Difficult... Or worth it ?

From Helen
A former prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the Waddesdon estate of the 19th-century Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued:

"Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?" 

"Tea, please," answered Asquith. 

"China, India, or Ceylon, sir?" asked the butler. 

"China, please." 

"Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?" 

"Milk, please," replied Asquith. 

"Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?" asked the butler.

Life is full of choices and in our readings today we have heard about choices, and not just about choices but about the implications of those choices. In the reading from Deuteronomy (30:15-20) we heard the choice of life and prosperity or death and adversity. It isn’t really a difficult choice to make or so it would seem. 

Life and prosperity is a choice to follow God and be more like Him, knowing that given a choice the most obvious way to go is to follow. 

This is a good choice and it all makes perfect sense until you think of the gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33). In this reading Jesus explained what being a true follower would mean. In the reading we heard that Jesus is to come first and also that in difficult situations we are to keep following Him. 

Following Jesus is a risk at times it isn’t always easy to keep trusting when everything around is falling apart but it is a risk worth taking, We have chosen life and prosperity. This doesn’t mean that we will all be rich or that life will always be perfect but it does mean that we are choosing life following our creator and what better way can there be than that. 

Being a disciple reminds me a bit of my sporting career.

My sporting career never really took off – it may have been to do with my lack of desire to make things work, or maybe it was because whenever things got difficult I gave up.

I gave up ice skating – someone hit me with the blade of their skate it hurt. I gave up the trampoline because it hurt when I landed. I gave up swimming because it was cold getting changed in the winter and I gave up gymnastics because I was sacred of heights. 

Now clearly I didn’t have the determination or ability to sacrifice other things so that I could be committed to what I was trying to do. 

I needed to sacrifice my home comforts in order to succeed. I didn’t want to, the choice was not worth it. 

In our life as disciples of Christ sometimes it may feel easier for us if we just gave up. It is not  like that though.

Being a disciple involves sacrifice. It involves all of us. Jesus did not want a large number of “little bit” disciples who had a “little bit” of prayer, a “little bit” of commitment, a “little bit” of dedication, a “little bit” of love. He wants all of us, basically, we need to put Jesus first, we need to seek to be ever more like Him, and by doing that to literally be, Jesus in the World today.

We can talk about the needs of the world, we can pray for a better way in the World, we need to do more than this though. We need to be in the World, showing the way to Jesus.  We need to be prepared and ready to do what Jesus would do.  We need to stand up against what is wrong, and to seek to make a change. In our lives we need to sacrifice all that stops us from getting closer to God and to put Him first.  This is dedication, this is our call.

It isn’t easy but we have each other for support and that is so important. We are a family, the family of God and as that family we are to support each other and help each other. 

You may have heard of a lady called Frances Havergal. She was a Christian all her life, but at age 36 she rededicated her life to Christ. Soon after this she gathered together a small group of friends, some of whom were not Christiansand others were nominally Christian. She spent five days with them and in these five days she prayed for all her friends and told them about the difference God had made in her life. Through her encouragement and prayer by the end of the five days each of the friends had dedicated their lives to Jesus. She wrote the hymn “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee” after this experience.

This is what we do as disciples, we put Jesus first, we seek to be ever more like Him and we encourage each other and pray for one another. 

This is part of the choice that is worth making - a choice to follow Jesus no matter what happens to us and around us, knowing that He is always there loving us. 

St.Ignatius, was a man who lived in the fifteenth century, whose parents wanted him to be a priest, he was actually more interested in women, fighting, and fashionable clothing.  After an accident he started to dream that Jesus was talking to Him, and he decided that to be a soldier for Christ, a follower, was much more glamorous than his previous wild living, and he decided that whilst it was a harder road to be a disciple it was a road worth travelling. He founded the Jesuit order of monks. As well as this his thoughts on prayer still encourage people today in their prayer life. 

He wrote a prayer about following Jesus, about what it means to make that choice for God by offering our lives to Him a prayer with which I would like to finish.  Let us pray:-

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve as you deserve;

To give and not to count the cost,

To fight and not to heed the wounds,

To toil and not to seek for rest,

To labour and not to ask for any reward

Save that of knowing that I do your holy will. AMEN