Let me begin by repeating something I said last week. When we are physically born into this world through our mothers and fathers, we are not born into the Christian faith. Someone has said that God has no grandchildren. Each person in each generation must make a personal commitment to Christ, must invite and personally receive Christ’s salvation into his or her heart. Only you can do that for yourself, although others may help in leading you to that point. But you have to make the final choice and the final surrender of your life. And it is at this point that you are spiritually born.

So what happens after that surrender, after that new birth? Everything changes and life gets better, right? Well, unfortunately, that’s a yes and no answer. Yes, our lives change, but everything around us doesn’t. We may receive forgiveness, and find Christ’s grace and peace, but we still have to live in a world of sin and among a people who do not know Christ. Yet, our lives do get better in the sense of finally finding our identity and purpose and meaning in God’s world; but it’s a hard life to live when others don’t believe and live as we do.

There’s a story in the Old Testament about the prophet Elijah trying to preach God in a time when the Queen of Israel was preaching a foreign God and eliminating anyone who did not embrace her religion. A contest was set up on Mount Carmel between the lone prophet Elijah and 300 of Jezebel’s priests representing the pagan god Baal. Each party was to make an altar, slaughter a bull on the altar, and call down fire from its God to consume the sacrifice. The priests went to all kinds of outlandish and extreme actions to get their god’s attention, but with no success. When it was Elijah’s turn, he went the extra mile of pouring barrels of water over his sacrifice and altar until they were drenched and fire could not take hold. Then after offering prayer, God sent fire down to completely burn the sacrifice. Elijah was successful, the one true God had been revealed over the false God of Jezebel, and Elijah went the extra mile of exterminating the pagan priests and crushing the structure of the pagan religion. Elijah was sitting on top of the world. Everything had changed, or so he thought.

When Queen Jezebel heard what had happened, she sent her soldiers to kill Elijah and Elijah was forced to run away. Life had suddenly gotten harder, and his spirit wondered what had really happened during the contest. When he finally reached the holy mountain of God, Elijah just wanted to give up. God had won, but why was his life in danger? What had he really accomplished for God? Everything was still the same, and Elijah was still faced with the same issues plus some new ones.

I call this the reality of the day after. When something like our conversion happens, today is the pinnacle and highlight of our life. But then tomorrow comes, and here we are still faced with the same kind of life. What happened? What happens next? Aren’t my problems supposed to be gone because my life changed? Doesn’t salvation create a new person within me?

In today’s scripture, a turning point has developed in Jesus’ ministry: it’s time to begin the journey to Jerusalem, the place where God’s will and grace will be fully revealed through Jesus’ death and resurrection. There are still some things to happen, many teachings to share, more healings to demonstrate God’s power, but Jesus’ wandering over the countryside is over, and he now turns toward his final destination.

As they go from Galilee in the North to Judea in the South, they must pass through the country of Samaria. This is a dangerous place for Jews to travel. For centuries, neither Jews nor Samaritans liked one another; in fact, they hated each other with a passion and wished the other dead. When Jesus’ group was not welcomed into a Samaritan village, some of the disciples were offended. Imagine if you were a new person who came to our church one Sunday and nobody shook your hand or spoke to you? As a new person, wouldn’t you feel offended that these people who call themselves Christians are treating me like I’m nothing? It went way beyond even that for Jesus’ group. The Samaritans told these Jews to keep moving: “We don’t want anything to do with you.” So the brothers, James and John, being the hotheads that they were and knowing the power of God in Jesus, asked Jesus, “Let’s take care of these inhospitable people and use your power to send a ball of fire down upon the town and burn up the town and its people. They don’t deserve to live for treating the Son of God in this way.” Yet our scripture says that Jesus rebuked them. While it was definitely inappropriate for the community to be inhospitable to Jesus, this didn’t mean that God was willing to judge and destroy these people. No matter how much the Samaritans rejected God, or for that matter how much today’s people reject Christ, God doesn’t reject the Samaritans nor does God reject the people of today. Our God is about salvation, not destruction.

This is something that new converts to Christianity must understand. Just because we have accepted Christ, doesn’t mean that because others haven’t that they deserve to be ignored or destroyed. It is our job to carry the love and grace of Christ everyone, even to the most unloved and to the most unloving of persons. Life may have changed for us, but it hasn’t changed for others. And if it is to change for others, then we need to carry the Good News that changed us to them.

Going back to our scripture, after leaving the village Jesus meets three would-be disciples, but he rejects all three. The first one answers the call to “Follow me,” but he’s not willing to give up everything and completely trust that Jesus will provide. The second one answers the call, but first he wants to wait until after he has fulfilled his responsibilities to his aged parents; he’ll come to Jesus after they are dead. The third also answers the call of “Follow me,” but he too wants to say goodbye to his family, to make sure he gets their approval. In each case, the would-be disciples place conditions upon Jesus’ discipleship: they’ll only go so far, but they won’t go all the way. That’s the deal or they can’t follow Jesus.

This is the hard part for Christians, especially new Christians, to understand. Christ wants all or nothing. Christ won’t take just part of us. All of the reasons that these three would-be disciples used seem to be legitimate. Haven’t we worked hard for homes, possession, pensions, and other things? Aren’t family members who depend on us important? Wouldn’t it be wise to get the blessing of those we love? But the real issue here is that these three weren’t willing to put God first. Jesus never said that their concerns weren’t real or important. But Jesus knew that unless they put God first in their lives, they would never live their lives faithfully, they would never serve God obediently, they would never be strong enough to preach the Good News of Christ. There would always be an excuse to back off or to not follow through.

You see, the reason we wake up to reality the day after we give our lives to Christ is that we finally discover that Christ wants it all. He not only wants my heart and soul, but he wants my bank book, he wants my family, he wants my job, he wants my friends, he wants everything that I have. Christ is actually serious about salvation and discipleship. And if I’m not, he won’t take me. Oh, Christ still wants me, but he’ll only take me when I come prepared to follow him totally and unconditionally.

The demand of discipleship is that I am expected to live faithfully; I haven’t been called to easy living. Whatever happens in life, good or bad, I am expected to live like Jesus. Following Jesus is a way of living, it’s faithful service to God’s will. It’s not a “get out of jail free card.” The Gospel writer Luke presents Jesus on his final journey to Jerusalem where he finds death and resurrection as a time when he establishes a pattern of life for his disciples. And that pattern of life places uncompromising demands on them. This is a life that calls us to sacrifice all for Christ, and this is a life that is meant to be lived for others. It’s not about you and me. It’s about God and God’s love and grace coming down to save humanity.

Christ didn’t call you and me to protect us from all sin and all evil and to separate us from the sinners who live next to us. God called us to live the life of Christ so that our living could make a difference in this world, so that others could see and experience Christ in their midst, so that sin and evil can be identified and people given a real choice.

It’s through our lives that people see how Christ’s life is lived. When we give our lives to Christ, Christ demands everything, Christ demands the best. Are we prepared to give all to Christ so that the world may see the best that God offers through Christ?

My friends, the altar rail is still open if you haven’t surrendered your life to Christ. It’s still open if you haven’t surrendered all to Christ. If Christ is to truly transform this world, the transformation must begin with us. Will you give everything to Christ? Have you given everything? Come and surrender all at the rail.

(1) Ideas for this sermon were taken from Marion Soards, Thomas Dozeman, and Kendall McCabe, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C: After Pentecost 1 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), pp. 58-60.