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Written by Pastor Fausel
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Sunday, 27 June 2010 00:00 |
Grace, mercy and peace be to you …
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” You ever had the Lord speak that way to you? Put your name in place of Elijah’s …
What are you doing here? … God asking you in a low, quiet whisper.
When God calls … often that’s the way it is. Not with an earthquake or fire or a wind or a big brass marching band … or the Met-Life Blimp … or even Thunder over Louisville….
It’s just that low, quiet whisper … “What are you doing here?” And the implication is … “I have need of you … somewhere else.”
This morning our readings speak to us about our being involved BY God in His work. Something we see God doing with Elijah and Elisha. And something we see almost happening with some people in our Gospel reading for today from St. Luke.
So let’s concentrate our time on what’s going on with these people in our texts for today, and how that may apply to us.
Now, many feel the Gospel we heard read is really two different stories … one about James and John wanting to rain down fire from heaven because of the lack of hospitality of the Samaritans … and the other about three people who want to join Jesus in what He is doing.
Really, both accounts go together for a reason. So what God has put together, let us not rent asunder.
First, what’s going on with the sons of Zebede, James and John? These were probably the messengers that Jesus had called to join Him in what He was doing …. Namely setting His path directly for Jerusalem and what was to follow for our salvation: His arrest, trial, death, and resurrection.
But what happens? The messengers faithfully do Jesus’ bidding … but the people to whom they are sent are stubborn, and they stand on tradition going back hundreds of years. “You and your master are Jews,” they probably told the messengers. “We are Samaritans. You are not welcome here … take another route, if Jerusalem is your objective.”
Now … these people were not only resisting the express will of God in Jesus Christ, but they were also defying the authority of Him who sent His messengers. The natural human reaction from James and John was Judgment…
But … how would you like it if God asked you to do something… and out of fear, tradition, selfishness or laziness … you declined. Or… perhaps even more common … suppose God asked you to stop doing something, and you took the same stance? You refused.
How would YOU like to have fire and brimstone rained down on your head for disobeying the expressed will of God? Wouldn’t be your first choice, right? Well, remember who God is … God is what? Love.
God never acts in such a way that He either bribes us with gifts … or manipulates us with fear in order to have us follow Him. God seeks our following after Him simply out of our love for Him.
The same was true for the Samaritans. Their lack of love caused them to bar Jesus from their territory. That was their choice. No bribe or punishment was going to be forthcoming to change their minds.
You know why? Love still would have the opportunity to win out. The clock had not yet struck midnight for them.
As it was still day, the Word of God still had free course to convert their souls, as it did with those Samaritans who listened to the woman who met Jesus at the well. Judgment would come finally … but on the basis of faith … not on works … or lack of same.
Now … take all that and apply it… which is laid out for us by God through Luke.
Let’s take the first man Jesus meets, the one who says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Sounds a bit like Peter at the Last Supper, doesn’t it: “I am ready to go with you to prison and death!”
Both Peter in that case and this man here are unaware that the ability to follow Jesus is not something we CAN do on our own. All good works are works that the Holy Spirit accomplishes in and through us. Apart from Him we can do nothing.
Now, Jesus can read hearts … and we can’t. So where Jesus goes with His answer to THIS man might be different than where He might go someone else.
Here Jesus points to the fact that the lot of a Disciple is different than the lot of the volunteer. The Volunteer is one who has things of importance that are primary … and with the time and energy they have beyond that … they give of what’s left over. They in fact “volunteer.”
But when they’re done volunteering … they go back into their own world again. That’s what Jesus is telling this first man. “This is not a two-week mission trip --- This is for life! My work is that of an itinerant preacher. I, and those who follow me, have no home, per se.” And so… we hear no more about that man.
The next man is perhaps the most interesting of the three. We read, Jesus says to him, “Follow Me.” What’s interesting, then, is that this man, unlike the other two, is NOT a volunteer. He is one who is actually invited by the Lord to join Him in what He was doing. Jesus could read this man’s heart and determine that here is one who will join me out of love.
But. The man asks permission to first bury his father before joining Jesus in proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Now Obviously, the physically dead cannot bury the physically dead … so the literal meaning is not what Jesus intended.
Most agree that what Jesus meant is that the spiritually dead … those without faith … are capable of burying the physically dead. Those who are spiritually alive, like this man, however, have better things to do in this world, than burying the dead, namely proclaiming the kingdom of God.
But, when it comes to burying a father, is that still true? Some claim that since this man is asking the question in the first place, his father is not yet dead. Because if the father were indeed dead and not yet buried, this conversation wouldn’t be going on … this man would have been 100% consumed with the obligations of a son for a father’s burial, and he would not been having a conversation on the road.
So then, the implication of his request could be something like this:
“Okay, Jesus, I’ll join you … but please let me do so after my father dies, because when he does, I’ll have enough inheritance then to support myself while I proclaim the kingdom.”
Who would the man be putting first, then? Jesus, the mission, or himself. Himself. And about him, too, we hear nothing more.
Finally, the third man volunteers, but asks permission first to say good bye to his family. We see Elisha given permission to do this in our Old Testament reading for today. After His call by God through Elijah, Elisha goes back and says good bye and totally destroys his former means of life … his oxen and his plow.
Interesting, isn’t it, that Jesus uses the metaphor of a plow then to speak to this man in our Gospel about turning back, which is what Jesus implies his saying good bye to his family is all about.
Some conclude that Jesus says this to him because He could read this man’s heart. But the fact is that he, too, volunteers and is not called by Jesus. Elisha was called by God; he did not volunteer. And his good-by was an honest one … as proven by what he did with his means of making a very lucrative living. He burned it!
Elisha was like Cortez when he came to conquer South America… Cortez reportedly burned his boats in port. There would be no thoughts in the minds of his soldiers about returning home, because there was no longer any way to get there.
So. Are you a volunteer for the Kingdom? … or are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Perhaps using the Cortez/ Elisha analogy … Have you burned your plow? Have you sunk your ships in the harbor?
That’s what Jesus is calling for in this passage … a complete denial of self and of all worldly ties. Who is First, Second and Last? Just Jesus.
If you can do that … then you are worthy of the name “disciple.”
But let’s go back to our Samaritans again. Remember why they couldn’t do the good work of welcoming Jesus? Because the Spirit had not yet touched their hearts.
Fact is, we cannot be disciples unless the Spirit has touched our hearts as well. We simply cannot earn the title of disciple on our own. In fact, sinful human beings that we are … we will never be perfect disciples.
But, the call we see Jesus giving here is to be just that. Perfect disciples: perfectly self-less, and perfectly devoid of any worldly ties. Just as elsewhere Jesus calls us to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect.
We are not perfect. But we are forgiven. This goes back to the heart again. A forgiven heart is what God has seen in us since the day we were Baptized.
A heart that longs to follow Jesus… because He actually does call our hearts by His Spirit to follow Him. Our hearts are not volunteers … they know the One whom they serve. Our hearts truly WANT to be perfect disciples.
But are they? No. Self gets priority at times. Ties to the family get priority at times. The devil and the world at times deceive us into thinking we’re doing one thing, when what we’re doing is just the opposite.
But in God’s eyes … for all those less than perfect obedience’s, we stand forgiven. God started with 12 pretty less-than-perfect disciples and despite all their errors and the errors of those who followed in their train … look at what He’s accomplished!
And so. Have Joy this morning … knowing for certain … that you are one whom God has chosen to follow Him, and not only chosen, but empowered by his Spirit to be a blessing to His kingdom. You are a disciple.
And as a disciple of Jesus Christ, then …Listen. Pay attention. Hear God’s low, quiet whisper, and joyfully … and without fear … step out in faith and join Him in what He is doing.
In Him,
Amen. |
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