The 13th Sunday After Pentecost
Scriptures: Philemon 1-21; Luke 14:25-33
Key Verse: “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (Luke 14:33)
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Hello, This is Jade.
Welcome to Yi.kigai
A space for all to explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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How comfortable are you when you hear or talk about the power of demons and evil spirits? And how real is the power of demons and evil spirits to you? Growing up in a culture that was deeply soaked in the Taoism tradition, teaching, and beliefs, hearing and talking about such power had never been uncomfortable to me since I was little. I say it was such a deeply soaked culture because conversations around unknown spirits were seen and heard on TV shows, dramas or movies. And whenever conversations around the power of unknown spirits occurred among friends or schoolmates, many either couldn't tell or didn't care if one was Buddhist, Taoist, Christian, or atheist. We talked as we believed in the existence of unknown spirits.
I always felt scared but curious whenever I heard about unknown spirits. There were several popular games that people liked to play to summon a devil or spirit by incantation. Some forms of conjuring didn’t require specialized instruments or tools but ordinary stuff like a game called Plate Spirit which can be played by using a regular plate. That was the most popular one played by many when I was a teenager.
All we needed was a plate and a minimum of two players. The more players we had, the more exciting or dangerous the game could get. After conjuring the Plate Spirit, we could ask as many questions as we wanted by holding the plate tightly with all our index fingers together. Why hold the plate tightly? Because the plate could move speedily in all directions depending on what we were asking and the mood of the Plate Spirit. There was a simple but important rule that all players must follow: players had to send Plate Spirit off well at the end of the game. Otherwise, we were told that Plate Spirit could possess one of the game players and eventually mess up or destroy that player’s life.
I don’t know about you, but I have never heard of demons and evil spirits possessed by humans. I have only heard that people can be possessed with demons and evil spirits. My experience of playing Plate Spirit taught me a great lesson about humanity. We, humans, would like to believe that we can control demons or evil spirits; nonetheless, in reality, we are afraid of their unmanageable power. Because deep inside us, we know that humans can be manipulated by them easily if they are careless. Don’t horror movies also show us the humans' tendency of wanting to control demons and evil spirits by trading in their valuable possessions? The end of their lives are never pretty in those movies.
Jesus listed the prerequisites for becoming his disciples in Luke 14:25-33. He asked his disciples including you and me to not trade in but detach ourselves from our possessions. He even used the verb “hate” when describing how to treat our relationship with our families. I wonder what made Jesus use such a strong word. The word hate in Greek, miseo, means detest or love less. Had he seen such attachment weakening disciples’ commitments to God’s Kingdom? Then he used the examples of a builder and a king to warn us about the importance of conducting an honest self-evaluation and the risks of not knowing our own incapability while carrying our own cross. Indeed, the cross is too heavy for us to carry it through to obtain our own salvation unless we rely on what Jesus has accomplished through his cross for our sake.
Throughout scriptures, the good news of all that we are and all that we have belong to God alone is evident in 1 Chronicles 29:10-14, Psalm 24:1, Matthew 22:21b, 1 Corinthians 1:30, 3:22, Ephesians 2:8-9, just to name some. The only reason Jesus is confident in asking for our detachment is that everything is under God’s care and protection including our families. We don’t need to play God to protect our loved ones for we know we are incapable of such an important mission. If we can’t keep our families from all dangers while we are alive, what else could we do after we pass away? Thanks be to God who is the Lord of heaven and earth. May we let the good news soak our life deeply and fully to create such a culture so that whenever conversations around the power of God’s redemption occur, many will talk as they truly believe in the existence of God and Jesus' sacrifice.
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May your coming week be blessed by God’s grace
As together we explore the intersection between faith and daily life
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