Grace and peace to you from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Jesus and his disciples are on the road again in this morning’s gospel text. They have left Galilee for the final time and are heading for Jerusalem—the cultural center of the Jewish world, the focal point around which Jewish life is oriented—the place where Jesus would announce a new world view that would undermine the status quo established in and by the temple and the Roman authorities. The journey was being driven by Jesus’ single-minded determination to reach Jerusalem even though he knows that in so doing he will eventually be put to death.
I’ve always appreciated the saying that life is a journey not a destination; however, in the case of Jesus and the Twelve, this particular journey definitely was a destination-bound one. Nevertheless, from this point in chapter nine through chapter twenty-one of Luke’s gospel, Jesus never stops teaching his disciples; therefore, the journey’s goal is more than simply reaching their Jerusalem destination—it is a process of growth for the disciples. They are being formed into followers who will hear and obey God’s word—people who will be able to carry on Jesus’ ministry and mission after he is no longer with them.
Two things quickly become evident during this road trip: #1, that Jesus will be rejected and #2, the disciples must learn the necessity of not allowing possessions or the cares of life to interfere with the growth of genuine faith.
The rejection of Jesus begins early in the Jerusalem journey when the Lord sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village and the villagers wouldn’t accept him because he was on his way to Jerusalem. Their rejection was most likely due to Jesus’ single-minded mission to travel to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose for the redemption of the world—
something which at that particular moment the Samaritans couldn’t buy into.
Despite the Samaritans’ slap in Jesus’ face and the revenge that James and John sought, Jesus simply headed to another village without inflicting any punishment, whatsoever, upon those who’d rejected him. There is a great reminder here for us who, like Jesus, sometimes face the rejection of our ideas, beliefs, or plans to do what we sense God has called us to do. The wisest and most faithful action to take, like Jesus did, is that of simply moving forward and not being deterred by the opposition nor wasting the energy required for retaliation.
As a congregation we practiced that last year after the consolidation between St. Paul and St. Mark collapsed. Rather than being deterred or wasting energy by being angry, we asked the congregation the question, “What next, Lord?” The congregational responses were tallied and the Dream Team formed to move forward with new ways of doing ministry.
Secondly, the journey toward Jerusalem provides the setting and opportunity for the disciples to begin to understand that neither possessions, families, nor any other cares of life should be allowed to interfere with their relationship with the Lord and their growth in faith as his followers. Again, this scripture calls us to ponder our priorities, our commitment as disciples of Jesus Christ. Does this mean that everyone is to sell their homes, walk away from jobs and families and become full-time workers in the church?—certainly not. Some, however, are called to that but not the majority of Jesus’ followers.
What it does mean, however, is that Christ’s call in our lives will affect how we live, what’s most important to us, how we treat others, what kind of stewards of the earth we are and how we spend our time and money. Last week a group of thirteen participants completed Dr. Mark Allan Powell’s book, Loving Jesus, in which Dr. Powell stated that the mission of the Church was to love Jesus. When we love someone we are committed to growing closer to them, doing those things that please them, and being aware of how our words and actions will impact them.
In this morning’s gospel text Jesus was trying to impress upon his followers the importance of commitment, of not allowing all the distractions of life to serve as excuses that get in the way of the most important relationship that we’ll ever have, that of being a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. When that is our foremost commitment—our deepest and most important relationship in life—everything, absolutely everything else in our lives is changed.
It’s extremely difficult to live a focused life in our fast-paced, consumer-driven society, because someone or something is always clamoring for our attention. Distractions come at us from every direction and draw our eyes away from our intended purpose and direction. But commitment to the Lord is possible when we are intentional about it, as demonstrated in the following true story.
A Chicago youth pastor came up with a clever way to keep his group on track during an evangelism trip Florida. He was afraid that the balmy Florida beaches would lure the teens from their purpose so he made a cross from two pieces of lumber. Just before the teens climbed aboard the bus in Chicago, he showed it to the group.
“I want all of you to remember that the whole purpose of our going is to glorify the name of Christ, to lift up the cross—the message of the cross, the emphasis of the cross, the Christ of the cross,’ he announced. “So, we’re going to take this cross wherever we go.”
The teens looked at one another, a little unsure of his plan; but they agreed to do it and dragged the cross onto the bus. It banged back and forth in the aisle all the way from Chicago to Florida. It went with them into restaurants; it stayed overnight where they stayed and it stood in the sand while they ministered on the beach.
At first, lugging the cross around embarrassed the kids. But later, it became a point of identification. The cross was a constant, silent reminder of who they were and why they had come. They eventually regarded carrying it as an honor and a privilege.
The night before they went home, the youth leader handed two nails to each teen. He told them that if they wanted to commit themselves to what the cross stood for, they could hammer one nail into it and keep the other with them. One by one, the teens drove their nail into the cross.
About fifteen years later, one member of that group—now a stockbroker—called the youth leader. He told him that he still keeps that nail with him in his desk drawer. Whenever he loses his sense of focus, he looks at the nail and remembers the cross on that beach in Florida. It reminds him of what is at the core of his life—his commitment to Jesus Christ.
That, my friends, is the heart of today’s gospel text. Jesus is telling the disciples who were on the road to Jerusalem with him, as well as all those of us who would become his followers down through the centuries, that they and we should be committed to him above all else in our lives and if we are focused on him and his kingdom, not allowing the distractions of the world to interfere with our commitment, then we’ll truly be his followers.
Jesus’ purpose in setting his face to go to Jerusalem was to reconcile the world to God. He didn’t allow anything to pull him away from that divine task and because of his faithfulness we have received the forgiveness of our sins and have the hope and promise of eternal life—life lived in the unending presence of God here and now and in the life to come.
The Lord has called us to follow him, sharing his light and love with all; therefore, we must decide what priority his call has in our lives, just as those would-be disciples in today’s gospel text had to decide. In the words of today’s sermon hymn, we hear Jesus asking us:
“Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known?
Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?”
That’s the question each of us must answer in the quiet depths of our hearts. Amen.
Pastor Shirley Ross-Jones
June 27, 2010