BIBLE READINGS: 2 Kings 1-2, 6-14 Luke 9:51-62

SERMON
Shun Fujimoto, a Japanese gymnast competed in the Montreal Olympics in 1976. His efforts may have been somewhat obscured by Romanian Nadia Comaneci, who scored a perfect ten the very same day, but they are no less heroic for it. He was competing for Japan in the men’s team event, looking to cause an upset by beating the long-dominant Soviet Union team. At the end of his floor routine, Fujimoto felt a painful sensation in his right knee. As he later recalled, `it felt hollow, like there was air in it`.

In fact, he had fractured his kneecap. Despite understandable agony, he decided not to tell his coach or teammates about it. `The competition was so close, and I didn’t want my teammates to worry about me` he said. Without him, the team would have no chance of beating the Soviets.

There were two events left. Reasoning that the next, the pommel horse, would cause reasonably little stress on his broken knee, Fujimoto soldiered on and scored 9.5 out of 10, an impressive score for any gymnast with or without injury. He then decided that he would have to take part in the next event, the rings, because it was his strongest. Unlike the pommel, this promised a dismount from over 2 metres in the air, which he would have to make if there were to be any chance of victory. Two metres and landing on a broken knee.

By this point, he could hide the injury no longer. Team coach Yakuji Hayata noticed Fujimoto`s hobble and his sweating, grey pallor, and confronted him. However, Fujimoto`s decision was final. He had to compete.

`I knew that if my posture was not good on landing, I would not receive a good score. There was only one thing to do. I must try to forget the pain`.

He was helped to the rings by his coach. His routine was near-flawless, and the dismount a high difficulty triple somersault. He landed, raised his arms in a perfect finish, and then collapsed in agony. His score was a personal best of 9.7.

Now, the full extent of his injury became clear. Having originally broken the kneecap, he had then dislocated it when dismounting the rings, and torn ligaments in his leg. The doctor who attended him later commented, `How he managed to do somersaults and twists and land without collapsing in screams is beyond my comprehension`.

He was warned that to continue in the competition would be to risk permanent disability. He withdrew, and inspired by his sacrifice, the Japanese team beat the favoured Soviets by just four tenths of a point, the lowest margin in Olympic history. Impossibly brave to the end, he refused assistance to the podium when he hobbled up with his team to collect his gold medal.

When asked concerning his feat, he said, "Yes, the pain shot through me like a knife. It brought tears to my eyes. But now I have a gold medal and the pain is gone."

In the gospel reading we find three exchanges that drive home the point that it COSTS to follow Jesus. In the first exchange, a man approaches Jesus and says: “I will follow you wherever you go.” The word translated “I will follow” is very strong - it implies sincere dedication and willingness to go wherever Jesus goes. It means that the person is willing to put themselves under the authority of the one followed - to learn and serve. The ideal disciple - someone eager to follow, eager to learn, eager to serve. 

Yet in Jesus response we learn that these attributes are secondary for discipleship. Jesus replies by saying that anyone who follows him must renounce all forms of material security. The path trod by Jesus’ followers is full of uncertainty. Jesus says that unlike the creatures of the wild who have some form of security - the Son of Man knows no earthly security.

How do we figure that out today? Does it mean that we are not to take out health or life insurance? Does it mean that we needn’t save money for a rainy day? Jesus’ demand of his disciples is for personal sacrifice, to expect hardship. No wonder the Christian faith does not sit well in our society.

In the second exchange we see Jesus approach a young man and ask him to follow. This man responds - “First let me go back and bury my father.” Here is a man who wants to temper discipleship with duty. He is placing limits on his response to Jesus’ call. And who can blame him?

According to Jewish tradition and law, it was the requirement that the child look after their parents in their old age, and bury them when they died. We are not meant to presume that this man’s father has just died, though this is possible. Most probably what this man meant was that he had obligations - to look after his parents. When they died, Then he would be free to follow Jesus without reservations.

Jesus’ reply is blunt to the point of being offensive. “Let the dead bury the dead - you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” Jesus is calling for a denial of duty - a denial of cultural, community and legal responsibilities toward family and society. This was and is shocking. As I said earlier discipleship brings a conflict of loyalties. We are called on to make difficult choices - not so much between good and evil, but between good and best!! To care for and support family, to maintain essential community services, all these are of little value if they take precedence over discipleship. Yet Christians are just like anyone else. They have families to think about, mortgages to pay off, responsibilities that demand time and effort.

In all of the exchanges Jesus uses exaggeration to make his point. There is nothing wrong with having a house or a bed; there is nothing wrong with taking care of your parents - Jesus is teaching us that if these things mean too much then we will find discipleship too demanding, too costly.

These first two exchanges are also reported in Matthew’s gospel. The final exchange is unique to Luke’s gospel. Does it ring any bells? Elisha’s response to Elijah - “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will go with you!” Elisha - from a family wealthy enough to have twelve teams of oxen and hired help to work them and enough land to need them - is ploughing when the older prophet approaches. Elijah sees in Elisha his potential as a prophet of God. This is the one the Lord has selected. The mantle - the cloak - is placed on Elisha’s shoulders to announce God’s call and demand on his life. It is a critical moment for the younger man. He recognises that he has been called, and he knows he can accept or reject. What passes through his mind? We are not told. All he asks is for a proper leave-taking before total commitment. Elijah tells him to go home and say goodbye. The slaughtered oxen represent the complete break with the old life; and the banquet is intended as a community recognition of his new role and his family’s approval of it.

Centuries later another man is approached by a man of God. Like Elisha he wants to follow - but first he wants to say goodbye to his parents. Jesus’ response is hard - keep looking back and you are of no use to the Kingdom of God! It goes beyond security, duty or affection. It goes beyond legal, cultural, religious and historical precedence. It says that the response of one of Israel’s great prophets to the call of God is not enough for one who would follow Jesus!

There is to be no “I will follow you, but…” No Buts!!! Jesus’ demand on his would be followers is total commitment - radical discipleship! 

What are we doing as a church, as Christians to proclaim the Kingdom of God? Do we tread lightly for fear of disturbing people - for fear of a community’s anger and mockery?

Are you ready for radical discipleship? Are you ready to expose the sin in our world? Are you ready to face the reaction of people who have been disturbed by the call of God?

A Hero of mine is Martin Luther King'. I want to share something of his own  account of his call into costly Christian discipleship

Martin Luther King, Jr., went into the family business and became a minister. He once said, 'Now of course I was religious. I grew up in the church. I'm the son of a preacher... My grandfather was a preacher, my great grandfather was a preacher, my only brother is a preacher, my daddy's brother is a preacher, so I didn't have much of a choice, I guess.

 But I had grown up in the church, and the church meant something real to me. but it was a kind of inherited religion and I had never felt an experience with God in the way that you must if you're going to walk the lonely paths of life."

Nevertheless, Martin went to theological college, following in the footsteps of his father and his father's father. Even when he went to his first parish in Montgomery, Alabama, he still had not had a first-hand experience of God, and he frequently considered pursuing a career in teaching. 

But then, in that same city a woman named Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, and Martin found himself in the midst of a boycott of the bus lines. Although Martin had only been in Montgomery a year and he was only twenty-seven years old, he quickly became a leader of the movement. It was not long before his family started getting threatening phone calls, sometimes as many as forty in a single day. He wondered if he could take it. He wanted out.

Then one night, around midnight, another threatening call came through: "Nigger, we are tired of you and your mess now. And if you aren't out of this town in three days, we're going to blow your brains out and blow up your house."

Years later, he recalled, "1 sat there and thought about a beautiful little daughter who had just been born... she was the darling of my life. I'd come in night after night and see that little gentle smile. And I sat at the kitchen table thinking about that little girl and thinking that she could be taken from me any minute.

"And I got to the point that I couldn't take it any longer, I was weak. Something said to me, you can't call on Daddy now, he's up in Atlanta a hundred and seventy-five miles away. You can't even call on Mama now. You've got to call on that something in that person that your Daddy used to tell you about, that power that can find a way out of no way, and I had to know God for myself. And I bowed my head over that cup of coffee. I will never forget it... I prayed a prayer, and I prayed out loud that night.

"And I discovered then that religion had to become real to me. And it seemed in that moment that I could hear a voice saying to me, 'Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world. I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on.'

Jesus calls you to follow him. Are you ready? 

Pastoral Prayer by Martin Luther King Jr.

O God, Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this golden privilege to worship you, the only true God of the universe. We come to you today, grateful that you have kept us through the long night of the past and ushered us into the challenge of the present and the bright hope of the future. 

We are mindful, 0 God, that we cannot save ourselves, for we are not the measure of things and humanity is not God. Bound by our chains of sins and finiteness, we know we need a Saviour. We thank you, 0 God, for our spiritual nature. We are in nature but we live above nature. Help us never to let anybody or any condition pull us so low as to cause us to hate. Give us strength to love our enemies and to do good to those who despitefully use us and persecute us. 

We thank you for your Church, founded upon your Word, that challenges us to do more than sing and pray, but go out and work as though the very answer to our prayers depended on us and not upon you. 

Then, finally, help us to realise that we were created to shine like stars and live on through all eternity. Keep us, we pray, in perfect peace, help us to walk together, pray together, sing together, and live together until that day when all God's children, Black, White, Red, and Yellow will rejoice in one common band of humanity in the kingdom of our Lord and of our God, we pray.  Amen