Good Shepherd Lutheran

What Are We Willing to Sacrifice? – Luke 14:25-33
Discipleship, learning to imitate Jesus, is the ultimate force that can unify our lives. So often we find ourselves stressed and fragmented because of the way we try to compartmentalize everything. We have a work life, school life, family and home life, internet life, recreational life, political and civic life, and, finally, a church life. We set each of those different aspects of our life as a rotating priority depending on where we are, who we’re with, or what we’re doing.
But Jesus’ demands more of us than that. There can be only one priority. Him. And that priority should shape the whole of who we are and what we do. If that’s true, then think about some of the implications:
• It means we’re to be the same person with the same values, principles, and beliefs regardless of where we are, who we’re with, or what we’re doing.
• It means politics can no longer be governed by party agendas but must be motivated by commitment to Jesus and gospel agendas.
• It means personal opinions and preferences give way to the love of neighbor and of one’s enemies. If we did that one thing, imagine how that would change some of our postings and comments on Facebook and other social media. Imagine how it would change our public and private conversations.
• It means business isn’t defined solely as a venture to gain money, power, or leverage, but as a resource to be used to care for, support, and satisfy human needs.
• It means the environment isn’t just a commodity to be used, polluted, and stripped, but a sacred gift entrusted to our care. A gift that manifests and reveals God’s own beauty and holiness.
• It means that everything we say, do, choose, and are arises from and reveals our life in and love of Christ.
We know how to make sacrifices and pay the cost for many of the things in our lives. We sacrifice years of study for an education. We sacrifice long hours and weekends for a successful career. We sacrifice time, money, and other opportunities to make sure our kids or grandkids get to camp, or to activities, or to sports games. We sacrifice dessert for a healthy diet (most of the time, anyway!). And we sacrifice sleeping-in to make time to work out.
We do these things because they’re important to us, and they’re good and important aspects of who we are and how we live. But we can’t avoid the obvious question this leads us to. What costs are we willing to pay and what sacrifices are we willing to make to become disciples of Jesus?