Pentecost 5C

Luke 9.51-62/Galatians 5.1, 13-25

June 26/27, 2010

            I had absolutely no intention of preaching on the Gospel of Luke this morning.  I don’t like this passage.  It’s much too difficult to explain.  It’s much too difficult to hear.  We supposedly have a benevolent, compassionate, loving savior who in this scripture, turns to a potential convert to the faith and says, “Let the dead bury their own dead.”  It’s hardly benevolent, compassionate or loving and I have no idea what to do with it!

            So I think it’s best to just let the mind of Christ be a mystery to us where this text is concerned.  We obviously aren’t the Son of God and so don’t think like the Son of God and some days we just have to shrug our shoulders in confusion at the words of Jesus and today is one of those days.  However, I am impressed with the humanity expressed in this text, beginning with James and John, now seasoned disciples.

            Jesus had sent a team of disciples ahead to make ready for his visits to various and assorted Samaritan villages.  The Samaritans did not welcome Jesus or his message and told him to continue moving right on through.  Rather than a warm welcome, Jesus and the twelve received a rather ugly response to their presence.  James and John, part of this procession, get indignant and angry and offer to take matters into their own hands and call down fire on the villages.  “Come Jesus,” they say, “let’s show these people exactly what you are capable of.”  James and John seem to think that if the people don’t accept Jesus, the savior, the Messiah, they don’t deserve to live.

            And Jesus looks at his two beloved followers and says, “Enough.”  Enough of violence and hatred.  Enough of power shown only through destruction. 

            And Jesus himself kept moving.

            On the road a volunteer jumped out of the hostile crowd and offered, “I’ll go with you.” 

            And Jesus said, “Enough.”  Enough of wanting to be part of the latest and greatest movement.  Enough of wanting to be front and center.  The poor man had no idea the sacrifice implicit in following Jesus of Nazareth.

            And Jesus kept moving.

            Jesus himself pulled someone out of the crowd, hand picked him to become a follower.  The man responded to the invitation, “But see, my parents are getting up there and they’ll need someone to bury them some day and I’m the eldest an d I need to stick around and when they die, when I collect my inheritance, then I’ll look you up and find you and follow.” 

            And Jesus said, “Enough.”  Enough of skewed priorities.  Enough of hanging onto the status quo.  Enough of seeing in the future nothing but death and loss.

            And Jesus kept moving.

            And another volunteer came forward.  “I’ll follow,” he said, “but first let me have a party to say goodbye to all my friends.” 

            And Jesus said, “Enough.”  Enough of clinging to the past.  Enough of being the center of attention.  Enough of wishing for what used to be.

            It’s not only Jesus.  Paul echo’s the “enough” of Jesus in his letter to the Galatians.  The Galatians were as disgruntled as the Samaritans, although for different reasons.  The Galatians could not get along with each other.  The Jewish Christians in the community insisted that the Gentile Christians couldn’t be converted until they became Jews first, complete with the ritual of circumcision.  They preached that following the law was a prerequisite for following Christ.  The Gentile Christians assumed that because they were freed in Christ, they could do whatever they wanted.  They could continue to participate in pagan rituals, eat food offered to idols; it was any anything goes mentality. 

            BOTH sides wanted to rain down fire from heaven to consume the other group.  Paul exploded, “ENOUGH.”  Enough of expecting salvation to come through keeping the letter of the law.  Enough of expecting that before people can become believers they must be just like us.  Enough of assuming that you can do whatever you want in the name of Christ.  Enough of living for the self to the detriment of the community.

            Paul was quite clear in his list of unacceptable behaviors, that self centered living was breaking down the community.

            Eugene Peterson rephrases it in the Message, “Enough of ‘repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage, frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic show religion; paranoid loneliness, cutthroat competition; all consuming yet never satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small minded and lopsided pursuits; the viscous habit or depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community.’ I could go on and on.” 

            Paul pointed to the flaw in the thinking of the culture that has continued to this day: we cannot keep putting the self first for it is destructive.  It breaks down community and eats away at the soul.  When we wish for fire to rain down from heaven or when we wish to put conditions and demands on discipleship, everyone loses.

            And yet we have not changed much since Paul’s day.  There is more and more emphasis on indulging the self.  My favorite tributes to self indulgence are found in car commercials.  Like the woman who sits in her mini-van in her driveway, as if she were pampering herself at a spa, ignoring her children on the other side of the door. 

            Or, the ad for the car that when you turn it on, does it return the favor.  And the myriad of advertising for cars that completely block out every sound from the outside and each seat is individually temperature controlled and the children can each watch their own favorite movie or TV show  without having to learn the art of compromise with their siblings.  Apparently, even a cross country trip with your family can happy in an isolated environment.  It is touted as the ideal. 

            Could anything be more counter to the Kingdom of God??

            When will we say “Enough?” 

            Forty percent of the world’s population does not have access to safe drinking water.  When will we say enough?

            Billions of gallons of oil are spilling into the gulf coast; oil pumped to feed our desire for bigger, more luxurious automobiles and temperature controlled living environments.  When will we say enough?

            The death toll from the war in Iraq continues to rise daily.  When we will say enough?

            HIV, malaria and TB kill six million people every year.  When will we say enough? 

            St. Paul expounds on the better way that Jesus has given us.  When we choose to live God’s way, as Eugene Petersen again presents St. Paul, “[God] brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity.  We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.  We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.” 

            Our call is to keep moving as Jesus did, doing what we can along life’s highways.  Our call is to follow the Spirit bearing fruit worthy of our calling as Christians in this place.

            In the words of Peterson as he concludes his translation of the Apostle Paul, “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.”  Amen