Letting Go Preached on September 8th, 2019 At Wollaston Congregational Church Scripture: Luke 14:25-33 Even though I am no longer school age, these early fall days always feel like “back to school” for me. I wonder if you feel the same way too. Today, here in church, as we listen to the gospel reading we may find ourselves in a “back to school” frame of mind. Jesus is in full-on teaching mode. This is not an intro-level course. If you came into church today without having heard or read the earlier parts of Luke’s gospel, I’m afraid you are being thrown in the deep end. This is advanced level discipleship teaching. There are pre-requisites for this course. The gospel writer, Luke, is assuming that you have been along for the healing of the sick and the casting out of demons; for the parables; for the lifting up of the poor, the women and the outcasts. And for the glorious tales of the kingdom to come, the great banquet at which all God’s people are welcome. So far in the gospel story, Jesus’ call to new followers has not mentioned a cost. The disciples have multiplied to seventy missionaries, who have been sent out by pairs into the local towns. They have reached the multitudes with their teaching. Thousands gather around Jesus. They can’t get enough of him. But now it is time to find out what the followers are really made of. It’s time to teach them that following Jesus comes with a cost. And so he delivers one of the most challenging messages of the gospel: Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters - yes, even one's own self! - can't be my disciple. (Luke 14:26, The Message) Jesus cautions the enthusiastic crowd to “count the cost” of following him. This includes letting go of all attachments: even to family members, even to all their possessions, even their attachments to their very own selves. We might begin to think that this is a strange new egotistical Jesus. He is making some serious demands on the disciples. We generally associate leaders who make these sorts of demands with modern-day cult leaders like Jim Jones. In 1978 Jones convinced 900 of his followers to take cyanide-laced punch and die. If today’s teaching was the first thing we heard about Jesus, perhaps we would imagine him as an egotistical cult leader. Yet, we have heard how Jesus has gone about the countryside, serving the poor, healing the sick and lifting up the broken hearted. How can we possibly see him in this light? Instead, we have to look a little more deeply into where this teaching coming from. Perhaps it has more to do with our own egos than his. In the first chapter of the book “Breathing Underwater” Richard Rohr says: “What ego hates more then anything else in the world is to change - even when the present situation isn’t working or is horrible.” [1] We know that Jesus was all about change, in order to bring about God’s great vision for the world, that great banquet of inclusion. Is this us? Are we the ones who hate for the world to change, even when the present situation is not working? Rohr also says: “Ego hates to admit powerlessness over a situation …” and yet Jesus admitted utter powerlessness under the Roman Empire as he was taken to the cross and crucified. [2] And yet, is this us? Do we hate to admit powerlessness over the situations in our lives? And Rohr also says: “The ego defines itself by its revulsions and attachments …” and yet Jesus let go of all attachments, turning toward the cross to bring life to the world. [3] On the other hand, we find it so difficult to let go of our attachments and revulsions. Rohr goes on to say: “Mature spirituality is all about letting go” both of what we love and what we hate. Rohr says “Your ego is always attached to mere externals … it has no inner substance itself … [whereas] The soul does not attach and it does not hate; it desires and loves and lets go.” We all have an ego of course and it is better to have a healthy ego. Our ego knows who we are, and helps us differentiate from others, creating effective boundaries. People with fragile egos need others to validate them, they cannot handle criticism or rejection - they do not know who they are apart from the others they depend upon. What we need to learn, as we grow up, is to keep our egos in the right place. We need to master our egos rather than allowing our egos to rule us. This is our goal, in letting go of our attachments. We do not become less loving when we let go of family and loved ones and our other attachments. We learn to love in a self-differentiated way. But if we are attached so strongly to a substance or a habit, to a friendship, to a group or a way of doing things, that we cannot let go, that attachment becomes an addiction. And we are powerless over our addictions. In the Breathing Under Water Companion Journal, Rohr says: We are all spiritually powerless … not just those [who are] physically addicted to a substance. Alcoholics’ powerlessness is visible for all to see. The rest of us disguise it in different ways, and overcompensate for our hidden addictions and attachments … [4] This week I sat with my spiritual director and made a confession: I am attached to being successful. I really want to be successful: a successful pastor, a successful parent … successful in all I do! Until this week I had not spoken out loud about this attachment, I had kept it hidden. Ironically as I thought about letting go, I descended into a rabbit hole - I became attached to being successful in letting go of being successful! You may like the idea of having a pastor who is committed to being successful. This may seem like a positive quality, especially if my definition of success means revitalization of the church. You may want to buy into this attachment. But ultimately it will not serve any of us well. I have to admit that I am powerless: over my attachment to success and the revitalization of this church. I do not have the ability to reach into the hearts of our neighbors and stir them to get out of bed on Sunday mornings and come to worship. I do not have the ability to change the busyness of our culture or the habits that lead people to over-commit and burn out. Nor do I have control over you, the congregation. I can’t impose my ideas for change on you if that is not what you want. And that is the way things ought to be. The direction and the decisions of this church belong to the congregation. All I can do is to try lead us all in Jesus’ teaching for our time and place. I can encourage us to let go of our attachments to particular goals and outcomes and to listen to the desires of God for us and for our church. This is something that we will practice in the coming months during our discussions on “The Reality of Where We are Now and Options for the Future.” And so I invite you to consider for a moment: what are you attached to in your life? Is it a substance you use to numb yourself when life becomes too much a pint of ice cream at bed time after a co-worker made you feel small … or draining the bottle of wine in the fridge after a stressful commute. Do you feel powerless to resist and deal with those stresses in more healthful ways. Or is it a so-called friendship that is not working? A one-way relationship: someone who receives but does not give. Are you short- changing your soul, because you feel trapped by this person? Or do you feed the imbalance because you couldn’t imagine life without them? We humans are not only attached and deny our powerless on an individual level. We are also addicted and deny our powerlessness on a communal level. We are powerless to stop an active shooter in a place of worship, or in a shopping mall, or in a school in these first days of the school year. This sense of powerlessness is so frightening, that we come up with myths to convince ourselves we can control the situation. We say that a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun. We forget that we cannot tell a good person from a bad person by looking at them. We forget that a seemingly good person can become a violent person overnight under certain circumstances. And still, there is the collective power to stop the epidemic of mass shootings in our culture today. This could happen if we citizens admitted our powerlessness and let go of our attachments to our arguments, our weapons, our traditions … and our insistence on “being right.” Once we are ready let go of our political ideals and differences and sit down at the table together: then we will discover the power the end this epidemic of violence. …………… Church, today we have begun the first step of our 12 steps to freer lives with God. We have considered Jesus’ teaching on letting go in the light of these steps. Those who have done this first step in Alcoholics Anonymous or another 12-step program say “We admitted we were powerless over [our attachments]– that our lives had become unmanageable.” I invite you to take away with you the image of the hand letting go of the rope that is being pulled away. The owner of the hand is powerless to resist. The rope is being pulled by an irresistible force. If the hand continues to hold on, it will become cut and burned by the rope. But if the owner of the hand admits their powerlessness and lets go, they will be free. Wollaston Congregational Church, we are invited to count the cost and to become advanced level students and followers of Jesus. May we all have the courage to let go. May all God’s people say, Amen. [1] Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, (Franciscan Media, Cincinnati OH, 2011), 6 [2] Ibid. [3] Ibid., 5 [4] Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water Companion Journal: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps, (Franciscan Media, Cincinnati OH, 2015), 2
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