June 26, 2016 – The 6th Sunday after Pentecost:
Proper 8C
© 2016 Evan D. Garner
Audio of this sermon can be heard here.
Rarely is God’s will for
our lives communicated as clearly and definitively as having the most famous
(or infamous) prophet in Israel come alongside us and throw his mantle over our
shoulders. I don’t know about you, but, even though I’ve felt like I heard
God’s call for me a time or two, never has it fallen out of the sky and hit me
on the shoulders like that. Right there, in the middle of a field, without
invitation or introduction, Elijah walked up to Elisha while he was plowing
behind some oxen, and, without saying a word, he threw his cloak upon him. One
could not ask for a clearer sign, yet, still, I am surprised that Elisha said
yes.
Keep in mind that, at
this point, Elijah was a wanted man. Just a few verses earlier in 1 Kings 19,
Jezebel, the wicked wife of Ahab, the most wicked king in Israel’s history, was
enraged at him because he had killed all of her false prophets. She invoked a
curse upon herself, saying, “May the gods [strike me dead] if I do not make
your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow” (19:2). And if
anyone could make good on that murderous promise, it was Queen Jezebel, so
Elijah ran for his life and hid in a cave. There the Lord spoke to him and said,
“What are you doing here, Elijah? Go and anoint a new king over Israel and a
new king over Judah and anoint Elisha as your successor.”
So he went and found this
young prophet-to-be and foisted the authority and the burden of being God’s
chosen one literally upon his shoulders. The Holy Spirit must have been present
in that moment in a powerful way because, even though it likely meant a
terrible death, Elisha said yes. “But, first,” he continued, “please let me go
and kiss my mother and father goodbye and let me make some preparations for
them, and then I will come and be your disciple.” And Elijah said, “Sure,” because,
after all, he hadn’t really given Elisha a chance to say no, and it seemed only
right that, before taking this man away from his family for good that he would
let him tell them goodbye. The fact that he slaughtered the oxen and used the
wood from the plow and yoke to fuel the fire suggests to us that he wasn’t
planning on coming back. This was a farewell for good, and the honorable thing
for the son to do was to go and take care of his parents before setting out on
this new and permanent journey.
Who would begrudge Elisha
that momentary pause to care for his parents? Wouldn’t we expect a holy prophet
of God to obey the fifth commandment and honor his father and mother before
accepting this new vocation? Who would criticize him for tending to his family
before answering God’s call? Well, Jesus would.
To a would-be disciple,
Jesus said, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury
my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury the dead.” Another man
came up to Jesus and said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me say
farewell to those at my home,” which sounds like a familiar, reasonable
request. But Jesus’ reply was dismissive and condemnatory: “No one who puts a
hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” I don’t know if
that man was a farmer, but that’s not the point. Jesus chose to invoke the
image of Elijah calling Elisha to make a point about the urgency of God’s
kingdom: If you’re not willing to drop absolutely everything and follow me,
don’t bother; never mind. And, this morning, I’m curious whether we are in
danger of hearing Jesus say to us those two terrible words: “Never mind.”
Why would Jesus be so
harsh? Why would he be so inflexible? Why would he use the story of Elijah and
Elisha to show us that that kind of answer to God’s call isn’t good enough? And
why isn’t it good enough? It was good enough for the greatest prophet in
Israel. Why is Jesus and his call to discipleship different? What make it so
urgent that it can’t even wait for a farewell or a funeral? And, if it really
us that urgent, what does that mean for us?
The hardest part about this
urgency is that Jesus isn’t asking us to prioritize God’s kingdom over and
above our own worldly desires. He’s not asking us to give up a self-indulgent
vacation or a round of golf. That, perhaps, would be easy—at least understandable.
Instead, Jesus is asking us to sacrifice good and godly things in order to
follow him. An eldest son would have an obligation to bury his father. Only the
man’s child could fulfill that role. Burial was a critical custom in the Jewish
faith. There were rules about who could touch the corpse, and the son was
honor-bound to carry out this duty for his father. If he didn’t do it, the dead
man might not get a proper burial. Yet Jesus threw that holy obligation aside
as if it were nothing. Likewise, he dismissed the man who asked permission to
go and say farewell to his family. Why wouldn’t a follower be permitted—even
encouraged—to go and take care of his family just as Elisha did? Jesus wants us
to see that the kingdom of God will not wait even for these holy
responsibilities. He shows us that there is an unparalleled, unsurpassed
urgency to his ministry that calls into question even our most basic
assumptions about what it means to be faithful to God.
Why? Because Jesus had
set his face to go to Jerusalem, and there was nothing that could distract him
from that. When the Samaritan village refused to receive him and James and John
wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume it, Jesus couldn’t be bothered.
He was focused on something else. When people asked if they could follow him,
he was happy for them to join him on the trek to the holy city, but he wasn’t
willing to wait on them to get their affairs in order. He couldn’t wait.
Jerusalem couldn’t wait. Jesus knew what would happen when he got there. He
knew that God would use that moment to break through into this world and
establish his kingdom here on earth. Jesus knew that the events that would
transpire in Jerusalem had the power to transform the whole world, and that was
too important—too urgent—to be delayed.
Today, the world still needs
transformation. The world needs God’s kingdom, and that kingdom is right around
the corner. Jesus’ face is still set on that kingdom-goal, and he isn’t going
to wait on us to get ready for it. It’s coming whether we’re ready or not, and,
if we aren’t ready, Jesus is going to look at us and say, “Never mind.”
For the first few decades
after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, his disciples believed that he
would come back at any minute. They knew that the fulfillment of the kingdom,
which Jesus had inaugurated, was near. But years went by. And Christians
started dying. And persecutions came, and the suffering that Christians endured
was terrible. And, still, Jesus did not come. And, as time went on, disciples
of Jesus stopped expecting the kingdom to come at any minute. And, now, two
thousand years later, we have forgotten what it means to believe in the urgency
of God’s kingdom. Because of that, it’s easier now than ever to find a good and
godly excuse to delay our answer to Jesus’ call, which means that now, more
than ever, we are in danger of hearing Jesus say to us, “Never mind.”
This world we live in is
desperate for transformation. Violence and greed and death are reigning in this
place. Evil people with evil intentions have access to semi-automatic weapons
with enormous firepower—the kinds of weapons that belong only on the
battlefield. Mass shootings have become shockingly commonplace, and they will
not stop until we do something about it. Men and women and children are being
targeted for harassment and abuse and violence simply because their skin is
darker than ours or because of their sexual orientation or their gender
identity or because they are Muslim or because they are immigrants. Those of us
with power and privilege can do something about that, but will we? Thousands of
teenage girls who have run away from home are being exploited by human
traffickers, who use them as prostitutes. Even right here in Alabama
sixteen-year-olds, fourteen-year-olds, twelve-year-olds are working as sex
slaves. What will we do about it? Although the rich are getting richer, poverty
is running rampant. Here in Decatur, there are children who do not have enough
to eat. This summer, the same boys and girls who sat next to our children and
grandchildren in their classrooms are lining up at the CCC to get a wholesome
meal. But what about breakfast and dinner? And what about the other five days
of the week when the CCC doesn’t serve lunch? Is it too much to ask that every
child and every adult in this town gets enough to eat every day of the week?
That is the community we
live in. All of those things happen right here in our home. But those things
don’t happen in the kingdom of God. They don’t happen when God is in charge.
They don’t happen when the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection reign here on
earth. The world is desperate for God’s kingdom. And Jesus came and lived and
died and rose again to bring that kingdom here to earth, and what is our
response when he asks us to follow him and be a part of that kingdom? What do
we say when he asks us if we will be the agents of change that God will use to
bring that kingdom here on earth? “I’m sorry, Jesus. Can it wait? Does it have
to be today? You want to me to do something about it now?” And Jesus looks at
us and shakes his head and says, “Never mind.”
If we are going to be
disciples of Jesus, we have got to stop pretending that the kingdom of God will
come to earth someday. It isn’t someday. It’s today—if we will let it. But it’s
costly. And it’s urgent. And it isn’t going to wait. It might cost us our
friends. It might cost us our families. It might cost us our comfortable place
here in St. John’s Church. It might cost us our jobs. It might cost us our
savings. It might even cost us our lives. But none of those things matters when
the kingdom of God is on its way. Will you be a follower of Jesus? Will you
stop hiding behind an eschatology of convenience that pretends that there will
always be another day—another chance—to work for justice and peace and the dignity
of every human being? Will you give your heart and your soul and your strength
and your mind and your voice to the movement that is bringing God’s kingdom
here on earth? In other words, will you follow Jesus as your Lord? He’s
waiting. He’s waiting at that altar, and he’s waiting at that door. And he
asking you to follow him—not tomorrow but today, right now. Will you go with
him into God’s kingdom?
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