications can we make to our daily lives?

Please think about those questions as you listen to the following account:

“A goodwill trip became a near-death experience for 10 Highland Park Presbyterian Church (Dallas, Texas) members ambushed and robbed in a Kenyan jungle this month (August. 2007).

Some of the members, who visited a small village northeast of Nairobi, were beaten by four men armed with rifles and a machete as they threatened: ‘We will kill somebody tonight.’

No one suffered life-threatening injuries.

The mission trip to the small village northeast of Nairobi, had been months in the planning.

Church members hoped to work with engineers on an irrigation project that would save villagers an eight-mile trek each way for water. They also brought items such as Bibles and school and medical supplies for the villagers.

The team members, along with drivers and guides, left the village in two vans shortly before 9 p.m. Aug. 15, traveling through the jungle on rough terrain. Suddenly, four armed men stepped into the road and ordered them to stop, forcing church members to sit on the ground with their hands in the air.

Speaking broken English mixed with Swahili, the men ordered the mission team members to turn over their cameras, cell phones and money. Three Highland Park members originally from Kenya were beaten, punched and kicked.

The ambush lasted an hour as the robbers took their time rifling through the team members' belongings and taunting them as they were forced to lie on their stomachs.

Church elder Jon Phillips, 38, of Dallas said he was fervently praying when a truck's headlights shone through the darkness, causing the armed men to disperse. The truck did not stop, but it was enough of a distraction to allow the team members to escape.

Mr. Phillips said that once the truck had passed, the armed men looked as if they were coming back.

"We sped out," he said. "Everybody got out alive."

Not every follower of Jesus will be threatened with their lives, but in the most dramatic terms, Jesus tells his followers that there will be a cost to following him:

‘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.

What about this hard saying of Jesus?

Jesus’ ethic of loving your neighbor as yourself makes it impossible that a person should really hate his or her own family members. Jesus is using hyperbole which exaggerates a contrast so that the point is emphasized in such a way that no one will forget it.

Our commitment to Christ makes our earthly commitments look like hate in comparison.  Christ’s call on our lives takes precedence over everything else.

R. Alan Culpepper writes, “The cost of discipleship is paid in many different kinds of currency. For some persons a redirection of time and energy is required, for others a change in personal relationships, a change in vocation, or a commitment of financial resources; but for each person the call to discipleship is all consuming. A complete change in priorities is required.”

Jesus is emphasizing that there are no partial commitments.

As we consider Jesus’ words in Luke 14, listen to the following excerpts from James Martin’s op-ed piece in the August 20th edition of The New York Times. Martin, a Jesuit priest, is writing about the published revelations that Mother Teresa was plagued by doubts and a protracted period of spiritual darkness:

“The stunning revelations contained in a new book, which show that Mother Teresa doubted God’s existence, will delight her detractors and confuse her admirers. Or is it the other way around?

The private journals and letters of the woman now known as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta will be released next month as “Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light,” and some excerpts have been published in Time magazine. The pious title of the book, however, is misleading. Most of its pages reveal not the serene meditations of a Catholic sister confident in her belief, but the agonized words of a person confronting a terrifying period of darkness that lasted for decades.

‘In my soul I feel just that terrible pain of loss,’ she wrote in 1959, ‘of God not wanting me — of God not being God — of God not existing.’ According to the book, this inner turmoil, known by only a handful of her closest colleagues, lasted until her death in 1997.

It was not always so. In 1946, Mother Teresa, then 36, was hard at work in a girl’s school in Calcutta when she fell ill. On a train ride en route to some rest in Darjeeling, she had heard what she would later call a “voice” asking her to work with the poorest of the poor, and experienced a profound sense of God’s presence.

A few years later, however, after founding the Missionaries of Charity and beginning her work with the poor, darkness descended on her inner life. In 1957, she wrote to the archbishop of Calcutta about her struggles, saying, ‘I find no words to express the depths of the darkness.”’

But to conclude that Mother Teresa was a crypto-atheist is to misread both the woman and the experience that she was forced to undergo.

Even the most sophisticated believers sometimes believe that the saints enjoyed a stress-free spiritual life — suffering little personal doubt. For many saints this is accurate: St. Francis de Sales, the 17th-century author of “An Introduction to the Devout Life,” said that he never went more than 15 minutes without being aware of God’s presence. Yet the opposite experience is so common it even has a name. St. John of the Cross, the Spanish mystic, labeled it the ‘dark night,’ the time when a person feels completely abandoned by God and which can lead even ardent believers to doubt God’s existence.

Mother Teresa’s ‘dark night’ was of a different magnitude, lasting for decades. It is almost unparalleled in the lives of the saints.

In time, with the aid of the priest who acted as her spiritual director, Mother Teresa concluded that these painful experiences could help her identify not only with the abandonment that Jesus Christ felt during the crucifixion, but also with the abandonment that the poor faced daily. In this way she hoped to enter, in her words, the ‘dark holes’ of the lives of the people with whom she worked. Paradoxically, then, Mother Teresa’s doubt may have contributed to the efficacy of one of the more notable faith-based initiatives of the last century.

Few of us, even the most devout believers, are willing to leave everything behind to serve the poor. Consequently, Mother Teresa’s work can seem far removed from our daily lives. Yet in its relentless and even obsessive questioning, her life intersects with that of the modern atheist and agnostic. “If I ever become a saint,” she wrote, “I will surely be one of ‘darkness.’ ”

Mother Teresa’s ministry with the poor won her the Nobel Prize and the admiration of a believing world. Her ministry to a doubting modern world may have just begun.

Mother Teresa’s honest confessions may be remembered as just as important as her ministry to the poor. It would be a ministry to people who had experienced some doubt, some absence of God in their lives. And you know who that is? Everybody. Atheists, doubters, seekers, believers, everyone.” (End of excerpts from Martin’s article)

Even persons like Mother Teresa who give evidence of total commitment can experience doubt and darkness.

Yes, we hear that Jesus is calling us to full commitment and not just a partial commitment, but we know that we all live at different levels of commitment…and we need to encourage each other in our journey of faith, not preach at each other about being more committed.

I share with you the “ministry assumptions” that I mentioned in my first sermon here a little over six months ago:

• Spirituality is not about perfection; it is about intimacy & connection with God and about a servant relationship with others.
• Spirituality is not about fixing others; it is about God living through each of us in transforming grace.
• Spiritual growth looks different for each of us.
• Spiritual growth encompasses a lifetime of decisions; it is “evolutionary.”
• Reluctant or inconsistent growth is still growth

              (Adapted from: Messy Spirituality: God’s Annoying Love for Imperfect People by Mike Yaconelli.)

In the current edition of The Spire, I quote Rick Barger, pastor of Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Littleton, Colorado He writes, “There is no more needful time for the church to be born anew in an authentic way than today.” He goes on to say, “In a world where life has become so fragmented, cheapened, and troubled, it is within the church and her story where healing, hope, laughter, truth, love, genuine community, human purpose, and real life are found.”

(From A New & Right Spirit: Creating Authentic Church in a Consumer Culture).

This transitional time at RHPC is a God-given opportunity for the church to be “born anew in an authentic way.” Let’s personalize Barger’s  words for our own context:

 “At Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church you will find healing, hope, laughter, truth, love, genuine community, human purpose and real life!”

WOW! Sounds wonderful doesn’t it? As we focus on utilizing our gifts and talents for the purpose of serving Christ by serving others, we will experience a new day at Rolling Hills.

We encourage each other as together…..we follow Jesus…..growing in our commitment.