Kathleen Ryan, ARCWP and Beth Dounane led the
Upper Room Community’s Sunday liturgy with the theme of discipleship. Kathie’s homily starter is printed below and
is based on the first reading from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Gospel reading
from Luke.
Kathie Ryan's Homily Starter for September 3, 2017
Jesus lived at a time when your very
existence depended on relatives. Without your connection to family you could
not survive. Especially women and
children. Jesus is using this well-known
fact of his time as an example--- telling his disciples in the strongest of
terms what it means to be his disciple. Give up your dependence on the very connection
to what you need most for daily survival, your mother and father, your loved
ones. Jesus is challenging them and of
course now each of us to look at what it is we are attached to, what keeps us
from being true disciples and what changes us from being just spectators or
“look see” followers ---to true disciples. There is definitely a cost.
In the first reading Bonhoffer says first and
foremost we are free to choose or reject the “law of discipleship? The choosing or rejecting is a moment by
moment, day to day choosing. Jesus tells
us what that law of discipleship is: pick up your cross and follow me.
Beth’s opening welcome asked what is
the cost of discipleship? Both the first and second reading are laying out much
to think about when it comes to cost.
What did you hear? what will you do?
What will it cost?
Deven Horne places stoles on presiders Kathie Ryan and Beth Dounane with the words, "We your community call you forth and bless you as you lead us in liturgy today."
First Reading: A reading from Discipleship and the Cross
Jesus must therefore make it clear
beyond all doubt that the “must” of suffering applies to his disciples no less
than to himself. The disciple is a
disciple only insofar as he or she shares in suffering, rejection, and dying to
self.
Surprisingly enough, when Jesus begins
to unfold this inescapable truth to his disciples, he once more sets them free
to choose or reject him. “If anyone
would come after me” he says. For it is
not a matter of course even among the disciples. Nobody can be forced; nobody
can be expected to come. He says rather,
“If anyone” is prepared to spurn all other offers which come his or her way in
order to follow him. Once again,
everything is left for the individual to decide. When the disciples are
half-way along the road of discipleship, they come to another crossroad. Once
more they are left free to choose for themselves, nothing is expected of them,
nothing forced upon them. So crucial is the demand of the present hour that the
disciples must be free to make their own choice before they are told of the law
of discipleship.
These are the inspired words of
Dietrich Bonhoeffer a disciple of Jesus.
The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel of Luke
Large crowds followed Jesus. He turned
to them and said, “If any of you come to me without turning your back on your
mother and your father, your loved ones, your sisters and brothers, indeed your
very self, you can’t be my follower. Anyone who doesn’t take up the cross and
follow me can’t be my disciple.
If one of you were going to build a
tower, wouldn’t you first sit down and calculate the outlay to see if you have
enough money to complete the project?
You’d do that for fear of laying the foundation and then not being able
to complete the work—because anyone who saw it would jeer at you-and say- “You
started a building and couldn’t finish it.” Or if the leaders of one country
were going to declare war on another country, wouldn’t they first sit down and
consider whether, with an army of ten thousand, they could win against an enemy
coming against them with twenty thousand?
If they couldn’t, they would send a delegation while the enemy is still
at a distance, asking for terms of peace.
So count the cost! You can’t be my
disciple if you don’t say goodbye to all your possessions.
These are the inspired words of Luke,
a disciple of Jesus. The community affirms these words by saying AMEN!
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