"Jesus - With Me, It's All Or Nothing!" Climb Every Mountain! Jesus has given us a very high mountain to climb - asking us in today's Scripture, Luke 14:25-33, to leave everything to follow him - loving him more than you love your " father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters - even more than your own life." "If you come to me, but will not leave your family you cannot be my follower" or to say it another way, WITH ME IT'S ALL OR NOTHING! I thought a little about that when finishing seminary. It wasn't like I was going back home to Ohio - my first call was in Wisconsin, the second in San Juan, Puerto Rico and the third in Miami Beach Florida! My calling would keep me long distances from father, mother, brothers sisters, nieces, nephews - all. But it was the only way I could do what I was called to do. Jesus did not mean that we must all leave our families. He simply meant that we must give first priority to our spiritual task - to being a person of Spirit. You are here on this planet to grow your Spirit and to be a force for the development of the Spirit of Christ in the world. There will be times when you will be tested as to the kind of person you really are. In the way of illustration: Consider the man who was guiding two clients to the top of Mt. Everest. When they were within 1000 feet of the summit, they came across a climber who the day before had been left for dead there in the death zone - but who somehow had survived the night and, though delusional with the cold and altitude, greeted them. He needed help - persons to take him back down to where he could me "medivacked" out. The guide felt that was what, as human beings they were called to do. His clients, each of whom had paid $25,000 dollars for the climb, agreed to give up their dream of the mountaintop for this necessary humanitarian mission. It seems to me, in making that decision - they had reached the mountaintop - that is, THE mountaintop, of God-like, Christ-like action. The guide was not "a religious man" by his own understanding of that, not affiliated with any church or synagogue - but connected to the Divine thread that links humanity with Divinity - connected in his heart to the Heart of the Universe. The rescue was successful. The wife and sons of the rescued man who had been notified of his death, but then, one of his sons, following the event on the internet saw the latest report that his father had been found alive and rescued. Their joy was beyond measure. Their rescued loved one told them that he would be missing parts of some fingers and toes. They asserted that they would love him just as much without them. An interesting sidelight to the event was that in addition to the three that rescued him, two others came by at the same time, and overhearing them speaking English, indicated they did not speak English, did not understand what was being said and kept on trekking toward the summit. Later it was learned that they did speak English - they just didn't speak "human being" - they didn't speak "Divinity" The question Jesus has for you today is simple - to you speak "Divinity" with your life. Ironically, speaking "Divinity" with you life could me that you answer the call, not to leave your mother or father, but to care for them, cantankerous and difficult as they may be, or hopefully upbeat and easy. Whatever happens in your life where a need that you can meet presents itself, gives you the opportunity to climb the mountain - or as it was in the climbers case - to descend the mountain! Where you express your Divinity is entirely dependent on where you humanity finds you - and gives you the opportunity to know who you are - if you are the Christ's or not. Years ago, when one of our parishioners went blind, she added me to her bank accounts so that I could pay her bills and take care of any needs that might arise. When she died, the way the accounts were set up, I had every legal right to take what was in those accounts - thousands and thousa
