5 Pentecost (Proper 8)
June 27, 2010
Luke 9:51-62
We have this great soft Bible that I used to bring to church for the kids before we got to this place with all the cool art supplies in the back. Just a handful of stories but all can be manipulated by little hands. The good Samaritan with Velcro bandaids you can put on his wounds. Fish that can snap off and be put into the disciples’ net. You can get Jonah in and out of the whale, put baby Moses in his basket, button Joseph’s pretty coat. And the story of Lot’s wife. She is a sort of popsicle stick – one side pretty and smiling and the other side unhappy and sort of sandy, like an emery board.
The kids had recently rediscovered this little bible and when they got to the page about Lot’s wife they clearly didn’t have a clue what it was all about. Dylan thought the story was about a person who turned into an angel. So I told them the story about Lot who lived in this city where the people were really awful – hurting each other and not loving God. And so the city was going to be destroyed, but because Lot was a good person God let him and his wife get away first. God warned them not to look back at the city as they ran away. But Lot’s wife looked back and instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
The three potential disciples that met Jesus in this morning’s Gospel story from Luke aroused my sympathy just like poor Mrs. Lot. One was eager to follow Jesus: “I will follow you wherever you go!” he said. But Jesus offered nothing but discouragement. Then came the two that wanted to follow Jesus but just had a little something they needed to get done first. One needed to go home and bury his father – it’s hard to imagine a better reason for delay than that! And one wanted to go home and say farewell to his family first – also a reasonable request, one would think. I was impressed with all three in their willingness to leave their lives and follow him. But Jesus – not so much: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Ouch! Once again, looking back seems to be a big problem.
Since my only experience with farming is watching Holden’s dad take my kids for joy rides on his tractor, I investigated how plows worked back in Jesus’ day. The plow was, and is, something that would cut furrows through the soil to prepare it for the seeds that would be planted. In Jesus’ time, the plow would be attached to some kind of strong animal, like a mule or an ox. But the farmer was the one giving the direction to the plow. And it required his full concentration. If he turned his head to look back, it could mean disaster for the animal or the farmer, especially in such a rocky land.
So I take Jesus’ comment to mean that we have to keep our eyes on him rather than being focused on what lies behind, all the things that divert and enslave us. And, given his response this morning to those would be disciples, it sounds like we also need to be willing to drop absolutely everything right this second and head out into the world with nothing but the clothes on our back. But if that’s the standard, then who can ever be fit for the kingdom of God? How many people are there out there that will be able to go full steam ahead without ever looking back? How many people are there with never-failing faith – no doubts, no regrets, and no serious attachments whatsoever? No offense, Jesus, but I don’t think you’re going to find too many people that meet that bill.
Plus, how consistent is Jesus in what he requires from his would-be disciples? Since I was already thinking about this sermon last week, I was surprised to hear last Sunday’s story from Luke’s Gospel that comes shortly before this one. The one where Jesus healed the man with a legion of demons and the man was totally ready to follow Jesus right then and there (Luke says that he “begged” to be with Jesus), but Jesus sent him away, telling him to go home and declare how much God had done instead. Why is Jesus sending away the one who has no attachments and is desperate to follow him and guilt-tripping the ones that want to go home?
I decided to conduct a completely unscientific and not-terribly-academic survey of all the would-be-disciples in the Gospel of Luke and see what Jesus was up to.
It turns out that there are 29 people that Jesus explicitly instructs about what to do next with their lives.
Although they aren’t always ready to do what it takes, throughout the gospel Jesus only invites 9 people to literally leave their lives and join him on the road. This includes two of our friends from this morning, four of the disciples, the rich young man (whom Jesus tells to give everything to the poor and follow him), a blind beggar, and the criminal next to Jesus at his crucifixion (whom Jesus says will be with him that day in paradise). (That last one might be a bit of a stretch, but it seems to fit best into this category.) Obviously there are others who literally follow Jesus – the other 8 disciples, some women like Mary Magdalene, and others, but we don’t hear about how it came about.
The other 20 potential disciples Jesus meets along the way in the Gospel of Luke – and this is the vast majority of the people who encounter Jesus in this sort of one-on-one way –he sends back to where they’ve been all along. This includes people like Zacchaeus sitting in the tree and the lawyer who asks “who is my neighbor” and gets the Good Samaritan story as his answer. These are people that Jesus challenges to change the way they live. This number also includes people that Jesus heals and tells them to go show themselves to the priest. There are some Jesus tells to go and say nothing to anyone and others he tells to return home and tell everyone what God has done. And there are many he just tells to “go in peace.”
So clearly what it means to be a “follower” of Jesus must differ from person to person, which gives me a little more hope for the three people we read about this morning. We can’t tell from Luke’s Gospel what became of these three unnamed potential disciples. We don’t know if the first was deterred by hearing that he might have nowhere to lay his head. And we don’t know if the second and third decided to join Jesus or not. These three might have become some of Jesus’ most loyal believers, or they might have returned back to life as normal and never given Jesus a second thought. We don’t know. We’ll never know. And maybe that’s part of Luke’s intention in including these little unresolved vignettes. And in including the other 26 would or could-be followers of Jesus. Maybe somewhere, in one of their stories, lies our story.
What kind of call to follow have we heard? Some of us might be called to follow Jesus by literally getting on the road and leaving everything else behind. But the vast majority of us are probably called to follow Jesus by showing in our lives the effect of our encounter with him. Maybe by making hard changes to the way we live, maybe by sharing what Jesus means to us with others, maybe by working for peace and justice in our little patch of the world, and definitely by loving our neighbors as ourselves. I can’t tell you specifically what form your invitation to follow Jesus might take or exactly what it means for your life. But I can tell you one thing for sure - it is not an invitation to sit back content with who and what you are. At the very least, it’s a call to risk, to adventure, to new possibilities. And when we follow that call, we’ll see the kingdom of heaven opening up before our very eyes.
June 27, 2010
Luke 9:51-62
We have this great soft Bible that I used to bring to church for the kids before we got to this place with all the cool art supplies in the back. Just a handful of stories but all can be manipulated by little hands. The good Samaritan with Velcro bandaids you can put on his wounds. Fish that can snap off and be put into the disciples’ net. You can get Jonah in and out of the whale, put baby Moses in his basket, button Joseph’s pretty coat. And the story of Lot’s wife. She is a sort of popsicle stick – one side pretty and smiling and the other side unhappy and sort of sandy, like an emery board.
The kids had recently rediscovered this little bible and when they got to the page about Lot’s wife they clearly didn’t have a clue what it was all about. Dylan thought the story was about a person who turned into an angel. So I told them the story about Lot who lived in this city where the people were really awful – hurting each other and not loving God. And so the city was going to be destroyed, but because Lot was a good person God let him and his wife get away first. God warned them not to look back at the city as they ran away. But Lot’s wife looked back and instantly turned into a pillar of salt.
The kids, understandably, thought that was odd, to say the least, and wanted to know why. And so do I. I understand that she disobeyed God. Maybe she was too attached to her old home. Maybe she didn’t think it was such a bad place and had grown desensitized to the evil there. Maybe she was part of the evil to begin with and God was just doing Lot a favor by letting her leave with him. I’m sure God had reasons, but the story still seems pretty harsh. Turned into a pillar of salt just for turning back to look one last time at the place where you’ve spent your life? The place where all your friends and probably much of your family remain and are being destroyed? What is so horrible about looking back at all that?
The three potential disciples that met Jesus in this morning’s Gospel story from Luke aroused my sympathy just like poor Mrs. Lot. One was eager to follow Jesus: “I will follow you wherever you go!” he said. But Jesus offered nothing but discouragement. Then came the two that wanted to follow Jesus but just had a little something they needed to get done first. One needed to go home and bury his father – it’s hard to imagine a better reason for delay than that! And one wanted to go home and say farewell to his family first – also a reasonable request, one would think. I was impressed with all three in their willingness to leave their lives and follow him. But Jesus – not so much: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Ouch! Once again, looking back seems to be a big problem.
Since my only experience with farming is watching Holden’s dad take my kids for joy rides on his tractor, I investigated how plows worked back in Jesus’ day. The plow was, and is, something that would cut furrows through the soil to prepare it for the seeds that would be planted. In Jesus’ time, the plow would be attached to some kind of strong animal, like a mule or an ox. But the farmer was the one giving the direction to the plow. And it required his full concentration. If he turned his head to look back, it could mean disaster for the animal or the farmer, especially in such a rocky land.
So I take Jesus’ comment to mean that we have to keep our eyes on him rather than being focused on what lies behind, all the things that divert and enslave us. And, given his response this morning to those would be disciples, it sounds like we also need to be willing to drop absolutely everything right this second and head out into the world with nothing but the clothes on our back. But if that’s the standard, then who can ever be fit for the kingdom of God? How many people are there out there that will be able to go full steam ahead without ever looking back? How many people are there with never-failing faith – no doubts, no regrets, and no serious attachments whatsoever? No offense, Jesus, but I don’t think you’re going to find too many people that meet that bill.
Plus, how consistent is Jesus in what he requires from his would-be disciples? Since I was already thinking about this sermon last week, I was surprised to hear last Sunday’s story from Luke’s Gospel that comes shortly before this one. The one where Jesus healed the man with a legion of demons and the man was totally ready to follow Jesus right then and there (Luke says that he “begged” to be with Jesus), but Jesus sent him away, telling him to go home and declare how much God had done instead. Why is Jesus sending away the one who has no attachments and is desperate to follow him and guilt-tripping the ones that want to go home?
I decided to conduct a completely unscientific and not-terribly-academic survey of all the would-be-disciples in the Gospel of Luke and see what Jesus was up to.
It turns out that there are 29 people that Jesus explicitly instructs about what to do next with their lives.
Although they aren’t always ready to do what it takes, throughout the gospel Jesus only invites 9 people to literally leave their lives and join him on the road. This includes two of our friends from this morning, four of the disciples, the rich young man (whom Jesus tells to give everything to the poor and follow him), a blind beggar, and the criminal next to Jesus at his crucifixion (whom Jesus says will be with him that day in paradise). (That last one might be a bit of a stretch, but it seems to fit best into this category.) Obviously there are others who literally follow Jesus – the other 8 disciples, some women like Mary Magdalene, and others, but we don’t hear about how it came about.
The other 20 potential disciples Jesus meets along the way in the Gospel of Luke – and this is the vast majority of the people who encounter Jesus in this sort of one-on-one way –he sends back to where they’ve been all along. This includes people like Zacchaeus sitting in the tree and the lawyer who asks “who is my neighbor” and gets the Good Samaritan story as his answer. These are people that Jesus challenges to change the way they live. This number also includes people that Jesus heals and tells them to go show themselves to the priest. There are some Jesus tells to go and say nothing to anyone and others he tells to return home and tell everyone what God has done. And there are many he just tells to “go in peace.”
So clearly what it means to be a “follower” of Jesus must differ from person to person, which gives me a little more hope for the three people we read about this morning. We can’t tell from Luke’s Gospel what became of these three unnamed potential disciples. We don’t know if the first was deterred by hearing that he might have nowhere to lay his head. And we don’t know if the second and third decided to join Jesus or not. These three might have become some of Jesus’ most loyal believers, or they might have returned back to life as normal and never given Jesus a second thought. We don’t know. We’ll never know. And maybe that’s part of Luke’s intention in including these little unresolved vignettes. And in including the other 26 would or could-be followers of Jesus. Maybe somewhere, in one of their stories, lies our story.
What kind of call to follow have we heard? Some of us might be called to follow Jesus by literally getting on the road and leaving everything else behind. But the vast majority of us are probably called to follow Jesus by showing in our lives the effect of our encounter with him. Maybe by making hard changes to the way we live, maybe by sharing what Jesus means to us with others, maybe by working for peace and justice in our little patch of the world, and definitely by loving our neighbors as ourselves. I can’t tell you specifically what form your invitation to follow Jesus might take or exactly what it means for your life. But I can tell you one thing for sure - it is not an invitation to sit back content with who and what you are. At the very least, it’s a call to risk, to adventure, to new possibilities. And when we follow that call, we’ll see the kingdom of heaven opening up before our very eyes.
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