Luke 14:25-33
By Rev. Diane Lee
Getting busy again . . .
Many farmers struggled with severe droughts in many places over the summer. Many also have been afflicted by a magnitude of flooding around the world due to the disrupted ecosystem.
Life is a series of constant mending, but now is time to celebrate the season of creation, a time to prepare for a harvest soon, rolling up the sleeves and getting busy again. Students go back to school, and many workers return to their work from summer vacation.
As we juggle with much pressure in the workplace, at school, or at home, there are always time stressors. Some might feel more pressured than others, as they play multiple roles in life under different circumstances.
Such is part of life, and no one can escape from stressors. We all deal with mental, physical, emotional, as well as relational stresses as we make transitions. Sometimes our unexpected multiple challenges are bombarding us simultaneously. How can we beat the stress we face, and how can we deliver the things that are essential to completing the tasks without losing a focus of our life?
To answer that question, we will have to figure out what should be on our focus first, once we identify tasks in front of us. Perhaps you heard about the important vs. urgent principle or dilemma.
There are two axes in this diagram.
The horizontal axe shows the urgency of the tasks. Its right-had side indicates that things are urgent, and its left-hand side not so urgent. The vertical axe shows the importance of the tasks. Its upper side indicates that things are very important, and its lower side not so.
Now here are quadrants created. This is known as Eisenhower’s matrix.
The Important vs. The Urgent Dilemma
The inspirational adage from a saying attributed to the famous military and civilian leader Dwight D. Eisenhower has a few versions, but one is this:
The things that are urgent are seldom important, and the things that are important are seldom urgent.
This so-called "Eisenhower Principle" is said to be how he organized his workload and priorities. He recognized that great time management means being effective as well as efficient. In other words, we must spend our time on things that are important and not just the ones that are urgent.
To minimize the stress of having too many tight deadlines, we need to understand this distinction between being important and being urgent.
Important activities have an outcome that leads to us achieving our goals, whether these are professional or personal.
In reality, we can't always predict or avoid some issues and crises. Thus, the best approach is to leave some time in our schedule to handle unexpected issues and unplanned important things. If a major crisis arises, then we will need to reschedule other tasks.
Now, visualize the impact of your daily tasks on your short-term or long-term priorities, plot them into the different quadrants using the following key questions:
First Quadrant [Urgent & Important – DO]: What’s on your to-do list? These are tasks that have negative consequences when not done immediately.
Second Quadrant [Important but Not-Urgent – DECIDE]: What time will you do it today? These are the activities that have a big impact in your life. If you delay them or keep ignoring them, they will cost you later. In fact, we must focus on this quadrant – the important yet not urgent. Make it a priority. It will build our muscles to deal with the ones in the “DO” box later.
Third Quadrant [Urgent but Not-Important – DELEGATE]: Many mundane tasks in our daily lives belong to this quadrant. Can you automate or delegate, such as using the washing machine for the laundry, or hiring a hand to help you? It’s not always easy, but here the key is to do it smart.
Last Quadrant [Not-Urgent and Not-Important – DELETE]: These are the distractions that we take up to give us temporary relief or pleasure. How much time do you spend on them? Do you need to do it? Eliminate or do less of. It requires some self-discipline.
Remember that the quadrant that requires our attention most is the second one.
Yes, we must respond to the tasks that are urgent and important, but the first quadrant puts us in a very negative type of loop where we go through the rush with our last-minute kind of thinking like a fire control. Prevent the fire, if possible. Save yourself from the hassle of adapting.
And, I invite you to take a moment and think about these questions to build your own prioritization matrix:
· How can you define urgency and importance?
· What are some important but not urgent tasks you have on your to-do list?
· Is your planning effective in the end? What alternative options and choices do you have?
· In light of what is said here, should you invest some time in non-urgent but important life-changing processes?
Finally, and most importantly, which quadrant do you put your God in this matrix? Do-it-now? Make-it-a-priority? Delegate? Or do-less-of?
In Which Quadrant Do You Have God?
There are many people who say that God is important. For various reasons, however, some of those who acknowledge the importance of God in their lives fail to respond to God’s invitation. They delay till the last minute, until they feel urgent. As long as they recognize its importance and urgency and respond to God’s call at the last minute, that’s still good.
But, it would be better to prioritize our relationship with God, without having to rush, wouldn’t it? Then, we would have more time to prepare ourselves to be good disciples.
The word “disciple” literally means learner or student. In the Bible, a disciple is “a student or follower who emulates the example set by a master and seeks to identify with the master’s teachings."
For Thomas Aquinas, discipleship meant being an entirely devoted student of Jesus Christ – i) a student of Scripture who obtains the heart of Christ gradually by reading and studying the Bible; ii) a student of prayer just as Jesus was found in personal prayer with God; and iii) a student of truth who devotes himself or herself to understanding the surrounding world, even when disagreeing with others, to be slow to judge, quick to learn, yet steadfast in our convictions and trust in Jesus. It’s very important to remember that our faith needs to be reflected on our actions.
The Cost of Discipleship
Today’s Gospel touches on the matter of discipleship. We can be bold to check out all three points according to the lesson from Aquinas. Read the Bible, pray regularly, and act justly. Jesus, however, zooms in from a new angle.
Jesus tells us that we need to take a risk of turning against our dear family members in order to be his true followers. It sounds harsh. How can we abandon aging parents and other dependents who need our financial and emotional support? It is a very hard thing to leave them in order to follow Jesus’ call, and for some people, it’s almost impossible if they are sole caregivers in their families.
But, before we start digging its meaning, let’s think about his parable of the great banquet that proceeds this passage in Luke’s Gospel 14: 15-24 (cf. Mt 22.1-14).
Jesus had just healed a man with dropsy and taught a brief lesson on serving others, then saying that those who serve others would be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous (Lk 14.14). At the mention of the resurrection, someone at the table with Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God” (v.15). In reply, Jesus told this parable:
A man planned a large banquet and sent out invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to contact each of the invited guests, telling them that all was ready and the meal was about to start. One after another, the guests made excuses for not coming. One had just bought a piece of land and said he had to go see it. Another had purchased some oxen and said he was on the way to yoke them up and try them out. Another gave the excuse that he was newly married and therefore could not come.
When the master of the house heard these excuses, he was upset. He told his servant to forget the guest list and go into the back streets and alleyways of the town and invite “the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame” (v.21). The servant had already brought in the down-and-out townspeople, and still there was room in the banquet hall. So the master sent his servant on a broader search: “Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full” (vv. 22-23).
Jesus ends the parable by relating the master’s determination that “not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of [his] banquet” (v. 24).
As usual, Jesus used metaphors. In that parable, the master of the house is God, and the great banquet is God’s kingdom. The kingdom is prepared for people whom God kindly invites. But what happens? They reject invitation, making all kinds of excuses. Consequently, the new guest list is made up, which includes the lowly and cast-outs, which has a theological significance as Gentiles.
In a way, the excuses made by those in the first guest group sound reasonable. The matters that they say they need to attend seem important, from human perspectives.
In all three cases in the parable, however, what these people were unaware of was God’s heavenly banquet that was available for them. It was that dilemma of important versus urgent things that required their immediate responses. Yes, this case can be juxtaposed with the things in the Do box of the Eisenhower’s matrix.
God is not satisfied with a partially full banquet hall. He wants every place at the table to be filled. God is more willing to save sinners than sinners are to be saved.
Those who make wrong choices and poor judgements, who procrastinate, will encounter a tragic consequence of being unable to taste the master’s banquet – God’s salvation, the blessings of the kingdom that are available to all who will come to Christ by faith.
After this parable, Jesus is adding that there is more to being his follower than that: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk 14.26).
Jesus boldly says that the true disciple comes to him without reservation, setting Jesus as the first priority over other relationships.
Jesus uses the strong word “hate” to show how great the difference must be between our allegiance to Jesus and our allegiance to everyone and everything else. It is a hyperbolic language, only to be used in a comparative sense, and not literally.
The Gospeler Matthew puts it in a more sensible way: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10.37).
Brothers and sisters, what I can say is this:
When you follow Christ, you will know when it is time to drop everything else and respond to his special call immediately, with no hesitation or reservation – the task important and urgent that only you can respond to. You might have to give up your family or leave your home or the things that you cherish dearly. It’s one of the hardest things to do, but if that’s God’s call and if you are willing to say yes to him, the Lord will give you strength to carry on and guide your way.
You will know when time comes, but first, you will have to stay in the second quadrant, focusing on the important yet not urgent matters, so that you can build the muscles to handle the tasks important and urgent when time comes.
Draw near to him and hear him day in and day out. Do not put Christ and his teachings in the third or fourth quadrant. Do not forget them or delete them or have someone else do them for you. Your faith may be established upon the faith of your grandparents and great-grandparents, but you have to establish your own relationship with God, so that you can be led by him in the right direction.
Using Apostle Paul’s term, we are to be prisoners of Christ. We are to be led by the Holy Spirit, obeying God’s will, allow him to mold us just as the clay in the hand of the Potter (Jer 18.1-11). If the clay resists to be a beautiful pot to be used by the Potter, what’s the use of clay?
The Potter is molding us here and now.
We must remember that we are in the hands of our God who has engraved his love in our hearts.
Being a disciple means cross-bearing, willingness to die on a cross, but this is not to gain any worldly profits but to serve the One who has redeemed us for eternal life with his blood. As his true disciples, we give our love, trust, and allegiance to our Lord.
God bless!