Preached at Grace and Canadochly on June 30, 2019
Preaching text: Galatians 5:13-25, Luke 9:51-62
I had to laugh when I read this week’s gospel lesson. You my recall last Sunday, I mentioned the difficulty of being patient in the face of a declining institutional church. Fewer members, lower attendance, more troubled finances are never fun things to face and those of us who are loyal to our worshiping communities really want to see things change RIGHT NOW. But, I insisted that Jesus’ way was the better way and it’s the way of planting seeds and giving them time and space to grow into true faith. Jesus’ way is a patient way.
Until it isn’t.
Today’s lesson, by contrast to last week, is all about how impatient Jesus has become. He’s extremely short, frustrated, and in some cases rude to the people he encounters in today’s lesson. He’s in a terrible rush and can’t be bothered by people’s pettiness and excuses. If I could subtitle this story, it would be something like “Ain’t Got Time For That.”
Lord, do you want us to call down fire and brimstone upon those unwelcoming villagers. No, ain’t got time for that. I will follow, but let me bury my father first. Ain’t got time for that. I will follow, but let me say farewell to my family. Ain’t got time for that.
This text takes place in the “set his face like flint” towards Jerusalem phase of Jesus’ ministry, and that’s important to keep in mind. The bulk of his teaching, the bulk of his miracles are now behind him and there’s one major task left. To go to the cross and save the world. And Jesus is impatient to get to it.
It’s important to keep in mind that although I’m jokingly comparing last week’s lesson with today’s, they really are about two different things. Last week, we saw that evangelism takes time and patience. This week, the focus is on saving the world and saving lives and there is urgency here. A need to get this done NOW.
One might say that evangelism is that as well. We need to save people’s souls now. But I think that’s fails to give the Holy Spirit its due. We’re putting it all on us and we’re heading down the road that I criticized last week, where our mantra becomes “Convert or go to hell.” We don’t save souls. God does. It’s helpful to have that reminder from time to time.
But there is still a lesson to be taken from Jesus’ impatience. There are things in this world that require urgency. Lives that do need saved right now. Things about our world that need to be changed right now. Things where there is an urgency or more people are going to die.
Now I know I can get myself in trouble when I talk about real world issues; when I talk about things that might be seen as political. So let me speak here at the onset here that I’m not interested in blaming one side or the other, because all that does is make people dig in and get defensive when their “side” is on the hotseat. And when people get defensive, the problems don’t get solved. In truth, I don’t care about blame. I don’t care about who’s at fault.
Pointing fingers doesn’t fix anything. Instead, I care about what’s right. I care about what God thinks about these things. Our God is a god of life and love. So what do you think he would call us to do about the following things?
There’s plenty of room for debate about how to deal with the problems in our immigration system. But tearing apart families? Putting children in cages with no soap or medicine or even beds? That isn’t solving anything. That isn’t helping. But what it is doing is putting people in danger. Kids are dying. Five kids have died in government custody in the past 18 months. And this is a common pattern for years, even before the current President took office. What are we Christians going to do about saving those lives?
Plenty of room for debate about guns and gun laws. But we don’t debate it. We do everything we can to silence debate. And the killing continues. Some say it’s a mental health issue. Nothing’s ever done about that either. Our silence isn’t solving anything. Every year, on average around 35,000 people are killed by firearms, around 1500 of them children. Again, this is not a new thing. It’s been around for decades. What are we Christians going to do about saving those lives?
I know many of you are passionately pro-life. Aren’t these issues of life too? Jesus raced to that cross for their sake as well as ours. What are we going to do about it?
Again, I’m not interested in blaming or pointing the finger at one side or the other and saying this is all your doing. First off, because it’s not the fault of just one side or the the other. Truth be told, we are all to blame in some way, by action or inaction. Secondly, and more importantly, lives are at stake here. We ain’t got time for all that blaming. People are dying. So what are we going to do about these things?
Our savior didn’t have time for anything else once he set his heart and mind on that cross. On going to the place where he would bring death and sin to heel. He knew there was no time to waste. Lives were at stake. He’d been on Earth for a long time by that point. He’d seen suffering. He’d seen pain. He’d seen torment. And his heart had reached its limit. With every calamity. With every life of struggle. Every disease. Every person cast out because they were different. Each of these broke his heart and he finally had enough. “NO MORE.” he seems to say as he marches dutifully, willingly to the cross to put it all right.
What about us? We see the same suffering. We see the same struggles. Do our hearts not break at the sight of this? Yes, I know, sometimes they aren’t “our people.” But they are PEOPLE. They are human beings who are suffering and in pain. They are human beings in danger and threat of death. They are people for whom Christ died and rose again, just as he did us. We are called to love our neighbors. We are called to aid those in need. We are called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger, tend to the sick. These things are not in debate among us; we’ve seen Jesus do them and we know he called us to do likewise.
So what’s it going to be? All too often we of the church have decided it’s up to others to solve the world’s problems. We ain’t got time for that anymore. Jesus has passed the torch to us, said what he did here on Earth is what we are to do. There is a whole big world out there full of people who need us to show what it really means to be Christian. To show kindness, to offer aid, to call for justice, and bring mercy. Jesus loved everyone and wanted all lives to be better. He’s called us into the same mission. So what are we going to do? Amen.
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