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Hating Enough to Love Completely
Proper 18 | OT 23 | Pentecost 15
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| Mary Austin |
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Jesus stuns us again this week with some words that seem at first hearing to denigrate the role of the family when he says that "whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple." Of course, he is really trying to give his followers an unvarnished look at the cost of discipleship -- but given how the family unit is a basic pillar of our society (especially in our congregations), these words may strike most of our people as tin-eared and even borderline heretical. In a time when the rate of out-of-wedlock births has become epidemic, talk that could be construed as undermining the family may seem confusing. But in the next installment of The Immediate Word, team member Mary Austin draws on some recent media reports of parents who have difficulty "letting go" of their children when they go off to kindergarten and/or college to point out that this seemingly anachronistic message contains more common sense than we may realize. Here's a preview:
Hating Enough to Love Completely
by Mary Austin
Luke 14:25-33
This week's gospel text goes against all that we understand about family, and about the connections in life which sustain us and make our lives meaningful. Who can hear Jesus' call to "hate" the people that we (usually) love most and not wonder what kind of faith he's inviting us into? The instruction to carry our cross is familiar, if watered down, but the call to hate the people closest to our hearts is puzzling.
Of course, in most families there are stressful periods, times of disagreement, and places where emotions run high and we feel rage and contempt for each other. In other families, the burdens of abuse, addiction, and mental illness sever ties and create anger and grief.
But though it might seem to be a paradox, even in the most loving families Jesus' call to "hate" the people we love may be good news....
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