Luke 9:51-62
“Following”
June 26, 2022
Following has taken on a whole new meeting in this era of social media.
We have become followers of those we consider friends and family as well as those whose
viewpoints we admire – usually because they coincide with our own – on such platforms as
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
And we, too, are followed which for most of us means sharing the good parts of our lives without
intentionally offending anyone.
We follow individuals or organizations, in some cases, because we want to learn more about
their work, causes, interests.
Or sometimes we follow because someone makes us laugh or touches an emotion within us.
As a church, we use Facebook to publicize everything from upcoming Services to dinners to
sharing what’s on our farm stand, reaching hundreds of our friends and neighbors within
minutes.
The social media bubble most of us create leaves little space for divergent viewpoints because,
after all, who wants all that negativity and, honestly sometimes downright hostility.
Many of us avoid news sources that go against our world view and thus they are relegated to
being thought of as “out of touch” or “wrong-headed” if not “the enemy.”
In today’s reading, Patti shared the beginning of what in Luke’s Gospel is considered the
journey toward Jerusalem.
The route he will take over the next 10 chapters is far from direct.
If you were to try to map it out on Google maps you would just shake your head at the crazy
way Jesus manages to get to Jerusalem but it’s more about what he teaches along the way
than how he gets there.
The hospitality that is denied here at the beginning of the journey would have been considered a
huge insult.
If we look a little deeper at these would-be hosts that James and John see as the enemy, we
would be reminded that Samaritans descended from Jewish and Assyrian occupiers.
Samaritans disagreed on where the most important place to worship God was.
For the Samaritans it was Mount Gerizim while Jesus was heading to Jerusalem, the sacred site
for Jews.
That difference in religious belief, with Jesus determined to get to Jerusalem, may well have
been the reason for the lack of a welcome mat.
James and John in their earnest belief want to return an intolerance of religious difference with
revenge and retribution by asking God to destroy the Samaritans.
Jesus is having none of this.
To be a follower or disciple of Jesus is to take sincerely to heart what Jesus teaches.
While it can be tempting, and I know I have to catch myself, to demean or dis those whose
religious beliefs are different from our own, Jesus is calling us to a different path.
More than just tolerating people from traditions different than our own, we are to affirm those
who differ from us religiously.
In two weeks, we’ll hear exactly that in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
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Sometimes it is just easier to put all those folks that we consider enemies – and this week here
in the U.S. has certainly brought the concept of contempt for the other to the front burner – as
unworthy of our attention and certainly not our love.
And yet, Jesus is saying that to follow him is to put that which is God – love – before everything
else.
In order to get there, we may need to figure out how to talk about our enemies before we can
figure out how to love them.
There’s plenty of talk out there on social media and television, categorizing folks and then
making us feel like you must pick a camp and then direct all of your anger and frustration at the
other camp rather than seeking the loving way.
Jesus is talking about taking a different route.
The Jesus movement has often been described as “The Way.”
The Way implies movement.
Jesus wants us to look ahead with hope and promise and work to be done.
We have to be out in the world to follow The Way even, and maybe especially, when it feels like
all we want to do is stay safe within our homes and our close circle of family and friends who get
us.
As tempting as that is this week in particular, it is not what we who aspire to discipleship are
called to.
Jesus’ words about leaving family and not burying the dead sounds so harsh to our ears.
But maybe what Jesus is getting at is not putting the familiar on a pedestal so much that we are
blinded to the work of being his followers.
What Jesus promotes so radically is that our love for God must have priority over the best
relationships of our lives not the worst.
That is not to say we are to love those near and dear to us any less – only love God more.
Another way to think about this comes from theologian Fred Craddock who points out that “the
remarkable thing is that those who have done so have been freed from possession and worship
of family and have found the distance necessary to love them.”
To be that kind of follower means offering all that we are, not just the shiny parts but also the
shadow parts and get moving.
The world needs that kind of love, now more than ever.
Let us then lift up this prayer from our New England Conference Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar:
Gracious God
Sometimes even our sense of duty,
and good intentions,
divert us from following you.
We’ll be right with you, but first
let us bury our loved ones,
say farewell to those at home,
finish our degree,
tie up loose ends at the office,
let our children grow up.
We say we will follow you
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wherever you go,
and we mean it sincerely,
but we do not understand
where that will take us
or what it will cost us.
We ask, do you want us
to command fire
to come down and consume
those who do not receive you,
and you rebuke us and
show us that neither are we
ready to receive you.
O God, Jesus’ words are hard:
no one who looks back is
fit for the kingdom of God.
His message is urgent:
Follow me. Come now, without delay.
His requirements defy our
sense of responsibility and caring.
Help us to trust and to follow.
We pray in the name of Christ Jesus
who lives and reigns with you and
the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.