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This is the story of three members of a medium-sized suburban Protestant congregation. They loved their church very much, they enjoyed coming to worship, and all three were fairly active in the life of the congregation. Their names were Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda. Woulda was a new Christian and had only been a member for a year or so and was incredibly enthusiastic. Everything was still very new and fresh for him. He loved reading his Bible and discovering how God was active in his life. He was very eager to serve and people thrived on Woulda’s enthusiasm. Coulda was much different from Woulda. Coulda had been a member of the congregation for about six or seven years. He was what you would call a rules person. Everything had to be by the book in his life. He was well known for his organizational skills and people liked working with him because they knew he would follow through with what he said he would do, as long as it was by the book. Shoulda was also unique and different from Woulda and Coulda. Shoulda had been a member of the congregation for a long time. Her kids were raised in the church and she had taught Sunday school, led Confirmation, sponsored youth group events, and served on lots of different committees herself. People loved Shoulda because she had been around so long and done so many different things. Informally, she was kind of the church historian because she could always tell you how the church has done it in the past and she single-handedly kept many of the church traditions alive. Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda were all good friends and due in large part to their dedication and faithful commitment, their congregation was growing. So after awhile of sustained growth, the congregation decided to do a building project. God was indeed doing some really cool things with their congregation and in their community and they all decided that the best way to serve God was to add on to their current facilities in order to make more ministry possible for the congregation. Well, the building project went great and new ministry space was indeed added. About halfway through the building project, the church council decided to create a team to decide how this new building could best be used to serve God. This team was called the Mission Possibilities Team and their entire role was to discern God’s will and then ask people to lead and to serve in these new and exciting ministries. Neither Woulda, Coulda, nor Shoulda were on Church Council nor were they asked to be on the Mission Possibilities Team. But that was okay because they were still really excited about the building project and they maintained their support and encouragement for those who were in charge. Well, after much prayer, scripture study, and thoughtful discussion, the Mission Possibilities Team discerned that God was calling them to use their new building to start up an afterschool program for the neighborhood kids. They realized that God had given them a unique opportunity to serve because most of the neighborhood kids didn’t have anywhere to go after school and most of them came from single-parent homes where their parent had to work late hours just to make ends meet. The Mission Possibilities Team was really excited about this ministry and began to talk about it openly. As soon as word got out, Woulda was the first person to come to them. “I wanna help, I wanna help…I want to serve God and will follow you wherever you go with this ministry.” The leader of the Mission Possibilities Team, who admittedly was a bit strange and like to wax poetic from time to time, responded to Woulda by saying, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Mission Possibilities team is really tired and needs someone to take over and be in charge of actually setting up the entire after-school program.” “Whoa!” said Woulda. “I woulda helped, but that’s not what I had in mind at all. When I said I would follow God wherever he was leading, I didn’t realize he’d want me to lead the whole thing. That’s a bit too much to ask, don’t you think? I just wanted to, you know, maybe hang some pictures on the wall or something. I wouldn’t know how to be in charge of something like that and besides, I wouldn’t have time anyway. Sorry.” A little disappointed, but undeterred, the Mission Possibilities Team kept searching for help. They decided that Coulda would be a perfect person to ask because he was such a good organizer. So they approached Coulda and asked him to be in charge of setting up the after-school program. Coulda really thought about it and after a couple weeks came back to the Mission Possibilities Team with a proposal that was very detailed and followed all of the city, county, and state laws. The plan also wanted to do a detailed demographic study of the area, a marketing survey to determine if it would actually be feasible, a resources assessment, detailed procedures for how everything will be put into place, and an indepth timeline that needed to be followed to the tee. The only problem with Coulda’s plan was that it had a projected start date of 10 years in the future. When asked if Coulda would be able to get the program started any earlier, since the new building was to be done in just a couple months, Coulda responded in a huff, “Well, if you didn’t want it done right, why’d you even ask me? I coulda helped you, but without following my detailed plan, this will never work!” And he stormed off. At this point, the Mission Possibilities Team was getting a little nervous. They really felt this was what God wanted them to be doing, but no one in the congregation was really willing to put in the time or effort to make it a success. Finally, Shoulda stepped forward and said, “I will follow you.” The Team breathed a collective sigh of relief because Shoulda had been around so long, she had some really good experience. As she took a more active interest in the potential ministry, it became clear however, that all was not well with Shoulda. She kept talking about the good ol’ days and how much better things were when the congregation was smaller and she knew everyone’s name. She refused to ask any of the new people to help because they hadn’t earned their keep yet and she said that she couldn’t trust them. And she took all this out on the building committee and Mission Possibilities Team by constantly complaining, “You shoulda made this room bigger, you shoulda put a sink over there instead of over here, you shoulda made the carpet blue instead of purple.” And besides all this, she was upset because an after-school program would interfere with the church’s annual bake sale and she didn’t want to sacrifice this very important “outreach” event. One day she just up and quit after less than 2 months, primarily because she kept living in the past and refused to see the future potential for this new ministry. Finally, since no one else was willing to step forward and the Mission Possibilities Team felt so strongly about this ministry, they decided to do it themselves. And it was quite successful. God really blessed the after-school program and through it, many of the kids from the neighborhood were saved. Unfortunately, Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda were never able to be a part of it and they were the ones who really missed out. Through this little modern day parable, I’ve tried to illustrate that there is a cost of discipleship. In our gospel lesson, as Jesus set out towards Jerusalem, towards the cross, he came across three people. The first man was really eager to follow Jesus, but he had the same problem as Woulda. He wanted to follow, when in reality Jesus just needed a place to lay his head. Woulda wanted to serve, but not in the way that was really needed. Sometimes the way we think we want to serve God is actually different from the way that God actually needs to be served. Do we do it our way or God’s way? The second person Jesus comes across wants to first bury his dead father before he follows so that he can make sure he is following the law. While Jesus’ reaction seems harsh at first, the man’s problem is that he is more concerned with following the law than he is in actually doing ministry. This was Coulda’s problem also – he was going to do it his way, even if no ministry was ever really going to happen. In Jesus’ world, people and relationships are more important than following the letter of the law. Finally, Jesus encounters someone who is eager to follow, but wants to dwell only in the past. Again, Jesus’ harsh words of “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God,” can apply to a lot of us Lutherans who like to dwell in the glory days of years gone by. It is certain that times can and do change and we can either be like Shoulda and resist and complain, or we can be open to the future and where it is that God is taking us. This story about Jesus is not an easy one to accept because it lays out that being a disciple is hard work and costs a lot. All of us have some Woulda, Coulda, and Shoulda in us and we all miss opportunities to serve. But the sooner we learn radical obedience to the will of God, the sooner we get our hands dirty doing actual ministry, the sooner and more fully we will be able to experience the richness of God’s grace.
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