It is always fun to deal with hard texts in scripture-here I reflect on Jesus' calling to "let the dead bury their own dead" in relationship to freedom and our allegiance to Christ.
Let me know what you think.
Good morning friends!
It is good to gather in worship with
all of you this morning.
I hope that you have been blessed this
past week. I am doing well-I continue to live in the already not
yet, prepared for my life to change completely at any moment, but
trying to do the work of the day in the meantime-it was a strange
thing to be writing a sermon I wasn't sure would ever be preached.
Anyway, as I studied our scriptures this week, I was caught by two
words that will serve as our touchstones this morning- allegiance and
freedom.
The fourth of July is coming up next
week- that quintessential celebration of American Freedom and the
declaration of Independence, when 13 original colonies decided that
because of the grievous abuses of the British Empire, they had to
break free from the domination of the system. On the fourth of July,
we celebrate our freedoms-freedom of Religion, freedom of speech,
freedom to carry deadly weapons wherever we want, things of that
nature. It is the time when we are most particularly asked to claim
allegiance to the nation, to celebrate and honor the country in which
we live. The national anthem will be playing, people will recite the
pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
there will be b-b-q and fireworks and a big parade, and emphasis on
the red white and blue.
So this week, I'd like to look at the
themes of freedom and allegiance in the context of our Biblical text.
Because these stories from Luke and Galatians also proclaim freedom
in Christ, and call us to a new allegiance in God.
Our text from Luke this morning, where
Jesus tells would be disciples “Foxes have holes, and birds have
nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head”, “Let the
dead bury their own dead, but as for you go and proclaim the kingdom
of God” and “no one who puts hand to the plow and turns away is
worthy to enter the kingdom of God” is one of the hard stories of
the New Testament-a challenge and confrontation to anyone who is
comfortable.
This is obviously a story about
Christian allegiance to God.
It takes place at a turning point in
Luke's gospel. After his baptism, Jesus has worked miracles and
preached in Galilee, and now he had turned his face towards
Jerusalem-towards the cross on Calvary’s hill. He has collected
huge crowds, he has pleased the masses,
he has done the popular thing. Now, he gives this message to those
who would be his disciples-it is time to get ready-time to suit up
and ship out, to Saddle up and get ready to ride, to gird up your
loins and buckle your armor, because this is about to get real.
You
want to follow me? Then you better know that the son of man has no
place to lay his head, that he is more homeless than the fox in the
hills and the birds of the air. You want to follow me? Then you
better know that I wait for no funerals, nor for fond farewells, but
go only towards the work that is to come, proclaiming the kingdom of
God, and if you're going to come with me, now is the time, and this
is the place and there are no excuses.
After
this ultimatum, in the next passage from Luke, Jesus sends out 70
disciples like this- “Go
on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of
wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals, greet no one on the way.
Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!..Remain
in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide,”
This is a vision of a wandering band, totally and radically reliant
on the generosity of strangers and the whims of the spirit.
Jesus
has turned his face towards Jerusalem, he's aiming at the capital
city, and the cross he will find there, and he isn't going to suffer
any fools.
That is an invitation to allegiance-
And, I expect, it is a vision that
might cause pause to those of us who are wrapped up in all the bonds
of community, all the ties that bind us to a conventional life,
normal middle class existence in the American empire.
As human beings, mixed loyalties are
sort of the nature of our existence- the constant balance between the
competing demands of family and friends, work and school, country and
religion. We juggle schedules, deciding which sports events, which
cultural delights, which projects are worthy of our time and our
attention. We are faced with the constant balancing act between short
and long term goals, between the needs of today and our plans for the
future. You all know the challenges of keeping a calendar straight,
and the feeling we so often have that there are not enough hours in
the day for everything that calls for our loyalty.
And we generally come up with a pretty
complex lived theology, where we balance the different agenda of our
competing values, making decisions about how much time to spend at
work, volunteering, caring for one another, and relaxing based both
on our sense of what 'the right amount' of time to spend on each is,
and the demands of now, the sense of being tired or exhausted, or
energized or passionate at this instant.
And I don't knock that. In fact, I'm
pretty confident I'll be entering more completely into that world of
confusion as I become fully committed to the well-being of a new
child in the next couple of weeks.
But there is something about being
freed from these patterns.
And I think that is where freedom comes
into the text. Now, a word about freedom. Freedom is awesome-I'm a
big fan of many we have in the United States-freedom of speech,
freedom of assembly, freedom of religion. It really is special,
historically speaking, that we can gather here in this place and
worship the God who breaks down all political walls and proclaims an
eternal reign replacing all ridiculous and corrupt worldly
governments, and talk about how frustrating it is that the American
Empire is dominating the world, spying on its citizens, torturing
it's enemies, and killing innocent children with bombs from the sky
with no fear of prosecution or persecution from our government. Oh,
and speaking of that-you notice that Jesus does not approve of
slaughtering villages with fire from the sky, even if they don't like
you, right?
Anyway, Christians don't usually talk
about freedom as one of our core virtues-
duty is quicker to our lips, or
rules-10 commandments, golden rule, greatest commandment, and the
like. Yet Paul speaks of freedom, freedom in the spirit. And I think
there is freedom in Christ's invitation to allegiance-because he was
offering people who thought they had no choice a new path. The ties
of family and society, the norms in ancient Israel were even more
tightly bound than the ties today-to be alive was to be constrained,
to have a role and rules and burdens and expectations. The whole 'you
need to get a good education and a good job instead of spending a
year wasting time' weight that many students contemplating Mennonite
Voluntary Service face is magnified in a society with no safety net,
and the only retirement plan is the work of your children.
Jesus' offer-go now, without waiting,
don't worry about status or proper behavior, ignore your previous
obligations- that is a kind of Freedom.
One of the most fun interpretations
I've heard of this text is that it is all about getting away from
family. Kenneth Bailey in his book Through Peasant Eyes suggests that
for a Middle Eastern audience, these stories are all about escaping
from the oppressive expectations of family and community who had
already charted out a path for your life (if you were the young adult
that was Jesus' target audience).
Come, Jesus says-for while that Fox
Herod has a hole in Caesarea, and the Roman birds feather their nest
with the profits from our labor, I, the Son of Man, have no place to
lay my head-will you be faithful?
Come, Jesus says, you do not have to
wait until the Pater familias has died to follow me-in fact, you
cannot wait, for I am going to Jerusalem, and the decades it will
take until you are your own man will leave you burdened and bound by
your own set of obligations.
Come, Jesus says, do not go home to
'take leave of your family', when you go 'ask permission' to join a
ragtag and rebel group of faithful God followers, what do you think
they are going to say? Now is the time, and there is no one you have
to ask but your own soul.
There is a very strict and duty bound
role that you can live in, yes, a normal everydayness in this world,
but that is not what I am inviting you to-
no, I am inviting you to freedom, and a
new allegiance.
And I think it's the freedom Paul is
preaching about this morning.
You were called to freedom, brothers
and sisters. As we've been weaving through the book of Galatians,
Paul has come back to this image again and again-we are free in
Christ, we don't have to earn God's love, we don't have to fear that
the gates of heaven will be barred against us.
This Christian thing is not about
having to jump through hoops like circumcision or dietary
restrictions. Don't think you have to fight to become the children of
God, constraining yourself with a carefully constructed series of
rules and regulations that define what it means to be faithful. No,
you are free-really free-to break loose of constraints that do not
bring life.
But that freedom does not mean that we
do whatever. Both Paul and Jesus are clear. Rather, the freedom is to
enter into real relationship with the Holy Spirit-to know God, and
claim God's way. The freedom to choose a different, more rigorous,
more dramatic, more dynamic path. To reflect on the gifts of the
spirit, on the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self control that lead to life. to
think about things that are deeper, more significant, more real, to
consider how we use all that we are-our minds and bodies, our time
and treasure, the very earth we so foolishly claim to possess, for
the good of those around us.
That is the freedom we have in Christ,
as we claim a new allegiance to the prince of peace, the king of
kings, and the Lord of Lords.
Every year, about this time, I break
out the Christian Pledge of Allegiance, which Nelson Kraybill and
June Alliman Yoder wrote for AMBS. I think it speaks both to our core
allegiance, and our core freedom in Christ. It goes like this:
I pledge allegianc to Jesus Christ, and
to God's kingdom, for which he died, one Spirit-led people the world
over, indivisible, with love and justice for all.
As we take communion together this
morning, this is the pledge I hope we all take, the allegiance we all
demonstrate, to the God who gives freedom, and faithfulness to all
who come, and taste and see that the Lord is good.
Amen.
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