Readings: 2 Kings 2: 1-2,6-14,
Luke 9: 51-62
Let us
pray: May the words of my mouth and the
meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God, our rock and our
sustainer. Amen.
Jesus set his face to go to
Jerusalem –these words jumped out at me in my reading of the Gospel message for
today: words of determination, of resolve, of choosing to take a particular
path in the knowledge of what was to come –of taking the difficult and painful way
to the cross when other easier, less troublesome options beckoned. Luke,
particularly of the Gospel writers, place a real emphasis on this journey to
the Holy City, and how Jesus makes use of the time along the way to teach and
encourage his disciples in their journey,
When I began in my role of
turning 14 small independent volunteer libraries in the Hurunui into a viable
and efficient library service to serve the whole district and make best use of
resources, I went to another District Librarian for advice. How do I approach this difficult and
potentially hurtful situation of restructuring for a journey that needed to be
made, I asked? Her advice: see what
needs doing, do it straight-up and then with the hurt feelings and the fallout afterwards.
Mm I said – that doesn’t sound like me and went away to do just the
opposite. Gentle, gradual, discussive,
letting natural time and fading energies take their toll till decisions to
close or amalgamate came from the local people not me. It took lots of years
and we eventually got there. Was it the best way? Well – I didn’t get it all right, but I had
the chance to build relationships and not be seen (often) as the hatchet queen
– so it was good for me. But was it the
best way for the district and for the library service? I don’t know.
Would I do it differently now?
Maybe.
This question of how we deal
with change faces us all – whether we are the instigators or the recipients,
for let’s face it – this is a time of incredible change. Forget the ordinary changes we would expect
over time and under new influences, like better cars, faster and further air
travel, medical and technical advances , but if I just pick out a couple of
words – digital (and all the changes that encompasses) and maybe global. Those two things alone have completely
transformed our worlds, from the way we see family to social values to instant
gratification – you could go on and on.
But it’s not really change
itself I want to talk about today but rather how we walk our journeys of faith
within those forever changing values and world views.
As I told the library story
today I found myself questioning my methods of that time – realising that my
desire to be seen as a good person and take a softly softly approach may well
have compromised reaching that better world for the library users of the
district. Maybe now I would approach that
particular journey differently.
If we think about the journey
that we are taking as people of faith, it is relevant for us too to ask how is it
going and is there anything that is compromising that which we are called to do.
Jesus, in the passage we
heard read today, makes no bones about the fact that it is not an easy road and
then he uses what we might call shock tactics to drive the message home.
As he begins his journey to the cross, he
responds to three people who have committed to following him: to the first who
says he will follow wherever, Jesus quite bluntly says ‘it’s a tough life with
no place to call home’. To the second
who wants to have time to bury his father first he says ‘God must come first’
and to the last he suggests that he turn his back on family and only look ahead
not behind. Why so brutal do you think?
Maybe what the scripture is pointing
to here is reminding us that when Jesus calls to us to follow there are times
when our other priorities of life get in the way. When faith and the other clash, how do we
resolve it, how do we make the right choice.
I don’t think however that we are being asked to walk away from family,
live a life of transient homelessness – not at all – but what I do think Jesus
is getting us to think about here is ‘where are our lives being driven by the
expectations of ourselves, our society and our world in direct opposition to the
choices that Jesus asks us to make’. It
seems to me that if we are to be Christ’s body in this place we need to be
constantly considering just what that means and not be distracted by blind
alleyways that are taking up our energies and our focus.
One of those distractions or
blind alleys has to be in our responses as church to this forever changing
world. One reaction is to fiercely
protect that which we hold dear almost with a siege mentality. That’s one way - and other times we want to chuck the whole lot
of old out and embrace only that which is new in the hope that it might
‘connect’ with our modern world in a better way. Neither of these, I believe, will take us
very far on the road that Jesus wants us to travel – because neither hold in
balance the wisdom of those who have gone before us and what the particular needs
are of our world in this time and place.
The first leaves us hunkered down and going nowhere, the second leaves
us adrift from who we are as the body of Christ over time and in the company of
the saints. It’s actually possible to find
a way of being church where we can honour the tradition, value the wisdom of
the whole body and yet respond to the needs of our particular world and our
time.
Don’t you just love it when,
after spending serious time working at a particular message for your sermon,
someone else manages to do it in one sentence – not only that they post it on
twitter just when you have finally cobbled something together. For all that I have to use these words of
Miroslav Volf
“To make a difference in the globalized world we need sturdy but nimble
traditions and communities of robust but responsive conviction.”
Hi s word ring very true for
me as I ponder some of the directions of the PCANZ at the moment – where it
seems sometimes that corporate measures of success such as numerical, activity,
financial and strategic fitness are the driving force for success in our
churches. I wonder how much energy and
focus is left over for ministering to those in need and fighting for justice
and mercy for all people? I have to say
I am exaggerating here but sometimes, honestly, it does feel a bit like this.
What else might distract us
do you think? What might waylay us and
hold us back from being the people of God in this place. This is not just an academic question. This
is real. How do we break the chains that bind and get into that mindset that
puts love and compassion at the absolute centrality of our faith, that
identifies where our perspective is needing a bit of a jolt, where our values
are in conflict with Jesus teachings? I
can’t answer that for you – I can only say that it needs our closest attention
and our response.
Christ is not just saying
this in a moment of black humour, bad temper brought on by a difficult journey
ahead – Jesus is challenging us to figure out what is holding us back, what is
stopping us walking our Christian journey with focus and with determination. And where we identify it as being so – what
are we going to do about it.
In finishing, I am reminded
of how Nelson Mandela brought his focus of care and justice from his prison
cell into his role as leader of a divided and hurting nation and how he now looks back on his
journey - I would suggest with some real sense of having walked the path he was
called to take in compassion and in love. Thanks be to God.
Margaret Garland
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