Proper 8 Year C 2007
1 Kings 19: 15-16, 19-21
Ps 16
Gal 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62
Disciples follow Jesus
On this bivalent Sunday closest to July 4, we remember with gratitude the sacrifice so many have made for the freedom we enjoy. History is a teacher if we are willing to see the whole story and not just the parts preserved by the victors. I spent part of this past week in Williamsburg at the National Network of Episcopal Clergy meeting. We had morning Eucharist in the historic Bruton Church, with the box pews, the elevated pulpit, and the slave galleries above. The preacher was The Rev. Michael Battle author of Reconciliation and the celebrant was Steven Charleston, Bishop and Dean of EDS.
Steven Charleston is a Native American, a member of the Choctaw nation. Michael Battle is an African American. Reading the victors version of our liberation from oppressive forces on the European continent and striking out for a new land, where freedom and justice were to be our guiding light to all nations, we took the land from the Native Americans by force or trickery and enslaved the Africans. I was moved by the witness of both of these persons, symbolic of their respective peoples and their gentle reminder of our history of liberation. Freedom is important but the truth is none are free until all are free. In the words of a wonderful teacher and excellent author Fredrica Thompsett: “History is about remembering. It centers on calling to mind persons, events, and themes that have meaning for our lives.” (Living with History).
Luke tells us that several people were called to follow Jesus but they had important obligations and did not join the disciples and Jesus. The caution given by Jesus to the volunteer would be disciple, “Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” is a warning about being comfortable. If we follow Jesus we will not be comfortable but will face hardship, challenge, conflict and change. If we follow Jesus we will be in trouble. Steven Charleston said in the Tuesday morning address: we are in trouble because we are following Jesus because we seek reconciliation not resolution. We can disagree and stay together because we are called to follow one who knows the way to the Father. We have a global mission of reconciliation born of the love we know through Jesus, whose spirit is the true path to liberation from sin and true freedom. We may experience fear of the “other”, fear born of war, oppression that breads terrorism, and there is one antidote for fear and it is hope. We are people of faith who believe that Jesus is the Son of the Father, whose life of ministry, reconciliation, justice and peace provided an example for us to follow.
If we expect the journey to be full of wonderful encounters with the divine, full of joy and excitement about what God is doing today and everyday, miracles of healing, etc, we may be disappointed at times and tempted to blame ourselves or worse those around us. The disciples were angry and wanted to take revenge on the Samaritans who rejected Jesus but Jesus did not react that way and rebuked the disciples for their reaction. Friends, family, enemies, religious leaders, and politically powerful men rejected Jesus many times. In no case did he respond with anger or resentment, only sadness, and continued on his way doing the work he was given to do. That is important – listen – continuing to do the work he was given to do is the model for our discipleship also – do the work we are given. We are called to continue the ministry of reconciliation: that is the mission of the church. When we decided to follow Jesus we took that task to be our own. We agreed that we would not condemn, judge, or walk apart but that we would follow the one Lord Jesus our Christ…through thick and thin…through lean times and times of plenty…through life and death…all the way into the embrace of the holy Trinity.
It is hard to imagine what following Jesus in person was like. No hotels, no cars, no donkey, no comforts we have become accustomed to. What was it like to see that Jesus was risking being stoned by those he upset and not being able to slow him down or reduce the impact of his teachings? Surely the disciples were afraid at times, uncomfortable a lot of the time, and yet they stayed with Jesus. In fact Jesus’ demands were radical. He expected the man to leave without telling his family where they were going or burying the man’s father? The radical call of Jesus is to accept him over the best in our lives, not over the worst. We simply cannot not look back and follow Jesus…who is always just up ahead.
How do we know we are really following Jesus? We stay in the journey. We are called to be faithful, not perfect. We rely on Jesus to inspire us to continue on when the road is rough, steep, and hard. We will receive help, spiritual renewal, companionship and encouragement if we do not lose heart but remain committed. There are times when we are dry, fearful, low on hope, and feeling alone. Those are often the times when we have looked away from the work of God’s kingdom and onto our own thoughts and emotions. We have turned inward and that is not the answer. The answer to following Jesus is keeping our eyes on the horizon, looking up, out, forward, moving together toward the upward prize of Christ Jesus our Lord.
We need encouragement and companionship in this journey. We always have the Lord’ spirit to guide us but I think it is also the design of God to give us earthly companions for the journey. Jesus could have done many things easier without the disciples but chose them to be in community. God sends us angels with messages – often in the form of another person, someone that speaks to your spirit, that resonates with your core, that points you to God, in whom you see the face of Christ.
There are several people who have done this for me but I want to tell you about two of them. One such person is Fredrica Thompsett, one of my professors at Episcopal Divinity School. Dr. Thompsett was also my advisor and so I had a few extra hours with her. During orientation, the first few days on campus, I went over to her office to register for classes. She could have signed me into the courses, smiled and said, “see ya,” and I would have gone, but she did not. She took time to ask me, “Why are you here?” I said to fill in the gaps with courses in Anglican history, theology and polity.” Then she looked me straight in the eye, and said “anything else?” “Yes, I replied, I am here for formation.” The clarification of why I was spending a year living in a dorm away from family and friends seemed pretty radical to many and so knowing why I was there was important to me – to keep me in the path. There were many times during the year when the courses were the lesser of the two objectives. Many days hot and cold, in snow and rain, I walked miles on the footpath on the banks of the Charles River, wrestling with issues, questions, searching for meaning, trying to understand what this “priesthood” call means. I still wonder.
Several times in seminary Steven Charleston was my angel messenger – he pierced my protective shell in unexpected ways – by the witness and candid articulation of his faith. His preaching is dramatic, evangelical, and authentic. It is his integrity that I admire most. Steven talked candidly about growing up on an Oklahoma reservation, about leaving the church for a period of self-searching and returning to attend the very seminary he was now leading. Spiritual leaders like Steven can talk about being “other” of hardship, and of faith with equal sincerity because they are not proclaiming anything that is self-serving but are testifying to what God can do and why we can trust God enough to follow God. Steven taught me that being inclusive does not mean disbelieving the gospel stories. He often said, straight out, I believe Jesus is the Son of God, and I believe that Jesus did the things the scriptures tell us he did. He would celebrate the Eucharist sometimes without script – pouring forth in his own words the history of salvation accomplished in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. His personal piety was higher liturgically than the seminary’s traditions and he never forced his preference. He invited us to share in the journey of faith following the one he clearly and devoutly followed. Once when he returned from a Bishop’s meeting, he was upset about how some of the bishops refused to share in communion. He let us in on his own understanding – that the table God sets and offers is for everyone who will come. The salvation designed by God is free, an act of grace, a gift to all, and we dare not judge who can and cannot eat there. Listen! Listen he would say to draw us back to attention – this is God’s gift.
Steven Charleston was the Choctaw bishop of Alaska. At the National Cathedral celebrating 500 years of survival on Columbus Day 1992, Steven said: “Our people, like sheep to the slaughter have survived peril, famine, disease, distress, racism, oppression, exploitation, and even death itself. We have survived. We are more than just survivors. We are those victorious, those brought to life again, those who know the truth, those who hear the truth, those who speak the truth and hear the words of St. Paul. “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else, in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Brothers and sisters, we are more than conquerors. I stand to proclaim a new beginning. I stand to proclaim a new community. I stand with my ancestors. I stand with my people. I stand with God. Who stands with me? Amen.” (p335 in 400 Years, by Owanah Anderson).
Follow me, Jesus said. It is the commitment to follow Jesus that Steven and Fredrica have made so profoundly that inspires me to continue in the same path. Each of these persons is a leader in his and her place and the power of their leadership and witness is in their humble posture of following Jesus not leading Jesus.
Fredrica in We are Theologians, reminds us that the Body of Christ is one of 96 metaphors for the church and when Paul used the phrase it was in a letter to the church in Corinth where members were competing over spiritual gifts and not seeing the unity they had in Christ. The world is the “church’s working place”. All the baptized are called to mission and ministry – a mission of reconciliation, of peace and justice, and a ministry of loving hospitality to any and all who we meet on the journey.
Jesus invited others to join in the journey as he set his face toward Jerusalem. From the perspective of this world that destiny was horrific suffering and defeat – death on a cross. In the spiritual truth of our gospel message it was the path to eternal life revealed in the resurrection. In every appearance of the risen Lord, those who witnessed his living presence were commissioned to go forth proclaiming the good news of the gospel! We are not alone – we travel with good and devout companions as we follow Christ all the way into the embrace of the Holy Trinity.