{"id":1506,"date":"2001-09-09T15:30:59","date_gmt":"2001-09-09T15:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=1506"},"modified":"2020-12-03T14:22:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-03T14:22:26","slug":"tourist-attraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/tourist-attraction\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourist Attraction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke 14:25-33<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

September 9, 2001<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

January may be the first month of the year on the calendar, but September is the real beginning of the year in many ways. We just had our Labor Day Weekend and for most of us, this is the beginning of getting back to our workplaces with renewed energy. It\u2019s the beginning of a new school year and many new church activities. Today is Promotion Sunday when we recognize that we have gotten one year older so we are promoted to another class!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today on this beautiful September day when you and I have returned from seeing all of this summer\u2019s attractions to begin a new Fall program, why the \u201chard sayings\u201d of Jesus? You may have brought some friends to church and you want everything to be attractive. Or maybe you have decided that you\u2019re going to make a new commitment to attend church this fall so you are here. So why the unnervingly difficult passages about \u201chating one\u2019s family?\u201d If we want to attract new people to our church on this first Sunday after Labor Day, why pick this passage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before today\u2019s passage, we read in Luke that Jesus was in conversation with insiders, his disciples. He taught them the meaning of humility. Then Jesus told them about the parable of the Great Dinner to teach them to put God first in their lives. And you would think that when Jesus was going outside to teach the crowds that he would tone down his message. But he didn\u2019t. Instead, Jesus appears to make his good news even more demanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Jesus, it didn\u2019t matter whether his hearers were his close disciples or the crowds gathering around him, he would not compromise his message. So even though today is Promotion Sunday and the beginning of the new school year, the message from Jesus remains consistently challenging. And maybe his message is what we also need to hear as we begin the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus, the Tourist Attraction<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Jesus has become a tourist attraction. Crowds press upon him. Large multitudes were traveling with him. And if we believe in what we read and see about today\u2019s TV mega-evangelists who are watched by millions of viewers then Jesus is doing something right. You can\u2019t argue with numbers, some say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering that Jesus got thrown out of his hometown synagogue when he gave his first sermon, considering his humble beginnings, a little place like Bethlehem, no formal education, it\u2019s great to see his career is taking off. \u201cLook at the crowds! Luke says, \u201cnow do you see how great it could be for you to be a disciple!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus goes to the microphone, turns to the crowds and says, \u201cWhoever does not hate his or her own father and mother, children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his or her own life, cannot be my disciple. Take up your cross and follow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crowd stops pushing forward and stops shoving to get close to Jesus. They are in stunned silence. Everybody wanted a piece of Jesus, to be with him, follow him. But when they heard this \u201chard saying of Jesus,\u201d they are motionless in their tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as he journeys on down the road toward Jerusalem, the crowds gradually become smaller, the groupees fall away, until that dark Thursday night when Caesar\u2019s soldiers come and they all forsake him and flee. No one came to see Jesus as an attraction anymore!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Count the Cost<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Noticing this large crowd following him, Jesus tells two parables. He says, \u201cCount the cost.\u201d Before you launch a building project, you must first figure out how much you will need to finish. You count the cost. Before a king goes to war he first needs to calculate if he has enough resources to win the battle. Count the cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the crowds can understand what is required for discipleship, Jesus is saying, \u201cCount the cost.\u201d It will mean that unless we renounce our loyalties to everything else including our family, we cannot be his disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This specific passage disturbs us because it sounds like we must do violence to the people we love. Scholars point out that the word \u201chate\u201d here is not the emotion-filled word we mean when we scream, \u201cI hate you!\u201d Rather, \u201chate\u201d is the Jewish hyperbole or exaggeration for expressing detachment, turning away from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though we may have softened this interpretation of the word, \u201chate,\u201d Jesus is still demanding complete loyalty from you. When Jesus says, \u201cCount the cost,\u201d he means that loyalty to him can and will create tensions within you and between you and those whom you love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the large crowds traveling with Jesus, it\u2019s easy to be a follower but it\u2019s much harder to be a disciple. What is between being a follower and a disciple is commitment. It\u2019s the commitment to count the cost of what you are about to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commitment<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

This fall we will be starting new things in our lives. Some of you obviously will be starting new courses at school, fall sports, perhaps a leadership position at school or at church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sojourners have made a major commitment to help teach Friday Night School for the entire Fall semester. Every Friday night, many of us will be down here at church teaching and cooking for the community students who come seeking learning and meaning in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will be starting up our area Bible Study groups again that will require a weekly commitment to read, study, share with others about faith and life issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Sunday school teachers will commit themselves to daily study, weekly preparation, and constant prayer for the students entrusted to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge for us is to count the cost of our commitments. Crowds admire Jesus, are fascinated by his teaching, just think the world of his witness. But there is a great distance between admiration and discipleship, a distance bridged only by something called commitment. Commitment is what can detach us, cut us loose from other worthy commitments to our commitment to Jesus. You see Jesus is the 4-star tourist attraction with no others rivals!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A student attended one of the prestigious colleges in the East Coast. She was the first person in her family to receive a college education. Her parents were so proud of her. What would they have at the end of her time there? A doctor? A professor? A business executive? \u201cLet me tell you about my daughter the banker?\u201d they would say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All would have gone well, except that she had this experience, a conversion experience, during her junior year. Something got hold of her, someone to which she wanted to give her life. Her plans got rearranged. Now, if her family brags about her at all, they must brag about \u201cour daughter the Peace Corps worker who helps dig ditches in East Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday\u2019s Attraction<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

During the week, we see on a regular basis tour groups coming to see our church. In small groups, they stand across the street in front of the music store. Squinting their eyes, they admire the old clinker bricks that were salvaged from the 1906 earthquake and fire. After a few minutes, they walk away to never come back again. For out of town tourists, only our twisted burnt bricks are worth seeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But why are you here today? I would like to believe that you are here for the preaching. The main attraction! Wendy likes to believe that you are here for the music. But we have been around long enough to know that may not be the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may be here because it\u2019s Promotion Sunday or it\u2019s the first Sunday in the Fall and you want to begin something new by attending church. You may be here because your wife went to the ball game with you last Sunday and it\u2019s only fair that you come to church with her today. Or maybe, as a couple, you\u2019re here because you were married here 40 years ago and you are after a bit of nostalgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of you may be here because out of habit and routines, you come for fellowship and lunch together and you just can\u2019t wait for me to get through my sermon!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for all the possible reasons why you are here this morning, let\u2019s assume that you are all here because you are trying to follow Jesus. You could have slept late; lots of people<\/p>\n\n\n\n

do. You could have gone to play golf; it\u2019s a good day for that. But perhaps you are at church, here, in this sanctuary in worship, because you are trying, in your own little corner of the world, to follow Jesus to be his disciple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t come to see the clinker bricks from across the street and never come in. We came to this side of the street, walked by the clinker bricks and came inside to try to follow Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking Up the Cross<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Crowds paraded after Jesus, but he was unimpressed by the numbers. Turning to them, he said, \u201cThe way is narrow. Count the cost. Take up your cross.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know your cross. I don\u2019t know the cross you dragged in here with you this morning, or the cross you left outside the church door because you thought it\u2019s too ugly to be brought into this pretty place. I don\u2019t know who or what you must take up or lay aside to be faithful. You know. God knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, I know this. To all who receive him, even as he asks them to renounce all and follow; to those who receive and believe, to them he gives power to be children of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually the parables of the tower builder and the king going into battle are interpreted to mean that we should be sure that we have what it takes to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. The deeper meaning of the parable, for me, is that I will never have enough of what it takes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When God calls us to understand a task or mission, it is God who will supply the resources. In and of ourselves, we own nothing. Our calling is to be faithful stewards of what God entrusts to our management, knowing that God\u2019s supplies are more than sufficient. Discipleship is not mustering our own resources so that we can have what is needed, but rather accepting from God whatever is needed in each new situation that comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was told that some people have tried to climb on the outside of our building by grabbing hold of the clinker bricks. Try not to do this\u2014it\u2019s very dangerous. But in the playground behind our church, there is a rock-climbing wall. It is a wall covered with little chunks of rock that one can grab on to. The difficult thing about rock climbing is not the grabbing hold, but the letting go. In order to get anywhere, you have to let go of the rock you\u2019re holding on to and reach out for another hold.  In our journey, we sometimes have to let go of things in order to take hold of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

God is inviting you to let go of the crosses you are carrying and to come to him. God\u2019s love for us made evident on the Cross means that our sins are forgiven when we ask for forgiveness. And instead of chasing after endless tourist attractions in our lives, the only attraction that\u2019s worth seeing is Jesus. The only cross that\u2019s important for us to carry is \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\u2019. And the most important reason why you are here today is that you like the crowds are trying to get closer to Jesus because without him, life is meaningless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a story of a church that just finished their new building. The pastor was proudly showing off the great building to a tourist. The pastor pointed proudly to the elegant cross suspended over the altar, and noting that it was large and made in Europe. \u201cIt\u2019s the main attraction,\u201d he bragged, \u201cThe cross costs us $5000!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tourist replied, \u201cMy goodness, there was a time when you could get one of these for free, just for the asking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During Vietnam, the Jesuit Daniel Berrigan, being led into a federal prison to begin his sentence for resistance smiled at the reporters and said, \u201cIf you follow Jesus, you’d better look good on wood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus taught us the cost of discipleship in terms that cannot be misunderstood. The crowds, the tourists, even followers of Jesus must give Jesus Christ and the living God the primary place in their lives, with the result that family and friends, plans, and ambitions are taken up into the relationship with Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus said, \u201cWhoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.\u201d Count the cost! Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us pray.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lord Jesus, you call us to be your disciples, to follow you down the narrow way of faithful discipleship. Lord, give us the grace we need to risk discipleship, to discipline our lives to your will, to love you enough to serve you in all that we do or say. Help us to count the cost and be able to pay the price. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 14:25-33 September 9, 2001 Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco. January may be the first month of the year onContinue readingTourist Attraction<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,18],"class_list":["post-1506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermons","tag-fcbc","tag-luke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1506"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2567,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1506\/revisions\/2567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}