Freedom of the Servant

This sermon was heard at the Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on Sunday June 26, 2016, the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time.

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62

May the words of mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The Reverend Chip Andrus is the Pastor at South Salem Presbyterian Church in South Salem, New York. I knew Chip when he was the Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Harrison, Arkansas. He’s one of those people I want to be when I grow up. If envy wasn’t a sin, I would covet his musical talent. I tell people I’m musical, but not musically talented. Chip is both.

A few years ago Marie and I went to Sunday worship at First Harrison and the sermon had to do with being a servant. The choir didn’t do an anthem that day. Rather than the full choir and organ, Chip and a small combo of guitars gathered around the font. They sang the first single released from Bob Dylan’s 1979 studio album “Slow Train Coming.” It was his first release since becoming a born again Christian. They played “Gotta Serve Somebody” and played it quite well. During the sermon, Pastor Chip quoted the song:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

There are two things from last Sunday’s sermon that I want to say again. The first is this paraphrase of Paul from Galatians, “there was a time when the nation of Israel lived under the custody of the Law, the Torah, until the faith could be revealed. The Law acted like a guardian taking care of the nation. Then the Christ came and we are now justified by faith and now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.”

I bring this back because this leads us to the beginning of our reading from Galatians. The words found on the cover of our bulletin, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”

In the days of Jesus, the Pharisees literally turned the law into a yoke of slavery. To be right with the law was to be right with the Temple Elite was to be right with the Pharisees. If you didn’t do as the Pharisees wanted, your relationship with God would be brought into question. In Jerusalem, at a time when everything revolved around the temple, if you ran afoul with the leaders you could be kicked out. Being kicked out would lead to spiritual, social, and financial ruin.

In the sacred and the secular, the Pharisees had the people in a yoke of slavery made from the law. In and of itself, the law was not bad, but when people use the Law, the word of God, to make the people slaves, that is bad.

We are no longer under the guardianship of the law, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need safeguards. Without rules people have a tendency to get off the leash and run. Folks can become overzealous. Our gospel reading from the New International Version says, “Jesus sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him.” Remember, the Jews and the Samaritans were cousins who didn’t get along. Back to the story, “[they did] not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ’Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’ But Jesus turned and rebuked them.”

Another translation, the New American Standard Bible, includes a comment by Jesus not found in earlier manuscripts. In this translation, Jesus rebukes the disciples saying, “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” In that translation, not only do we know that James and John were rebuked, but how they were rebuked.

James and John were two of the most trusted disciples. They will see the transfiguration. They will accompany the Lord to Gethsemane when the time comes; and they get scolded for offering wrath when that is not the will of God. The Samaritans are the Hatfield’s to their McCoy and the nuclear option looks pretty good, but that is not the will of God.

To live in the age of grace that follows living under the law, we need to live in the right spirit, the Holy Spirit of God in Christ. To do that, I first want to bring back the other thing from last Sunday’s sermon. In the conclusion I said, “This is the good news of Jesus Christ. The God who sent his Son to show us a better way, to be the better way, became the living Torah so we can live by faith and not under the law.”

It’s not wrong to ask the question “if we don’t live under the law, then what do we live under?” You might even ask me if I am “anti-law-and-order.” Rest assured I love order contrary to the appearance of my desk at any given moment. But I heard it said that laws and rules are written for society’s dumbest people. Why is there a speed limit? So people don’t drive 145 mph through downtown OKC. Why does the NFL make football stadiums quit serving adult beverages after the third quarter? To reduce the number of drunk drivers. Why can’t you drive drunk? It’s about safety, the drinker’s and everybody else’s.

As Paul writes, the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and what the flesh wants is, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” Paul sure knows how to make a list, doesn’t he?

When talking about Jesus as the Living Torah, the Law of God that came to be with us and to be one of us, we must remember that the Messiah only wants what is good and right for the children of God. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. I’ll say that again. Nothing bad can come from Jesus. This is the breadth of God’s love for us. The Lord who can do all things from creation to destruction, chooses love. There is no hate, no spite, no arrogance, no ignorance, no impatience, no grudges in the name of God.

In this “What Would Jesus Do?” moment, we have to remember that the answer is to live in the spirit of God. Paul has a list for what it means to live in the Spirit too, ‘love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” He ends saying, “Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

Our reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians ends with an admonition that can be read as a prayer, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” He tells the Galatians that they live in the Spirit! Yes, they live in the Spirit!

Paul says freedom is in Christ. When we stand firm in Christ the burdens others place on us are gone. That doesn’t mean everything in life will automatically be peaches and cream; there are people who will try to put the yoke of the law around your neck again and again. There are Pharisees in every age who will tell you what to think and how to act and will do it in the name of God. When done to lift up what is not Godly, Paul tells to beware, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”

Yes, people err. People goof. People make mistakes. You know the old expression, “To err is human, to blame is also human.” This is the nature of sin which we will not escape this side of glory. We can rejoice that while to err is human, to forgive divine. Living under the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we are not servants to the law or, more importantly, the Pharisees, whether ancient and modern, who would bind us with it.

Pastor Chip quoted Bob Dylan saying:

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes
You're gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody

I love Chip as a friend, pastor, and colleague in ministry. I follow him on Facebook, but not as a prophet. I am not a servant of Chip. As for Dylan’s music, I like this song. The album got fair to good reviews and the song won a Grammy. I’m not a servant of Dylan or his music. We are servants of Christ, and as his servants we are free from the yoke of the law. We are free. Free to live by the Spirit, serving one another humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Blinded by the Light

This sermon was heard at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Shreveport, Louisiana on Sunday February 7, 2016, the Last Sunday in Epiphany, Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday. Sorry, no audio.

Exodus 34:29-35
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Twenty years ago next month, while I was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Lamar, Colorado, I was helping host a Presbyterian Revival called “Spirit Alive.” Yes, yes, a Presbyterian revival, sounds kind of funny. I joked that “Presbyterian revival” meant that nobody drank decaf all weekend. I was the Hospitality Chair which meant I put together the drinks and snacks for the visiting team that was doing the presentations.

The visiting pastor who led the revival was the Reverend Scott Luckey. On Saturday night, he preached a sermon on forgiveness. To make a long story short, at that moment in time I was handling the breakup with a girlfriend poorly. Even though the breakup had happened eight years earlier, I was still handling it poorly. I was so scarred that I couldn’t forgive. Not because I was unable to forgive, but because I couldn’t think of what I needed to forgive her for. Again, long story. But see, I had met someone; and those thoughts and feelings were beginning to reawaken. I knew if I couldn’t get beyond those old feelings I would mess up the best thing to happen to me in a long time.

In the Saturday night sermon, Pastor Luckey said only when you are able to forgive will you know what it is to be forgiven. Now, I don’t know about you. I don’t know where you were twenty years ago at about 8:30 PM Mountain Time, but a shaft of light entered that sanctuary and shined down on me. I don’t see how anybody within 750 miles could have missed it! It was glorious.

When he said that, things began to change. I say began because things weren’t always perfect. They never are. There was still healing to be done, but after eight long years I was finally off square one.

One of the most common images used in scripture is light. One of the first images in scripture is light, Genesis 1:3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God saw that the light was good.” Don’t forget, light is always good in scripture. As for me, sitting in that sanctuary on that dark Saturday night, the light of Christ’s forgiveness was good.

Light is often associated with the presence of God. John’s and Luke’s gospels call Jesus the Light of the World. In 2Corinthians Paul writes, “For it is the God who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Jesus is the light. Knowledge of Christ is the light shining out of the darkness.

There are many more examples, if you have a concordance or the internet you can find more, but I think biblically we can say “Light—Good.”

Earlier this week I saw an article from Forbes about dumb things bosses say. One of the important things it says is every boss, unless you are very, very lucky, will say something dumb from time to time. That’s just being human. It is when saying dumb things becomes a pattern that employees should worry. Enter Peter, stage right…

Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him up on the mountain to pray. While he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw Moses and Elijah talking to him. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were swallowed by the brightness, the light shined such that Jesus’ robes became as white as white can be. The three apostles are blinded by the light.

They are overwhelmed by who and what they see! They see Moses who was last seen going into the mountains alone to watch the people enter the Promised Land. They see Elijah who was last seen by Elisha being swept away by the whirlwind into the heavens. These heroes of the faith are chatting with Jesus, apparently speaking of his departure.

So what does Peter do with this overload, he erupts! “Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” Dang. Peter takes a perfect moment, not a perfectly good moment but a perfect moment, and goes off the farm hoping to build “Mountainside Holy Land Village and Retreat Center,” three prophets, no waiting.

Our translation says, “not knowing what he said.” Another way to say that could be “he had no idea what he just said.”

We’ve all got that friend, don’t we? Open mouth, insert foot? That fine ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. It generally comes with a moderate amount of embarrassment. Scripture doesn’t record the look James and John gave him. Then again, maybe all Peter did was save James and John the indignity of being the first to say something dumb.

Before their critique could come, they were all covered in a cloud and heard a voice saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen (or ‘my beloved’ depending on the translation); listen to him!” Then, suddenly, it was a day like it was before the face of Jesus changed (and that’s all the word “transfiguration” means, change face).

Friends, we’ve all been blinded by something or other. Peter was blinded by the light. He was so flummoxed by what he had seen that he had no idea what to say. Peter’s problem was that he thought something needed to be said and then he said something. When we live our lives like an action movie, we tend to say all the wrong things at all the right times. This hardly makes Peter special, it only immortalizes him in scripture. Among my friends, I was the one who said the dumb things. I’m better now, but it made the ‘70’s and ‘80’s memorable.

So how do we avoid this? Here are some starters. The first is to pray. We need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal where God is working in our lives. I’m not saying we will be able to discern the invisible hand of God at work. I believe when we “see” that, we put God’s name on what we want to call God’s work, what we hope is God’s work. So if we don’t look at the work where do we look? We need to look at the faces of those around us. As we become more aware of others we will begin to see the face of Christ around us.

When we see the face of Christ in those around us, we will treat each other differently. When we look for light instead of darkness we behave differently. When people do the same toward us we’ll notice that too. All too often, even in a city this size, people treat one another like obstacles or like nothing at all. If we seek the face of Christ in one another it is impossible to behave that way.

When the voice in the cloud said “listen to him,” this is what it meant. In the ancient languages, “listen” meant more than “hear,” it also meant “respond.” Pray and listen. See where God is working and go work with God and God’s people.

Then we need to stop and smell the roses. We need to spend time with God and with one another. In the church we call this koinonia, we call this fellowship. We act as a community. We come together and share a meal. We spend time with people for no other reason than it is good.

Look at it this way, God exists as distinct three persons; Father, Son, and Spirit. If community is good for God’s very existence, it must be absolutely necessary for us. Without a community, we are nothing. Only through others can we see the face of God in Christ.

And vice-versa, only through the face of God in Christ can we really see others.

Only when we are quiet, only when we pray, only when we become aware, only when we come together and only we respond to one another can we see the light, be in the light. Is this scary? Peter, James, and John were scared in the presence of the Lord so it would be foolish if we weren’t. We might be blinded by the light like Peter, we may even say something dumb. But as we pray, come together, and respond with and to one another; that will happen less and less. And the rewards of life abiding in Christ are glorious.

Oh, that woman I met twenty years ago, this July she and I will be married for nineteen years. Friends, let’s hear it for my wonderful, wonderful wife, my partner, my bringer of perspective, (in Hebrew) my ezer, my love and my heart, Marie. I thank God for her every day. I can see the light of Christ reflected through her like a prism shining many glorious colors. She helps me see the light of Christ. And I say fewer dumb things because of her. Praise God.

Halleluiah, Amen.

Single Minded Focus

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday June 27, 2010, the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2Kings 2:1-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

I was looking for a focus in our readings this morning about Elijah, Elisha, Jesus, and then one of my bible commentaries[1] showed me one way these readings could be examined. One of the ways to look at these two passages is to look at the focus of the people in these stories.

The story of Elijah and Elisha begins to end in Gilgal where Elijah tells Elisha to stay put. The Lord has sent Elijah to the Jordan, and that’s where his focus is. Elijah and Elisha have been together quite a while. There is a mentor/protégé relationship between the two of them. Elijah lets Elisha know that while the fruit of their association had been glorious, it is now time for a new chapter. Where Elijah is going Elisha can’t follow, but for the time being that’s not going to stop Elisha.

Everyone seemed to know what was going to happen. Our reading begins as the writer of Kings tells those with eyes to read that Elijah is on his way to the whirlwind so he could be taken to heaven. So what’s going to happen next isn’t a secret. Listen to the other people in this passage. Twice we hear Elisha asked, “Do you know that today the Lord will take your master away from you?” and twice we hear Elisha answer, “Yes, I know; be silent.” Again, let those with ears to hear know that what’s going to happen next isn’t a secret.

Elijah knows that the Lord has sent him to the Jordan. Elisha won’t be deterred, he’s going to follow. Each of them has a focus. Elijah follows the Lord, Elisha follows Elijah. They have a holy purpose in their lives and they won’t turn from them.

Everyone knew what was going to happen to Elijah. Still, preparing for the whirlwind offered more than ample opportunity for the people along the way to worry about what was going to happen next. They highlighted this uncertainty, and the anxious feelings that came with it. They shared this holy focus.

In one of George Moore’s novels, he tells of Irish peasants in the Depression who were set to work building roads. For a time everything went wonderfully. The men were glad to have jobs, and sang songs as they worked. But after a while they discovered that the roads they were building led nowhere, expired in peat bogs or simply ended. As that truth gradually dawned upon them, they grew listless and stopped singing. In the words of the novelist: “The roads to nowhere are difficult to build. For a man to work well and to sing as he works, there must be an end in view.”[2]

This is the important difference between Moore’s novel and our Old Testament reading. In Kings everyone knew that they were being led by the Lord. They weren’t building roads to nowhere.

Everyone knew Elijah and Elisha were being led to the Jordan. Everyone knew that Elijah was about to be taken. Everyone knew that Elisha was going to return alone. Elisha knew his return would be a lonely road. Still, everyone knew that they were being led by the Lord.

As for the request that Elisha might receive a double portion of Elijah’s spirit, Elijah knew that this wasn’t his call to make.

What was happening and what was going to happen wasn’t their idea; they were doing what they were called to do. They were fulfilling their vocation.

Jesus had a slightly different focus. Where the focus of Elijah and Elisha was on what they were doing, the focus of the Jesus was more on who he was than on what he was doing.

This part of Luke’s gospel, beginning with today’s reading and extending to the first half of chapter nineteen, is Luke’s travel narrative. In this section Luke describes Jesus’ travels through Palestine as he gradually works his way through the Holy Land toward Jerusalem and the triumphant entry; ultimately his crucifixion. One of two things can be said about this travelogue; either the writer of Luke had no idea of the geography of Palestine or Jesus took the least direct route ever considered to get to Jerusalem. More on that in a few.

We start with Jesus on the road. Even this early in Luke’s gospel Jesus knows where he is going and what is going to happen when he gets there; not unlike Elijah, Elisha, and the cast of thousands. Whether despite this or because of this, Jesus has his face set toward Jerusalem.

He is resolute; he is determined to go. Of course this made the Samaritans none too happy. And since the Samaritans and Jews were related like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s were related, when it was clear that Jesus was destined for Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive him and the entire traveling party was left out in the cold.

So what do James and John do? They ask Jesus if they can rein fire down from heaven upon their heads. As Jesus rebukes the Sons of Thunder and in a sentence that is missing from many translations Jesus says, “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.”[3]

James and John are focused on the purpose, on the mission, on the goal, and perhaps on their new found power and authority. They have a goal in mind and are willing to do what they see fit to those who stand in their way.

Jesus though has another purpose in mind. He tells them that this vengeance, this act of fury and rage against those who do not see their purpose is not who they are. It’s not their spirit, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them. They’re different. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem.

As I mentioned earlier, one of two things can be said about Luke’s travelogue; either Luke had no idea of the geography of Palestine or Jesus took the least direct route ever considered to get to Jerusalem. But this analysis has a problem. Whenever we try to concretely describe and label the historical truth of the life of Jesus, we tend to lose some of the greater theological truth of the life of Jesus.

In my opinion it really doesn’t matter which is right. The underlying question is not “was the author of Luke’s gospel a Greek who had never been to Palestine, had no idea about the geography, and only knew city and regional names?” The underlying question of Jesus’ travels is not “why did he take this route or that route?” Both are good questions but the answers just aren’t important. The important question is “What is the purpose of this journey?”

Nuts and bolts are one thing, but we should never become over enamored with the question of how to build a car when the better question is why we are taking the trip.

Our reading helps us see the purpose like this: Jesus is showing the world what it takes to be his disciple. He is telling people to follow and showing them that there is a price, there are responsibilities to being his disciple. He is also showing the world that he himself is focused on being a disciple of the Father and nothing will deter him from that.

He will not be deterred by people who do not care for his mission because their worship is different. He will not be deterred by people who don’t know how to follow. He will not be deterred by people who don’t know how to love him.

For us, one of the best places to find what it means to love God is found in Exodus. The first commandment of the Lord our God is “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” This is what Jesus tells the world in his travels. “I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other Gods before me.” Everything we do has to flow from this before anything we do will give glory to God. If we fail to begin here, what we do might begin to work toward purity and social justice; but they are our works, not God’s.

We have to single mindedly wrap ourselves in the mantle of the Lord like Elisha wrapped himself in Elijah’s mantle. We have to put on God’s cloak and go into the world sharing the Good News of Christ. We have to do this confidently and humbly.

We do this first and foremost by acknowledging God to be the only true God and our God. We may not acknowledge “other gods” like the ancient Middle Eastern Baals or the Greek and Roman pantheons of gods anymore, but that doesn’t mean other gods still don’t exist. BP seemed to worship cash on the wellhead and on the barrelhead over stewardship over God’s good creation, and we see where that is getting all of us.

We are called to worship and glorify God accordingly. We are to pray and work. We are to consider and meditate. We are to remember; honoring and adoring the Lord who chose us before we could ever even think of choosing anything. We are to love and desire the Lord as we love and desire the partners we want for our children.

We are to believe in God even, especially when it is most difficult to believe in God, and these are difficult times indeed. Our belief is to be more than our words; it is to be in our hearts and in our hands. We are to trust and hope, calling on the Lord in times of joy and in times of pain.

It is easy to love God in delight when things are looking up; it is tougher when circumstances cause us to question God’s love.

And it’s easy to forget God when things are going well and we don’t remember because things are so good. It’s easier to remember God when God is the only hope we have left.

And even as these statements contradict one another, that doesn’t make either one any less true than the other. This is the just one of the mysteries of our sinful nature and God’s steadfast love.

In this contradiction, in this irony, we are also called to fear God and rejoice in God. In the freedom God gives each and every one of us we are to yield to God with all obedience and submission. On one hand we are to rejoice when God is pleased and on the other be grieved and confess our sin when we do not live up to our call as disciples of the Lord.

We are called to respond to the work of God in our lives with zeal, praising and thanking God for all of our lives. This is how we are to respond to God. This is to be our single minded focus as we walking humbly with God.

This is how we are to be disciples of the Lord, putting nothing before God. This is what we are called to do as disciples of the Lord. This is how we are to share the Good News with our whole beings and our actions.[4]

In “Letters to Rulers of People,” Francis of Assisi wrote these words: “Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember, that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received—fading symbols of honor, trappings of power—but only what you have given: a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”[5]

In the strife of the present, it is by our memory of God’s saving deeds in the past that we can by faith alone have hope for the future. We are saved by grace through faith, but it is in remembering all of the mighty and merciful acts of God that we can begin to have an idea of how God provides.

Remember the focus of Elijah and Elisha; and remember the grace of God as Elisha received a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. Focus knowing that the Lord is God, and go in peace remembering the focus of the Lord as he reconciled us to himself. Focus like Elijah and Elisha and Jesus and go in the name of our Lord. Respond to God as St. Francis calls us to respond and give a full heart. And yes, in this way, and in this way alone, we will share the fruit of the Spirit.

[1] Lose, David J. “Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary.” Year C, Volume 3. David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, pages 191-195.
[2] Haughey, John, S.J. “The Conspiracy of God.” Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973, 35. as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1314, retrieved June 26, 2010.
[3] This section of verses 55 and 56 is found in the New American Standard Bible, but not in the New International Version and only in a footnote in the New Revised Standard Version.
[4] This section on the First Commandment is based on the 103rd and 104th questions and answers from the Larger Catechism of the Westminster Confession of Faith. This adaptation is based on the version of the Catechism found in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Book of Confessions sections 7.213 and 7.214.
[5] Ibid, HomileticsOnline.com.

Try to Remember and Follow

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 1, 2007

2Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

The travelogue is a classic form of literature and a Missouri man named William Least Heat Moon has written two. The first is a heralded compilation of stories collected as the author traveled for three months around the circumference of the U.S. avoiding big cities and taking the road less traveled. Based on the color of these roads in the old Rand McNally atlas this route was the source of the book’s title, “Blue Highways.”[1] This journey took him to among other places Nameless, Tennessee; Selma, Alabama; Dimebox, Texas; and Moscow, Idaho.

Least Heat Moon’s second travelogue, “River Horse” is an account of his four-month coast-to-coast trip across the U.S., using a variety of boats ranging from a cabin cruiser to a canoe with a trolling motor.[2] This travelogue retraces his attempt to recreate Lewis and Clark's expedition to find the Northwest Passage through the Hudson, Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, and Columbia rivers along with many smaller tributaries. He estimated that in the end he traveled across country with less than 100 miles out of water. While this route forces him past many major cities including New York, Pittsburgh, Saint Louis, and Portland; Least Heat Moon again spends most of his time in small towns the world seems to have left behind when rails and roads took most of the freight traffic.

This part of Luke’s gospel, from today’s reading through the first half of chapter nineteen are Luke’s travel narrative. In this part of the gospel, Luke describes Jesus’ travels through Palestine as he gradually works his way through the holy land toward Jerusalem and the triumphal entry, and ultimately his crucifixion.

On the face of this reading from Luke’s gospel, there seem to be two stories in this lesson. The first is the story of Jesus being rejected in a Samaritan village, with its little additional piece of James and John wanting to use power to show the might of the Lord. This part of the piece helps us answer the question of whether we should destroy or have compassion for people who reject the Lord. The second is Jesus on the road and the people he meets along the way. In this part of the piece, we are called to wonder what Jesus is looking for in disciples and what discipleship truly means.

We start with Jesus on the road. Even this early in Luke’s gospel Jesus knows where he is going and what is going to happen when he gets there. Whether despite this or because of this, Jesus has his face set toward Jerusalem. He is resolute; he is determined to go to Jerusalem. Of course this made the Samaritans none too happy. And since the Samaritans and Jews were related like the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s were related, when it was clear that Jesus was destined for Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive him.

These peoples were on different roads, the Jews believed the Lord made Mount Zion home where the Samaritans believed Mount Gerizim was the house of the Lord. This difference is never clearer than the story of the Samaritan woman at the well from the fourth chapter of John’s gospel. But in this case, there was no woman at the well to hear the word of the Lord and the entire traveling party was left out in the cold. Here is a group of people, an entire nation of folks who were not ready to hear the word of the Lord because it was in such dire conflict with their society and its faith.

Boy, I can’t say things have changed much since antiquity? I’ve said it before and I’m about to say it again, everything that’s old is new again.

Jesus then meets three travelers along the road after leaving Samaria. The first wants to follow Jesus. I’ve said before that Jesus had two types of followers, those who wanted to follow Jesus and those who wanted to follow a great crowd. This man seems to fall into the latter group. “I will follow you wherever you go” he says. So Jesus tells the man “go” is the operative word. They have everywhere to go and nowhere to stay. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man was just kicked out of a Samaritan village.

This time there is less than no room at the inn, now there isn’t even an inn.

The next man’s case is a little different, “Follow me” our Lord cries. But this man has plans; he needs to bury his father. But Jesus tells him in no uncertain terms this is not his job, his job is to go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Finally, the last man who didn’t receive the second one’s invitation says he will follow, but wants to bid his family farewell first. Jesus tells him that looking back is no way to go forward into new life. Looking back makes him unfit for the kingdom of God.

You know, maybe Jesus got a lousy night’s sleep because he wasn’t welcome in the Samaritan village; but for whatever reason, he’s more than a little cranky this morning.

In this passage, Jesus is dealing with foreigners and with his own people. He is dealing with people in a strange town and he is dealing with his entourage. He is coping with being rejected by people who don’t want him and by people who do. He also seems to be ignoring people who don’t want him and rejecting people who do. There seems to be a lot of differences between the two halves of the passage, yet there is a very important connection. Jesus is teaching all of these people what it takes to be his disciple. We learn that we must accept the Lord into our community, follow the Lord for his sake, choose life, and move forward. Through this we receive God’s grace and peace and bear the fruit of God’s Spirit.

Unlike the people in Samaria, we need to welcome Jesus into our community, into our village, our homes and our lives. Life in Jesus is completely unlike life without him, it is wholly different. All change is frightening, but we are called to change and welcome the Lord to our lives. In the Lord we go from doing things our way to doing them his way. The way Jesus shows us to be.

Unlike the first man, we aren’t to follow Jesus because of what’s in it for us; we are to respond to God because God has all ready responded to us with the offer of free grace. Often we hear of people who join organizations like Rotary or the Optimist club to make business connections. Jesus reminds us we are to follow him to glorify him. We do not follow for our profit, but for the Glory of God.

Unlike the second man, we are called to choose life over death. The way Jesus puts this is shocking, especially in a society that has such rich and deep family traditions as the Jews. But where in last week’s lesson the Gerasene was told by the Lord to stay at home and share the Gospel, here the Jewish man is told by the Lord to go and spread the Gospel. In the end, both of these men are called to respond to the Lord, not to their own needs. Our joy is that in the Lord, grief and suffering are valued and shared by the Lord and through Him is new life, not old death. Through Christ, even our grief is redeemed.

Finally, the last man wants to follow, but first he wants to say good bye to his old way of life before embarking on the new. Jesus tells him about how spreading the Good News is like plowing a field. Straight lines cannot be plowed by someone looking back over their shoulder to see where they’ve been. Looking back shows the old mistakes that can’t be changed; looking forward is the only way to prepare the field for harvest properly.

But there is one more very important thing to note about the three men Jesus speaks with, scripture does not tell us Jesus left even one of them behind. Jesus doesn’t send anyone away. Jesus doesn’t reject anyone. Jesus doesn’t say “no,” instead he says “now there is a new way.” To each of these men Jesus describes what he would have them do now. Jesus gives them each a new command.

Oh, and further, Jesus shows James and John that there is a better way to deal with people who disagree, disregard, and disrespect the Lord than to call down fire upon them. The son of Man did not come to destroy people, but to save them.[3]

Maybe, just maybe they did not change their ways immediately, but they continued with Jesus until they were fit for the kingdom of God, the old “fake it ’til you make it.” Maybe, just maybe each of these men chose the new life Jesus offered instead of the life they were living. And maybe, just maybe, each of these men repented. And hopefully, quite hopefully, the lives of each of these men began to bear the fruit of the Spirit Paul shares in Galatians. Through the love of the Lord, the free gift of his grace and peace, and their life in the Spirit, life bears the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And against these things there is no law.

The Eureka Theater Company recently finished its six show run of Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones’ (no, not that Tom Jones) long running Off-Broadway musical “The Fantasticks.” The opening number is called, “Try to Remember.”[4] The first two verses end with this line:

Try to remember and if you remember then follow.

This is our call. We are to remember the new life of peace and love and grace which is ours through Jesus Christ. He calls us to put him first, before all things. And through the fruit of the Holy Spirit, his grace opens us to new life. It allows us to live and to love and even to mourn in a new way; a way that shows the love of God in our lives, a way that puts God first; not our priorities, but the Lord’s.

The last line in the song offers advice for remembering and putting the Lord first even in the dark and cold times:

Deep in December our hearts should remember and follow.

In the days of the harvest of joy and glory we should remember and follow. And in the coldest and darkest days of our December we should remember and follow. Be in Christ, remember, and follow.

[1] Least Heat Moon, William, Blue Highways: A Journey Into America. Fawcett, 1982.
[2] Least Heat Moon, William, River Horse: The Logbook of a Boat Across America. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.
[3] Reference to verse 9:56a which is not found in the oldest of transcripts and was probably added as a commentary by later scribes. (Metzger)
[4] “Try to Remember” from “The Fantasticks.” Music by Harvey Schmidt, lyrics and book by Tom Jones, The Fantasticks Company, 1960.

Here's Your Sign

This sermon was delivered on Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday, February 18, 2007 at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas.

Exodus 34:29-35
Psalm 99
2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2
Luke 9:28-36

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

The January 2007 issue of Esquire Magazine was its “The Meaning of Life” issue. The cover says the issue includes “wisdom and good advice.”[1] The series of articles that shares this wisdom is called “What I’ve Learned.” The way the interview looked, it was a basic question and answer session, but the way it was written it was impossible to get a feel for the exact questions.
The interview that got my attention was the last name on the cover and what it said about him: “James Watson, who helped discover DNA and still can’t find God.” Hey, I’m a Christian, this gets my attention.

In his interview, Dr. Watson[2] says, “I’ve seen no evidence of a god, so I’m not going to think about one. Being raised nonreligious made you free. You could look at the evidence. Whether being nonreligious or a democrat was more important, I can’t tell you.”[3] Watson finds no evidence of God, but there are those who have seen evidence of God, and on this Transfiguration Sunday we read about their witness.

Transfiguration, what a fancy word. The term comes from the Latin, so it sounds very impressive. It’s really a pretty simple word though when it’s taken apart. “Trans-” is a prefix meaning change. “Figure” refers to the appearance of the individual. So transfiguration means, “A marked change in form or appearance.”[4] But in this case, it means so much more. It means the marked change in appearance is supernatural, a glorified change.[5] This change of appearance isn’t like me shaving my beard, even though that would surely qualify as a marked change. No, this is something more.

The book of Exodus makes it clear that we are unable to look upon the face of the Lord. Moses is said to be in the presence of the Lord, but scripture never tells us they had a face to face. According to today’s reading, Moses leaves the presence of the Lord with the Ten Commandments, the two tablets of the covenant. Upon his return to the camp, the people noticed that there was a change in Moses’ appearance. The skin of his face shone, it shone because he had been talking with God.

So how do the people respond? Scripture tells us they were afraid to come near him. Everyone, even Moses’ brother Aaron was afraid to come near him. Regardless of the reason Moses was calling them to him, they were afraid to come near. Really, can you blame them? Nothing like this had ever happened before; at least scripture had never reported anything like this before. We know why Moses’ face shone, they did not.

The people deserved to be leery of Moses glowing like the dial on my watch.

So Moses called to them, Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation. And they came to him. Moses called them together to share the Good News of the Lord. But imagine the looks on their faces when he was talking. Distracted would describe the look, but I think it would only begin to describe how they looked and felt.

Moses discerned that the change in his appearance was so disturbing to the Israelites that he chose to cover his face while with the assembly. When Moses was with the Lord or when Moses was telling the assembly what the Lord had said, he dropped the veil. Otherwise, this became the only way that Moses could be with the people and appear like a normal man, not the one who had been anointed by the glow of the Lord.

As verse 32 tells us, Moses gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken to him on Mount Sinai. But the message almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger. This is the first time this sort of thing was reported in scripture, but it wasn’t the last. Today we are privy to the greatest example of the glow of the Lord, the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

This is a miraculous occasion, a time of glory and majesty. This is the perfect time to rest and reflect upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ. These three men, Jesus’ closest earthly confidants; what are they doing? The New Revised Standard Version says they were fighting off sleep. According to other translations, sleep had won.

But this sight, whether they were fully asleep or not, made them fully awake. Here is their master with Moses, the bearer of the law; and Elijah, the one who would return preceding the Messiah. This is a glorious sight.

Peter responds as only Peter knows how: he wants to do something now! Let’s build dwellings, or shelters or tabernacles or memorials again depending on your translation, one apiece!
Can’t you just see the looks on the faces of John and James? “Huh? What?”[6]

But we can’t really blame Peter; he was so thrilled he had no idea what he was saying. This is Peter’s way. Peter’s response shows again that the message of the transfiguration almost got lost in the appearance of the messenger.

The people of Israel received a sign in the shining face of Moses. Peter, John, and James received a sign when they were allowed to see Jesus transfigured in glory and majesty. And in both cases, with the glow, the listeners received the word of the Lord. Moses shared the word the Lord gave him with the people. Peter, James, and John got one better—they heard the voice of God, words echoed from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my Son, my Chosen,” followed by the command, “listen to him!”

Futurama is a television show produced by the creator of “The Simpson’s.” It’s about a man, Philip J. Frye, who was accidentally frozen in a cryogenic lab at midnight on December 31, 1999 and thawed 1,000 years later. In the episode titled “Godfellas,” Frye’s best friend and roommate, a robot named Bender, is accidentally shot from a space ship’s torpedo tube while it’s traveling at maximum velocity. Since Bender is moving faster than the ship’s top speed, there is no way to catch up and rescue him. Bender floats through space until he passes through an asteroid field and accidentally accumulates a microscopic civilization on his stomach (or what passes for a stomach on a robot), which declares him God, and worships him despite his constant inability to provide for their needs.[7]

After the civilization that lived on Bender destroyed itself, he was distraught. Then he found an eternal omnipotent presence, the cartoon equivalent of the god of the universe. Bender shares his lament with the greater power. He says that no matter what he did, he could not help them. He did something, it didn’t work. He did nothing, and that didn’t work either. Then Bender learned the lesson of quality miracles from the being, “When you’ve done something right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all.”

Dr. Watson, the DNA guy, says that he has seen no evidence of god, so he isn’t willing to even think about God. But I like this idea from Futurama. When a miracle is done right, we may not be sure God did anything at all.

We live in a complex and complicated world, we are a busy people. There is always something to take our minds from a restful place and engage us in something new. It’s not that there is no evidence of God, it’s just that in a society of adrenaline junkies that insists on dramatic experiences, we can easily miss the subtle evidence God provides. This could be by design, like the god in Futurama; the discreet signs now seem so obvious to us that we take them for granted.

Peter, John, and James got a sign, didn’t they? They were witness to a miracle that could have made Dr. Watson acknowledge the presence of God. But as Dr. Watson might point out, it has been a long, long time since a moment like this one, and we aren’t likely to see one like it any time soon. Where’s our sign?

Look around…in our prayers we give thanks for the sun and the rain. We offer thanks for mercies received. We thank God for the world around us and a place to worship. We pray for the sick and infirm, many of whom we don’t know individually and thanks be to God that as the church we do know them. We give thanks for the waters of our baptism and the sacramental meal which nourishes the Body of Christ. We give thanks to God for our daily bread. We give thanks for the small miracles around us every day. And even though they are common and ordinary, they are still miracles. The message gets lost again in the appearance of the messenger. Only this time, the appearance is too ordinary to get our attention.

So what should we do? We should do as the Israelites did. We should listen to the word of God all around us. And the word of God comes in wonderful and mysterious ways. It comes in the first light of the sunrise and the last light of the sunset. It comes in the face of those we love, and those who love us. It comes in words of encouragement, words we hear and words we share. It comes to us in the word of God recorded for us to read. It comes to us in the living word of Jesus Christ. We need to listen to the word of God around us. Be still, and listen for the word of the Lord. The voice from the cloud tells Peter, John, and James “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” Listen to the voice, this is the first step. Listen; resting and reflecting upon the wonders and grace of life in Jesus Christ in the arms of the loving God.

As our Psalm teaches, the Lord is great; he is high over all the peoples. Let us confess his great and awesome name for he is the Holy One. The Sovereign God loves justice and establishes equity; executing justice and righteousness. And as God calls Moses and Aaron and Samuel, God calls each of us. God speaks to us. We have our signs, let us follow them. We must now listen for the word of the Lord and answer in word and in deed.

[1] The cover actually says “wisdom and damn good advice,” but I chose to edit my reading for delicate ears.
[2] Ph.D., Indiana University, Zoology, 1950.
[3] Richardson, John H., “What I’ve Learned, James Watson,” Esquire. January 2007, vol. 147, no. 1.
[4] transfiguration. Dictionary.com. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/transfiguration (accessed: February 17, 2007).
[5] Ibid.
[6] Read with puzzled facial expression.
[7] Keeler, Ken, “Godfellas,” Futurama. episode 52, taken from TV.com, http://www.tv.com/futurama/godfellas/episode/125571/summary.html, February 17, 2007.