Sermon 26 June 2016
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14; Galatians 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
Abraham Lincoln once said, “I walk slowly, but I never
walk backwards.” One of the great temptations in life is to try
to walk back from the hard consequences of the decisions
we’ve made. The temptation is perhaps most powerful when
we are facing the threatening consequences of the good
decisions we have made.
Lincoln knew the path forward was going to be hard. He
stood at the vanguard of one of the most important changes in
our nation’s history—the abolition of slavery—and he was
surrounded by men who wanted to walk back from the hard
work ahead—they wanted to retreat from the consequences of
the good decision to make right the historic and horrible,
unconscionable wrong of slavery. We are still at work trying to
right that wrong, not only for our African-American brothers
and sisters.
The temptation to treat those who are different from us as
if they are less than us never goes away. Whether the
motivation is arrogance or fear, the temptation endures, and
resisting that temptation is at the heart of what it means to
follow Jesus, what it means to be a Christian.
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Lincoln said, “I walk slowly, but I never walk backwards.”
Jesus says much the same thing when he sets his face to go to
Jerusalem. He is determined to do the right and necessary
thing regardless of the cost. He wants his disciples to go with
him even though he senses they will falter along the way. Jesus
knows the immediate future will be hard, terrible—for him and
for anyone who stands with him on the streets of Jerusalem.
But Jesus believes there is a place beyond the future-that-isclose-at-hand. In faith, he sees the good land beyond the
torturous, excruciating day on the hill outside the city. Jesus
and those of us who follow him are still on the way between
Golgotha and the kingdom of God. We are on the way and we
are always tempted to falter and revert to the old ways.
That’s what happens with the disciples as they pass
through Samaria. They are angered by the Samaritans’ refusal
to give Jesus a place to stay. They shouldn’t have been too
surprised. Jews and Samaritans had always disdained each
other, and the Samaritans knew Jesus was a Jew traveling to
Jerusalem. He had set his face for Jerusalem and turned away
from their sacred places. They rejected Jesus because they felt
he had rejected them.
The disciples suggest they punish the Samaritans with a
good old, time-proven Old Testament scorching. They look to
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the past and want to act in the familiar way. They are offended
for Jesus and for themselves and they want to retaliate. They
suggest that Jesus walk backwards into the old prejudices and
tactics of reprisal. Imagine Jesus’ exasperation. He doesn’t
even try to make this a “teaching moment” for his companions.
He just rebukes them. How many times has he tried to explain
his Way to them? Even on the night before he dies, Peter will
try to defend Jesus with a sword.
Jesus has a different posture as he walks through Samaria.
He is not offended by the Samaritans’ rejection. In the
prologue to his gospel, John tells us Jesus came to his own, but
his own did not receive him. In the ultimate moment of
rejection, as he dies on the cross, Jesus looks out over the angry
crowd and prays for God to forgive them because they don’t
understand what they are doing. Jesus walks with a posture of
understanding and forgiveness, a posture of grace, that the
disciples cannot understand. They are offended and
earthbound in their resentment; Jesus refuses to take offense.
Remember that we always have a choice when someone
offends us. Just because someone givse offense doesn’t mean we
have to take it. The Samaritans offend Jesus, but he doesn’t
take offense. He remains focused on the work ahead. He may
walk slowly through Samaria, but he doesn’t walk backwards.
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One of the Beatitudes tells us, “Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they will see God.” Soren Kierkegaard wrote about
what it means to have a pure heart: “Purity of heart is to will
one thing.” As Jesus walks to Jerusalem for the last time, he has
only one thing in mind. He is going to do what he must to save
the world, every lost soul. He will do what he must to set the
captive free—every captive—everyone held captive to the
ways of the past, to the ways of retribution and violence, to the
politics and religion of separation and disdain.
After Jesus rebukes his disciples, Luke tells of three
people who come to Jesus saying they want to follow him—
three short encounters. Jesus cuts straight to the bone of what
following him means; he indulges in no niceties.
The first person says, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
“Really,” Jesus responds, “are you ready to give up every
comfort, every security, every safe place to go where I go? Are
you ready to wager your whole life, your destiny, your entire
future on me being who you think I am?”
Jesus’ response to the next two people emphasizes the
point. One says, let me first go and bury my father. The second
says, let me say goodbye to my family and friends. Jesus cuts
them short. You and I can choose to let Jesus’ uncompromising
and apparently unreasonable words be literal or figurative, but
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the point is the same. Following Jesus is not a part-time gig—it
is an all-in commitment. Of course, there are times of wavering
for all who go his Way, but we can never think that our
commitment to him is only one commitment among many.
Being a Christian determines everything else we do—it shapes
what we do and how we do it.
The world is going through a tumultuous time right now,
and across the globe we are faced with who we are and how
we will live. As always, the future is unclear, but we know
things are changing at a breathlessly fast pace. How can we
keep up?
The problems we face seem overwhelming—hatred and
mindless acts of violence, unemployment and
underemployment, immigrants and refugees on every border.
We look around and see souls lost in fear and souls lost in
desperation, strangers looking for a safe haven, residents
afraid of strangers and what they may do. Nations that used to
be distant places on a map or in a book, come into our living
rooms and into our lives with all their problems.
The temptation for many of us is to try to walk backwards
in fear, rather than slowly forward in faith. The first and last
question for you and me is how do we stay with and follow
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Jesus. It is clear from this morning’s reading that torching
others is not a Jesus option.
We are supposed to work for peace even when our
visceral reaction is to strike out in self-defense or anger. We
are called to build bridges not walls. We are called to be
citizens of the world, recognizing our brothers and sisters, our
mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters everywhere we
look. Our agenda with Jesus is love.
In Jesus we have received God’s grace—God’s
unconditional and unwavering love for us and for everyone.
No matter what you have done, no matter what you are doing,
God loves you. We had a simple ritual during VBS this year.
Whenever one of the leaders would say to the children, God
loves you, they would respond, no matter what! It is hard to
believe, but it is the truth that saves us and it is the truth that
gives hope to the world. The amazing grace of God gives us
room to breathe and room to welcome others. That is the way
forward however slowly we walk.
The pastor’s corner in this month’s newsletter makes a
simple suggestion that relates to following Jesus. Take the
liturgy home with you. Use it to guide your prayers and
thoughts. We need the mind of Christ and hearts filled with
God’s love.
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God has called me to this work of being a pastor, a
teacher, a spiritual guide. On my own, I am not equipped to do
any of it—but with God’s help you can use me to help you find
your place to stand in the world, and your compass for your
way forward.
There is no more important task for me as your pastor
than to help you grow spiritually, and to help you embrace
your calling as a child of God and follower of Jesus. Each of us
needs let God show us the way forward. You need to ask God
to help you set the course of your life. You need to build habits,
holy habits that inform and nurture your relationship with
Jesus. God knows how distracted we are—and God
understands—and God assures us that any who seek him will
surely find him.
Many in the world may choose to try to walk backwards,
but we can’t. We need to walk with God and God only walks
forward. There is a new world dawning and we don’t need to
be afraid of it.
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