Luke 9:51-62

Pentecost 3 | 26.06.2022 | Luke 9: 51-62 and others | Andrew 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.

Psalm 16
¹Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.²I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”³As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.⁴Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.⁵The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.⁶The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.⁷I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.⁸I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.⁹Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.¹⁰For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.¹¹You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, ²¹envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

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

“The Real World” … How many of you have heard folks (usually „responsible adult“ folks, like teachers or parents or such; how many of you have heard folks) say and use the expression, “Wait and see what it’s like ‘in the real world’”? Or they say, “Well – it ain’t like that in the real world.”

I have heard that expression quite a bit (especially during the days I worked at a university campus). It is sometimes used by teachers – but more often, it is said among students themselves – as a way of contrast: a contrast between what the students‘  life is like now in contrast to “the real world,” an experience they expect to have later. And the contrast usually is this: as they experience the world now, it is somehow an easier world, or, it is friendlier, or it is more forgiving, it is more caring; and that is contrasted to something else that’s “out there,” something different, which is allegedly “the RealWorld,” something that is harsher, less forgiving, or even UN-forgiving, less friendly, less caring.

Allow me, please, to pose the question: What is ‘real’? Is God real? “Of course,” we claim; here we sit in church, worshiping God! And according to ancient Greek philosophy, followed by western medieval philosophy and beyond, God is the ground of all being; God is the most real of all; God is the creator and source of all, of anything that IS ‘real.’ Is God “real world”? “Well, yes,” we respond.

And, is God – as we know of God  in the Christian tradition – forgiving, or unforgiving; harsh, or kind; loving, or unloving? The Bible (the first letter of St. John, chapter 4) and the Church in Christian tradition, states, “God is love.” Thus, if God is love, and if God is the foundation of all being and the most real of all things that are real, then “Real” is love; the so-called “real world” is where there is kindness, forgiveness, and caring … that is, love. And what we find out there in the alleged, so-called “real world,”  what some parents and professors and employers refer to as “real world,” is actually less than real; it is less than God. God is what you experience with your best friends and family who carefor you: „Real” is joy, Real is caring, Real is understanding of human brokenness and frailty and fear; Real is forgiveness, Real is acceptance of a person, faults and all, for the purpose of encouraging that person to become more. When we encounter this kind of environment: THAT is actually “the Realworld.”

Can we point at or point to God as something “real”? Can we point at love? Can we point at Joy? Not really. We can point to instances of joy; we can point to instances of love. We can point to effects or results of the presence and the work of God. But, in and of himself, God is “Spirit”’; in and of itself, Love is Spirit. Sometimes, realities of the Spirit are considered less real, because we cannot see them, or measure them.

Today we hear a reading from a portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Galatia. St. Paul knew that matters of the spirit – God’s spirit, but also in that “real world,” OUR spirits – (matters of the spirit) are real. And that is one of the concerns of St.  Paul, and the whole Christian tradition: to support Christians (to support you!) in knowing that many of the most important things in this world  and in this life are things that we do not see, that we cannot scientifically measure. There are realities in this world besides those things many teachers and parents and politicians refer to as the real world(that is, for example, harshness, unkindness).

Yes, there are certain realities in and of this world that we have to deal with: rent, groceries, a job, making good grades, doctors and drug stores, taxes, annoying people, etc. And the presence of God is just as much a reality, just as much as these visible, challenging, sometimes painful experiences in this world.

Among the „Real“ realities in this world are the signs and effects of the presence of God, where God has been, where God is; such signs are: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (the fruit of the Spirit, as we hear of St. Paul writing to the Galatians today).  These are realities to which, in and of themselves, we cannot point, but we know them to be real. Similarly, today, we can point to another reality among  us: the presence of God in Christ with, in, and under bread and wine.

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

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Andrew Weisner