Sermon - 3rd Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 9:51-62                                                    

                                                           That to Which our Heart Clings

This is a busy morning for us.  Following both services, we invite you to have a look at the displays in the narthex.  Three of our LCM students will be heading off for a year of global mission work.  Yes – I said three, two have determined this is not the best for them at this time.  More about that as this sermon progresses.

We are also awarding the LCM Alumni Academic Scholarship this morning.  This year’s recipient will be leaving soon for a semester of study in South Korea.  We wanted to send Sammi Brinson off with our blessings; and to call attention to the never ending efforts of this ministry to support students in their academic pursuits and vocational journey.

Yes, a busy morning.  A morning in which we speak of serious life choices. 

The serious life choices being made by these young adults brings home to each of us the serious life choices we have made.  It also prompts us to consider the serious life choices which remain before us.  Those don’t end with a college degree (or two), nor do these cease after a mortgage is signed or a marriage begun.  Every day of our lives we are all faced with serious life choices.  Most of the days of our lives we can look past them or pretend they are not before us.  But not today.

Today, the events on our congregational calendar align with the appointed readings from scripture in order to remind us that serious life choices must be made.

Luke 9:51 tells us that the time is drawing near for Jesus to be taken up.  “Taken up”?  Is that code for something else?  We all know the sequence of events by which he will be taken.  “Up” – as in to the heavens - may eventually come.  But first he will be taken up the hill to the barracks of the guards and beaten.  Then he will be taken up to Golgotha and placed up upon a cross.  Serious life events are about to come his way.

In Luke 9:51, these code words remind us that events are not as essential as outcomes.  Luke 9:51 encourages us to remember what Jesus is setting out to accomplish.  And they are our invitation to remain focused on those same ends.

As he sets out on this mission, everyone around him either gets on board with him or is repelled by his laser focus.

See the line in which James and John asked about calling down fire to destroy the inhabitants of this Samaritan village?  Notice that Jesus rebukes them.  Jesus knows what the gospel writer wants all of us to notice – that the villagers could not receive him.  Why?  First line, and fourth line - repeated twice.  Jesus’ face is set toward Jerusalem.  These villagers were not going to get on board.  Jesus’ rebuke is for James and John, not those as of yet unprepared to share his unwavering commitment to the kingdom of God.

This exchange is terribly important as we face our own serous life choices.  Too often we are threatened with a fire raining down from above.  In too many instances we are warned not to be found among those not receiving.  This exchange reinforces both the enormity of Jesus’ mission AND his unwavering care for the least among us.  “The least” surely includes those so frightened and overwhelmed that they cannot muster the ability to climb on board.

This exchange exposes the heart and mind of the One who came to care for this sick.  The one who reminded his listeners that those who are well have no need for a doctor.

This exchange reinforces his compassion for the crowds, harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.

This exchange makes it clear that Jesus will do what none of them are capable of doing.  He will accomplish what we, left on our own, cannot.

The way will not be easy.  Jesus is less concerned with not being received than he is with those who follow him knowing what lies ahead.  Foxes have holes, birds have nests.  Not us.  The dead bodies will pile up.  It is not our role to bury them.

If you are waiting for me to get to the last line, that moment has come.  If you were reading from one of those bibles with red lettering, this one would jump out at you:  “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

This may have been a summary condemnation of the one who met them on the road and the one who wanted to bury his father.  Or, it may be a reference to the opening exchange in which Jesus has no rebuke for those who do not share the focus set on his face and in his life.  Perhaps the message in this sentence is to see the serous life choice when it is presented to us and to be prepared to live up to and in to the commitment we make.

Gabby and Cole have decided not to go to England with YAGM.  I am disappointed.  But by grace of God I had the capacity to reply to their notes to me with graciousness and compassion.  I know that YAGM is a life-changing opportunity.  But it isn’t the only one. 

It was one of our LCM alumni who approached me about an academic scholarship.  The prime donor shared their experience of this ministry’s commitment to helping students get their degrees and discover the many and various ways in which God is served.  Sammi is but the latest helping all of us discover how to live the life of a disciple in the world.

There are many ways in which we may fit into the proclamation of the kingdom of God.  The serious life choice is seeking that way with the start of each new day.

Jesus does what none of us are able to do.  Jesus protects us when some of Jesus’ other disciples want to distract us with talk of fire and brimstone.  Without such interruptions, we can see our way to share the grace and compassion and care which oozed forth from every encounter Jesus has with those whom he came to save.

Amen.