The
holy gospel according to Luke (9:51-62)
51When
the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up,
he
set his face to go to Jerusalem.
52And
he sent messengers ahead of him.
On
their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him;
53but
they did not receive him,
because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
54When
his disciples James and John saw it, they said,
“Lord,
do you want us to command fire
to
come down from heaven and consume them?”
55But
Jesus turned and rebuked them.
56Then
they went on to another village.
57As
they were going along the road, someone said to him,
“I
will follow you wherever you go.”
58And
Jesus said to him,
“Foxes
have holes,
and
birds of the air have nests;
but
the Son of Humanity has nowhere to lay his head.”
59To
another Jesus said,
“Follow
me.”
But
he said,
“Lord,
first let me go and bury my father.”
60But
Jesus said to him,
“Let
the dead bury their own dead;
but
as for you,
go
and proclaim the reign of God.”
61Another
said,
“I
will follow you, Lord;
but
let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
62Jesus
said to him,
“No
one who puts a hand to the plow
and
looks back
is
fit for the reign of God.”
The
gospel of the Lord.
-----
Today’s
Jesus is all about the tough love!
I might even go so far as to question his family values—no burying
parents or even saying good-bye to family? He just takes off and expects everybody else to drop
everything and hop on board. This
doesn’t seem like the same Jesus who cast out the demons called Legion last
week.
And
in some ways he’s not the same. We’ve
jumped from last week’s healing of the Gerasene man with the demons past Jesus’
transfiguration—the turning point in his ministry at which he, as we hear
reiterated today, sets his face to Jerusalem.
In
the first half of Luke, Jesus gathers his followers and disciples and they
journey with him, witnessing the healing and wholeness he creates for
individuals and communities, including feeding over 5000 people! This is the hope and trust we have in
Jesus, the love and forgiveness we receive freely from Jesus.
But
now, in the second half of Luke, his call to follow him is not so easy. Now Jesus is going to confront the
powerful in Jerusalem. Now
following Jesus will not be for the
faint of heart.
Jesus
has “set his face to go to Jerusalem”
and he is on a mission; nothing will stop him. He sends folks ahead to prepare the way and the village of
Samaritans doesn’t receive him.
Yet he is bound and determined and keeps going as the path is clearer
without that stop.
James
and John, also known as the sons of Thunder, don’t quite see eye to eye with
Jesus on this. They are as true to
their name as they are off-base on their response. They ask Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to
come down from heaven and consume them?”
Where
the village that doesn’t receive him fails, this woefully misguided question
does succeed in stopping Jesus in his tracks. He turns and rebukes these sons of Thunder. Bringing fire down on this village that
has cleared the path for his continued journey doesn’t fit with Jesus’
mission. Bringing down any violent
condemnation doesn’t fit with God’s plan.
Even
as Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to call the powerful to account, he is not
going to condemn them, but to call them to repentance, to turn from their ways
that lead not to life but to death.
Jesus’
road is a particular road and while he still focuses on compassion for the
marginalized and outcast, Jesus is clearer in the challenge those of us with
power and privilege will face in following him. Because, there is joy and deep meaning to be found in
following Jesus, and there is
sacrifice and discomfort.
Part
of the shift in Jesus’ focus is a reflection of the difference between
receiving God’s forgiveness and true salvation, which goes deeper. The first half of Luke is the
embodiment of God’s grace. Just as
Jesus moves about bringing healing and wholeness to those with and without
the faith to ask, God’s forgiveness and love is free to all of us. That’s why it’s called grace. It’s the easy part of this life of
faith, because it is entirely dependent on God, not us. It is the thing that pulls us and the
other disciples into following Jesus, realizing the healing and wholeness that
he brings.
Salvation
is a different step along the journey of faith and, like Jesus in today’s
gospel, it is both more urgent and more difficult for many of us. Rev. Lura N. Groen describes salvation,
stating, “salvation is about living in right and good and loving relationship
with God, your human siblings, and all creation, in a joyful, whole, holy
relationship. And if we don't do the work, it is literally, functionally
impossible to be in that relationship.”
Salvation,
especially as we experience it in the gospel of Luke, goes deeper and happens right
now—here on this earth in each moment.
And it happens in community.
Salvation has to do with how we are in relationship with each other and
we can’t be in right relationship with each other when our actions and
inactions harm others.
As M encouraged us a couple weeks ago, we need to examine our place in the
world, to question if we love the systems and institutions we are a part of
more than the neighbor whom Jesus calls us to love. As we follow Jesus we also question the systems set up in
this culture, economic, political, and social ones. Jesus calls us also to question whether these systems help
care for the oppressed and marginalized or further oppress and marginalize
those we’ve deemed as “other.”
Rev.
Groen points out that “… [we] won't experience true salvation without repenting
of [our] racism and sexism, without being forgiven, without the work of
transforming [our] heart and [our] life.”
It
is no simple task. Salvation
requires our participation and our self-examination. When we need our hair cut, do we have any trouble finding
someone who knows how to handle our hair?
Like M reflected, when we go to a store, are we treated with more
respect and less suspicion than we would if our skin were darker or we spoke
another language? When we are out
with our loved ones, do we feel anxious or hesitant about holding their hand as
some still do in today’s culture?
When we walk down the street in a city, do we think about if how we are
dressed will be used as an excuse for harassment? When we enter a building, does it have a ramp for wheelchair
access? These are some of the questions raised when we follow Jesus and seek
salvation.
In
today’s gospel, Jesus names his own reality as one who is oppressed. As he says so eloquently in today’s
gospel, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Humanity
has nowhere to lay his head.” When
we take a new step in faith, we step toward the oppressed Christ who is
crucified in all those who are oppressed and marginalized throughout the
world.
And
in this process, the Holy Spirit frees us from the façade of privilege that we
carry. We no longer have to be
perfectly put together. We no
longer have to hold our emotions stoically inside. In calling us to follow as Jesus’ “face [is] set toward Jerusalem,” Jesus gives us the opportunity to
stop trying to look good, to stop putting store in what our culture demands of
us, and instead Jesus invites us to risk being in relationship with those
different from us, to risk our own sense of security, and to risk messing
up—being imperfect and awkward.
As
we as a community of faith set our faces to the farms this summer, Jesus
invites us as well into the risk of broken Spanish, of attempts to communicate
and build relationships, of wondering what it is like to live in a country with
a language different from the one we grew up with, of sharing food and corn hole
competitions, even when we mix up words like hombres y hombros—men and
shoulders. And in all of this
Jesus is already on the farms with the folks there, waiting for us to arrive
and walking with us on the way.
Jesus
has set his face to Jerusalem, his mission is clear, his love and forgiveness
abounds for each of us, and his call is to follow him.
To
follow Jesus into a sometimes scary place of vulnerability, into a difficult
way of non-violence, resisting our urges to demonize others, trusting that even
in messing up we are growing in relationship with our neighbors and through
those relationships, growing also with God.
Jesus’
way is difficult and it is the way
of life. Jesus leads the way and accompanies us throughout, so that
we are never left behind or alone.
Thanks
be to God.
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