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Jill and David Boyd

Thank you David Boyd for sharing your sermon from the weekend of June29-30.

An audio file for this can be found on our web-site:  http://www.discoverstmark.org/308226.ihtml 

Almighty God,

You speak to your people from burning bushes, from whirlwinds, and from silence;

Speak to each of us today in a voice that we recognize,

so we may understand your call to us through your word,

And as we hear and understand, gives us hearts to follow; living lives filled with the love and compassion.

We pray this in the name of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Luke 9:51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. ⁵²And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; ⁵³but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. ⁵⁴When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’^{* 55}But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶Then^* they went on to another village.

Would-Be Followers of Jesus

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ ⁵⁹To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ ⁶⁰But Jesus^* said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ ⁶¹Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ ⁶²Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’

“Home”

            At this point in the gospel according to Luke, Jesus knows where he is going and he is clearly determined to get there.  Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” and nothing apparently is going to get in his way.  Rather than choosing a route to Jerusalem that would take him and his disciples through friendly territory, Jesus chooses the most direct route to Jerusalem by traveling through Samaria.  And, not surprisingly, the Samaritan’s historic hostility towards Jews quickly surfaces as they refuse to receive him and his followers, leaving them without shelter.  Angered by the insult, James and John ask Jesus if they can exact vengence on the Samaritans.  But as we might expect, Jesus rejects their appeals for a violent retribution against the Samarians and simply moves on to the next village.

         
   Apparently not all of the people Jesus meets along the way are hostile, however, as some of the people he encounters seem willing to join him.  Given the hostility he has already encountered, we might expect Jesus to welcome these folks with open arms, but instead he places harsh demands on these willing followers.   When the first person approaches him saying he will follow him wherever he goes, Jesus rather dismissively informs the man that in spite of God providing shelter for all the creatures of creation, he “has nowhere to lay his head.”  Jesus then instructs a second person to follow him and the person seems to be willing but first wants to bury his father.  Again, Jesus’ response that the dead should bury their own dead seems abrupt, and even unkind.  Finally, a third person agrees to follow Jesus if he can first say goodbye to his family at home.  This time, Jesus’ reply is not only a rejection, but one that makes clear that anyone who turns back to their home, is not worthy of being a disciple.

            The 9^th chapter of Luke’s gospel deals extensively with the cost of being a disciple of Christ.  Jesus never sugarcoats how difficult discipleship is, but the responses Jesus gives to the three potential disciples seems over the top.  Their requests seem reasonable.  After all, it is natural to make sure that all is well at home before beginning a journey.

            Now, to be fair, we don’t know if the father of the person who had requested an opportunity to bury him had actually died yet, or perhaps was just ill.  And some scholars have also pointed out that the burial practices in ancient Israel called for a two-step process.  After death, a body would be anointed and placed in a tomb until the body had fully decayed.  Later, the remains would be exhumed and the bones would be placed in an ossuary box and reburied.  So it is possible that the person’s father had already been buried and was just going to be reinterred. 

We also can’t say for certain that the person who wanted to say farewell to his family actually had a family to say goodbye to.  It is possible that in both of these cases that the potential disciple was inventing an excuse not to follow Jesus.  Without more information, though, we have to assume that all three of these individuals were genuine in their willingness to join Jesus.  Unfortunately, if we accept that all three truly were interested in being disciples, then Jesus’ responses seem harsh and unloving.   Is this the same Jesus who teaches his disciples to love everyone, even their enemies. Would he really treat people like this?

On the other hand, Jesus never shies away from challenging his followers, and I think this is what’s happening in this passage.   Like he does so often, Jesus will not let us settle for comfortable, conventional lives.  No, Jesus is calling us out.  Or at least, when I read this passage, I feel like he is calling me out, because at heart, I am a homebody.

Now, I’m not like Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of “The Hobbit;” a person who wants no adventure in his life, but I confess that, if left unchallenged, I would almost always choose the path of least resistance.  Like Bilbo, I like home.  I like places where I feel comfortable, places where I know I fit in; places where I know my role and what I’m supposed to do.  And so when I read this passage, I have that uneasy feeling that I get sometimes that Jesus is speaking to me.  Like the disciples Jesus encounters in his journey to Jerusalem, I know that I would be one of the people who would be looking back toward home before following.

Perhaps the message that Jesus is sending to folks like me, is that our definition of home is too limited.  Its not that home can’t be the place where we live and are surrounded by loved ones, or the place where we work and feel productive, or the place where we worship.  But is comfort and familiarity all that it takes to make a place home?

In returning to St. Louis this summer Jill and I have been welcomed “home” by so many of our friends.  And this place feels like home.  It feels good to be in a place where we know our way around.  To be in a place where there are so many people we love.  And especially coming back to St. Mark feels like we have truly come home.  I know that many of you share this feeling.   We really do think of this place as our “church home.” 

After reading about Jesus’ encounters with the three potential disciples on the way to Jerusalem, I’ve been thinking about what it is about this place that makes it feel like home.  It is both beautiful and comfortable.  Maybe it’s the beautiful plants and trees that greet us as we arrive.  Or the familiarity of the narthex as a place where are used to coming to meet and talk to people we know and love.  Then there’s the sanctuary with its huge wooden beams reaching skyward, the beautiful stained glass window, and comfortable pews.  Ultimately, I think all of these things contribute to making this place feel comfortable, and church-like, but I don’t think this is what makes this place home.

Thinking more , I thought, perhaps it’s the people.  Y’all – I had to throw in at least one y’all just to prove that I’ve been living in Texas for two years – are folks that we love.  In this church we get to know each other and share each other’s lives.  Like a family, we share the joys and sorrows of each other’s lives.  And then there are the pastors and the rest of the staff; all the people who care for us and help make our worship meaningful every week.  The faithful people of this church are vital to our understanding of discipleship, but ultimately, like the building, I think they point us to something else.

I can’t speak for all of you, but in my experience, everything I have described adds something vitally important to this place.  But, for me, what makes this church really home, is that this is a place where I come to meet God.  Buildings change, and the membership of the church changes over time, but it is when I experience the presence of God here that I know this place is truly home.  And, this completely changes my definition of home.  Home no longer has to be a geographical location. No, home can be anyplace where the holy is encountered.

I think this is the message that Jesus is trying to send to the three would-be disciples.  They are thinking of home as a place where their loved ones live and are buried.  They are so tied to those specific places that they are at risk of not being present to witness first-hand as God changes the world.  This is an  uncomfortable thought – well, at least it is for me, because I know  that I tend to look at home as a place.  But then I consider all that has changed in the last two years.

The decision to leave St. Louis was a difficult one.  We have so much history here, so much support. But we went to Austin trusting that that is where God wanted us.  Not only was Austin new and unfamiliar, but the rhythms of our lives changed completely.  The demands of a career and keeping up a home were replaced by massive amounts of reading, research papers, and sermons.  This truly was a journey into the unknown, a new city and a new lifestyle.  And on top of that, while three years seemed like a long time when we started our studies two years ago, we now are looking at having to move again in less than a year – destination unknown.

Throughout this transition, however, we have always had the peace that we were where we were supposed to be, doing the things that we were supposed to be doing.  Though very little of it felt like home in the sense that we had become accustomed to, in a deeper sense, we have never been more at home.

This is one of the few guarantees that Jesus makes about discipleship: you will be called away from what you know into difficult and uncomfortable situations.  But the other side of that equation is that we never go into those difficult situations alone – God goes with us.

This has been made very real to me this summer.  In the midst of our “homecoming,” Jill and I are both participating in CPE – Clinical Pastoral Education – in which we serve as hospital chaplains for the summer.  CPE is anything but comfortable and familiar.  The intent of this program is not only to teach us about the role of hospital chaplains, but to allow us to experience our own emotional reactions to the painful situations people cope with in the hospital.  What do you say to the person who has had a bilateral lung transplant and is in full rejection?  Having been in that situation, I can tell you that I don’t know.  Both I and the patient are about as far from what we consider “home” as it is possible to be.

What I have come to learn, however, is that you go to the patient’s room anyway, even when you have no idea what to say.  You go, trusting that God is already there; trusting that God will allow you to provide comfort even when you feel completely unprepared.  And sometimes in those situations, you know that God is with you in that hospital room.  And in that time, that place becomes holy ground and it becomes home in a very real way.

In thinking about all the instances in which my faith has led me to redefine my view of home, I know that none of them are unique to me.  I learned this new definition of home from you.  I came to Christ in this church.  I have watched you as you have journeyed to Peru, Nicaragua, and Mexico to share your love of God.  I have witnessed your willingness to go to areas devastated by natural disaster like Houma and Joplin in order to bring relief.  I have been able to participate myself in our work with Circle of Concern and Isaiah 58.  And I have watched the St. Mark youth grow in discipleship through helping others both in St. Louis and beyond.  In other words, I have seen the people of this church model the kind of discipleship Jesus exhorts his followers to in today’s passage.

And it is the example that Jesus gave us in his own life.  Throughout the gospels, Jesus is always on the move, preaching and healing.  He is rarely in the same place for long.  And all roads eventually lead to Jerusalem.  He is rejected by the Samaritans, but continues to move on.  He has set his face on Jerusalem.  The journey is hard and Jesus knows how it will end. 

Yes, Jesus is the fully divine Son of Man, but he is also fully human and knows that even greater rejection lies at the end of the road.  Perhaps the reason that Jesus is so insistent that his followers expand their definition of home and leave behind all that is familiar to them is the same reason that he has the strength to continue his own journey to the cross.  What Jesus understands that the people who want to follow him do not, is that wherever he goes, however difficult and challenging, God is there.  He knows that every person who chooses to follow him will in some way be called away from all that is familiar and comfortable.  But the God who calls us away from our places of comfort always goes with us.  God calls us to find God where are.  And anywhere we find God, we find home.  To God be the glory.  Amen.