Turning and Being Turned

“Turning and Being Turned”

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

Luke 14:25-30, Jeremiah 18:1-8

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

In our scripture today, Jesus says we need to hate our fathers, mothers, spouses,   children, brothers, sisters, and even our own lives if we want to be his disciples.  Oh my goodness, what a hard scripture that is. 

So how are we today with our fathers, mothers, spouses, children, brothers, sisters, and with our own lives?  How are things going? 

The amazing truth is that it is impossible for us to truly love someone without occasionally hating them.  We suffer from this sort of fairy tale concept of love that it should be continually perfect and without ups and downs, and without disruption.  Experience shows us though that this is seldom the case.  To truly love someone is to struggle with them.  In this scripture, Jesus is calling us to face the center of the struggles we have with each other.  He is telling us not to be afraid of the problems we face with each other.  He is telling us to go right on through the problems on our way to salvation. 

This is one of his hard teachings.  I find that it helps me to understand it if I see that it is one of those moments when Jesus turns.  These are the hard moments, when Jesus turns. 

Matthew 16:23, Jesus turned and said to Peter; “Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block of mine, for you do not think the thoughts of God, but those of man.” 

Luke 7:9, when the slave of a centurion had been healed, and Jesus heard of the faith of the centurion, he turned to the crowd following him and said; “I tell you, not in Israel have I found such faith” 

Luke 7:44, when a woman who was a sinner poured out a flask of ointment and spread it on Jesus’ feet, wet his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair, Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon the Pharisee, “Do you see this woman?  I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair…..I tell you her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little loves little.” 

Luke 9:55, when the disciples wanted to bring down fire from heaven upon the unrepentant cities, Jesus turned and rebuked them. 

Luke 10:33, when Jesus witnessed the total defeat of Satan, when his seventy apostles returned with joy, he turned to the disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes which see what you see!” 

Luke 14:25, great multitudes were following Jesus, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” 

Luke 22:61, after Peter had denied the Lord three times, the Lord turned and looked at Peter. 

Luke 23:28, during the chaos of the march to the crucifixion, just after Simon of Cyrene had been chosen to bear the cross, Jesus turned to the multitude of women who were weeping and said; “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.” 

Besides these being the moments when Jesus turned, these are hard teachings which stretch the expectations of the disciples.  These are moments when Jesus makes it clear that he came to show us how God is with us in and through the most difficult moments of our lives.  Jesus came to this earth in order to meet us right where we are.  Jesus came to deliver salvation right to the center of all the worst problems we face.  Jesus turns toward us to speak the tough teachings when we want to turn away from him and from the real difficulties we face.  As soon as we want to turn away, he turns us back. 

A great deal of the difficulty we face in our world today comes from our desire to turn away from our own problems.  We all try to avoid the real problems of life.  Our wish is that we could make the problems just go away.  The truth is that we cannot run from our problems.  We can’t run from what is wrong.  We can’t turn away from the problems because the second we do the problems come and turn us back again. 

The image of turning and being turned reminds us of Jeremiah 18 where the prophet sees the potter turning the clay upon his wheel.  If the pot was not turning out the way the potter wanted it, he folded it back again and turned it again.  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as the potter has done, says the LORD.  Behold, like clay in the potters hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”  

Sometimes we need to be turned and returned.  Sometimes we need to make the painful decision that the way we have been living and the way we have been thinking and the way we have been acting is not what the Lord requires of us.  God demands better from us and we struggle with each other as we seek to do better.  The message is that the struggle is OK.  The struggle is God’s way of bringing us where we need to go.  Jesus has made it safe for us to face the center of the problem.  In Jesus Christ all is forgiven, all is healed, and all is going to work out.  He has redeemed even our most bitter divisions and struggles.  In this way Jesus makes it possible for us to truly love one another.  This is because in his forgiveness and in his grace we can love each other, even with all of our problems.  We can love each other even with the imperfections we bring to our relationships.  

Paul says; “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse in order that I may gain Christ.”  (Phil. 3:8) 

Yes, the refuse is necessary.  The refuse is what makes our lives function.  We do not get away from the rubbish.  Instead, we use it to motivate ourselves to draw even closer in our relationship to Jesus Christ. 

Paul is calling us here to remember that the troubles we face are nothing compared with the salvation we will find. 

Sometimes we need to go right through the center of things to look for the blessings that are on the other side.  You can’t run from the problems in your life.  So in Jesus you can face them head on.

I am going to leave you today with one powerful scripture from the Book of Job.  It is the bottom line on all of our relationship problems, all of the failures and disappointments we bring into each other’s lives.  Job spoke these words;

“I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVES,

AND AT LAST HE WILL STAND UPON THE DUST OF THE EARTH.

(Job 19:25) 

Amen.