The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you,
O Lord.
Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way,
And he turned and spoke to them.
If any man comes to me without hating his father,
Mother,
Wife,
Children,
Brothers,
Sisters,
Yes,
And his own life too,
He cannot be my disciple.
Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
And indeed,
Which of you here,
Intending to build a tower,
Would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it?
Otherwise,
If he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work,
The onlookers would all start making fun of him,
Saying,
Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.
Or again.
What king,
Marching to war against another king,
Would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand?
If not,
Then while the other king was still a long way off,
He would send envoys to sue for peace.
So in the same way,
None of you can be my disciples unless he gives up all his possessions.
The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is such a complex,
Complex,
Complex person,
Deity,
Being.
He comes to preach the good news of salvation.
He comes to preach love.
He comes to preach joy,
Forgiveness,
Connection.
And here in Luke,
He preaches hate.
What are why?
I do not think that Jesus meant in this message that you should actually hate those that are out close to you.
If we read it in context of the whole chapter,
We see that Jesus means here,
You need to let go of everything.
You need to let go of everything that binds you to earth,
That binds you to this body,
That binds you through the ego.
Give all of that up.
And then you can become my disciples.
Then you can join me.
Break up your cross.
Jesus here tells us a very hard truth.
It's not easy.
It's not easy to let go.
It's not easy to detach from what we know,
From what we love.
And yet that is what is expected.
That is what is needed in order to grow,
In order to connect with each other.
Let us think of the fact that Jesus also told us to love our enemies.
The same very,
Very,
Very same Jesus said that,
Love your enemies.
And I think if we bring those two commands,
Hate your father,
Hate your family,
Love your enemies,
We bring and we put them together.
The idea is that we detach completely from everything,
That we meditate,
We let go of the need to have things.
We let go of the need to connect to things.
And in letting go of everything,
We actually connect.
We actually then connect to the more everything,
The real everything,
The real one,
The real nothing.
Because we are oftentimes stuck in the now.
But that's also exactly where we need to be.
We are oftentimes stuck in the mind,
In the consciousness,
In the head brain that loves us,
To take control of everything,
In the ego,
Which is beautiful because it's there to keep us alive.
It is there to keep us thriving.
The ego sometimes forgets that it's only part of something much bigger.
So when Jesus tells us to hate our father,
Our mother,
Wife,
Children,
Brothers and sisters and his own life too,
It is the awareness that your own life is merely a moment in time.
That there is something so much bigger that you are part of.
That connecting and clinging to this life,
To this expression of holiness,
Keeps you from experiencing the One,
The Everything that is God.
Amen.
