Upper Room Liturgy - A Call to Discipleship

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!