The following sermon was delivered at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia on September 4th, 1977. The speaker is the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Church. Today's topic is entitled, O Master, Let Me Walk With You. 

O Master, Let Me Walk With You. That apparently was the request of many, many people who heard Jesus speak, who saw him heal the sick, and who became enamored with his graciousness, his tenderness, his care, his compassion, his thoughtfulness. They wanted to be where all those blessings were.

And so we read in the Gospel this morning, great multitudes accompanied him. Great numbers of people flocking and saying, Master, let me walk with you. And yet the extraordinary thing that we've noticed before, we see again here this morning, is that it seems as if Jesus spent more time discouraging followers than encouraging them.

It's not that he didn't want followers, but it's quite clear that he didn't want half-hearted followers. He didn't want easy, superficial commitments that dissolve just as easily. No one-day wonders.

So we see him here being almost like the coach who keeps raising the bar a few more inches higher each time. Say, I want to sign up. And he says, take a look at what's involved.

Yeah, I can handle that. Well, can you handle this one? And up it goes a few more inches.

And he gives us, in the 14th chapter of Luke, four absolutely awful conditions for discipleship. At least on the surface, they appear totally negative. The first one is the worst one.

Hate what you love. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, he cannot be my disciple. This is Jesus, gentle Jesus, meek and mild, the friend of sinners.

I thought we were told husbands love your wives, however difficult it might be. Children, honor your parents and obey them. Parents, care for your children and be to them as God himself is in his great father love.

Or even to love not only our neighbor, but our enemy. How can he say hate these most special people closest to us, the members of our own families, hate father, mother, sister, brother, wife, children. And if you can't hate them, you can't be my disciple.

I think it helps somewhat to remember what we've seen over and over again, that in the New Testament when we're told to love somebody, that's not primarily an emotional word. We're not being told that we've got to feel a certain way toward that person. Obviously, if you're told love your enemy, that doesn't mean the same thing as feel affectionately toward him.

In fact, what it means is act in a certain way in spite of your feelings. Behave toward him with all that compassion and charity and tenderness and care in spite of feeling just the opposite way. similarly when we hear this very hard word hate we're not talking about emotions or feelings here either if I'm to treat those who I dislike as if I love them so here in this passage I'm being told that I must treat those who I very much like as if I didn't. It too is a behavior word, an action word.

And the only way that you can possibly reconcile those two statements, which still seem to be exactly contrary to each other, is to notice that it's a matter of priorities. It's not hate them, period. It's hate them or act as if you did when the claims of family and friendship come in conflict with the claims of Christ.

Of course, we're to love father, mother, sister, brother, children, family, husbands and wives especially. Of course. But if the claim of my family or my friends or my job or any other claim upon my life runs into conflict with allegiance to Jesus Christ, then I'm to turn my back on it as if I hated those who would make such a claim.

I'm to say no to that which would dissuade me from obedience and allegiance to Jesus. That explains it. It doesn't necessarily make it any easier.

many is the wife many is the husband who's discovered that obedience to Jesus allegiance to Jesus giving my life to him as Lord creates problems in a marriage because now I have a new authority and more important than any other thing is what he has to say so if husband or wife wants to go to a certain kind of a party or enjoy a certain kind of a lifestyle or make certain kinds of decisions and they run in conflict with what Jesus wants there's no question I turn my back on the claim of my marriage and I obey Jesus many is the teenager who's found himself in an awful conflict between wanting to be a good son or a daughter and yet finding that Jesus would have him say no to certain things that his family expects of him. In my own family there was a long standing expectation that I would follow in my father's footsteps and go into the insurance business. Had a four year scholarship to the University of Maryland to go and study engineering.

To become an insurance underwriter. The Lord Jesus came with a claim upon my life. And to the overwhelming disappointment of my family, I had to give all of that up and say, no, I'm not going to go that direction.

As if I hated it. That's not what I felt. But I had to act as if I hated it.

It's a matter of priorities. And he goes on from that most difficult one and fills out the picture with three others. We're to die to ourselves.

If it was hard enough to act as if you hated father and mother and wife and children, you're also to act as if you hate yourself. Yes, and even His own life. He cannot be my disciple.

Jesus goes on to say, whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me It cannot be mine. Death by crucifixion. And as he adds elsewhere, daily.

A continual putting to death. Not just a dying, but a putting to death. A nailing to the cross of crucifixion.

of those things in my own life, my own desires, my own personality syndrome. Those things which would gratify me in the passions of my flesh, but again stand in the way of allegiance to Jesus. It's important here that we notice that Christianity is not, in fact, the religion of self-denial.

Buddhism is. We'll be talking about that in the next few weeks. but Christianity talks about self-denial as a means to the fulfillment that God has for us again it's priorities it's a dying to self in order that I might enjoy what God has for me Mark puts it this way if any man would come after me let him take up his cross and follow me for whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it.

It's not just losing your life, period, again. It's losing your life in order to find it. In fact, there are three motives here.

Number one, for my sake. There's no value in asceticism in and of itself. No value in self-denial in and of itself.

No value in martyrdom in and of itself. It's giving up yourself for His sake, number one. Secondly, for the Gospel's sake, for my sake and the Gospel.

For the world. Living out a pattern of abandoning yourself to the will of God for the sake of others. But thirdly, there's self-interest here.

The same will find it. Do you see that? so Jesus doesn't ask us just to die period but it's to die to our independence of him to put to death by crucifixion that self will which would rise up and say I'll do it this way thank you very much there's no further discussion why?

in order that I might find in obedience to him the perfect life of fulfillment and satisfaction that He has in store for me. Somebody once said, God leaves the very best to those who leave the choice to Him. Goes on to say, count the cost.

And he gives us this familiar little parable. Which of you desiring to build a tower doesn't first sit down and count the cost? and see whether he has enough to be able to finish it.

Jesus wants no half-hearted followers. It's a costly business to be a disciple. Oh, it's easy to come and sing a few songs, throw a buck in the plate, call yourself a Christian.

but are you a disciple oh master let me walk with you well have you counted the cost there may be some changes in your life there may be some things you have to give up there may be some other things you have to add there may be some bad relationships that need repairing there may be some corners that you've been cutting in your business there may be some lack of faithfulness in your marriage that needs a whole lot of repair have you counted the cost? it's a costly business a friend of mine wrote a book called The Psychology of Atheism and he said we've been told for over a hundred years that people who have faith can have that faith explained away on psychological grounds they had a need to believe and therefore they created a father figure for themselves and that gave them some kind of security to prop up their lives. The psychology of belief.

He said the truth of the matter is atheism can be equally well and perhaps better explained psychologically. The atheist has vested interests in his unbelief. See, if there is a God, if there is a Lord, He has claims upon me and I have to stop running my own life and begin deferring to Him and I don't want to.

And so I create unbelief to prop up my life. Have you counted the cost? Obedience to Jesus Christ can mean radical revision in lifestyle.

Who's running the show for you? Is it you? Or is it him?

A couple of my students at Farmington put a sign on their door. They had become the victims of tremendous ridicule within their class. Because teenagers also find out that there's a cost involved.

Not usually financial. In their case it's more often reputation. It's not cool to be a Christian.

And those who give their wholehearted allegiance to Christ often find themselves being laughed at and ridiculed. They lose their popularity. These two kids put up a sign.

We never said it was easy. We only said it was worth it. And fourthly, he says, take counsel, whether you're able with 10,000 to meet him who comes against you with 20,000.

Have you measured the enemy? There is an enemy. It's not just a human enterprise.

It's not just costly in terms of those things which we could take account of on a bank balance. There's an enemy of men's souls. You give your allegiance to Jesus Christ and you find yourself in a life and death warfare with the demons of hell.

And the more serious you are about following this Master, about walking with Him, the more the enemy will come with his forces mounted against you. In fact, I'd put it this way. The more you become like Jesus Christ, the more likely you are to get the same treatment He got.

Have you measured the enemy? He doesn't call us to a comfortable pew. He calls us to warfare.

And what a frank admission of desperate odds. They're two to one here. is he saying that we should give up before we begin not at all but he's enjoining us to recognize that apart from him there is absolutely not one shred of hope of making it George Buttrick wrote Jesus is not advising any man to quit the field before the battle begins because he fears the odds that's never the counsel of one who dared a lonely cross.

Instead he's bravely warning us of insuperable odds which he himself is nonetheless resolved to meet. He doesn't want mercenaries for they'll flee when the conflict becomes stern. But he does invite crusaders and he himself will nerve them for the strife.

So these four things Jesus says. A willingness to hate what you love. To die to your own self daily by crucifixion.

To count the cost and be prepared to pay it. To measure the enemy. And cast yourself wholly upon this Lord Jesus Christ.

For the heat of the battle. it's a matter of priorities he ends by saying who therefore is not willing to renounce all that he has all that he has cannot be my disciple but in that renunciation we begin to discover his resources and find the life that he had in mind for us all along. I want to read you a little parable in closing that was written 18 years ago by Harold Bredesen.

It's called The Fish That Discovered Water. Some scientists at Smolensk University decided to develop a fish that could live out of water. So choosing some happy red herrings, they bred, crossbred, hormoned, and chromosomed until at length they had a fish that could live, at least exist, out of water.

The local commissar was not satisfied. True, these fish had survived till now on rarefied gas. But how about reactionary tendencies?

He suspected a secret yen for water. You have neglected education, he said. Start over.

This time do not neglect education. Again they bred cross-bred, hormoned and chromosomed, and this time they did not neglect education down to the tiniest reflex. The result?

A red herring that would rather die than get its tail wet. The slightest suggestion of humidity filled the new herring with dread. Thought control had done its perfect work, and, with the possible exception of the red herring, everyone was happy.

Surely this year's Lenin Prize would go to the scientists of Smolensk University. But the world must see this triumph of Soviet research. The commissar who had thought of education must take the fish on tour.

Somewhere in Hungary, the tragedy occurred. Quite accidentally, according to the official reports, While crossing a bridge, the red herring fell into a pool of water. Deep in the green translucent stuff it lay, eyes and gills shut, afraid to move lest it become wetter.

And of course it could not breathe, every reflex said no to that. Never did a fish so wet feel more like a fish out of water. But breathe it must.

And there was nothing else to breathe, only water. so the red herring drew a tentative gillful and its eyes bulged. It breathed again.

Its jaw flew open. It flipped a fin, then another and wiggled with delight and then it darted away. The fish had discovered water and with that same kind of wonder men conditioned by a world that rejects him discover God for in him we live and move and have our being.

Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we see these very high standards. We shudder before them.

we see the costliness of real commitment to you and yet we begin to recognize that you're not inviting us simply to die for its own sake to renounce for its own sake but in so doing that we might discover life abundant in total dependence upon You. Lord, I would give You my life this morning. I would turn my back on all other allegiances.

I would take up the cross of saying no to all those things that would stand in way of obeying you. I don't tell you this easily, for I have looked at the costliness. And I have some idea of what the enemy is all about, but by your strength I would meet him on the battlefield.

I would be a soldier for Your name's sake. Amen. Amen.