Player to be Named Later
Luke 14:25-33
Deut 30:15-20
There once was a poor miller who found himself in the presence of the king. He was embarrassed by his status in life, and to make himself seem more important, he told the king that he had a beautiful daughter who could spin straw into gold.
This thrilled the king who immediately sent for the daughter, locked her in a room piled with straw, and ordered her to spin it into gold by morning. If she failed to do so, she would die. The daughter fell into despair, for of course she had no such skill.
A little old gnome heard her sobs and appeared in the room. He offered to do the task for her. He would spin straw into gold, in exchange for a bit of jewelry. As good as his word, he had the room filled with gold by morning. The king was delighted but asked for a couple more demonstrations. Each time the gnome came through. But on the final night, she had nothing of value to give him. So the gnome demanded her first-born child in exchange.
The desperate woman agreed. A deal was struck. The gold was spun. The king was so thrilled that he made the miller’s daughter his queen and they lived happily ever after…until the royal couple had their first child, and the gnome came to claim his payment.
Somehow this little detail had slipped the queen’s mind. She begged and begged for mercy until the gnome finally gave her a sporting chance. She could keep the child if she could guess the gnome’s name.
After many failures, and at the end of her wits, all seemed hopeless. But one of her servants spied on the gnome and heard him gloating out loud, “The child is mine. No one will ever guess my name is Rumpelstiltskin!”
With that information in hand, the queen “guessed” the gnome’s name. He was so angry that he threw a furious tantrum that killed him and every else lived happily ever after.
Well thank you, Brothers Grimm, that’s a really weird story to tell children. Everyone in that tale is either a jerk or an idiot or both. The miller shoots off his big mouth and tells a ridiculous lie that puts his daughter under a death sentence just so he can look good. The king is a greedy tyrant who is prepared to kill an innocent young woman if she cannot do the impossible. He spares her life and marries her only because she made him rich; now there’s a match made in heaven.
The woman agrees to sell her own child. She reneges on the contract after she got what she wanted, and then cheats to win a bet. The gnome is a financial genius who spins gold so that he can trade it for things that aren’t worth 1/1000th the value of the gold. He stupidly loses his bet by doing an end zone dance before he reaches the goal line, and then throws a tantrum that kills him. Everyone else lives happily ever after.
I’ve often wondered what is the point of this traditional story? If you’re lucky and deceitful enough, you can have it all? You can party and get rich and live happily ever after without ever having to be responsible for anything you do?
It’s a strange but common theme in folklore. People sell their souls to the devil and then find a way to wiggle out of it, so all’s good in the end.
I don’t know the point of such stories, because we all know it doesn’t work that way in real life. Or do we?
A baseball team trades for a veteran player who can win a game or two for them down the stretch run of a pennant race. The press release says the veteran was obtained for “a player to be named later.” Great, we improved our team without having to give up anyone on the roster. . . yet.
Our federal government racks up a debt of 200 billion dollars a year. That means we get $200 billion worth of programs and goods to make our lives better. We get all this without having to pay for it . . . yet.
Face reality, Grimm Brothers. There comes a day when the player to be named later is named, and it’s usually a young player with great potential, whose loss hurts the team in the long run. There will come a day when the national debt bill has to be paid. Our children and our grandchildren will have less in their lives, because we have used their money to finance our good times.
This is the theme of today’s Gospel reading for today. As his ministry grows, Jesus begins attracting huge crowds of people. This is the guy who feeds multitudes, who heals the sick, who promises new life. Everyone wants in on this deal. They all jump on the bandwagon and wait for the goodies to roll in. Enjoy the ride along while Jesus pulls the wagon.
They seem to think that life is a kegger and Jesus is buying. The party never ends. All we have to do is hold our mug out to the tap that never runs dry. Let the good times roll!
We all know that’s the not the way life is. We were not created to just get, get, get, and never lift a finger to do anything. What we get out of life is what we put into it.
This fact weighs especially heavily on Jesus in today’s reading
because he has now turned his face to
The
He uses some of the harshest language in the New Testament in speaking to the crowd. He says, “If someone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, sisters, brothers, children, friends—even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Why would he say such a thing? Jesus is not the kind to hate anyone. He loved people, especially those around him. He certainly did not hate his mother, as is evidenced by his actions on the cross when he sought to provide for her care.
It’s another example of the trouble you get in with strict literal interpretation of the Bible. It is characteristic of Middle Eastern culture to use harsh, shocking language to stress a point, especially when you are trying to jolt people out of their complacency.
In the summer of 1861, many people in the
When word of the impending battle got out, the hills were filled with civilians in their carriages eager to get a front row seat to the day’s entertainment. Many brought their families, and packed picnic lunches to enjoy what promised to be a glorious, historic day.
There were those who tried to warn them. General William Sherman was
as blunt as a person could be in polite company at that era. “War is hell,”
Turned out
In today’s verses, Jesus uses shocking language to jolt people out of
the notion that the
God has a goal and a purpose in mind for creation. That goal is to bring peace and justice and love into the world.
In these verses, Jesus declares that goals like that do not just happen. The work of bringing peace and justice and purpose to the world is not a picnic. The world can be a brutal, vicious, evil place. If you are to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus, you have to understand that disciples are not groupies or admirers, or a fair weather fan club. Discipleship requires commitment and sacrifice, sweat and tears, and there may be times when suffering is required in order to accomplish the great task that God has set before us.
In the strongest terms possible, Jesus says that discipleship requires making God a priority. There is a point at which it takes precedence over everything, even family. Nobody has stronger family ties than members of the Mafia, but that does not make them admirable. If allegiance to family pulls you away from allegiance to God, the work of the kingdom is not going to get done.
Martin Luther said that the Bible has two main purposes: to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. As Dr. Koester at Luther Seminary puts it, when warnings disturb and promises give hope, the Bible is having the effect for which it was intended.
Our passages today contain both warning and promise. The reading from Luke is a wakeup call to alert people that Christianity is not an endless tiptoeing through the tulips. That there are challenges in this sinful world and that discipleship means actively working and wrestling and battling to overcome these challenges. The promise comes in the words of Deuteronomy, that with the offer of being a disciple comes the promise of life—full, meaningful, purposeful life. If you believe in God’s promise of life, the effort and the work and the sacrifice of discipleship will be worth it.
I have heard the difference between commitment and involvement explained with the image of a breakfast of bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved in the breakfast; the pig was committed.
In this passage, Jesus explains the importance of commitment in taking on the role of discipleship. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him.”
Again, it is a word of warning. Discipleship is not easy. Be aware ahead of time of what is at stake.
Work on the project stopped in 1992. It was never completed, and never will be. They did not have the money to finish it, and now with design flaws and deterioration, it simply is not safe and can never be made safe. Nor does the government have the money to demolish it. The building towers over the skyline, a monument of shame to people who began work without understanding the commitment needed to finish the project.
We can gloat over the North Koreans, but we in the Western world have built a greater embarrassment. When we traveled in the Baltic this summer, we came upon some fabulous old cathedrals, breath-taking in scope, beautiful in detail—absolute gems of architecture that dominate the capital cities of the region. These were the flagships of the Christian faith, buildings created as part of the great campaign to lead these nations in discipleship to Jesus.
But the cost of real discipleship proved too high.
Now, for the most part, they stand as empty as the Ryugyong Hotel. Most of them are tourist sites, museums, venues for concerts, some even converted to retail or office buildings. The European nations that built these churches were once Christ’s most enthusiastic supporters. Now only a tiny minority of the people have anything to do with the church.
The question for us posed by today’s reading is do we understand the
cost? Do we understand that it is not a given that
Do we understand that this congregation was not called by God simply to give people a convenient place to meet for moral edification, or to provide respectable cover for those who want to be thought of as good citizens, or to serve social functions like weddings and funerals and christening and the like until the money runs out?
Robert Mueller writes: The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, but don’t back it up. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
This congregation has a mission, to be a fountain of healing for all who gather here, overflowing into a river of compassion for the world. We have a mission to be a pipeline for spreading God’s endless grace and love into the world.
As all those involved so actively in our Sunday school, worship,
building, stewardship, finance, and outreach ministries know: wishing and
hoping doesn’t make it happen.