Gloria Dei Lutheran Church

Luke 9: 51-62

Jesus sends some disciples ahead of him to prepare people’s hearts and mind to encounter God. But on this day, things don’t go well. The village the disciples entered weren’t interested. We don’t know how that actually conversation went but the end result was abundantly clear: that village said, ‘No thank you.” For anyone who has had an evangelist come to your door, this might feel like a familiar scene.

 

Let’s keep in mind that the disciples have seen some things by this point in the story. This is not their first day in discipleship training. They have seen and experienced healings and blessings and woes. Jesus told them to love their enemies. And to not judge or condemn. These disciples witnessed Jesus raise a man from the dead back in chapter 7. Also, they have been on the receiving end of so many parables. Just last week, Jesus healed a man from Gerasene with a demon. And then he went on to raise and heal and feed many more than 5000 folks with a few fish and bits of bread. See what I’m saying? These disciples have been swimming in the deep end for a while. 

Even so. I suspect all that went out the window on this day in the village, trying to prepare folks for Jesus’ arrival. Because when the people in this village say no thanks, the disciples ask Jesus if he wants them to reign down fire on them. It feels like an outsized response. But also, pretty relatable human response. “You reject me? Or this gift I have to offer? Or, we can’t agree on something?  Fine, let’s burn it to the ground.”

Note that Jesus doesn’t condemn the people in the village for their resistance. The disciples did for sure, but not Jesus. As a former mission pastor who has written myriad reports, I love to think about the one Jesus would type up that day. His report to mission headquarters would be a real bummer something like: disciples are not just grumpy and downtrodden but a tiny bit murdery, we have zero new followers and! an entire village is actively against us.

But there is no mission HQ because Jesus is the HQ and he already knows. And he’s taken the longview. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem where he will suffer, die and rise. That’s the main thing, and this day of rejection or resistance is what we say in my family, small potatoes. The conflict will not deter or derail Jesus. 

 

In this story, he goes on to invite other people to follow him. And they want to. They are willing and able but they have a few things to take care of before they can ship out to some unknown place with an itinerant preacher. They need to get their affairs in order and throw a goodbye party for themselves and have a funeral for one of their fathers who just died. These feels like valid reasons to give them a few days to prepare to leave. But Jesus is rather unreasonable in his response to these delays. He would have failed the required chaplaincy unit in seminary because his pastoral care approach can leave one lacking.

Because Jesus is focused on the main thing: dying, rising. Which means he is free to let go of rest. He can let go of anything that isn’t the about the dying and rising. 

 

This is embodied freedom.

I love our reading from Galatians today because it begins there. “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”

We are free. We begin and live and end in freedom in Christ. This is not freedom to do whatever we want without concern for our neighbors. That is what we call the works of the flesh—oooh, that list sounds bad. I don’t even know what some of those words mean but my gut says they are bad. Licentiousness, sorcery, carousing! Terrible! I have a hunch that when the church starts talking about works of the flesh, we immediately think of sex and drinking. But we are really talking about ego driven impulse and relentless self-promotion. Works of the flesh is self-interest at the expense of our neighbor. Its root is selfishness. It means being curved in our ourselves. 

 

And there is no freedom to be found there. In fact, it’s the opposite. Works of the flesh often lead to us devouring one another. It leads to us thinking we get to decide whose flesh is acceptable and whose is not. Whose flesh matters in this country and whose does not. Whose flesh can use a public restroom and whose cannot. 

 

We are not a community formed around works of the flesh. We are a spiritual community who is about those fruits. But in order to grow those fruits of the Spirit, in order to see and live and grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, we need a community to practicing dying and rising together. We die to ourselves and rise with Christ. Left to our own, we will choose ourselves. Our needs. Our striving and getting ahead. And that might lead to better toys or a bigger house or climb up the ladder but church, it will not lead to freedom of the Spirit if we are only serving ourselves and crushing our neighbors along the way. 

 

 

Two Sundays ago, after the second service I went home and packed my bags, kissed my family goodbye and got on an overnight flight to Reykjavik, Iceland. This is one of my favorite places on earth. Upon arrival, I met up with five friends and we spent the week together. Soaking in the geothermal lagoons, hiking behind waterfalls, watching for puffins. That was all lovely. It’s hard to have a bad time in Iceland. 

 

But the real gift is that these five friends are pastors and preachers and theologians and leaders we all ourselves the Wild and Holy. We have met up for retreats for the last 10 years. We all live in different states so typically we get to see one another once a year. The group represents many different denomination and life experiences and leadership roles. These women are glorious in how they impact the world. 

 

The touring together was fun but it was the hours on the couch in our cabin that were the gold. This is continuing education for me. We talked about liturgy and the nuances of language. In one conversation, I found myself becoming more and more Lutheran as we talked about our commitment and love of direct address: this is the body of Christ, for you. This is the blood of Christ, for you. This Word of God is for you. When we absolve, we don’t just say generally speaking that God is forgiving, we say directly that God forgive you. We also talked about family systems theory and preaching and books we are reading. All of this is such a gift to me. These women live in the freedom of Christ. It is embodied freedom. Whole person freedom. And it isn’t because they got lucky, we love Jesus and we still believe in the flawed and beautiful institution we call church because that is where we get to practice dying and rising with Christ, which leads us to freedom. 

 

 

It’s a good day to talk about dying and rising with Christ since we have a baptism. We’ve had a number of them lately and thank God. The fruits of the Spirit are on full display on those days. A moment in worship when this gathered community sets is collective face toward the baptismal waters. Two Sundays ago, we stood together around God’s promises and baptized a teeny tiny angel baby who slept through the whole thing and a 4 year old who waved to every single person in delight and wonder while her younger brother tolerates it all with a stiff upper lip. The violence of the world does its tragic damage and we still come together around the font and declare our belovedness and remember that we are all bound up together. Because simply loving one another is the truest act of freedom. Not because we can get something from it or because the optics make us look good on social media. But because we have chosen a life in the Spirit. Praise God.