A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, June 27, 2010
Proper 8 -- I Kings 19:15–16,19–21; Psalm 66:1–8; Galatians 6:1–10,14–18; Luke 9:51–62
“When the days drew near for him to be received up, he (Jesus) set his face to go to Jerusalem. (Italics mine)
Today’s gospel reading begins with a sense of determination, singularity of focus, and direction.
“He set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Indeed, many biblical scholars would readily tell us that the beginning of today’s text (verse 51) is the turning point in Luke’s gospel narrative. Jesus now turns His face toward Jerusalem, and toward His confrontation with the religious establishment that existed in His day. For the next ten chapters, Luke will spell out Jesus’ journey southward from Galilee through the region of Samaria to Jerusalem.
And along the way, Jesus’ responses to some who encounter Him shed light on his singularity of purpose and direction.
At one point, someone comes up to say, “I will follow you wherever you go,” to which Jesus replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” Essentially, Jesus seems to be saying that He has no home in this world, nothing to tie Him down, no bonds of location, and none of the attendant human relationships that go with having a home, to distract Him.
Jesus’ responses to these various encounters make it clear that He demands the same singularity of purpose in His disciples. To yet another, He says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
“Put away all human relationships,” Jesus seems to be saying, using very harsh words at one point with respect to the matter of burying one’s own father: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.”
Now, what are we to make of these words, words that are hard to hear (and perhaps, even harder to put into practice)?
Does Jesus literally mean for us to leave all our relationships, all of our ties to place and to people behind?
The history of Jesus’ disciples might shed some light on the answer:
- At one point, Peter tells the Lord that the original disciples had “left everything to follow Him (Jesus).” (Matthew 19:27) So, it seems that some followers of Jesus did, indeed, leave everything behind: family, friends and worldly possessions, to be a disciple. One thinks of St. Francis of Assisi in this regard, a saint who left behind considerable wealth and family power to follow the Lord.
- At other times, however, there is evidence that family members did not forsake family, for some came along on mission trips. Writing to the Corinthian church, St. Paul says, “Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a wife, as the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas (Peter)?” (I Corinthians 9: 5)
Then, we should ask, what is the Lord telling us today?
Perhaps the answer is that the Lord is using the language He is using – this very harsh language - to wake us up to the issue of our relationships.
Put more clearly, Jesus is asking us to assess our relationships to God and to everyone and everything else.
He seems to be asking us to answer this question, “What is the most important relationship, the most important thing, in my life?”
Is the answer to that question some human relationship, or some possession?
Clearly, some of these things are quite important, aren’t they? Apparently, some of the original disciples thought so, for they took their wives along with them when they traveled.
But what is in first place in our relationships?
That’s the question, it seems to me.
Is our relationship to God, through Jesus Christ, in first place?
Perhaps that’s what our Lord is getting at.
If our relationship to God is in first place in all that we do, think and say, then that most important, most central, relationship will inform and color all the other relationships in our lives, the relationships we have with people, with places, and with things.
Our relationships with our spouses, with our family, or with our friends, are quite important. But God calls us in Christ to transform all of those relationships by the power of God to transform us. Once God begins to transform us, from within, then we can begin to transform and rearrange all other relationships we have in our lives.
So, if we might borrow a line from the comedy team Abbott and Costello’s famous skit “Who’s on First?,” we might apply that question to our own lives: Who is on first? Is it God, or something/someone else?
That’s the question, it seems to me.
AMEN.
