Twelfth Sunday after Trinity
“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””
Summary
Follow me and have blessings, long life and prosperity or don’t and have curses and death. The choice offered in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 is a no-brainer. We all want blessings and life not curses and death. But in Luke 14:25-33 the choice seems to be follow me and give up all those blessings: family, possessions, even life.
Does choosing God means choosing life or does choosing God mean giving away our life? It means both.
Luke’s gospel is addressed to a community which is fragmenting under threat: families, congregations and communities were closing ranks. This is a common human reaction to perceived danger or scarcity: we protect our own and what is ours. We see this happening across the world from Trump raising tariff barriers to Reform targeting asylum hotels.
When God promised the people of Israel life and blessing in Deuteronomy it was a communal blessing: for all people to share the land and the blessing it offered. Jesus is not opposing this promise; he is re-offering it to us: the blessing is for the many not the few. Jesus is reminding us that all that all that we are and all that we have comes from God, it does not belong to us. Our lives are not about us they are given by God to be used for the well-being of all.
The choice we are offered is to let go of our small lives and become part of the expansive life-giving mission of God. To choose to practise justice, honour creation, protect the vulnerable allows our lives overflow and bring life to the world around us. Then we will be blessed by being the blessing.
FIRST READING
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall certainly perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him, for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
GOSPEL
Luke 14.25-33
“Now large crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and said to them, “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. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For 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? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or 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? If he cannot, then while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.”
