Well here we are at back to school time and the traditional time for rally days and sort of welcoming everyone back from vacation. I guess it’s even more true next week after the Labor Day weekend, but what got me early on in my study this week was the realization of all that this week is and the Gospel being, “Give away all of your stuff and hate your family.” I’d like to offer a special thank you to the ones that organized the revised common lectionary, that is the schedule of readings organized week by week in churches around the world, for giving us this reading on a welcome back day. It’s not only the day that it falls on, but at least two of the Greek words and the way they are translated occupy page after page of argument and disagreement in commentary, that ultimately doesn’t really contribute to a deeper understanding of scripture but is actually square one for a wild goose chase. There’s a lot to think about and struggle with in a relatively short reading, but Napoleon said, “Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle.” and Wilma Rudolph said, “Believe me, the reward is not so great without the struggle.” So I took them at their word and kept at it. I learned some pretty cool stuff and saw how so many like to call tradition or opinion facts, ao that meant wading in pretty deep to find dead ends. There’s a voluminous argument over the Greek word stauros which translates to stake. It would be like the posts that went into the ground to build fences. It’s also the Greek word used for what Jesus was crucified on. So cue page after page “facts” concerning exactly what Jesus’ crucifixion looked like. Evidently he was crucified about 20 different ways all at the same time. (That’s sarcasm) I wanted to know if that word actually led anywhere because it has always bugged me. The word “cross” is not the accurate translation for one, but I determined that just needed to be left by the wayside because it is ultimately irrelevant. The thing is, I was thinking it sort of came out of the blue and it would have really wouldn’t have made since to the people he was talking to, but as I started writing I dug back through Luke and it turns out that this is not the first time he tells people to take up their “cross” to follow him. He does so in Luke 9 and it gives a much better context because he speaks of himself being killed and raised from the dead, so then it made a lot more sense. The other word was hate or in Greek “miseo”. Miseo does not carry the connotation of the emotion of anger. To me it has more of a connotation of placing beneath or superiority over, but emphatically and strongly. For example, when men declare superiority over women- misogyny. Or a person over other humanity, misanthropic. Jesus is asking for an absolute hierarchy where discipleship is indisputably at the top. In thinking about it and the order that he goes in it sort of rang familiar on another level. It took me back to teaching confirmation and discussing the ten commandments. The commandments are ordered in the same way. God is at the top, no other before God and that is above mother, father and family, then to our relationships and dealings with others, and then to our possessions. Once again none of these can come before God or following Jesus. This brought up the next very interesting insight. Not everyone that Jesus helped or died for became a disciple or follower. Actually right here in this reading he is stopping turning around and facing those behind him and reminding them, “Look, here’s the deal. There’s going to be pain, suffering and death on this road we’re on. Heads up. Pause right here and now and consider that before you take another step. It very likely will cost you dearly if not everything. Your parents and family may disown you, your friends, they may take your stuff and even your life. Think about it, it’s the smart thing to do before you go forward. No surprises.” It perplexes me how we went from here to the proclamations of a “prosperity Gospel.” Then there was a line in a discussion of the text that I stumbled on and it resonated deeply and helped me to grasp the text even better. It appealed to my super nerdy side and as I checked my definitions, as it turns out, on this topic, I am also very geeky. Peter Lockhart mentioned, quote, “The character of Voldemorte in J.K. Rowling’s epic Harry Potter series is a parable for us of the dire consequences of locating our souls in objects as he does but we do not have to dwell too long in fantasy to be confronted by the consequences of our consumerist culture.” Ok you probably are going to need a little explanation of that. A character in explaining who Voldemort is said that he was a wizard that went as bad as you can go. It turns out that through murder and very dark magic he would rend his soul in two and put part of it in an possession or item that he ascribed great power or impotence to, then he would hide them. This was his method of trying to obtain eternal life, I would say that’s about as dark as you can go, that being coupled with his desire for genocide. I was curious so I Googled JK Rowling’s faith stance. She didn’t bring that forth strongly while the books were still being written because she didn’t in any way want to give away where the plot was going or the ending. She professes Christianity and includes many themes. In my search on this question I hit the Wikipedia Religious/Harry Potter controversy page. On one of the first lines it says, “Criticism has taken two main forms: allegations that Harry Potter is a pagan text; and claims that it encourages children to oppose authority, derived mainly from Harry’s rejection of the Dursleys, his adoptive parents.” I could not believe what I had just read, during THIS week. First of all, the Dursleys hated him and abused him, but what’s more, the irony. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” So, a little humor in the midst of my struggle. Now the part where I thought about the connection between his soul and placing them in possessions got interesting. Rowling called the dark object a Horcrux. I’ve noticed she used French and Latin combinations for names of spells, things and people. Voldemort for example resembles “flight from death” or a spell for torture was “Crucio” the root being “suffering”. Horcrux was a weird invented word, and crux seemed like a giveaway. I wonder if it was the intent, if she did it on purpose because, if so, Wow. Hors, like in hors d’oeuvre, means outside. So put together, the idea is “outside of the cross”, by the way she formed her words. I agree with Peter Lockhart, there’s a pretty cool parable there. What’s our Miseo hierarchy like? Do we take up our cross or fashion horcruxes? Do we follow possessions, money, traditions or others or do we follow Jesus? Another interesting idea, Salvation and grace are not the same as following. We are made right or justified or saved my God’s grace. Following and taking up our cross is being propelled by the Holy Spirit to live out our faith and take up the cross and risk losing all the things Jesus named. Grace is free but discipleship has a cost. Historians have chronicled the story of Manche Masemola. In 1913, Masemola was born in Marishane, a small village near Jane Furse, in South Africa. As a teenager, Masemola attended classes in preparation for baptism against her parents wishes. According to Rebecca St. James, in her book. Sister Freaks: Stories of Women Who Gave Up Everything for God. Her parents took her to a Sangoma (African traditional healer), claiming that she had been bewitched. She was prescribed a traditional remedy, which her parents made her consume by beating her. Frederick Quinn tells of what happened next. “Relations worsened, and the mother hid the girl’s clothes so she could not attend Christian instructional classes. On February 4, 1928, her parents led the teenager to a lonely place, where they killed her, burying her by a granite rock on a remote hillside. Manche had said that she would be baptized in her own blood. She died without having been baptized. Manche’s mother converted to Christianity and was baptized forty years later in 1969. The call to follow is a tough one, Jesus very frankly acknowledges it. The good news is what we have received through Jesus’ journey to the cross. As we venture to follow we stumble and fail and mess up and fall short but we are forgiven and encouraged to carry on in and through the cross, not fearing death like Voldemort because Christ has conquered it through the resurrection. The good news in our following is for those that are fed, clothed, loved, and forgiven by us as we extend the grace that was first extended to us, despite what the world’s desirel says or does to try to stop it. Amen
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