The Cost of Discipleship: For Christ's Sake

Matthew 5: 1-12

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him.

Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

================================================

When we hear someone say, “Oh, for Christ’s sake”, these days, it usually means they just broke off a valve head on a water line they were trying to turn, or some other type of similar frustration. And instead of using whatever four-letter word might come up instinctively, this is what some people might say instead. It’s a little like a saying my mom always used – like every good Catholic, she’d been brought up knowing that to say “Oh, my God” was a sin, so she would always tack a little something on the end, saying instead, “Oh, my Godfather!”

But did you notice that we all said, “for Christ’s sake” in worship today? You all said it. Look back in your bulletin and see if you can find it…

(from end of unison confession)

Let’s read that last sentence together….

“By your loving mercy, help us to live in your light and abide in your ways, FOR THE SAKE OF JESUS CHRIST OUR SAVIOR.”

What does it say we are doing for Christ’s sake? (let congregation answer)

To be Christian means to believe in Jesus Christ, and to live our lives, not for our own sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ our Savior.

Why do we do this? Because Jesus Christ IS our SAVIOR, and because nothing else on earth can save us. Jesus Christ already has.

So it could be a good thing to go around saying “for Christ’s sake”, either to ourselves or out loud, if it helps remind us why we do everything we do. And I do mean everything.

We may say, well, yes, but a good savings plan can make us enjoy our time on earth better; it can make sure we can take care of ourselves, so nobody else has to take care of us….

But we are called to do everything we do for the sake of Jesus Christ, not for our own sake.  This is what brings us true joy – a true reason to rejoice – way beyond whatever pleasures $$ can buy.

I often look up the key words that jump out to me in a passage. Here’s what the English dictionary says about the word “sake”.

In the first definition, it means

“for the purpose of;

in the interest of;

in order to achieve or preserve”.

The second definition is

“out of consideration for someone;

in order to help someone”.

So to live in the light, for the sake of Christ,

means we live for Christ’s purpose,

we conduct ourselves in Christ’s interest,

in order to help or achieve the kingdom of God,

working together with the Holy Spirit.

But let’s consider this: when this beatitude says “blessed are you when people revile you, persecute you, utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake; you have to wonder, what is it that we would do for Jesus’ sake, that would cause people to revile us, or persecute us, or utter false evils against us?

Come to think of it, what sorts of things do we ever do that might result in that? Or what would we ever even think of doing?

Well, two things come to mind for me – two different ways that I have regularly heard Christians described. One is that if you’re upsetting people, then you must be doing it right. In other words, we are called, as disciples, to be out on a limb, behaving in ways that much of the world would see as crazy, or as challenging  to their way of life. Discipleship is an upside down way of living.

Loving and caring for people who don’t seem to deserve it, for example. 

Standing up for the rights of people who are not equipped to take care of themselves – with no thought of why they can’t.

Those are things that Christians might do –

actually ought to be spending their lives doing –

which would cause people to revile you, or to persecute you, or to utter evil against you – for the sake of Jesus Christ.

The second thing this brought to mind was the saying that is often focused on pastors in particular, but really applies to all of us, since we are all ministers, all disciples – it says we are called to “comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable”. That saying is often referring to sermons, but the truth is, that is a decent way of looking at our mission as Christian disciples, in every aspect of our lives. If our lives are about comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable – or getting the comfortable out of their comfort zones so we can all work together on comforting the afflicted – if we truly do this, we will undoubtedly be reviled, and persecuted, and all manner of evil will be spoken against us – and we will have done it for Christ’s sake.

Whatever shakes us out of our comfort zones;

whatever causes us to rethink our lives;

whatever causes us to consider just how we have or we will surrender ourselves to Christ, will likely raise up words of revulsion in us as well. Because we don’t really like the idea of surrender. It’s a word for losers. We like winning, we like conquest.

That’s what the Jews were seeking from a Messiah. Someone who would come in and destroy the Roman oppressors, so that they would finally be conquerors.

But Jesus came and taught love, not war. He modeled surrender, not revenge. He preached forgiveness, not hate. And he expects that from his disciples too. In fact, he tells us that this is what leads to true life. If we want it – if we don’t prefer the life we make for our own sake.

In our scripture passage from John today, Jesus is preparing the disciples for his death. He says to them,

 “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. “

And we are following Jesus to the cross, to the ultimate surrender and sacrifice.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer has this to say about these ending passages of the beatitudes:

“Having reached the end of the beatitudes, we naturally ask if there is any place on this earth for the community which they describe. Clearly, there is one place, and only one, and that is where the poorest, meekest, and most sorely tried of all people is to be found— on the cross at Golgotha. The fellowship of the beatitudes is the fellowship of the Crucified. With him it has lost all, and with him it has found all.”

John Danforth is an Episcopal priest and was an Ambassador to the United Nations. He served three terms as a Republican Senator and a special envoy to Sudan for President Bush. He was a good friend and a mentor to Tom Schweich, who was a lifelong public servant and politician in the state of Missouri.  He served as Senator Danforth’s Chief of Staff when he was at the United Nations, and when he was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the mass deaths at Waco, Texas. He was serving most recently as the State Auditor of Missouri, and was running for governor of Missouri. Tom Schweich took his life in late February of this year. Rev. Danforth delivered his eulogy just two weeks ago. If we had time, I would play you the entire video of his eulogy. It is very powerful, very moving. It is based upon these verses in the beatitudes, and it strikes at the heart of what it means to take the high road, for the sake of Christ. I am going to read you a few excerpts, and I will post the video on our church’s Facebook page, for those of you who want to hear the whole thing.

http://www.onbeing.org/blog/john-danforths-eulogy-calls-for-an-end-to-bullying-in-politics/7390

Rev. Danforth says:

“Tom was the model for what a public servant should be. He was exceptionally bright, energetic, and well-organized. He was highly ethical, and like the indignant prophets of Biblical times, he was passionate about his responsibility for righting wrongs.

We spoke often about the calling to public service, and what we said was always the same. The objective should be always to take the high ground and never give it up.

I last spoke with Tom this past Tuesday afternoon. He was indignant. He told me he was upset about two things, a radio commercial and a whispering campaign he said were being run against him. He said the commercial made fun of his physical appearance and wondered if he should respond with his own ad.

But while the commercial hurt his feelings, his great complaint was about a whispering campaign that he was Jewish. This was more than an expression of personal hurt as with the radio ad, this was righteous indignation against what he saw as a terrible wrong. And what he saw was wrong is anti-Semitism. He said he must oppose this wrong, that he must confront it publicly by going before the media where he would present several witnesses. He said that they would verify that there were several times when the rumor had been spread.

Tom called this anti-Semitism, and of course it was. The only reason for going around saying that someone is Jewish is to make political profit from religious bigotry. Someone said this was no different than saying a person is a Presbyterian. Here’s how to test the credibility of that remark: when was the last time anyone sidled up to you and whispered into your ear that such and such a person is a Presbyterian?

Tom told me of his Jewish grandfather who taught him about anti-Semitism, and told him that anytime Tom saw it, he had to confront it. So Tom believed that that was exactly what he must do. There was no hint by Tom that this was about him or his campaign. It was about confronting bigotry.

I told Tom that it is important to combat any whiff of anti-Semitism, but I said that he should not be the public face of doing that. I told him that if he were to go public, the story would be all about him, and not about the evil he wanted to fight. I said that I was concerned about his political future, that his focus should be on winning election as governor, and that the best approach would be to have someone feed the story to the press and let the press run with it. Tom said that the press would only run with the story if he went public and that if he didn’t make an issue out of anti-Semitism no one would.

That was the phone call, except at the end he seemed angry with me.

It’s impossible to know the thoughts of another person at such a dire time as suicide, but I can tell you what haunts me. I had always told him to take the high ground and never give it up, and he believed that, and it had become his life. Now I had advised him that to win election he should hope someone else would take up the cause. He may have thought that I had abandoned him and left him on the high ground, all alone to fight the battle that had to be fought.

I think there are two messages in this, one for Tom’s children, the other for the rest of us.

Emilie and Thomas, always be proud of your father. He has left you a legacy, a tradition to take up in your own lives. You will have to be very brave to do this, as he was brave, and it will require energy and devotion to the task, as he was energetic and devoted to his task. The legacy your father has passed on to you is this: to fight for what is right, to always seize the high ground and never give it up.

The message for the rest of us reflects my own emotion after learning of Tom’s death, which has been overwhelming anger that politics has gone so hideously wrong, and that the death of Tom Schweich is the natural consequence of what politics has become.

Sure, politics has always been combative, but what we have just seen is combat of a very different order.

As for the radio commercial, making fun of someone’s physical appearance, calling him a “little bug”, there is one word to describe it: “bullying.” And there is one word to describe the person behind it: “bully.” We read stories about cyberbullying, and hear of young girls who killed themselves because of it. But what should we expect from children when grown ups are their examples of how bullies behave?

Since Thursday, some good people have said, “Well that’s just politics.” And Tom should have been less sensitive; he should have been tougher, and he should have been able to take it. Well, that is accepting politics in its present state and that we cannot do. It amounts to blaming the victim, and it creates a new normal, where politics is only for the tough and the crude and the calloused. Indeed, if this is what politics has become, what decent person would want to get into it? We should encourage normal people, yes sensitive people, to seek public office, not drive them away.

We often hear that words can’t hurt you. But that’s simply not true. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said just the opposite. Words for Jesus could be the moral equivalent of murder. He said if we insult a brother or sister we will be liable. He said if we call someone a fool we will be liable to hell. Well how about anti-Semitic whispers? And how about a radio ad that calls someone a “little bug,” and that is run anonymously over and over again?

Words do hurt. Words can kill. That has been proven right here in our home state.”

My sisters and brothers, we live in a society where to speak up and to take the high road will almost always lead to bullying, to criticism, to insults, to being treated like a fool. But you will notice that Rev. Danforth’s message to Tom Schweich’s children was to continue their dad’s legacy, to always take the high ground and never give it up. Jesus calls us all to take the high ground, which is the way of justice and peace, the way of feeding the hungry, the way of surrendering ourselves completely to Christ, for Christ’s sake. We are called to be there in community, supporting one another, so no one has to feel they are going it alone. We are given the true light, and we are called to let it shine, no matter what other people say or think about us, because who we are and what we do, all through our lives, is all for the sake of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.