Even is you haven’t read the book, I suspect you know about the wizard of Oz, a story written more than a century ago and made into a memorable movie of a young girl from Kansas, named Dorothy, who finds herself in the land of Oz.
After exploring Oz, she gets homesick and asks for directions on how to get back to Kansas. The people tell her that only the wizard knows the answer. “How can I find him?” she asked. “Just follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. There you will find the wizard living in a magic green castle.”
On the way, she meets a scarecrow. He was depressed because he had no brains and couldn’t think. Dorothy invites him to travel with her. “Surely, the wizard can give you brains,” she tells him. Together, they set off to find the wizard.
On the way, they bumped into the tin man who was depressed because he had no heart and couldn’t love. “Come with us,” Dorothy insisted. “Surely, the wizard will give you a heart!”
Soon the three travelers met the lion. He was depressed for he had no courage and couldn’t be brave as lions ought to be. They invited the lion to join them on their journey to the Emerald City.
In due time, they get to the magic castle, only to learn that the wizard won’t grant their requests until they capture the magic broomstick from the wicked witch and bring it to him.
To make a long story short, in the process of capturing that broom stick, the scarecrow discovers that he could think; the tin man discovers that he can love; and the lion discovers that he can be brave. The wizard had helped Dorothy’s friends to discover what they already possessed.
Many Christians today underestimate themselves as did the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion, along with the hesitant disciples in today’s gospel. However we think of ourselves, Jesus invites us to discover that we do have the brains, the heart, and the courage to follow him here and now.
Like the reluctant would-be disciples who each had an excuse for not following Jesus, we come up with our own for not making time for God in our daily lives. Ultimately, Jesus is telling us that our lives should revolve around God. He speaks of three conditions for following him: a willingness to make sacrifices with little concern for personal comfort, giving the kingdom of God absolute priority, especially when conflicts of interest arise, and be unswervingly committed.
We are off to a good start, no question of that. We worship as a faith community while others are sleeping in, or doing chores around the house, or enjoying the great outdoors. We fight against those factions of our government and the media that mock us for wanting morality to be the foundation of our society. We stand for a morality in a nation that places value on the right of people to be immoral. Being committed to Jesus is costly but we do so because we know that we are unconditionally loved.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German Lutheran theologian, wrote a book entitled, The Cost of Discipleship, in which he maintained that discipleship requires us to make a fundamental decision to follow Jesus and to accept the consequences of that decision. His own religious conviction led him to stand up to the tyranny of Nazi Germany, which ultimately cost him his life. Few of us will be asked to pay that price, but we are expected to live in a certain way if we are truly following Jesus.
On the eve of Independence Day, we hear Paul’s message on freedom, a word that captures the heart of the American dream. We think of freedom as the right to make personal choices, often without much regard for how they impact others. What we see as freedom, however, Paul views as self centeredness. He would define our notion of freedom as a roadblock to true discipleship,insisting that as Christians we are called not to do as we please, but to use our freedom to be of service to others. When we make that choice, we are truly free from the yoke of slavery.
True freedom happens when the grace of God works through us to bring happiness to others. What best describes freedom for Paul is the spirit of unselfishness: “Do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love.”
Through baptism, we have gained freedom from sin, from fear, and from rejection. Through his example, Jesus gives us the freedom to think, to love, and to bravely make a difference in the lives of others, building up the kingdom of God when we do so.
If we are inclined to quibble about the cost of discipleship, then it is time for us to pray for the grace to follow Jesus whole heartedly without reservation and to understand that being a disciple means making difficult choices, not always between good and bad, but between the good and the best. Otherwise, we will continue to be enslaved by things like addictions, possessions, or ideologies that hinder our relationship with God.
If you still think that what you do as a Christian doesn’t really matter or make much difference, consider then, the words of a19th century French Quaker, Stephen Grellet, which sums up the message of these readings well: “I shall pass through life but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do, or any kindness I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”