words with meaning

Luke 14:25-33

         'Oh, we must do lunch, I'll have my people call your people'.  Or, 'we simply must get together, I'll call you'. It's almost an acceptable social lie isn't it? You don't expect to get a call. You never get together and really, you never intended to. It's lip service.

          When I taught religion classes many years ago, I noted that a majority of the parents whose children I taught never went to church at all. That didn't make them bad people necessarily. It was as if they really didn't want to be bothered with religion but also didn't want to make a formal disconnect or an outward sign of disbelief, so they sent their kids to class. Sort of like hedging your bets.  I'm not quite sure if it rises to the level of being passive aggressive.

            When you make a decision to do something or if you believe in something strongly enough, you move forward with it. You don't for example say you are concerned about the homeless and then sit back and down a beer and forget the whole matter. Homeless who?

In marriage you don't say I love you to someone and then totally disrespect them, beat them or cheat on them. If you love someone, you act in a manner that backs up your words.

            In today's passage we have some of their contemporary examples using building a house and waging war. You don't say I'm going to do 'X' and not plan, and not do. Actions follow words and beliefs.

            If you say you are a follower of Christ or simply a holy person of any kind, your belief has to be followed out in your actions. Hence, carrying your own cross. Our crosses are as unique as we are. If we are faithful Christians we have to pick up our crosses and we have to live, actively live, our love.  You can see the Dalai lama is a holy person. The same can be said for mother Theresa. Can you imagine them spewing a tirade of obscenities? No, never. It is totally inconsistent with who they are and what their beliefs are.  What do you think when you hear of a televangelist that is surrounded by great material goods and has affairs?  I would be questioning their sincerity and their beliefs. While we all make mistakes for sure, revelling in the worldly is not what I would consider a mistake as much a way of life, a way of life that contradicts one's beliefs.

            I'll let you pick out the contradictions in life for yourself. The married man that has gay sex on the down low. The environmentalist that drives a Hummer.  The Attorney general of Florida that expounds on the sanctity of marriage, fights against marriage equality but is thrice divorced herself. 

             Use your imagination on your own examples but don't let yourself escape the scrutiny. If you believe then you must act accordingly. That goes for whatever your beliefs are or whatever your religion is. 

           

Now large crowds were travelling 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.