9 Pentecost, Year C

"PRAYER"
(Proper 12; Sermon text: Luke 11: 1 - 13) Given at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you….”

How do these words of Jesus strike us? Do we believe them? Really believe them?

After all, Jesus seems to be giving us some sort of a guarantee: For He goes on to say, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Let’s take a closer look at today’s gospel reading, which contains some of Jesus’ most extensive teaching on prayer. We’ll look very briefly at the version of the Lord’s Prayer that Luke records, but, for most of our time together today, let’s look at the nature of prayer, and God’s responses to our petitions.

Because the Lord’s Prayer that we use most commonly in our worship is the version from Matthew’s gospel, let’s consider the differences in the Lukan version….

Luke’s version of the model prayer, the Lord’s Prayer, contains fewer phrases than Matthew’s does….In Matthew, we find seven phrases, whereas Luke has five. Missing from Luke are these phrases: “who art in heaven”, and “but deliver us from evil”. In addition, the adjective, “our” is missing from “Father”.

Luke’s version seems more direct and less polished in its wording, somehow.[1]

Why do we have two different versions? Some scholars think that Luke’s source(s) remembered a different version than the source(s) that Matthew had. It’s also possible that Jesus offered different versions of the prayer at different times in his ministry. The truth is, we may never know definitively why the two versions are different.

Let’s turn our attention to the nature of prayer, and to God’s responses to our prayers. We begin with the nature of prayer, and especially our role in praying: Jesus’ teaching seems to affirm the following:

1. We are to be active in petitioning God: Notice the action verbs “ask”, “search”, and “knock”….Not only does Jesus use the imperative tense (giving us a command), but He tells us that God intends for us to actively place our needs and concerns before God.
   
   God expects us to do our part. We can’t be passive in our prayer life, but must be actively ask God to fulfill our needs.
   
   
2. Persistence pays off: Jesus uses two illustrations to show how great is God’s willingness to answer our prayers…Both illustrations use a rhetorical device called “lesser-to-greater” (a tool in teaching or in speaking that Jesus used quite frequently)….
   In it, a commonly known example is used to enable the listener to grasp a greater reality.
   
   The first one is a short parable,[2] sometimes called “The Parable of the Shameless Neighbor”.[3] In it, Jesus drives home the point that the need for bread is fulfilled not because of the neighborly relationship (in traditional, first century Palestine, the obligation to meet the needs of one’s neighbor would have been taken for granted) between the person asking and the person who has the bread, but because of the persistence of the asker. Jesus makes this point very clear, saying, “Because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.”
   
   The second illustration[4] that Jesus uses carries the listener from the commonly known and understood gift-giving of earthly parents, which is then used to enable the listener to grasp God the Father’s greater gift-giving ability.
   
   Jesus’ instruction to be persistent in prayer stands in sharp contrast to a very common attitude many people have about relating to God: some treat God like an ATM machine. That is, they expect to put their “God card” into the machine, punch in their special prayer code, enter their prayer, get an immediate (and exact) answer, and be off to whatever else life has to offer (but without God’s involvement in that life). Isn’t that typical of much of 21st century relating to God?
   
   
3. Prayer comes with a guarantee: God answers prayer. Jesus tells us today, “For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
   
   This last point raises some serious questions….If we know that God always answers prayer, then why is it that some of our requests don’t seem to result in an answer (or at least, not in the way we expected them to be answered)?

Understanding the nature of God’s answers to prayer is critical to our spiritual maturity, and to our ability to see and to know God’s answer when it comes. So here is a practical guide to God’s answers to prayer (hope it is useful – or at least prompts further thought and meditation!):

1. The forms of God’s answers: God answers prayer in three ways: a. “yes”; b. “not now”; and c. “I have something else-or better in mind”.
   
   Looking back into our life experience, perhaps we can identify times when these three answers to prayer have occurred.
   
   Scripture seems to indicate all three, and especially the last one, “I have something else-or-better in mind”….consider St. Paul’s request to have his “thorn in the flesh” removed (II Corinthians 12: 7 – 8)….Three times, Paul says, he asked the Lord to remove this “thorn in the flesh”, but the Lord’s answer was “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” God’s answer, Paul says, prevented him from being conceited about God’s revelations to him.[5] In Paul’s case, he was never delivered from this “thorn in the flesh”, but God was able to mightily use Paul because of Paul’s humility and willingness to accede to God’s plans, rather than his own personal wellbeing or comfort. So, despite an apparent “no” from God, Paul was enabled to better serve the Lord, and all of us who are now Christians are the beneficiaries…so, the greater good was served.
   
   Similarly, Jesus’ prayer to be delivered from His passion and death in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” was not answered as Jesus prayed. God the Father had other (and better) plans in mind, far better plans with far-reaching benefits for you and me.
   
   Sometimes, God’s answer is “yes”! But sometimes, God’s timing is different than ours, for God knows far more than we do about the timing and the overall situation that our request involves. And finally, sometimes God’s ability to see the larger picture means that He has other – and better – things in mind.
   
   
2. God’s wisdom – or ours?: Picking up on what we have just said about God’s wisdom, our Book of Common Prayer acknowledges our weakness and ignorance in presenting our needs to God.
   
   Consider this Collect, for the 7th Sunday after Pentecost (prayed last week), which says (in part), “Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking….”
   
   But ignorance isn’t the only thing that we, as mortal human beings, are subject to. We are also prone to ask for the wrong reasons, or for the wrong motives. The writer of the Letter of James (chapter four, verse three) states this problem quite succinctly when he says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives….”
   
   The problem seems to be that we can easily ask for the wrong reasons, or we – being finite creatures with limited knowledge – ask out of our ignorance of the greater or larger circumstances.
   
   

So what have we said? Simply this:

1. God answers prayer, always.
   
   
2. God’s answers are likely to be “yes”, “not now”, and “I have something else-or-better in mind”
   
   
3. We are prone – at times - to ask for wrong reasons, or out of our ignorance, for things that God, being far wiser than we are, will not provide.
   
   
4. But, we are to be active in our praying, and we are to be persistent, as well.
   
   

Our prayer might well be that of St. John Chrysostom,[6] whose prayer[7] says:

“Almighty God, you have given us grace at this time with one accord to make our common supplication to you; and you have promised through your well-beloved son that when two or three are gathered together in His Name you will be in the midst of them: Fulfill now, O Lord, our desires and petitions as may be best for us, granting us in this world knowledge of your truth, and in the age to come life everlasting."

Amen.”

[1] This idea is drawn from R. Alan Culpepper’s commentary on Luke as it is found in the New Interpreter’s Bible, Vo. IX, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1994), p. 234.
[2] Verses 5 - 8
[3] R. Alan Culpepper’s title
[4] Verses 9 - 13
[5] II Corinthians 12: 7
[6] Eastern Church Father, who lived from 347 – 407 AD.
[7] The Prayer of St. Chrysostom may be found in The Book of Common Prayer, 1979, at page 126.

8 Pentecost, Year C

Fr. Tucker did not preach on July 22nd.

7 Pentecost, Year C

“GOD’S POWER – GIVEN TO DO”
(Sermon text: Luke 10: 25 – 37)
Given at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL; at St. John’s Church, Centralia, IL (by Mr. Jeff Kozuszek, Licensed Lay Worship Leader); and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL (by Mr. Les Boyer, Licensed Lay Worship Leader)

Ever met a person who had charisma?

Have you ever attended a charismatic church service?

Each of these words, “charisma” and “charismatic”, has a common Greek root: “charism”. “Charisma” is defined as “a God-given gift or power” (according to the Webster’s dictionary).[1]

Now God has been giving gifts to people since the beginning of time.

Think for a moment about the gift of the Covenant that God gave to His chosen people, the Israelites, through Moses…Through the Law of Moses - the Torah - God’s people were given a Covenant through which they could live in relationship to God. The Jews of Jesus’ time revered this Covenant, which gave them an identity that no one else in the world could claim…..they were the Chosen People.

But God continued to give gifts to His people, and now I am thinking specifically of the gift of Jesus Christ….By sending Jesus Christ to live among us, God is calling a new people into relationship with Him. God is establishing a New Covenant which will replace the old Covenant.

In this New Covenant, God will be creating a charismatic people, that is, a people who are called by God and who are gifted by God to live in a new way, and with new understandings.

This new way of living, and this new understanding, are elements in today’s very familiar story of the Good Samaritan….In it, Jesus is pointing forward to God’s creation of a charismatic people, a gifted people who will be able to come together in ways that the world had not seen ever before.

We should begin, as we often do, by “setting the stage” for Jesus’ teaching….For we modern Christians don’t often understand the nature of the divisions between Jew and Samaritan, nor do we appreciate the depth of ill-will that existed between the two groups…..Understanding these things is key to understanding the “shock value” of Jesus’ parable.

The Samaritans were “half breeds” in Jewish eyes…A bit of history is in order here: following the conquering of the Northern Kingdom, the nation of Israel, by the Assyrians, in 722 BC, those Israelites who were left behind intermarried with other peoples that the Assyrians had resettled into the area. The resulting peoples were the Samaritans, who had their own version of the Torah (the five books of Moses), and who had a holy mountain, Mt. Gerazim. So, in reality, the Samaritans and the Jews were “kissin’ cousins” (if we can use an American expression)….closely related, but very different in their bloodlines and in their beliefs and practices.

By the time Jesus had come to be among us, the “bad blood” between the Jews and the Samaritans ran very deep….So deep, in fact, that an observant Jew would take the extra time and trouble to skirt completely around the area of Samaria (to the north of Judea and south of the region of Galilee), either taking the coastal route along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, or down through the Jordan River Valley to reach the Holy City, Jerusalem.

Jews, good Jews, did not associate with Samaritans![2]

And so, Jesus shocks His audience by suggesting that a Samaritan is the only one of the three characters in His parable who not only knew what to do to aid the beaten man, but who did it.

How could that possibly be? How could a hated Samaritan be the hero?

After all, wasn’t the answer that Jesus’ hearers expected the one that said that only an observant Jew, a person who was steeped in the Law of Moses, would be the only one who could please God by doing what that law required?

To see how the Samaritan became the hero, I think we need to consider how “God’s chosen people”, the Jews saw themselves….

By the time of Jesus, it seems like the Chosen People were using the Law of Moses to maintain their own identity. That’s understandable, since they were under pagan, Roman occupation….their national identity was threatened with extinction. So, it seems, the Torah was a tool for maintaining a separation from things that were unclean, from food that was unclean, and from associating with people who were unclean (like Gentiles and Samaritans).

Jesus might be pointing to these attitudes of separation in His parable today…Notice how the priest and the Levite take the trouble to go to the other side of the road when they encounter the beaten man. (By the way, notice that the clergy of Jesus’ day didn’t come out very well in this parable!) After all, if they came into contact with the beaten man’s blood, they would become unclean.

And so, they pass by on the other side of the road.

But God is “gifting a new people into being”, if we can return to the central idea we began with….God is charismatically endowing a new people, and is creating a New Covenant in Jesus Christ.

The people of this New Covenant will include not only Jews, but the hated Samaritans, and yes, even Gentiles (like you and me!)….

Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan points forward to this New Covenant….As this New Covenant unfolds, Jesus will tell His disciples in Acts 1: 8, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

And as we read a little further into the Book of Acts, we see, indeed, that the Apostles learn that the Samaritans had received the Good News of Jesus Christ (Acts 8: 5 – 25).

A new people were being called into being by God, to be inheritors of the New Covenant that is created through Jesus Christ.

But, we have to admit, if left to our own abilities, we human beings won’t forge covenantal bonds with people who aren’t like us. We will do what the Jews of Jesus’ day did: we will associate with people who are like us, who think like us, who act like we do.

We will create rules to ensure our identity is maintained. We will look after our own best wishes, seeking to “justify ourselves”, just as the expert in the Law did by asking Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

In order to be a covenant people with God in Jesus Christ, we will need the God-given gifts that are available in Jesus Christ in order to overcome our own selfishness. We will need the God-given gifts that are available in Christ to overcome our desire to perpetuate our own identity.

But God is charismatically endowing this new group with the ability to overcome all separations, all pettiness, all instincts for self-preservation. For, in Jesus Christ, God gives us the ability to break down the walls of separation, to end all selfishness, to stop seeking our own self-preservation.

In so doing, God does not leave us where we are….that also seems to be an important part of the Parable of the Good Samaritan: the Samaritan not only knew what to do when he encountered the man by the side of the road, but he did it. As a result, the beaten man wasn’t left where he was….his situation changed for the better.

That is a point for us to consider as New Covenant people….God does not leave us where we are when He calls us into relationship with Him….and oftentimes, God uses other people to get us to where He wants us to be. Yes, sometimes God even uses people who aren’t so nice, who aren’t so acceptable, and who may not think like we do…people who might be the modern-day equivalent of a Samaritan.

So, being able to recognize God’s call to us, to be a New Covenant people, is a gift from God. For God charismatically enables us to recognize His call to us.

Being able to do something about God’s call to action is also God’s charismatic working in our lives, as well.

For without God’s grace and gifts, we would never manage to get beyond our own self interests.

Thanks be to God for His charismatic gifts, given to His New Covenant people, you and me!

AMEN.


[1] The Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
[2] See the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4: 1 – 26 (see especially verse nine).

6 Pentecost, Year C

“THE ONLY BIBLE MOST PEOPLE WILL EVER READ”
(Sermon text: Luke 10: 1 – 12, 16 – 20)
Given by Fr. Tucker at St. Mark’s Church, West Frankfort, IL; and at St. James’ Memorial Church, Marion, IL;
also at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL (by Mrs. Linda Nelson, Licensed Lay Worship Leader)


“The only Bible most people will ever read is ______________.”

Ever heard that statement?

Can you complete the sentence?…..

”The only Bible most people will ever read is……us!”

Of course, the idea behind this statement is that our entire lives, lived out seven days a week and 24 hours a day, are to be a living Gospel or a living Bible.

Being a living Gospel or a living Bible is a matter of having our “insides match our outsides”, as our Bishop, Peter Beckwith, says. (When I consider much of what Bishop Peter says, I often think of him as an “armchair theologian”, you know, someone who is able to crystallize a truth about God in a simple, memorable, straightforward way….It is a rare gift to be able to express a truth about the Christian life in easy-to-understand - and remember - ways!)

Being a living Gospel or a living Bible is a matter of being God’s representatives in the world.

Now there’s a scary thought!

You may be thinking, “What? Who, me?....represent the Lord to other people?

Yes, exactly……you! And me!

For that’s precisely what’s taking place in this morning’s Gospel reading, from Luke, chapter ten….Jesus, having commissioned His original disciples in chapter nine,[1] now commissions another group of 70[2] to go out and to be His representatives to the places “where He intended to go”.[3]

This group is commissioned to be Jesus’ representatives, bearers of the image of Christ to new people and in new places. The Bible faithfully bears the message of who God is, and what God has done in Jesus Christ. So, too, are these human bearers of God’s work and work commissioned to faithfully bear the message of God’s work in Jesus Christ. Their job is to make the introduction between the hearers of the message and the Lord Himself.

So, let’s look a bit more closely at Jesus’ instructions, drawing lessons from these 70 people which apply to us. We can learn a lot about what it means to be “the only Bible most people will ever read.”:

Being a credible witness: The first thing we ought to notice is that Jesus sent these people out “two by two”.[1] In ancient times, traveling alone was a dangerous proposition. But beyond that, Jewish law required the witness of two or more persons to be a credible witness. And so, Jesus sends out credible witnesses to the Good News of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus’ instructions translate well into our situation today, for we are also called to be credible witnesses. It might help to think of it this way: if a person who does not know Christ encounters us, he or she might think we were a little “odd” in our ways and in our thinking. But encountering other Christians lessens that possibility. When people encounter groups of Christians, it’s often easier to see God moving among God’s people.

It will not be easy!: “See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.”[5] Jesus tells his appointees that theirs will be a dangerous mission….Not only that, there will be rejection: notice Jesus’ comments about a town that does not welcome you (verse 10).

I suspect, as we live out the Christian life in the 21st century, there is more likelihood that we will encounter rejection and indifference than danger. The reality is the same, however, for us and for that group of 70….in some places, there will be no welcome for the message of Christ.

Travel light: “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one on the road”, Jesus says. Jesus’ instructions in chapter ten mirror very closely those that were given to the original disciples’ commissioning in chapter nine.[6]

There’s a modern paraphrase of the New Testament floating around called The Message, by Eugene Peterson. Peterson renders Jesus’ instructions for us 21st century Christians this way, “Travel light. Comb and toothbrush and no extra luggage. Don’t loiter and make small talk with everyone you meet along the way.”

It’s not “all about us” (Part I): “Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move from house to house”,[7] Jesus says. The net effect of this instruction is to prevent these emissaries of Jesus from personally benefiting from their mission, by seeking out better places to stay with better food.

Jesus does not expect His original appointees – or us – to lack what we need to carry out the mission. But neither are we to benefit personally, either, using our status as modern-day disciples as a lever. (Modern-day televangelists who live in mansions and drive expensive cars, take note!)

It’s not “all about us” (Part II): Being a Christian can easily become a “power trip”….Notice that the 70 came back, telling Jesus, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!”[8] Jesus’ reply, in essence, describes the defeat of evil (for that is the probable symbolism behind the “snakes and scorpions”). But Jesus’ response immediately transfers the focus to God’s eternal purposes, saying, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

It might be tempting to allow our focus to settle on the great things that God is able to do, using us as His emissaries. However, as we go about being a “living Bible” or a “living Gospel”, we are playing only a small part in God’s great and eternal purposes. We are to be engaged in bringing about the Kingdom of God, both here on earth and also in heaven.

The focus remains on God, and what God is doing in the person and work of Jesus Christ to bring in the Kingdom of God.

So, we are living Gospels, living Bibles. We are the only introductions to Jesus Christ many people will ever have….Chances are, they won’t crack the book (that is, the Bible), but they will crack open our lives, reading carefully what our values are, what our lives are like. They will look carefully to see the transformation of life that knowing Jesus personally brings about. They will look closely to see the image of Christ that we bear, for the image of Christ is unmistakably different from everything else in the world, and when it is encountered, there’s no mistaking it.

We are part of God’s eternal plan of salvation, representatives of the power of Jesus Christ to save human beings from sin, and from ourselves.

So, it’s “all about God, and not about us!”

Thanks be to God, that we are appointed to be “living Bibles” in God’s service.

AMEN.

[1] Luke 9: 1 - 6
[2] Some manuscripts show the number 70, and others show 72. The manuscript evidence is about evenly divided between the two numbers. Some commentators note that the number 70 (or 72) equals the number of the nations of the world which are accounted for in Genesis, chapter ten (verses 2 – 31), where the Hebrew text lists 70 nations, and the Septuagint (Greek) text lists 72 nations. If the connection is deliberate, the symbolism might be that the appointing of this group of emissaries represents the spread of the Good News of Jesus Christ into all the world.
[3] Verse 1
[4] Verse 1
[5] Verse 3
[6] Luke 9: 3
[7] Verse 7
[8] Verse 17

5 Pentecost, Year C

"CONNECTIONS, POWER AND CONTROL"
Given at St. Stephen’s Church, Harrisburg, IL

“Swimming against the tide”….

“Out of sync with everybody else”….

Ever hear one of these phrases, or some of the many others like it?

How about this one (which the TV character Archie Bunker used to say to his wife, Edith) ”Stifle yourself”?

Today’s Gospel text asks us to “swim against the tide” of our normal human impulses. It asks us to “stifle” our desire to have control of situations, and to maintain normal human relationships and safety, all for the sake of the Gospel.

Today’s text slaps us across the face, its harsh words disturbing the comfortableness of our faith life.

As Jesus “sets his face toward Jerusalem”, a new chapter in Luke’s account now begins to unfold. For the next ten chapters, Luke will chronicle Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.

As this journey begins, the harshness of Jesus’ sayings to His disciples, and to those who meet him along the way, set the tone for the events that will await Him once He has reached the Holy City.

The tempo of Luke’s account moves in “rapid fire” succession as Jesus encounters one person after another. Perhaps Luke intends for us to understand that the pace of God’s great plan for the redeeming of the human race through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross is gaining speed, rapidly.

As we look at today’s text, the first thing that strikes us is the nature of Jesus’ sayings….They fall into a class of expressions that an English teacher would classify as hyperboles. Webster’s dictionary defines a hyperbole as 1. an obvious and intentional exaggeration; 2. an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally.[1]

Hyperboles ask us to think outside our normal channels of thought. They ask us to consider another way to be or to believe. Or, using the phrases we began with, hyperboles ask us to “swim against the tide” of our normal ways of being. They ask us to “stifle” our need for safety, security, and control.

As I consider this text, one way of unpacking it is to consider what it might have meant to: 1. the original, first hearers who heard Jesus say them; 2. to the early Church to whom Luke was writing (sometime late in the first century); and 3. to us, as 21st century Christians, today.

As we proceed through Jesus’ sayings, we will consider each possibility, in turn.

There are four encounters which prompt Jesus’ responses:

1. The Samaritan village’s rejection of Jesus: (verses 52 – 56) Jesus turns away from the village which had rejected Him and the emissaries He had sent ahead to prepare the way for Him.[2] But in so doing, Jesus explicitly rejects the normal human response (shown by the disciples), to “get back at” those who had rejected Him, or to “use force” to harm or destroy them.
   
   For the early Church, and for us today, the temptation might be present to want to “do something” to those who don’t seem to “get it” where the Gospel is concerned. We might want to wake them up, somehow, using dramatic actions in the process. We might be tempted to want to lash out somehow, if only to show them how wrong they are.[3]
   
   But that is not Jesus’ way (as we will see in more detail next week). For the truth (and the mystery) of the Gospel is that some persons will respond, and some will not….that is the point of the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8: 1 – 15)….some of the “seed” of the Gospel will fall on unresponsive hearts, while other “seed” bears good fruit, finding a home in the fertile soil of receptive human hearts.
   
   Having set the tone with His disciples, Jesus now encounters three persons, two of whom (the first and the third) offer voluntarily to follow Him:
   
   
2. “Foxes have holes…but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head”: (verses 57 – 58) A man steps forward and says, “I will follow you wherever you go.” (I wonder, if the man had known where Jesus was going (Jerusalem) and what would happen there (be rejected, suffer, and die)[4], if he would have made such an open-ended offer.) But Jesus responds with words of homelessness, wandering, and rejection: “Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”
   
   Just as the original band of Jesus’ disciples had forsaken families, jobs and security to be followers of this wandering preacher/prophet, Jesus, so is the invitation extended to this unnamed, would-be disciple of Jesus.
   
   But Luke seems to be writing to a Church that’s gotten comfortable with its place in the world….After all (and as one of my seminary professors said), it may well be that the Church to whom Luke was writing was beginning to “settle in” for a long time in the world, if the expectation that Jesus would return again soon was beginning to wear away.
   
   Jesus’ words slap us across our comfortable faces, reminding the early Church – and us – that to be a disciple of Christ is to be a wanderer, a pilgrim, in this world, even if we have a place to live and a stable environment in our lives.
   
   And so we sing the hymn, “Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah, Pilgrim in this Barren Land” (Hymn #690), for we, too, can get too comfortable with our surroundings. And pretty soon, we begin to lose sight of the urgency that the Gospel demands of us, for we become too attached to our homes, possessions and place in this world, forgetting that our ultimate home awaits us once we enter into life eternal.
   
   
3. “Lord, first let me bury my father”: (verses 59 – 60) This time, Jesus issues the call to “follow me”, and the man seems eager, though not ready, to follow….”first”, he says, “let me bury my father”….
   
   The point here seems to be – for first century believers – and, for us, to “be ready”. “Look beyond the security of today’s comforts to realize we might be asked to give them all up, and to ‘move out’ in service to the Lord” seems to be Jesus’ call to us.
   
   
4. “But first, let me go back and say good-bye to my family”: (verses 61 – 62) Now, another man steps forward, offering to follow Jesus. But, like the second man, something else is getting in the way: “but first (notice how this man’s words echo the second man’s), let me go and say good-bye to my family”.
   
   Allegiance to Jesus Christ – in the first century – forced those early believers into some difficult and hard choices: they had to separate from their families, often because they had been disowned by the members of their families who did not become believers. (Remember our Gospel reading for the Feast of St. Alban – June 22nd – “do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.” (Matthew 10: 34 – 36)) The early Church lived out those words, literally!
   
   But our situation in the 21st century is a little different: though the faith still divides family member from family member, as some accept Christ and others reject Jesus’ call to “follow me”, in most situations the relationships aren’t entirely broken.
   
   But the choice is still forced on us today as non-believer family members might call us to deny our allegiance to Christ – our highest allegiance. We might be tempted to “water down” our identity as a child of God, or to stifle God’s call to service in favor of other relationships.

What might we say then, in conclusion?

Jesus’ words arc across the span of time, as the sharpness of their demands stings and reddens our cheeks. They call us to consider anew our allegiance to Christ. They call us to check our baggage carefully: is there something hindering our ability to be willing, quick and agile followers of Christ? They urge us to remember “who we are, and whose we are” as Christian believers, modern-day followers who have “taken up our own cross daily”[5] to follow Him. In so doing, we “swim against the tide” that our normal human needs for comfort, security and power constantly urge us to consider.

AMEN.

[1] The word hyperbole derives from the Greek hyper+bole = “to throw beyond”.
[2] In next week’s Gospel reading , Luke 10: 1 – 12, 16 – 20, Jesus will again address the issue of those who have the opportunity to hear the Gospel, but who reject it.
[3] Sadly, the chapters of Church history are filled with examples of the Church using force against those who reject its precepts. Such actions are clearly not of God’s authority or mandate.
[4] Luke 9: 21 - 22
[5] Luke 9: 23