I Kings 19: 15–16, 19–21 / Psalm 16 / Galatians 5: 1, 13–25 / Luke 9: 51–62
This
is the homily given at Flohr’s Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA) in
McKnightstown, Pennsylvania on Sunday, June 29, 2025 by Fr. Gene Tucker,
Interim Pastor.
“LIFE PASSAGES & GOD’S CALL”
(Homily
texts: I Kings 19: 15–16, 19–21,
Galatians 5: 1, 13–25 & Luke 9: 51–62)
As we make our way through life, we
will encounter a number of passages, each of which have the ability to change
us in ways that make us different from the ways we were before we transitioned
to a new chapter or way of being.
For example: Think about graduation
from school, or perhaps moving to a new home or to a new community. How about
getting married, or becoming a parent? Or, how about joining the military, or
acquiring a new skill (and along with those new abilities, a new job)?
Life is full of such things, and
others.
Three Scripture readings, appointed for
this Sunday, each have to do with changes, life changes. They are well-suited
to that common theme.
We should begin with the prophet
Elisha’s call. We read in I Kings 19 that the prophet Elijah came by Elisha and
cast his mantle over him. Elijah asks, “…do you know what I have done to you?”.
In response, Elisha seems to understand the significance of Elijah’s actions,
goes to his family and bids them farewell. Then, he sacrifices the oxen with
which he had been plowing, signifying his farewell to his former life. After
that, his life changes as be assists Elijah, and then – in time - succeeds him
in God’s work.
Next, let’s look at our Gospel passage.
In Luke 9:51, we hear that Jesus now
sets His face to go to Jerusalem. (In Luke’s account, this is a turning point,
for – from this point forward – all of Luke’s narrative will have to do with
Jesus’ determination to fulfill God’s call and God’s purpose in His coming to
take up our humanity.)
Jesus’ determination to go to Jerusalem
is seen in His determination to go directly through Samaria. Remember that, in
that day and time, most devout Jews would avoid Samaria entirely if they had to
go from Galilee, in the north, to Jerusalem in the south…they would either go
out of their way and go east, down to the Jordan valley, and then back up the
hill westward to Jerusalem, or they would make their way west along the coast
and then back inland again to Jerusalem.
But Jesus makes His way directly
through this area. He seems determined to make His way to the Holy City, to
fulfill God’s call and purpose.
Perhaps the Samaritans sense His
determination in their seeming unwillingness to offer Him a welcome.
Then, three encounters with unnamed
persons take place along the way. The first one says, “I will follow you
wherever you go”, to which the Lord replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of
the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head”. Then, another
comes, and the Lord says, “Follow me”. But the person says, “Lord, let me first
go and bury by father.” The Lord’s response might be difficult to understand,
for He says, “Let the dead bury their dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the
kingdom of God”. Still another says, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first
say farewell to those at my home”. In response, Jesus says, “No one who puts
their hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”. (Notice
the parallels to the Elijah and Elisha account in I Kings.)
In each of these three encounters, the
unifying theme is one of utter and complete devotion to God’s call to work for
the advancement of the kingdom. Just as Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, and the
actions He will take to usher in this new kingdom unfold, tell us that He is
responding to God’s call and purpose on His life, requiring His complete and
total obedience to that call, so does the dedication to that same call resonate
in the back-and-forth between the Lord and these three persons who were
encountered on the road to Jerusalem.
Now, these considerations bring us to
St. Paul’s letter to the churches in the region of Galatia.
Much of the letter to the Galatians has
to do with the incursions of unnamed persons[1] who
were demanding that converts to Christianity had to obey all the requirements
of the Law of Moses (Torah). By doing so, they were undercutting much of Paul’s
ministry and his conviction that the requirements of Torah had been largely
done away with, by the coming of Jesus Christ and His saving death.
Now, in chapter five of his letter,
Paul describes the life passage that coming to faith in Christ represents.
He lays out a list of various vices
that characterize the behaviors of those who do not know the Lord and who do
not live according to the ways in which God’s people are called to live. In
short, the list we read of these various behaviors and attitudes is a summary
of the way of life of many in the Greco-Roman world of the first century.
Paul compares this pagan behavior with
the ways of Christ, the desires of God, and the markers by which the Church
ought to be known.
I think, at this point, it’s worth
noting that Paul isn’t saying that, because the Law of Moses has been superseded,
that it’s OK to do whatever we might want to do. No, instead, his is a call to
uprightness of belief, proper conduct for believers and utmost devotion to the
example set for us by Christ.
What a life change that coming to faith
in Christ represents! What a life passage that faith brings with it, closing
the door to our former life and the ways in which we used to live before
becoming Christ’s own.
God’s call to work for the betterment
and the growth of the kingdom of God is ongoing. God’s call comes in various
forms, and at various times throughout life.
May we, with the help of the Holy
Spirit, discern God’s call and respond to it, embracing the changes that are
bound to be a part of such an invitation.
AMEN.
[1] These persons are often called Judaizers.
