In all the Bible, few words chill us more than those of Jesus here in our Gospel today.  Can anything be more horrifying?-- "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."

    Jesus, here in the 14th chapter of Luke, seemingly stands at the very peak of his career.  He's traveling down the road to Jerusalem.  And behind him follows a huge throng of men, women, children--shouting his PRAISES, SINGING, LAUGHING, CELEBRATING.  It's at this point that Jesus, strangely, turns and blisters them with this solemn declaration. AMAZING!  "Has Jesus LOST HIS MIND?," we wonder.  Of the four Gospel writers, only Luke records this harsh statement of our Lord.  Even Matthew, normally so frank, softens it down a bit.  Matthew simply says:  "Whoever loves father or mother . . ., son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

    But Luke pulls no punches!  "HATE," cries Jesus in Luke's account.  For generations Bible scholars, terribly bothered by this passage, have tried to explain the word away.  But none of their contorted arguments can quite erase it:  "HATE!"

    Friends, how can the same Christ who blessed little children and took them up in his arms --how can the Christ who taught you and me to call God "Our Father" --how can the same Christ who, on the cross, according to John, lovingly committed his own mother into the hands of the beloved disciple --how can he possibly command you and me here to HATE our loved ones?

    But, friends, maybe God INTENDS to shock us sometimes.  Did that ever occur to you?  Maybe Jesus, here in our Gospel, WANTS to horrify that crowd of happy folks who, so easily, are following him on what they think is a JOYRIDE to Jerusalem!  He WANTS to jolt them into reality.  Jesus wants them to understand that he's beckoning them on the way of the cross, NOT along some primrose path!

    How blind our Lord's disciples were--ALL of them!  Yes, even the apostles!  Yes, even up until the end! --Up until Good Friday and Easter Day!  Andrew Lloyd Weber, who's given us such glorious musicals as "Cats," "Phantom of the Opera," and "Evita," earlier, back in the 1970s, with Tim Rice, staged the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar."  You may remember one particular scene from that musical.  It's in the Upper Room, where Jesus and his followers are celebrating the Jewish Passover, the  night before his crucifixion.  Repeatedly, during his ministry with them, Jesus has warned the apostles that his enemies lie in wait, that they'll eventually arrest and murder him.  Here in the Upper Room this very night he's announced that one of the apostles even will betray him.  But they don't understand.  They're still jostling one another for first-place in what they think will be his coming, GREAT, EARTHLY KINGDOM!

    And in this scene from "Jesus Christ Superstar," the apostles, well into their cups by now-presumably drunk on Passover Mogen David or Manischevitz!--throw their arms around each other's shoulders, like buddies in some British pub or American bar, and sing with joy this little chorus:


    Bizarre? -OF COURSE!  But with an uncomfortable element of truth, nonetheless.  The apostles, like most of the followers of Jesus up until the cross WERE a bit drunk, you see.   That is, they were a bit out of it.  They didn't know what the score was.  Didn't really know what following Jesus meant!  Like this happy throng in our lesson here, marching behind Jesus to Jerusalem, the apostles didn't realize how much being faithful to Christ would COST them!  So that's why Jesus turns to them here and cries:  "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!" 

    What about YOU?  Do you know what the score is?  Are YOU prepared to pay the cost of following Jesus?  Or are you like that throng of folks with their heads in the clouds, merrily skipping down the road to Jerusalem on what you THINK is a PICNIC?           

    In our lesson, Jesus tells them further:  "Whoever doesn't carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple."

    Friends, it's a tragedy that the Christian Church is just filled with folks who think they can have their Christ without their cross.  So many people are like the teenager who stands on the SIDEWALK, watching the ARMY parade-say during World War I or World War II-yes, parading to the train depot to go off to WAR.  How THRILLED he or she is to see the pageantry--the BRASS BANDS, the splendid UNIFORMS, the FLAGS, the GLORY--of the troops marching past!  In a burst of ENTHUSIASM, the boy or girl rushes off to ENLIST--perhaps LYING about his or her youthful age.

    Yes, the teenager JOINS the infantry and GOES OFF TO WAR.  But never once stops to CONSIDER the BLOOD, the DIRT, the HARDSHIP, the AGONY of the army on the BATTLEFIELD!               
    Jesus, here in our lesson, tells YOU and ME, "Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me CANNOT be my disciple!"

      Why IS it that the Church, so often, has tried to HIDE the way of the cross? --I don't mean the cross that Jesus bore but the cross that YOU and I and EVERY ONE of his followers are called on to bear in the face of a hostile, pagan society?  Why is it than, rather than shoulder the cross, congregations and whole branches of Christianity have accepted the standards of a world of violence, instead of shouldering that cross and suffering with Jesus?

    Recently Kenneth McAskill, the Justice Minister of Scotland, after agonized soul-searching, in an internationally televised announcement, decreed the "compassionate release" of the terminally ill, Libyan terrorist convicted of the 1988 bombing of Pam-Am Flight 103, over Lockerbie.  It was no pardon by the minister, but simply a response of mercy, made with the recognition that, according to experts in oncology, this man would be dead in three months.  And, in the words of McAskill, although the terrorist showed no compassion for the 259 passengers and crew on that plane, or the eleven Scots in Lockerbie who perished that December day, Scottish law requires the compassionate release even of convicted murderers who soon will die. 

    McAskill has been damned especially by Americans.  Yet his decision-and Scottish Law-reflects the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  It also shows that even in largely secularized Scotland the principles of our Reformed Christian faith, and of the moderate, Presbyterian wing of the 18th-century, Scottish Enlightenment which, through John Witherspoon's influence on James Madison at Princeton, largely gave birth to our nation's government, still hold sway.  

    Leaders of our sister Church of Scotland have praised McAskill's difficult decision.  The world practices "eye for an eye-tooth for a tooth."  In the Middle East a single rocket lobbed from Gaza or Syria into a Jewish kibbutz or settlement has produced the overkill reaction of the destruction of whole neighborhoods or villages by bulldozers, artillery, and attack planes-often with the deaths of totally innocent civilians.  Who knows but what this example by Scotland may touch the hearts of both Muslims and Jews and be the beginnings of REAL peace in the Middle East?

    But how many American pastors and churches see the real, Christian meaning of McAskill's decision?  In our day of popular Christianity without a cross.  Of Christian beauty queens and Christian fashion shows and Christian weight-lifters with bulging biceps -- in this day of well-appointed church family life centers that compete with the regular health clubs and aerobics centers and the Y.M.C.A.-- yes, in this world where, more often than not, Sunday sermons seem little more than attempts at mass psychological therapy and Sunday worship, frequently, exercises in mass entertainment and contagious narcissism-- HOW GREATLY you and I need to hear again the Gospel of SACRIFICE!  Of standing up the world's standards, and upholding Christ's!           

    But let's get back to the horrifying words of Jesus, here in our Gospel:  "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."  --We're still stuck with that word "HATE," aren't we?  Fred Craddock, commenting on this passage, MAYBE gives us a key to SOLVE our dilemma.  He points out that, in the ancient Middle East, "Hate" didn't always mean to DESPISE, but simply to turn AWAY from."

    Tell me, are YOU prepared to turn away from your family, if their demands conflict with your obedience to Jesus Christ?    The late Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinoneia Farms, the interracial, interdenominational Christian commune up in Sumter County, Georgia, where some of you may have visited, once was guest preacher on a Sunday in a southern church.  He looked out over a totally white congregation.  But, in his sermon, he pointed out what SHOULD be OBVIOUS to ANY Christian:  namely, that ALL Christians are equal in God's sight, whatever their RACE, COLOR, or SOCIAL POSITION. --And, therefore, ALL Christians, said Jordan, should be WELCOMED to God's house and to the Lord's Table.

    AFTER the service an elderly woman, obviously a pillar in the congregation, bristling with indignation and with pride, made her way down the church aisle, her eyes BLAZING and shaking her walking cane as if it were a weapon.  She LOOKED Jordan full in the face and cried, "I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT MY GRANDFATHER FOUGHT IN THE CIVIL WAR, AND I'LL NEVER BELIEVE A WORD YOU SAY!"

    To which Jordan himself the PERFECT MODEL of a southern gentleman, replied, "Ma'am, your choice seems quiet clear.  It is whether you will follow your granddaddy or Jesus Christ!"                       
    Thank God, FEW of us are called, in obedience to Christ, to make a permanent choice between the Lord and our families.  But God calls ALL of us, at times, to turn away from that which we love supremely--even from OURSELVES and our SECURITY and SAFETY and LIFE ITSELF, at least to turn away from them temporarily, in order to stay faithful to Christ.

    And THAT, friends,  is when hate becomes Godly.

Prayers:
    O Lord Jesus Christ, call us, who are called to be saints, along the way of the cross;
draw us, who would draw nearer our King, to the foot of your cross;
instruct us, the ignorant and blind, in the school of your cross;
arm us, for the battles of holiness, by the might of your cross;
bring us, in the fellowship of your sufferings, to the victory of the cross;
and seal us in the kingdom of glory among the servants of your cross.
Now, in your mercy, hear us as we pray:  for the whole world, for all nations and their governments, especially the United States, that freedom, peace, justice, and plenty may prevail, particularly in the Middle East;
for the Church in all its branches--and especially this congregation and those represented here today--that your will may be done through her and all people come to know Christ as Savior;
for one another--and particularly for any here this morning who are burdened by troubles of any kind, that they may know your restoration and joy;
for the SICK, that they may be healed;
the SORROWFUL, that they may be comforted;
the HUNGRY, that they may be fed;
for our homes and families,
for the schools and colleges and universities of our community and region, that the light of Christ may shine on all learning, especially at the beginning of a new academic year;
and for our places of WORK and LEISURE, that there others may see Christ in us.
    Finally, O God, hear our prayers of thanksgiving for those whom we've known on earth and who, having walked with you here, now experience your PERFECT presence, in heaven.  Bring us at last to join them, and you, in eternal victory and joy;
    for we make these and EACH of our petitions in Christ's strong name.  AMEN.