Setting Our Face to Focus On The Future, Or Questions for The Church In Light of the Brexit Vote
This is my manuscript of my June 26, 2016 sermon. The lessons were 1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-25, and Luke 9:51-62. My actual remarks varied slightly at each church from this text. If the Gospel of Luke was made into a movie, this would be the turning point. It would start with a wide shot of Jesus standing on top of a hill, his hair blowing in the wind. As the camera zooms in on him, the music begins to build, until just as the camera comes close to him, he turns to face the camera with a determined look on his face. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. That is a very heavily loaded sentence, with some phrases that could be translated better, and with meanings that we may miss. First, this is happening shortly after he was transfigured on top of a mountain. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus shine brightly, and he spoke with Moses and Elijah. Rather than when the days drew near , the text can be read as when the