A homily by Fr.
Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church ,
Mt.
VernonIllinois, on
“ON SCHEDULE AND IN CONTROL”
(Homily text: Luke 13; 31 - 35)
Last
Wednesday was the birth anniversary of my mother’s father. Grandpa Pedersen (a Danish immigrant) left a
host of cherished memories for me and my three younger sisters.
Among those
memories is the fact that he had a wonderful sense of humor…..Many of his
friends knew that he stayed up late nearly every night reading, and so he would
often sleep in until very late the next morning. Since he had a small farm to tend to, they
wondered how he could manage such a schedule with cows to tend to. His answer was two-fold, and demonstrates
that wonderful humor: He would say,
“First of all, the bills don’t start until I get up,” and then he would add,
“The cows are on my schedule.”
The matter
of whose schedule is being followed figures prominently in today’s gospel
reading, it seems to me….Jesus is told my some Pharisees that He’d better flee
before King Herod catches up with Him, so that he can kill Him.
But Jesus’
response indicates that there is work still to do, and that that work will
unfold in a methodical and timely fashion until it is done. Here is the way Jesus puts that reality: He says, “Tell that fox (Herod) ‘Behold, I
cast our demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish
my course. Nevertheless I must go on my
way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet
should perish away from Jerusalem
If we
unpack the Lord’s comment a bit, we can see that He is determined to do the
work given Him to do, and that He will complete that work in as much time as is
required. But then we also see that He
hints that a showdown awaits Him once He arrives in Jerusalem
To those
who heard His remark, there must’ve been a great deal of wonderment as they pondered
what He meant by saying that, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem
But we who hear the Lord’s remark through the reading and hearing of Holy Scripture know what that remark involves, for we know the events of Good Friday very well. For it is in
The Lord is in control, in control of His work, in control of the schedule of that work.
But His
arrival in Jerusalem, hinted at in His comment that, “You will not see me until
you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’’[1],
signifies not only the completion of His work, and the completion of His
course, but perhaps also the surrender of control of His life.
For His
death on a cross on Good Friday is the ultimate symbol of the loss of
everything, and most importantly, the loss of control.
If we stop
at Good Friday, we’d have to say that everything has been lost: The Lord’s presence among us, His mighty
deeds and glorious miracles, His magnificent teaching and acts of love among
the most down-and-out of the society of His day. He dies a horrible death, a death that was
reserved for the most heinous criminals.
But we know
that the reality of Good Friday isn’t the final reality. The final reality is to be found on Easter
Sunday morning.
Talk about being in control! Talk about being on God’s schedule!
On Easter
Sunday morning, God’s control over death and life is complete. He has finished the course given Him, and has
secured the victory over the ultimate and most fearful enemy, death itself.
The
schedule of His resurrection, and His control over all things, is clearly seen
in the light of Easter.
So perhaps
we could say, as we look at the sweep of the events of Good Friday and Easter,
that to be in control, the Lord surrendered control. I think that is the reality behind the Lord’s
comment that, “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his
life for my sake, he will save it. For
what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits
himself?” (Luke 9: 24 – 25)[2]
Without the
Lord’s passage through Good Friday, there could be no Easter resurrection.
That same
reality applies to us.
We’d like
to think that we are in control of our own schedules, of our own path through
life. After all, we are made in the
image and likeness of God (Genesis 1: 26), and we are possessed of the gifts of
reason, memory and skill.
We’d like
to think that we can control the events of our lives, and that we can chart the
course of our lives through our own abilities, those abilities of reason,
memory and skill.
And to some
extent, we can control the schedule and the events and the paths of our lives.
To some
extent.
But the
truth is that we cannot ultimately control the schedule, the events or the
paths of our lives. Unforeseen events
and crises arise, accidents happen, events beyond our control crop up as we
walk the path before us.
So the
reality is that we cannot completely control everything.
In the
physical reality of this world, there is no complete and total control.
And what is
true physically is also true, spiritually….we cannot control our spiritual
wellbeing completely.
But we can
surrender control of our spiritual health to the Lord. Here, Jesus’ comment rings true: If we would try to save ourselves, we will
lose ourselves, but if we are willing to let loose of control of our lives and
our spiritual wellbeing, we will find our truest and most complete identity, an
identity grounded in God Himself.
For, no
matter what comes our way, we can affirm with St. Paul that “Neither death, nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8: 38 – 39)
There is a wonderful Collect in the Book of Common Prayer that affirms the reality of having to give up control in order to allow God to be in control. It is the Collect for Fridays from the Office of Morning Prayer (Book of Common Prayer, 1979, page 56):
“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. Amen.”
