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Contents: Volume 2 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)September 7, 2025
1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP -2. -- Dennis Keller OP - 3. --
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****************************************************** Twenty Third Sunday of Ordered Time September 7, 2025
The Gospel continues the scene from last week’s gospel of the banquet Jesus was invited to by prominent Pharisees. The first verse before the beginning of this Sunday’s gospel has one of the Pharisees asking a question about who is to attend God’s banquet. It is a statement that implies those at the table with him now would eat bread at God’s table in the Kingdom of God. The anticipated answer would have Jesus confirming the exceptionalism of the Pharisees. Jesus does not answer that loaded question. Instead, Jesus runs a litany of reasons persons are self-rejected from the Kingdom of God’s banquet. There follows the parable of the wedding banquet to which the invited do not come – all sorts of excuses all related to possessions and relationships. Those invited are rejected.
After this banquet considerable crowds followed Jesus. He speaks to them. This follows his rejection by the Pharisees who were self-important as portrayed in last week’s readings. Jesus goes further. Stating that anyone who does not hate his mother, father, wife and children, sister, brother cannot be his disciple. These two terms – hate and love are total opposites. The Greek terms used by Luke are not about emotions of love and hate. Luke’s terms define attitudes and modes of action. Those following him wanted to learn from him, to be his disciple. This is a hard saying and shocks us who heard this before but glossed it over as an exaggeration. The word used for hate is an opposite of Jesus’ word for love. The point is not how one feels – emotions – for parents, spouse, children, and extended family. What the words mean is a comparison of attitudes for the Kingdom. Discipleship has a cost. That is the meaning of bearing one’s cross. The bearing focuses on a continuing commitment in action and attitude in daily living and relationships toward others and use and attitude of possessions.
Jesus speaks of the cost of discipleship. In his stories about building a tower, about a king wanting to conquer a neighboring king, each are a calculation of success and the cost of the venture. So also, before becoming a disciple, each person must calculate the cost of discipleship. Failing to understand what it means to be Jesus’ disciple will be like beginning a lengthy journey with fifty cents in the pocket. The cost and burden of carrying the cross can derail follow through for discipleship.
These are difficult statements. The way of the world focuses on possessions and relationships. That is the story of the wedding banquet to which the invited are too busy with possessions and relationships to attend the wedding of a son. The obvious lesson is that God calls all to the Banquet of the Son. The invited, who are focused on possessions and relationships refuse to attend. Those who are poor and not prominent accept. This story does not disinherit all Jews, just those who refuse to accept Jesus’s message and ministry. This must appear to us who live in the world with its possessions, status symbols, and positive and negative relationships, a task too difficult. It does not deny dignity and worth of others. Relationships achieve a higher connection when a disciple of the Lord. This discipleship Jesus offers is far and away beyond things promised by the world. This discipleship becomes the foundation of relationships that are more merely practical. These are more than physical satisfaction, more than erotic and philia love. It is the ideal of agape – love of the other for the other. It is the cost of relationships that exist and thrive based on love the Father Creator has for each of us. That love included the joy, the suffering of the Son. The reward of discipleship is resurrection, newness of life. The Son is the Word of God revealing the Father and the Father’s love for us. We are invited to share in that Love, but there is a cost. Dietrick Bonhoeffer, while in prison under the Nazis, wrote a book titled, The Cost of Discipleship. Dietrick was executed hours before the prison was liberated by the Allies. His death was a martyrdom, his cost of his discipleship.
A preacher friend, a homily recently, used a monkey box to prove the point. The box is a simple cardboard box with a round hole the size of a human hand. Putting fruit in the box, a person is called forward to retrieve fruit from the box. The human hand clutching the fruit – something round not like a banana – cannot become free of the box. Letting go allows the hand passage from the confinement of the box. That is the cost of discipleship. We become free of what limits personal freedom to love as God loves.
The attitude and motivation for our life as a disciple have God and God’s love as our model and inspiration. It is a growth process, and one that takes a lifetime to achieve. Disciples are students who work to learn. Do not become impatient with yourselves. Growth is a process of practice, of mindfulness, of growing in love with parents, spouses, children, family, neighborhoods, nations, the world. The freedom that Love of God offers us is the strength to endure and carry our particular, specific cross to the finish line with courage, with fulfillment, and with joy.
Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com
****************************************************** ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 4. ****************************************************** ****************************************************** 5. ****************************************************** Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and insights on the next Sunday's readings can influence the preaching you hear. Send them to Chuck@PreacherExchange.com. Deadline is Tuesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email Address.
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A service of The Order of Preachers,
The Dominicans. (form revised 2020-09-23) |
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