Sermon 5th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon Luke 9: 51-62

What does it really mean to follow Jesus?

This is the question at the heart of today’s Gospel, as Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem, and tells His would-be followers that looking back is not an option.

From the challenges He puts to them, it seems that rue discipleship, true following, is not about Power; its not about Possession; but it is about Pilgrimage.

Not Power, not Possession, but Pilgrimage. Let’s think about each of these.

It seems that the disciples James and John were really getting into their new found power. No doubt they had enjoyed some success in healing and casting out demons. Now when a Samaritan village refuses to accept Jesus, their power goes to their heads. “Would you like us to call down from fire form heaven upon this village and destroy it?” They ask.

Jesus of course rebukes them. And rightly so.
To have returned an insult with such violence would have been a totally unacceptable abuse of power.

At the time of Jesus, the Samaritans and the Jews were mutual enemies. So despite Jesus reputation as a healer and teacher, when they hear that he is heading for Jerusalem, to perform His Jewish obligations, they refuse to welcome Him. From their perspective, whatever his merits as an individual, he was a member of a different, enemy tribe, and they would have nothing to do with him. James and John are furious and out for revenge.

But of course this is not Jesus way of doing things. He never returns evil for evil, and He encourages his followers to choose the ways of non-violence.

In this of course there is immense strength. It is much more difficult to refuse to retaliate when we are wounded, and this is true at every level of our personal, political and international life.

Jesus shows by example, that to follow him is to reject the abuse of power, the thirst for vengeance and control, and to take the path of reconciliation and peace. It is not an easy choice, and often the church has failed to make that choice, choosing instead to assert its power in various ways, both obvious and more subtly manipulative. But this passage shows without question that the use of power for our own ends has nothing to do with the path of Christian discipleship.

So not Power. And not Possession either – by which I mean the desire to own, to control, to be in charge of our own destiny.. In our own era the will towards possession is very strong. I don’t just mean that we live in a very commercialised and consumerist culture, though that is true. I mean that we really think that we are in charge of our own lives. But the path of Christian discipleship is one of letting go – letting go of the illusion that we are in charge of what happens to us; letting go sometimes even things that on the face of it seem quite innocent and good, if they stand in the way of a deeper listening to the will of God.

Jesus is met by three potential followers. To the first rather idealistic and passionate person, who promises to follow him wherever he may go, Jesus points out that this is a choice to be homeless. Whether or not they met that challenge, or realised it was beyond them we do not know.

What we do know is that the next two, whom Jesus invites to follow Him, each have an excuse for not doing so.

At first glance it may seem that Jesus is being harsh, but closer examination suggests this is not the casse.

The one who wants to go and bury his father first – now that sounds reasonable doesn’t it? But in fact, in the culture of the day if the man’s father had already died, he would not have been out and about to meet Jesus in the first place This means that his father was still alive – and from Jesus’ response it is clear that the man was potentially going to wait many years before his father would die and be buried. To this person Jesus was saying that following Him, involved letting go of possessiveness – of control over his future; even in so far as this involved his family.

Similarly the person who wanted to say goodbye to those at home, sounds fair enough – but what if ‘home’ is not just up the street, but many miles away? What if seeing the ‘folks at home’ involves an endless list of relatives to be found in many places?
Jesus is once again challenging the real intention of this person to commit to the path of discipleship. He is not being harsh. He is just encouraging those whom he thinks have the potential for deep discipleship, not to wait around too long. After all He has an inkling that His own days are likely to be numbered; and none of us knows how long we may have on this earth in which to fulfil our vocation.

Most of us, if we are honest, have some things that we rather cling to. These things may be physical possessions – a house, a car; or emotional ties: family members whose esteem or welfare we prize very highly; or perhaps a career choice or path that we feel comes above everything else. No matter the focus of our possessiveness, Jesus in this Gospel issues a challenge – are we willing to give up even this? – this which has a legitimate claim upon our time and attention? This which we might believe to be our very vocation? – can we give up everything, if it is asked of us? It is a hard ask that’s for sure.

Yet those who have most notably followed in the way of Christ, all seem to have understood that time was short, and that sometimes it was necessary to do things that might seem quite extreme or unnecessary to others. Think for example of the poverty of Francis and Clare; the courage of a Martin Luther King; the determination of someone closer to home like Sr. Angela, who founded the monastery at Stroud.

Such Christian saints were all pilgrim people – moving wherever they felt called; refusing to allow the ties of possessions or relationship to prevent them from moving on along the path. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,” Discipleship is not limited to what you can comprehend – it must transcend all comprehension…Not to know where you are going is true knowledge.”

Which brings us to Pilgrimage – that willingness to follow a path even when we do not know where it leads.

This passage is full of movement words – the word to travel or proceed is used five times in the first six verses, and the word depart or go three times. The writer of Luke is making it quite clear that Jesus is in a new phase. Instead of just moving around Galilee teaching, he is now moving through Samaria, focussed on Jerusalem. His movement has become determined and intentional.

And this is what distinguishes pilgrimage from other kinds of journeying – it is a journey with a definite purpose; that of seeking the path of God no matter what.

Today’s Gospel challenges us, would-be followers of the pilgrim path – are we willing to let go of our desire for power, control and possession, in order to encounter the Christ along our way?

When we do , we can be sure that we will encounter resistance and persecution , as Jesus did, for those who speak truth to power are rarely popular.. We can be sure that our path will lead us into places of suffering and distress, because these are the people and places that Jesus held most dear. We can be sure that our path will lead us to places we would never have thought possible, for this is the onward call of a God, whose purpose never stands still.

So let us listen for the call of Christ; “Follow me”. And let us never be afraid to set out once more in faith. Amen