Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans
to make ready for him;
But they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to
come down from heaven and consume them?”
But he turned and rebuked them.
Then they went on to another village.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man
has nowhere to lay his head.”
To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord first let me go and bury my father.”
But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the
kingdom of God.”
Another said, “I will follow you Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of
God.”
NO Backsies
The Hickory Daily Record released the Catawba County restaurant sanitation scores this
week. The highest—was the Food Lion Produce on North Center Street and the Subway on
Centennial Blvd in Claremont. The worst—The Hickory Tavern on North Center Street and
Mulan Chinese Food in Newton.1 It’s a good information, because no one wants to eat in a
dirty restaurant. You want to be safe when it comes to your GI tract.
Really it is a good thinking to play it safe in lots of situations. Bike helmets. Seat belts.
Safety rails at Niagara Falls. Best by dates on milk cartons. Safety is a good thing.
Exercising healthy caution is a good thing. Except…except when playing it safe and being
too cautious is the excuse for not believing in yourself. Or when being safe is the excuse for
being complacent and skirting responsibility. Safety and healthy caution are good, except
when playing it safe and cautious becomes your guide to faith instead of Jesus.
So let’s not play it safe. Let’s be bold. Let’s dig deep. Let’s go there. And let’s not wait till
the end of the sermon to ask question that will have you pondering—let’s just go ahead and
jump right in; what is God doing in your life these days?2
Maybe that question is a little too safe.
Let’s ask the question another way—perhaps even more to the point; does Jesus make a
notable difference in our lives?3
1
http://www.hickoryrecord.com/news/catawba-county-restaurant-inspection-scores-june/article_6ae63a1a-37db11e6-a043-031706b881c3.html
2 Michael Rogness, Working Preacher http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1720
That’s not a safe question, because it begs for answer. We probably aren’t even
comfortable with the question. We may get defensive, just like James and John this
morning, ready to call down fire from heaven—how dare you ask that question! But mostly
this isn’t a safe question because we aren’t really asking it of each other. It isn’t that we
doubt God’s presence in our lives, it is just that we aren’t accustomed to having to account
for it in such a straightforward manner. So we sort-of sit a little silent, shift a little in our
seat—hope the preacher won’t make eye contact…and let that question hang. Because yes
of course, Christ makes a difference in our lives. Yes, surely God is doing many things in us
and through us and around us.
Right?
Playing it safe might be a sermon that softens Jesus’s responses to these would-be
followers as he walks on the road. Or a sermon that pats us all on the back and reminds us
to welcome Jesus and be ready when he comes to our town. A sermon that tells us it is
okay because we all have a tendency to play it safe and God is a forgiving God. But you and
I don’t need those sermons, at not today. And we don’t need a pat on the back telling us
that we are good Christians. Rather deep down we want the courage we sometimes lack,
the courage to rise to challenge of being Christ’s disciple.
So how do we read today’s text without playing it safe? How do ask for courage even while
we are still clinging to excuses? Are we too accustomed to playing it safe?
You know at first these sets of scripture—and in my Bible they are partitioned out into a
sections—“A Samaritan Village Refuses to Receive Jesus” and “Would Be Followers of Jesus”—
at first I didn’t think they went together. But now, I think for today, there is an answer for
us about playing it cautious and safe. I think Luke is telling us something about discipleship
that will matter in our lives.
The story starts out with Jesus setting his face to Jerusalem. Or as we might think of it, set
his mind and his feet to going and there weren’t no turning back. One of our daughter
Arlie’s favorite stories, has the two main characters working out a deal for a tea set; Thelma
makes sure that when she agrees to sell her tea set to Frances, that Frances understands
that the deal is final; that there are no backsies.4
Now, I’m not 100% sure if Jesus knew every single thing would happen in the coming days
when he set his face to Jerusalem, but I do think he knew that it wasn’t going to be safe. He
knew deep down when he set out to confront the powers of the religious day and to
threaten the imperialism of Rome; to shake the very foundations of sin in the world, he
knew that it would require him to be anything but cautious; when he set his face to
Jerusalem he it would be hard, and awful and quite possibly deadly.
3
4
David Lose http://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=2614
Russell & Lillian Hoban, A Bargain for Frances, Harper Collins Publishers, 1970
For reasons we are not given the Samaritan village does not accept him when he sends
messengers to make things ready. It could be that they recognize he isn’t there to do for
them—Jesus isn’t there to heal, or teach or preach. Luke tells us, they did not accept him
because his face is set toward Jerusalem. Do you suppose the Samaritan’s were just playing
it safe? Do you think that they just thought, well he’s a Jewish rabbi headed to the wrong
city. Since he’s not here for us, let’s just not mess with this, let’s play it safe and have nothing
to do with him.
Enter James and John; it is no wonder that Matthews names them ‘sons of thunder.’ These
Samaritans don’t worship the way they ought to and moreover how dare they deny Jesus
hospitality! Let’s call down fire from heaven to consume them! If we look at it this way-playing it safe is responding violently. Violence eliminates the issue or person or struggle.
It exercises dominance and authority over another. But love, love opens you up. Loving
others is a lot more vulnerable; it is riskier, it is not safe to respond in love.
So instead of going back to the Sodom and Gomorrah punishments for denied hospitality,
Jesus tells them, no, no that isn’t what we are going to do. And with Jesus they keep going
forward. Jesus isn’t here to reign down fire on any particular group or empire or
government. He’s here to show us the way to God. He’s set his face toward Jerusalem
because that’s where it will all go down. Jesus is here to make sure as many people as
possible see the truth—that mediocre living isn’t all there is. The truth we see in Jesus, is
that he is the very best way to really understand the heart of God.
But Jesus is also showing us that the way isn’t all flowers and roses, it isn’t staying in the 5
star suite hotel. Because he is also showing us that the way is always moving forward.
That the way is always one of love and not one of violence. Is Jesus showing us that we
must set our faces on him and not be deterred even when everything threatens to fall
apart?
This isn’t about the Samaritans. Just a few verses later Jesus is telling us about the radical
hospitality of a certain very good Samaritan. One who could play it safe and keep on going,
but instead acts from a place of love and takes in a wounded brother. No, this isn’t about
fire from heaven and ethnically drawn boundaries; this isn’t about foxes and birds or
burials—it’s about learning to not playing it safe. It is about setting your face forward on
Christ and not turning back.
Alyce McKenzie tells a story of a small Presbyterian congregation in the 1980’s that caught
a vision for a ministry need in their rural community. And so with much enthusiasm they
embarked on a new vision, but then quickly crashed. After only 18 months they were
exhausted and spent and the elders of that congregation petitioned the denomination to
close its doors.5
5
Alyce McKenzie, Patheos-Progressive Christian, http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/Hand-Plow-AlyceMcKenzie-06-24-2013
This church sounds a lot like the man who wants to follow Jesus, “I will follow you
wherever you go.” The story doesn’t tell us whether he does follow Jesus or not, but most
of us doubt he does, right? He sounds too much like the rich man who wants to have
eternal life but can’t sell all his possessions. It makes us want to rewrite the story doesn’t
it? It is too much like that seed from the sower—the one that lands on rocky soil and
sprouts up quickly, but then withers and dies…Can’t we write a little more, Luke, and give
him the courage he needs to follow Jesus wherever he goes?
A fourteen year old boy from Greensboro collapsed during football practice and died two
weeks ago. He was an only child, the very heart of his parents. He was the nephew of one
of our former preschool teachers. How do you bury that and follow Jesus wherever he
goes? I don’t know. When Jesus says, “Follow me,” and the response is “Lord, let me go and
first bury my father.” It seems reasonable enough. We take seriously the commandment to
honor our mother and father; we take seriously the commitment to our families. What is
wrong with wanting to pay respect and honor to your parents? But Jesus says that isn’t
what this is about. There’s an urgency Jesus is pushing that says, stop playing it safe—stop
being about death—be about life. With me, death is left behind. I am about life.
So how do you bury that and follow the Lord of life? I don’t know. I have not had to live
through something horrific like death; but I know others who have. I know others who
have lived through death; death of children and parents and loved ones. And I see them
living. I see them set their face on Jesus and keep on living. Let’s be about life.
No one who puts a hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom. Who’s he even
talking to? You? Me? I’ve never actually plowed a field. But I read that you have to stay
focused forward, because if you turn around the plow is going to get off course and you’ll
butcher those tender watermelon vines on the next row over. So when the urgency of
discipleship comes our way, don’t look back as if you’ve got to get this or that; don’t’ make
excuse that would have you claim you aren’t good enough or you aren’t ready—instead
keep your hand on the plow and focused forward where Jesus is going.
That little rural church that begged to close its doors was in for a shock. The denomination
said, "Don't quit now. You may be on to something." After recovering from the shock of not
being allowed to quit, the congregation said, "Well, maybe we are on to something!" Over
the next years they held to their fundamental vision of being a community in ministry to
the rural poor…For more than twenty years now that community has lived the way of
healing love in a region of intense need (Stephen V. Doughty, "Glimpsing Glimpses," 43).6
Over 2000 people came to Greensboro for a service to honor young Karson Cross. They
surrounded the family and shared their tears and grief. But his parents insisted that they
also celebrate his short life and give thanks for who he was.
6
Ibid.
Following Christ isn’t safe. Never has been. Ask anyone who has gotten close to the
burning bush. Ask your neighbors and your friends—some of them know deep in their
bones. None of this, none of what we do is really about playing it safe. Does Jesus make a
difference in our lives? Can we be so bold that if someone were to ask us, what is God
doing in your life, we’d say, “How much time have you got?!”
Let’s change the story. “I will follow you where you go.” Let’s abandon the clichés of being
the only recipients of God’s blessing, and set our faces to the nitty and the gritty. Let’s set
our faces toward changing education and how we take care of our veterans. Let’s set our
faces toward smarter and safe gun control. Let’s set our faces toward better health care
and preventive measures that teach our children about nutrition. Let’s set our faces to
being better people not better consumers. Let’s set our faces to a love that has less
requirements and more participants.
Does Jesus make a notable difference in our lives? Don’t play it safe. You’ve probably
heard this before, but Annie Dillard says we are fools for wearing nice clothes and pretty
hats to church. The ushers ought to hand out life preservers and signal flares because God
may draw us out to where we can never return.
God may draw us out to where we can never return. How about we set our faces to that?!?
And y’all, no backsies.
End with clip from Sister Act? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPpd6X3tEo&list=RDVPpd-6X3tEo#t=1
Benediction
“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh" said Susan. "I'd thought he was a man. Is hequite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..."Who
said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, [I tell you].”7
7
C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia, Book 2: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Harper Collins Publishers, 1950,
1978. Pg. 86