Give up?

Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on the Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost + Sunday, September 7, 2025.

I didn’t come today for an ultimatum from Jesus. Life is hard enough the way it is. I need some good news, some hopeful news. I need some positives, not all the “cannot’s” from Jesus we just heard. You cannot be my disciple unless you give up all your possessions. Unless you hate your family. Unless you hate your life. Unless you take up your cross and follow.

I know Jesus is talking about ultimate commitments. I know he wants me to consider how I invest my time, my money, my gifts. I know following Jesus was never meant to be easy. And I certainly hope the preacher today can get some good news, some grace, out of all of this! Because unless he does, I’m just giving up. I don’t need more demands, more judgement. The news is full of enough negative energy. I don’t need more of it at church.

Hold on! Jesus is using hyperbole, right? Provocative, even shocking language, to get our attention. Being a disciple isn’t for the faint of heart. It involves giving up. Giving up things we hold dear. For the sake of the gospel. For the sake of a greater good, right?

As biblical interpreters have dealt with this difficult passage—and others like it—they divide into two broad camps. (1)

Interpretation one. These aren’t literal requirements for being a Christian. But pieces of wisdom and counsel to guide us in our commitments. Thankfully, there are some folks in the “all-in” version of being a disciple—those in monastic orders, and heroes of our faith like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Martin Luther King, Jr. These are folks who did give up family, possessions, and sometimes their very lives for the sake of the gospel.

Interpretation two. Jesus preached to multitudes, but a much smaller number of folks he called as true disciples. Maybe we are more like “friends of disciples.” Like being friends of the art institute or other organizations we value. We may give some money and stand for their values. We don’t literally have to “give up” anything we love. Sermons challenge us to look at our attachments, especially those that stand in the way of living a good life.

Both interpretations sound logical. Maybe I don’t need to give up on being a Christian. However, both interpretations let us off the hook, right? Jesus’ hard words aren’t for me. We don’t have to take them literally. All good, right? Let’s have communion and go home.

Wait. There are challenges and invitations in our texts today. In our first reading life and death are set before us. There is a choice. We can give up on the whole thing and return to our previously scheduled life. Or stand back and look at whether the choices we make are life-giving for us, for our communities, and for our planet. Choose life that you and your descendants will live.

Choose life. Consider climate change and materialism. According to a 2020 study, consumer products caused average total emissions of six times their weight. Everything we purchase has more impact than we imagine. Giving up possessions flows from our relationship to God, our neighbors, our planet.

Choose life. It isn’t just about the singular “you.” It’s the plural. What will we choose as a community? How will we together serve in the world? A great reason to be part of a congregation! This weekend we join with ELCA Lutherans around the country in service projects as part of “God’s Work. Our Hands.” Rather than giving up, we go. We serve. Living from God’s grace, we are signs of justice and healing in the world.  

Speaking of going, Jayveon Baskerville shared this inspiring poem at our synod assembly:

Go
He said… Go.
Not wait.
Not watch.
Not whisper to your own echo in a Sunday seat.

Go.
Not stay tucked in the safety of stained-glass stories
but walk into wild places
where the light’s still flickering
and love has no translation yet.

He didn’t say,
“Go only when you feel ready,”
“Go only where it’s pretty,”
or “Go only to the ones who look like you.”

He said —
Go, therefore,
like a river unleashed,
like fire with a mission,
like a heartbeat with direction.

Make disciples —
not just fans, not followers for a moment,
but lives lit with the same flame that found you,
hands reaching for the same grace that held you.

Of all nations —
because the cross was never meant to be claimed by one flag,
one skin,
one tongue.
It’s a table with room for every soul
and chairs that stretch beyond borders.

Baptize them
in the name that split the sea,
the Son who broke the grave,
and the Spirit still speaking in quiet flames.

Go —
and let your feet carry the gospel
like seeds in the wind.
Let your life be the sermon
before your lips even speak.

He said, Go —
and the only question left
is will you?

Will you? It comes down to commitment and choices. Some of you know the writer Anne Lamott. She can be provocative and edgy! She raised her son in the church, going every Sunday. At age 14 he said, “I don’t want to go to church anymore.” *Warning: her response includes a swear word I shouldn’t use in the pulpit. So listen for the beep and imagine what she said. Her son said that church didn’t mean anything to him anymore. Her response: “I couldn’t give a s**t whether it means anything to you. It’s like visiting your grandmother. You don’t visit her because it means something. She’s your grandmother. You don’t pray because it means something. It’s what adults to. If you believe in God, that’s what you do.”

Daniel Berrigan was a Jesuit and activist. He was once asked, “Where does your faith reside? Is it in your head or in your heart?” Berrigan responded, “your faith is rarely where your head is at and rarely where your heart is at. Faith is where your [butt] is.” [He used a stronger word for butt]. He goes on, “inside what commitments are you sitting?” I would add: where are your commitments leading you? Where are you going? And what attachments are getting in the way? What attitudes or habits or ways of life are keeping you stuck?

There are days we want to give up. And the news these days doesn’t help. The invitation is to show up. To be part of community. Our faith is stronger together. Our witness is stronger together. Our discipleship is stronger together.

The invitation is to go. To get off your butt. And serve, resist, protest, love, make a difference in the world.

And don’t give up. There is good news. Yes, there are challenges, choices, commitments. AND: in this place and at this table and in this community there is grace. Grace that flows from Christ himself. Grace to make a new beginning. Grace to let go. Grace to get going. Grace that leads to commitment. Grace that turns despair to hope. Grace that connects us to what truly matters. Let’s get off our [butts] and do God’s work and be God’s hands in this world.

 1 See Salt Commentary blog