On A Mission From God

This is an outline of my sermon text for the Third Sunday after Pentecost, on June 30, 2019. This was a Fifth Friday Combined Service, where members from Ascension, Redeemer, and St. Mark all gathered for one service, this time at St. Mark.  I used the Gospel lesson; Luke 9:51-62  as my inspiration for my message, presenting Jake and Elwood Blues as models for focused discipleship.  + pBRC

Be with us God as we open our hearts and minds to your Holy Word.
Move our hearts and souls and bodies to share your love and do your will.
We pray in the name of the Creator & of the (+) Son & of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.

·      I thought I had dodged this lesson.

o   In planning the vacation I was going to take and head back to Michigan, I looked at the Gospel lessons for the Sundays.

o   Initially, I thought the lesson for this Combined Service was the lesson about the man possessed by the demons known as Legion, and this text was scheduled for last Sunday.

§  I was excited because I had the framework for a message on the Legion text in advance, and I would miss this lesson.

o   The reason that I wanted to dodge this text is the part of the lesson that I have been using on social media to remind people that we have the Combined Fifth Sunday Service, “Let the dead bury their own dead.”

§  My dad died just before I began the Spring semester of my first year in Seminary.

§  One requirements for pastors is to spend 400 hours in chaplaincy work. Most do this during the Summer between their first and second years. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to go back to Saginaw and be with my mother.

·      My candidacy committee felt I should do my chaplaincy in the summer. There were no programs near my hometown, so I stayed in Gettysburg.

·      I did my chaplaincy work at the Hershey Medical Center, and had an awful experience. I saw my dad or my mom in the face of every patient I visited. With the ten patients who I watched die or was with their families when they passed away, I relived the pain of my father’s death.

o   I broke down emotionally several times.

o   Eventually, I learned how to have an emotional distance between myself and those who I was providing pastoral care for. That is the reason for the requirement. But it came at a price for me.

·      When I met with members of my candidacy committee in the Fall, I was honest in my feelings about the chaplaincy experience, and their part in forcing me into it.

o   In response, one of the members of the committee quoted part of today’s Gospel lesson.

§  ‘To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God."’ (Luke 9:59-60)

§  I have never successfully fought the urge to punch someone as much as I did at that moment. I fumed through the meeting, answering everything with short, curt responses.

§  I took his citation as an insult. I was later told by my advisor, who was in the meeting, that it was meant as a compliment, that despite what had happened to me, I persevered.

§  I have hated this text ever since.

§  But that is because I let the text do what Jesus is warning against in all of these brief encounters.

·      Jesus is telling his followers and would-be followers that following him is hard and requires sacrifices, but foremost, it requires no excuses.

·      Before I unpack that, I want to give you an example of two followers of Jesus who did not let anything get in their way, or deter them from doing what they believed they were called to do.

·      I give you Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues. The Blues Brothers.

o   Born out of a sketch on Saturday Night Live, a movie was made in 1980 that told the story of two orphans, who lead a blues band, and their misadventures.

§  Jake, played by John Belushi, was just released from prison, and picked up by his brother, Elwood.

·      They wind up in a worship service, led by James Brown, when Jake has a vision. They are to keep the orphanage they were raised in open by paying the back taxes.

·      Jake says that they are On A Mission From God to raise the money by putting their band back together and performing a concert.

o   During the course of putting the band back together, they run afoul of several police agencies, Jake’s parole officer, a jilted fiancé, a country band, and the Illinois Nazi Party.

o   But they let none of this, not even the destruction of what was then a record 63 cars in just one of the movie’s car chases, stop them, because they are On A Mission From God.

o   SPOILERS – They pay the back taxes, and are arrested, and in the last scene, the Blues Brothers and their band are in prison.

o   They have no reason to do anything good. They have several opportunities to stop. They have incentives to worry about themselves first.

§  They are chased, shot at, blown up multiple times, laughed at, rejected, made fun of.

§  But, they are On A Mission From God. And they do not deviate from that mission.

·      Our Gospel lesson begins with “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51) Jesus is going to Jerusalem, and He knows the fate that awaits Him there. Just prior to this, we have had the Transfiguration, and two of Jesus’ predictions of His awaiting death on a cross in Jerusalem.

o   And now is the time when Jesus heads to His fate, determined to see it through to the end because He is On A Mission From God.

§  Now that he is locked on His Mission, He will let nothing deter Him from that Mission.

·      He wants to get to Jerusalem by travelling through Samaria, and sends people ahead of Him to find lodging and food, but they are rebuffed because Jesus is headed to Jerusalem, the seat of the enemies of the Samaritans.

o   James and John want to call for the heavens to destroy the Samaritans, even though they have exhibited no such power, and Jesus rebuked them. (Luke 9:55)

§  He has no need or time for that. He is On A Mission From God.

§  Then Jesus encounters several would be followers.

·      As they enter a village, someone says, "I will follow you wherever you go."(Luke 9:57)

·      But Jesus warns that person, and all who would follow him that following him means giving up your home.

o   To follow Jesus means to be willing to go where you are needed, not where you want to go.

o   To follow Jesus means that you may be with those who need you, not those who you would prefer to be with.

§  If you’re On A Mission From God, you go where you need to go.

·      Jesus encounters someone whom He wants to be His follower. To another he said, "Follow me." (Luke 9:59)

o   The would-be follower had a request. "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." (Luke 9:59)

·      Someone who wanted to follow Jesus had a similar request. Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." (Luke 9:61)

o   But the time to follow Jesus is now.

o   While there are things that you want to do before you embark On A Mission From God, the time to start your mission is now.

§  In our first lesson, Elisha was able to say his goodbyes, and cook a BBQ before following Elijah, but to follow Jesus, to be On A Mission From God, the time is now.

§  To these two, Jesus says there is nothing else for you to do where you are, the work of God is elsewhere, and the time to go is now.

·      I still have problems with this passage. I’m not alone in that.

o   One of the commentaries that I read on this lesson is titled, “Jesus, the Jerk.”

o   But the point of what Jesus is trying to get us to understand with His singular focus now that He has set his face to go to Jerusalem, is that we have to realize that our lives change once we are On A Mission From God.

o   My professor for Gospels, Dr. Richard Carlson, described it this way.

§  Following Jesus is not a part-time job. It is not something we fit into our crammed schedules.

§  It is not one obligation among several others in our hurried, multitasking lives.

§  Following Jesus involves a radical reorientation and redirecting of ourselves, our obligations, and our loyalties.

§  Following Jesus is not the key to having it all but involves leaving it all behind.

§  Following Jesus is not even the top priority in our lives but is a way of living and relating to others that permeates every aspect of our lives including vocation, family, finances, and relaxation. (Richard Carlson, newproclamation.com, Commentary on the Thirteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time/Proper 8)

o   We know that we will be distracted from what we are called to do. We will get sidetracked.

§  For that, grace abounds.

§  But we need to get back on track, we need to set our face forward and not back.

·      We need to set our face on what needs to be done, and not on how it is going to happen.

·      We need to set our face on sharing God’s love, and not conserving it for ourselves.

·      We need to set our face on God’s will, and not our wants.

·      We need to remember, we are On A Mission From God. AMEN.

My suggested Hymn of the Day.