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| No pillows like this at Grandma's house. |
“Let the dead bury their dead.”
“No one who puts his hand to the plow
and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
These are some of many quotes by Jesus that
your grandma never had needlepointed on a pillow.
Jesus is kind of cranky today. No explanation why really.
Maybe it was the Samarian’s rejection of him and the disciples,
Maybe it was the disciples suggestion
that they call down fire to consume the Samarians.
Maybe it was Jesus knowing that the he didn’t have a
long time for ministry and things weren‘t going well at all.
It’s clear that Jesus is kind of frustrated over people’s lack
of commitment to his message and to the coming kingdom of God.
I always thought that the roughest of Jesus’ quotes from this one
was “let the dead bury their dead”.That’s definitely not making the tag line or mission statement
of any churches. I always thought that it was kind of rude
of Jesus not to be sympathetic with this man who’s
father had just died and was just about to go bury him.
That wouldn’t have taken that long, would it?
But I read that the phrase “go and bury my father”
has lost a little significance over time.
The man is saying that he would follow Jesus
but his main responsibility is to his family
His father isn’t dead yet.
But the man is saying he has to t to
take care of his father into his old age
until he passes away and then he has to bury him
and settle his estate and clean up any loose ends
and then he would be happy to follow Jesus.
He’ll follow - Just later. Much, much later.
The man is saying,”oooh. Jesus, I’d love to follow you
but not right now.”
I can understand Jesus frustration.
We’re always doing things like that. At least I am.
We’re always saying things like, “Oh we’d love to follow Jesus call
we’d love to be Jesus hands and feet and voice in this world
but we’ll do it later.
We say when we have more time,
when we have more money,
when we’ve retired,
when the kids are older,
when I feel better.
When I don’t have other things to do .
I understand about having free time,
and setting boundaries. Those things are important.
But I always seem to feel like there is some better time
in the future when I can do what I dream of doing for God
but you know what? That time never seems to come.
We would really love to answer Jesus call.
But life seems to get in the way.
And tomorrow becomes the next day, beomes never.
And churches are often no help with this
as a whole body of people we often react to God’s call in the same way.
There’s a kind of seminary rule that has been passed around that says,
“when you enter a new call, don’t change anything for five years.”
Oops.
But churches do kind of have that slow and cautious habit,
We keep saying we would do that “if only”
we could do this ministry or that ministry
we could respond to that inspiration or idea –
“if only” –
“If only” Whatever - then we could do what God wants us to do
If only we had a bigger facility,
if only we had more money,
if only we had more children in Sunday School
If only we were in a better neighborhood, or a worse neighborhood.
If only we were better than what we are right now…
If only we were like that church over there
then we could do what God wants us to do.
(Funny thing is, that church over there is saying,
If only we were more like Gethsemane!)
Jesus, we’d love to follow you,
we’d love to chase after the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
but call us later. When we have our act together. Later.
But when Jesus is so curt with this man and said,
“let the dead bury their dead:
Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God is here now.
There is something happening now that can’t be put off,
we can’t wait until the perfect moment,
when we have whatever we think we need.
And doing whatever it is that we do in the way of Jesus,
is what brings us life here and now.
Let the people who spend their life making excuses live half a life.
Let the dead bury their dead.
And another thing to think about:
following Jesus is not something that
we need to put off until everything is taken care of.
Follwing Jesus is something that we do
while we’re taking care of everything.
It is the way we take care of everything.
We follow Jesus in the way that we conduct our lives,
run our congregation, take care of our debts, spend our money wisely,
the way that we welcome new people into the church.
It’s the way that we treat people at our place of work,
the way that we raise our children,
The way we take care of our parents
The way that we live life every day:
serving others, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek.
Loving our neighbors as ourselves.
Following Jesus is not just about doing programs or projects.
It is how we live our lives.
And the last, and most important thing
to think about is: we can trust God.
Whenever the Spirit calls us
We can trust that God has given us everything we need
to do what God wants us to do.
We don’t have to look back and wonder.
because God won’t let us down.
So, when we hear that call
we don’t need to wait for that ideal time and place.
or until everything is taken care of.
We can follow Jesus where he asks us to go.
God will make the extra time in our lives,
God will provide what we need.
The Kingdom of God is now.
Let’s put our hand to the plow and keep facing forward.
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