How many of you are disciples?
How do we make disciples?
If ever there was a mission statement this Gospel would be it.
It is a difficult task…the call to discipleship.

If you really want to be a disciple, you have to give up your family. You have to take up your cross and be willing to die. You have to give up all of your possessions.

You have to give it all up. You have to give up your ego…anything that will hold you back from Christ.
What are our priorities? Jesus tells us there is just one priority…to love God with your whole heart, mind and strength.

You have to take up your cross. He doesn’t just mean our aches and pains. He means our possessions, and our life. Like…Oscar Romero, the women who were martyred in Central America, Maximilian Kolbe.

Do we use what we have to help others…the Soup Kitchen, St. Vincent de Paul?

“We are called, we are chosen. We are Christ for one another.
We are promised to tomorrow, while we are for him today. We are sign, we are wonder. We are sower, we are seed. We are harvest, we are hunger. We are question, we are creed.

Humility. Humility helps us put things in proper priority.
The champion of humility is Jesus Christ. He mastered it. 

We enjoy sharing a meal with friends. 

At a banquet or formal meal, we do not go to the head table. We wait to be invited.

Last Sunday we heard we must be willing to make sacrifices…self-sacrifice. Those who persevere will be at the eternal banquet.

We have a God who has invited everyone to the banquet. We are reminded in the Gospel that we are called to be images of God’s embracing love. We are to love all people. We are called to invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind…to serve their needs. 

Especially when we come to Church we realize that everyone is equal. We gather as one around the table.

How do we make real God’s direction that we invite and welcome all people? It is more than writing a check. Our service must be based on our imitation of God’s love. 

Are you saved?

Who then will be saved?
You will not be saved by your riches. 
You don’t get in by your own merits.

What have the Gospels the past 4 weeks told us about who will be saved?

Who then will be saved?
We all will be saved by the glory of God. 

In today’s world, who needs to be saved? What do they need to be saved from?

We’re not going to be free until everyone is free.

Our goal is to live the Beatitudes.
To live the Gospel.

Are we going to be saved?

We hear that Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

Peace…we hear today that Jesus came not to establish peace but division.

St. Francis of Assisi didn’t follow his father’s wish. He didn’t go into the family business.

We know from the Gospels that Jesus did come to bring peace.

Not Peace- absence of struggle or conflict.

But Peace – where people live with wholeness and integrity. Where people have what they need.

Conflict is human nature, human freedom.

Jesus is seen as a disruptive figure.
He is divine, God with us and all people are truly valuable. God dwells in all of us.

To follow Christ means to follow his principles, beliefs, and convictions even if they are not always popular.

Pray that we are strengthened with what we need to stay the course.

On the road again…
We need to be on the road doing things…doing the Kingdom.

Oskar Schindler rescued 1200 Jewish people during the Holocaust…”I just wish I could have done more.”

Faith is a verb not a noun.
Be on the move. Pack light.
Don’t be about possessions, be about doing.

Abraham left it all to follow God and was willing to do whatever God asked of him. He was a person of faith.

We are called to live our faith. To be faithful to all. There is no future in storing up stuff, in having a false sense of time.

We need to use our faith and do our faith.