The Third Sunday After Pentecost | 1 Kings 19:9b-21 | June 29, AD 2025 | Andrew F. Weisner |

1 Kings 19:9b-21
At that place he came to a cave, and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁰He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹¹He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; ¹²and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. ¹³When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁴He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” ¹⁵Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. ¹⁶Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. ¹⁷Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. ¹⁸Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” ¹⁹So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. ²⁰He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” ²¹He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

Luke 9:51-62

⁵¹When 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 toward 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?” ⁵⁵But he turned and rebuked them. ⁵⁶Then they went on to another village.⁵⁷As 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 plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Homily

       God loves us – period. Our lives are, by His choice, destined to be with him. God loves us, and we are with him, and he is with us, and so it shall remain  because he loves us. So, how, now are we going to live?

There is a variety of ways we can ask that question; from a variety of angles, and in various degrees of intensity we can ask the question, “How are we going to live as followers of Christ?” God loves us, regardless, and within God’s love and kindness is the context in which we ask the question, “How are we going to live?”

         Some years ago I knew a professor who had a poster on his door on which read: Just imagine… If you could take so much of ‘the bad’ that’s in the world – profanity, murder, stealing, adultery, disrespect for elders, disrespect for children, disrespect for family, disregard for God, lying, cheating, jealousy, anger – if you could take all these bad things in the world and put them in a box, would you want to bring that box into your house and open it up for all that terror and sadness to come flying out of there and affect the life of your family, your children, your friends who come into your house; or, would you simply take the remote control and turn it off?

         Rather clearly, this is a criticism against television; and the poster was written before the prevalence of computers and smart-phones and other “boxes” that we can open that provide access to ugly things in this world.

         The poster, and the very question of whether “to watch, or not to watch, or what to watch” on TV (or the internet), raises a question of how we want to live following the values and the ways of God. How radical, or not so radical, do we want to be?

         But, of course, not only my professor’s poster raises that question; today’s scripture readings raise that question. We hear in today’s first lesson, from 1^st Kings, about the prophet Elisha (successor to the prophet Elijah), taking the oxen and plough with which he was plowing a field, slaughtering the oxen, and then with the plow, building a fire, cooking the oxen on the fire and giving the cooked cuisine to the neighbors. This was the way he decided to follow God, following Elijah, to become a prophet: that is, destroying, burning, and cooking the tools of his previous life as a farmer, so that there would be no turning back!

         In three unnamed individuals in the gospel reading, we have examples different than Elijah. One claims he (or she) wants to follow along with Jesus, but the text suggest this person didn’t want to embrace the poverty. Another wants to follow Jesus, but first wants to bury his father – a commendable, and important, good deed in Jewish culture. And yet a third one wants to follow Jesus, but wants first to go tell everybody at home “farewell;” and that’s not a bad thing. But it is not a radical kind of following such as we see in Elisha, or other examples we have in the Bible (and Church history) of people choosing to dedicate themselves totally to God.

         So, we, individually, have choices to make about how we want to live by the values of God, how we want to follow Jesus. And, collectively, as families – or as a group of friends, or as a congregation – we have choices to make, issues we will need to decide, about how we embody the values of the kingdom of God, how we follow Jesus. Whatever we decide, we are setting examples, we are role models for others; and  however, whatever we decide, whatever  we do, God can use it. God can use our choices – especially our personal sacrifices on behalf of others – and join them with the sacrifice of his Son, and God can — and will –make something grand out of even the little we may give to him.

         God can make grandeur, God can make strength, God can make beauty, without us. And sometimes (often!) he allows our participation. Today, with the simple objects (creations by God) of  bread and wine, still seen with such simplicity, God almighty makes something glorious. By the power of God, Christ, with bread and wine, gives to us himself, preparing us for the day when he, out of self-sacrificial love, gives us the grandeur of glory. Until that day, in the meantime, “Come, Lord Jesus.”

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Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D.
pastorweisner@gmail.com
Pastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
Morganton, North Carolina, USA
Faculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, Ambridge, PA, USA