Breaking Open the Word

Wisdom 9:13-18b
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33
 
The booked Wisdom was written about 100 years before the birth of Jesus and is used in many of our liturgical celebrations. The author is unknown, but appears to be a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt. This piece of scripture was written in Greek but used the Hebrew style of verse.
 
Much of how this is written is to reflect the thoughts and ideas of a wise old sage and how a King might offer advice to his people. That being said, the author seems to speak in the name of Solomon, instructing the people of the value of what was being taught.
 
Chapter 9 is titled Solomon’s Prayer. Much like how we should be praying, the author starts out by acknowledging how great the Lord is, and even calls Him the Lord of mercy. He then goes on to give reasons to justify how great God is as the creator. He then goes on to describe how Wisdom is with God and that God send forth Wisdom so that Solomon may know what is the pleasure of the Lord.
 
Our verses pick on that theme when the author writes how can man possibly know or understand God’s counsel or know what the Lord intends for His people. He then goes on to write that as mere humans we do not even know all of the things of the earth, so how can we know the things of heaven. It was only through the sending of Wisdom to the people that the path ways we are on are made straight and that we learn of what the Lord intends for us as we are saved by Wisdom.
 
Our reading from Philemon, the shortest letter Paul wrote, it is none the less packed full of Paul’s cleverness and his own wisdom as he attempts to persuade Philemon to accept his slave back into his household.
 
Onesimus has run away to come to be at Paul’s side when he is in prison. Paul may have even baptized him himself. If not, he played a major role in Onesimus conversion to Christ. Paul teaches him that out of respect for him as teacher and an elder, that he should return to Philemon. Now all he has to do is to convince Philemon that he should accept Onesimus back, not as a slave as he once was, but that of a brother in Christ. Paul uses language to show how important this is for him, even saying that he had become a father figure in Onesimus life. He wants him to be accepted into the community just as if he were visiting himself.
 
We never hear what happens to Onesimus or if Philemon welcomes him back, but what we do hear is how the Lord expects us to treat others and to know that we are all brothers and sisters in the Lord.
 
The gospel we listen to today is one that can seem to be a little upsetting to us when we first hear it and not take the time to understand what is the heart of the message. When Jesus says we must hate our father, our mother, our wife, our children, our brothers and sisters, and yes, even our own life, then we immediately begin to question what it is we are being asked to do.
 
If you listen or read closely, the next few words put it all into context; “he cannot be my disciple.” That is the critical pivot point to the whole message. What Jesus is calling us to do is to focus on Him and what we are called to do for the Lord. We are called to be disciples, we are all called to evangelize, we are all called to follow Jesus with our whole heart, with our whole soul with all of our being. To give yourself totally means you cannot focus on the things of the world, you cannot be concerned with all of the things that go on around us daily, our families, our jobs, our friends, everything that takes away the focus on Jesus.
 
Discipleship comes at a cost, it is just not something you have for a day, a week or a year, it is a life long call. You have to stand ready to follow the Lord at a moment notice and not follow the things of the world.
 
Its not an easy thing to do, especially in our society today. Jesus even gives examples of what the people in His day had to do as examples of the high cost to being a disciple. It takes a long thought ought plan to be ready to make that commitment.
 
Are you ready to pay the cost to be a disciple?