Scripture: Psalm 77 and Luke 9: 51-62
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our strength and our redeemer. Amen.
It is an honor to preach here at Oakhurst. After reviewing the texts for today, I knew that Psalm 77 and the Luke passage that was read were the ones that I should choose. When I had lunch with Lanny a few days later, I told him that the passage from Luke was the one that especially intrigued me. But it was also the one that I resisted. It bothered me, and I knew that I would have to continue to work on this, even to struggle with it, like a dog gnawing on a bone, until it gave me some answers to my questions.
In the first part of this passage, we learn that the Samaritans had refused to allow Jesus to stay in their village. They knew that he was on his way to Jerusalem to be with the Jewish community. This rejection recognizes the tension between the Jews and the Samaritans. But it may also indicate that the Samaritans did not want to follow a leader whom they believed was on his way “to be taken up”, or to be killed.
At the same time, Jesus was beginning to recognize that his mission included the Gentiles, and he was trying to reach outside the Jewish community to share his message. This rejection by the Samaritans must have been discouraging. No doubt, his trusted disciples could have also disappointed him. By their response, they did not understand Jesus’ mission. They offered to ask God to burn up the Samaritan village as a good plan! Jesus rebuked them. (Some texts add, “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. Then he turned and rebuked them.”) Yet Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem and continued on his path, a journey that would ultimately lead him to his death on the cross.
The second part of this passage is the encounter with those who would be followers. Jesus made it clear that this would not be an easy life. After his rejection by the Samaritans, he realized that at times there would be nowhere to lay his head. “Follow me”, he said to others. And the would-be followers answered that they were not prepared to just walk away, and let go of their other commitments. They would need to deal with family responsibilities, and they needed more time to say goodbye. Jesus replied: “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
This was his response to the man who wanted to bury his father. That sounds pretty harsh to me. Jesus was very aware of the importance of the Jewish customs of burial of the dead. Another man simply wanted to say good-bye to his family, but again Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Jesus was clearly using this as a teaching moment!
What did he mean by that, and what does this mean for us? I believe that in our postmodern world, sometimes it is hard to stay on task with the busy lives that we live today. Consider life in this world of digital multi-tasking, with cell phones ringing, emails and phone calls to make, appointments to keep, deadlines to meet, and all the other busy-ness of our lives. It is often difficult to stop and think about just what is truly important. How are we prioritizing what we are doing and why? Sometimes that requires tough choices. How do we keep our hand on the plow and not look back? How do we keep the faith?
Here at Oakhurst we have this covenant we see on the wall to follow, which has been a good guideline for me. I believe that Jesus is calling all of us to follow him, but that may mean for some people simply to travel faithfully (however imperfectly) the road that we have already chosen. But the task is how to do that faithfully, and it is not always easy. Other times, we are asked to go places and to do things that we could never have imagined. At times it may require thoughtful and persistent prayer and meditation to make the hard decisions and live faithfully.
The first part of Psalm 77 that we read for the responsive reading is a lament. It reveals the writer’s sense of loneliness and despair: “My soul refuses to be comforted. I think of God and I moan; I meditate, and my spirit faints: Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?” Yet his lament changes to a song of praise as the psalmist remembers God’s blessings and supportive presence in the past. Both of these scriptures are dealing with a deep pain of isolation. One commentary suggested that the Psalmist is possibly suffering from depression, and needed some pastoral counseling. (He should have come to Oakhurst!) Jesus feels that he has been rejected. No doubt he was also feeling despondent. Rejected by those he sought to lead and misunderstood by his disciples.
The Psalmist begins to remember how things have been in the past, and slowly his hopes are lifted by the memory of the ways that God has been faithful in the past.
Jesus also expresses lament, as he states, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” He continues to be faithful to his mission, in spite of the lack of support he has received from others who would follow him. He moved on to his destination, discouraged, yet determined.
In keeping with our covenant statement of knowing and being known, please allow me to be personal here. After the past nine months of living with the knowledge of my husband’s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor, and a prognosis of perhaps less than a year to live, I could relate to these words of grief and despair in the Psalm. Like the Psalmist I have also felt tearful and isolated at times. Yet, I too, have found a reason to hope. And I have felt like praising God for the love that he has provided for us during this time.
The support of this church, friends and family members that we have received has made this possible. For John and for me you have been the incarnate presence of God. I remember that you came to visit us in the hospital, and later you also came to our house bringing food after John’s surgery. You drove John to radiation treatments, and now you continue to offer rides as well as companionship for him as he goes to his various appointments. Your calls, your notes, your delicious food, warm hugs and words of love and encouragement have blessed us. You remind me of God’s abiding love and presence, never far away from us.
And our news from the doctors has been good so far, the report from John’s MRI on Friday is encouraging that the tumor is not growing, and we continue to live our lives fully, by God’s Grace, one day at a time. We have been able to come to church regularly, and to be blessed by this time of coming together in worship. We sing praises to God who has brought us this far, and to offer prayers of thanksgiving. And we have been able to travel and visit our families. But we also know that there are going to be hard times to deal with later on. We are aware that we live in the “between times” of this illness.
One of my special blessings has been to spend time with the men in the Oakhurst Recovery Program each week, to share their stories of recovery and God’s gracious presence in their lives. And that is the way John and I live our lives, one day at a time, in this shadow of uncertainty about what may develop in the future. But the good news is, John is alive today!
These words of the psalmist have been resonating with God’s goodness for me throughout this time. “I recall all you have done, O Lord, I remember all your wonderful deeds”. Ps. 77, v. 31
So how do we keep our faith at times when all around us, it seems that the life we have known is changing forever and God seems so distant? Jesus had the determination to continue on his way to Jerusalem, knowing that this was his mission, no matter what the outcome, and regardless of how discouraged he felt about hearing the lack of understanding of his message. Yet he did not falter and he continued on the journey, all the way to Calvary.
There is irony that as I live with my husband’s diagnosis of a terminal illness, and prepare myself that one day he will die, I am continuing in my role as a hospice chaplain. Just as there is irony in the fact that I grew up in a small town, where my father owned a funeral home. As a child, I moved freely between the funeral home and the Presbyterian Church next door, where my grandfather was the pastor. And that way, I believe that I learned from an early age that death is a part of life, and that the church stands nearby to help us get through these times.
Today, I am grateful for this living body of Christ that meets here. You sustain my faith in God, and at times carry me through these days of uncertainty—days that feel dangerous at times. This is a message of hope and assurance of the true freedom that only the living Christ can bring to us.
Especially now, on at the beginning of this week of celebration of our country’s day of independence, it is good to remember this. I understand now that no matter what life may bring, Christ has truly set us free!
We are free because we know that this life, with all its suffering, hardships and disappointments, can be a time of deep personal growth in our spiritual lives. The Good News is that Christ has overcome this world, and that even if we must lose those whom we love, we are assured by Paul’s statement in the Book of Romans that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
As I continue to work as a chaplain with hospice patients in an inpatient unit, it restores my soul to be with them, and to share their stories. And as I accompany John on his journey of faith through this time of uncertainty, I realize how precious and fragile life can be. We are learning to walk the walk in faith, one day at a time. It has not been an easy time for us. Yet, during this time, as John and I struggle to make some kind of sense out of all this, we have grown closer to each other and to God, and we have been given a new understanding of God’s grace and mercy.
In the words of the Psalmist, “Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God?"
Amen
Benediction
And now, as you go from this place, may the Love of God the Creator go with you, may the Grace of the Son of God sustain you, and may the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit give you Peace that passes all human understanding. Amen