Home  Sitemap	Worship Services  Directions  Make a Pledge  Contact Us
	Sermons Preached at Church of the Redeemer Return to Sermons Index

The Church of the Redeemer

                                                                                                                  July 1, 2007

                                                                                                                    Proper 8

                                                                                                                  Marc Eames

I do admit that for my first sermon at Redeemer, I was hoping that I would get a nice easy passage of scripture to talk about.  Instead, I get this.  The dead, leave them.  Turn from the plow, you’re not fit for heaven, and the disciples … they want Jesus to toast the Samaritans.  At first glance Jesus seems stern and unforgiving, and the disciples blood thirsty.  What exactly is going on in this passage?

First, let’s take the passage in context.  In the beginning of today’s gospel, Jesus has decided to go to Jerusalem.  Their journey brought them into Samaritan territory.  The Samaritans, unlike the Jews, did not recognize Jerusalem as being the only place where God could have a temple.  The Samaritans therefore did not help any Jews who were traveling through their territory on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Jesus, being a Jew, therefore, was not helped by the Samaritans.  The disciples John and James then tried to goad Jesus to destroy the inhospitable Samaritans by calling down a flame of fire.  The image that John and James are drawing from occurs in first Kings when the prophet Elijah calls down fire from heaven, and then kills the priests of Baal.  James and John were distracted by God’s cool effects and missed God’s message in the story. 

As you may remember from the book of Kings, Elijah immediately after the fire episode isolates himself on Mount Horeb, which is another name for Mount Sinai.  On the mountain Elijah feels a strong wind, but he realizes that God was not in the wind.  Then he experiences an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake, and then he sees fire all around him, but God was not in the fire.  Then he hears a still, small voice, and God was there.  God lets Elijah know that he is not a thing, a force of nature, or a fancy special effect.  God does not exist to destroy.  God then tells Elijah that he is to anoint Gentile kings over different Gentile kingdoms.  God is showing Elijah that he is the God of the whole world not only the God of Israel or Jerusalem. 

So James and John missed the message.  Jesus chides them, and in some early manuscripts of Luke even says, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.”[1]  This story of misunderstanding with allusions to the Old Testament informs our reading of the passage that follows. 

Jesus encounters a man who pleads, "I will follow you wherever you go."  The scripture savvy audience of the first century would pick up on the allusion to the book of Ruth.  You may remember that Ruth pleads with Naomi that she will follow her wherever she goes.  Naomi may have been in a desperate situation after the death of her husband and sons, but she had a place to go.  She could go back to the land of Israel where her ancestors lived. Jesus explains that he does not have a home, at least not on this earth.  Again, there is a misunderstanding of Jesus’ message.  The man does not realize who Jesus is.  While the text does not indicate what happens to the man, based on the context, I think it’s fair to conclude that he didn’t like Jesus’ answer. 

We then come to the most puzzling section of this passage of Old Testament references and misunderstandings.  One man asks if he can go and say goodbye to his family, and Jesus tells him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."  Again, Luke is alluding to the Old Testament.  This time it is the passage we heard earlier today.  The prophet Elijah sees Elisha and throws his cloak over him.  This is a great game of prophetic tag.  You’re it, Elisha.  This event reminds me of the stories of many of the Church fathers.  Gregory of Nazianzus, for example, had to be wrestled to the ground before three bishops ordained him to the Episcopate.  He didn’t want the job, but he was tagged.  I think this is actually a good way of selecting bishops. 

So Elisha the cattle rancher was selected to be the next great prophet.  He then asks Elijah if he first can say goodbye to his family.  Elijah does not really answer the question but says, “What did I ever do to you?”  Elisha then understands that his past life is over, and he must take on the life of a prophet.  He then kills all of his cattle, a symbolic act of ending his previous life and profession, and followed Elijah. 

Jesus also stresses to the men that he must have their full commitment.  Their past lives are over, and they cannot go back to them.  Even the man who wants to bury his father is rebuked.  Most scholars believe that the man’s father is not dead, but rather he is looking to stay in his old life a little longer, and Jesus will not accept the excuse.  He says that the dead should bury their own dead, meaning that the spiritually dead, those who will not accept the call of God, should bury the physically dead.  This passage is harder for us because most of us, I assume, have not memorized Levitical laws.  If you have I am impressed, but you may need a hobby.  According to Levitical law, those who come in contact with the dead are made ritually unclean.  Jesus’ point, I think, is that those who have a corrupt spirit, who will not accept the love and commands of God, are not any different from those who are ritually unclean.  The spiritually corrupt might as well be physically unclean because they are already lost.  

All right, so even in context the passage is still tough, but unlike the disciples at the time, and the men in this passage, we know who Jesus really is.  These passages of scripture today teach us about identity and misidentification: who Christ is and his mission to save humanity, and who we are.  Jesus gives us an identity beyond our occupations.  We are Christians, and in our baptisms we have a home to lay our heads - in the body of Christ.  No longer are we merely cattle herders, vineyard owners, doctors, lawyers, and teachers. We are Christ’s own forever.  Like Elisha, we also have been chosen by God to be a spokesperson for God.  We have been given the power to be evangelists.  We were tagged, and we are it.  We have been given the power to talk to the world about the kingdom of God, and we have been given the power to help build a portion of God’s kingdom here on earth.  Not because we are so great in ourselves, but because our God in heaven is great.  We have been given the gift of identification.  We know that Christ is the Son of God, and we know his mission is to save humanity.  We also know who we are – one body in Christ forever.  Amen.