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.
For 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. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, 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.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21
The Lord said to Elijah, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also 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."
So 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. He 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?" He 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
When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When 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?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And 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." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
Sermon by the Rev. Carole Horton-Howe
One of the saints of St. Matthias was the Rev. Shirley Rose. She was also a mentor and friend. Shirley served in many capacities, first as a DRE - Director of Religious Education, later as a priest and even later as St. Matthias’ Interim Rector. St. Matthias and the Rev. Chet Howe supported her in her call to ordained ministry. In the 1980’s this was a courageous thing, a loving thing.
I met her after she retired and moved to Orange County where she helped out at St. George’s. She was no longer driving at that time but still have many friends in Whittier that she wanted to visit. I volunteered to drive her – thrilled to pieces to have that time in the care with her. She told me stories about St. Matthias which she loved with all her heart – the joys, the challenges, the connection with the Whittier community:
After the rector retired, and Shirley became the long term interim all was not well. There were hurt feelings, the camps in the congregation and deadly parking lot conversations. Shirley told me she knew they could not more forward unless and until there was healing AND a willingness to engage in a process of reconciliation. Looking back, she was so thankful that they did, that they showed courage once again – that together they focused on healing.
Looking in the rearview mirror can be useful. Learning from the experience of our spiritual ancestors shows us a precious, thread that connects us to God, to them and to each other. This morning we’re encountering 3 texts from our scripture that speak to this notion of how we can be informed by what has gone before, how we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us give us a closer, better view of the Kingdom of God.
Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia is clear and concise about what they are to do. We look at this letter we see something very interesting about how he positions this letter. But we have to understand something about Paul. Before his conversion, before he became a follower of Jesus, he was a devout and faithful Pharisee. So had spent much of his life becoming an expert in Jewish law and customs. He knows the law inside and out. And that knowledge shapes and forms him and shapes and forms his teaching.
One of the things we see in this passage is that the whole law can be summed up in one sentence, “love your neighbor as yourself.” I wonder that he left out the part In Deuteronomy which is “love God.” He’s quoting from Leviticus when he tells them to love your neighbor as yourself. Not to be critical of Paul, but it is the love of God for us on which we can model our love of others.
And he goes into a litany of all the transgressions that come about when we fail to both love God and love neighbor. Because we act out of self- interest. We don’t act in a way that respects the world around us. We act in a way that serves only our own interests. We act with greed, envy and covetousness. We act in ways that marginalize our neighbors. And we both literally and figuratively sell out our neighbors and feel okay about it.
And what Paul says to the followers in the church in Galacia is that this is not the way we want to be. We want our actions to be guided by love. When our actions are prompted solely by love, something happens. Something divine takes over and carries us forward. All those divisions around us fall away. In letting go of our own interests we act with patience and generosity and kindness. Those are the things we want to lift up. But we do have to decide to make an affirmative effort to be constantly renewed and informed by love our neighbor.
Our Old Testament reading is short but powerful. We don’t get any backstory in the relationship between Elijah and Elisha – just this seemingly climactic moment. But it’s enough to provide us with conflicting context with our gospel. Here is Elijah’s call to Elisha to take on the mantel or authority of the prophet is willing to leave his life behind and follow Elijah. But first he asks to go home, to kiss his father and mother good-bye. Elijah grants that wish. He seems to vacillate, knowing God’s command to him but feeling the weight of the burden he’s put in Elisha. Go back, he tells him “for what have I done to you?"
Jesus responds quite differently to a similar request as we’ll review in a minute. We are on notice, I think, that the demands of sharing the work of building the kingdom with Jesus are greater than demands put on anyone at any earlier time in history, even the ancient, legitimate prophets who suffered greatly.
Luke’s gospel sounds sober and a little harsh. We don’t expect Jesus to respond to people quite as harshly as he does and yet there is a reason that he responds in the way he does. So here is Jesus with his face set towards Jerusalem. Because he knows what is ahead. Jesus knows what he is going to be called to do. And nothing can turn him away from going where God needs him to go and from what he needs to do.
In our own lives we face significant times of transition. Early in our faith development, we ae often focused on learning more about Scripture, the church and what it means to be a child of God. We revel in the knowledge that we are loved fully and completely by a wonderful, caring Savior. We share together in the marvelous fellowship that is the body of Christ. We feel renewed, nurtured and fulfilled.
As our faith grows and matures, our life in Christ merges with our life in the world. We come to realize that living by the Way of Jesus Christ is more than just a private endeavor, no matter how meaningful. In order to have true meaning and integrity, it must be part of our being. No matter what our gifts or imperfections, the mature Christian must willingly walk alongside Jesus, even if that journey compels us to make difficult choices that living solely in a more secular existence might otherwise avoid.
So when a man says “I need to go bury my father” and Jesus responds back to him “let the dead bury their own dead” it’s not because Jesus doesn’t understand the rituals and traditions of his people or is dismissive of them. He knows them quite well and he respects them. And he also understands that when you are responding to God’s call, you cannot lose sight of what God means for us to be doing. Never lose sight of it.
We cannot set aside God’s mission for us to engage in lengthy goodbyes and lengthy rituals with people. We can’t lose sight of God’s mission for us so we can stay in our own heads. Jesus is telling us to keep God’s desires top of mind ahead of everything else.
And we need to be mindful of those rear view mirror view and experiences and lessons that have shaped us and brought us to that place. The lessons in faithfulness that we have learned from those around us who have helped us grow. The lessons in love that we carry with us because as people of God we know the unconditional love that God gives us that we are then to go out and give to the world - when it’s easy to offer than love and especially when it isn’t. That’s a lot to carry.
We encounter these three texts at a particularly interesting point in our world. When self-interest seems to absorb so many. When so many seem to have lost that rearview image of God … loving us, calling us, pleading with us: Hear my voice. Know that I am present, I am there. And in the midst of all the things that vie for our attention, that want to tear at us, that make us want to turn our face away from the way God wants us to go, we are indeed called to remember.
We are called to remember the commandments, we are called to remember to love God and neighbor to act as people who are informed by the love that we experience every day from our God. We are called to remember Paul’s teaching to the Galatians. That informs and shapes and tells us how we are to live in community with one another. And when that drives us, suddenly those walls begin to fall away.
We experience so much angry rhetoric, divisive action, rancor and fearfulness that we might lose sight of those moments when we come together. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can be free. We can choose reconciliation. There are places where we can agree, where we can come together. When we allow those moments to drive us forward, when we lead with our hearts, there is no end to the good we can do. There is no chasm we cannot cross when we are motivated and empowered by love. Amen.