Sermon of Sunday 14 March 2010 Journeying with Jesus Luke 9.51-62

Journeying with Jesus Luke 9.51-62

My favourite season is spring.
It follows our cold, wet, dark, winter.
Signs of new life springing up:
flowers, buds on the trees, slightly warmer, longer days.

I also like the spring because my birthday, 50 something years ago
was in March
and also my spiritual birthday 40 years ago or so.

As a teenager, I was searching for the meaning of life.
I went to our minister's class for new communicants
to be prepared to receive the Lord's Supper.
I don't remember much of what I was taught
but I do remember the minister saying:
'Make Jesus the centre of your life.'
and I decided to follow him.

Some weeks later, I realised I had a new peace and confidence in my life.
I came to see that this was the love of Jesus.
He was real. He is real.
So my journey of faith started 40 years ago in the spring.

I had come to know the peace of Jesus
but like most teenagers I suppose I thought I knew many things
and didn't need to learn more.
The journey of faith since then has been about learning many many things:
both the great truths that Jesus died and rose again
and also why he died - that
'There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gates of heaven and let us in.'

But I also had to learn and am still learning that
although I was converted -
Jesus was the centre of my life -
there was still a lot in me that need to be converted.

Sometimes we are a bit stupid about life as a Christian.
Just because we have committed to Jesus doesn’t mean
despite what the song says
that life is always wonderful now.

Perhaps we have looked at a Christian struggling
and proudly despised and condemned them:
what kind of Christians could they be?
Or maybe we have had to face up to our own continuing sin,
something has happened to show up
our continuing greed or insecurity or pride or short temper
and then we have been tempted to wonder:
am I a Christian at all?.

Becoming a Christian does not solve all your problems
any more than getting married, wonderful as that is,
means you have a trouble free life.

Just think in the Old Testament about eg the life of Moses.
how sinful were the redeemed people of the Lord - freed but foolish.
complaining, criticising, giving way to fear, getting into idolatry.
Why did God still bother with them? But he did.
Why does God still bother with us? But he does.

I was reading recently in 1 Peter 2.11
'to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul'.
Peter was a realist.
He knew that being converted did not mean you had become a perfect person
but that you were called to be a perfect person
You are called to victory in the war against your soul
and that is costly

As we approach Easter, a season that gives us so much comfort and hope,
we need to remember that our hope and peace
do not come in fact from spring flowers and longer days
That which brings us hope and strength was at the greatest cost for him.
And the journey we make following Jesus is not without cost to us.


We see this in the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem in our reading
We read in Luke 9.51 that
‘Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.’ He set his face to go.
He decided nothing would stop him, nothing would distract him.
Maybe in this Lenten season we should set ourselves a task
to read in one of the gospels about Jesus’ resolute journey towards Jerusalem:
all the distractions and disappointments and difficulties,
not just the struggle in Gethsemane and the pain on Calvary
but so much suffering before that.

Jesus WAS REJECTED Luke 9.51-53

The Samaritans, about whom Jesus was so positive in his own teaching
did not welcome him because he was heading for Jerusalem
The Samaritans didn’t agree that Jerusalem was the centre for worship,
so they wanted nothing to do with someone set to go to Jerusalem.
There was also a sore history of centuries of hatred
between Jews and Samaritans.
Like Protestants and Catholics in this land they had so much in common
that they were driven to hate even more.

How did Jesus feel about this rejection?
It had nothing to do with him.
He had not committed crimes against the Samaritans.
He taught that they should be loved as neighbours.
But when the Samaritans looked at him they saw only a hated Jew
stereotyped him and dismissed him.

At the Mind Body Spirit Festival in Cork City Hall last weekend
there was a Christian stand offering prayer for healing in Jesus’ name.
It is striking to be there and see how many people pass by
and some as soon as they see the word ‘Christian’ react negatively.
You can see by their expression that they want nothing of that
And you just want to run after them and implore them:
give Jesus a chance, don’t reject him, he has the answer.
Or how often have people in this culture rejected
this or other ‘Protestant’ churches
simply because of the back history of this land?
They have rejected us and written us off because of stereotypes
because almost of a reflex reaction to the name of the church
And not because they have truly engaged with the message of Jesus
which we seek to offer.
Doesn’t that make you frustrated?

But we need to think about how Jesus coped with rejection.
He didn’t complain, he didn’t condemn.
In fact, he rebuked those who would condemn.

Jesus REBUKED INSENSITIVE SECTARIAN FOLLOWERS

Whatever sadness he felt being misunderstand and blocked out by prejudice.
Jesus did not return hate for hate.
Instead he rebuked his angry disciples, he told them off
for wanting to call down fire from heaven.

How sad that even his close friends still had ungodly reactions.
Had they not yet learned that they were to love their enemies
that to answer hate with hate only brings more hate?

An interesting example recently in England:
an atheist protester has been found guilty of religious harassment
for leaving offensive leaflets in the prayer room at Liverpool airport.
An airport chaplain found them
and was so upset she complained to the police.
But to use the law in this way is to take up a double edged weapon.
If it’s wrong to offend Christians and Muslims with your leaflets
then is it not also wrong to offend atheists with Christian leaflets?
Both Christian and atheist commentators have remarked on this case
that we are in danger of losing the right to free speech
and we need to learn to cope with being offended.
It is perhaps relevant that this atheist claims to have been abused
in a religious school in Dublin.
Having been hurt by religious people he attacks religious people
The question is how can the cycle of wrong provoking wrong be broken.
By stopping his disciples in their angry prayer
Jesus took a step to break the cycle of hatred between Jews and Samaritans
We need to be wise and aware when wrong is done to us
not to make things worse by doing more wrong ourselves.
If we follow Jesus, we are to treat those who do us wrong as Jesus would,
with the Spirit that he gives us, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of grace and peace.

It is not that we agree with ideas and practices which go against the Bible
but that we learn from the Bible, from the character of Christ himself
a way of relating graciously to those we disagree with.
It was tragically sad and wrong that Jesus was denied passage
through a Samaritan village
but that was in no way to justify vicious retaliation.
Jesus rebuked and still rebukes a religion fuelled by hate and anger.

Jesus REQUIRED FULL COMMITMENT

Finally today, we read of insincere or mixed up people
who thought they would like to be disciples
but Jesus put plainly before them how much that will cost.
He warned one man there may be no roof over his head.
He told another to put the needs of the living over the dead
and another not to let even the demands of family
make him waver from following.

We are not told how these people then responded to such plain talk.
Maybe they got over their distractions
and followed him on the resolute road to Jerusalem
or maybe they said: ‘too difficult, too demanding’.

When we share the good news of Jesus today,
there are a variety of reactions.
Some will say ‘Yes, I’ll follow Jesus too’’ which is wonderful,
but others say different things, many of which really mean ‘No‘
‘That’s true for you.‘ ‘Everybody has to believe something’
‘I must think about that some time.‘

Wouldn’t it be more straight forward if people just said ‘No’?
Did not Jesus find it very sad that people said ‘No’
and people said ‘Maybe’ but really meant ‘No’?

We have seen what he felt about his followers’
harsh attitude to the Samaritans.
How did he feel about saying ‘Yes, I’ll follow you, but …’
How did he feel about his disciples squabbling earlier in this chapter
about the who would be greatest.
How did he feel about this half hearted approach to commitment?

No wonder Jesus ‘set his face’ resolutely to go to Jerusalem.
How much grace he showed in face of rejection?
How much gentle authority against the cry for revenge?
How much patience to continue when so many would fall away?

And how does Jesus regard us on our wavering journey?
The point of what I am trying to say is not that we leave smugly
saying what sad Samaritans, or bigoted disciples or half-hearted enquirers
but that we search our hearts
about how we may have instinctively rejected Jesus
or have dealt badly with rejection ourselves
by returning hate for hate, fire for fire.
Or have made half hearted, shallow commitments to follow.

OUR JOURNEY:
WILL WE CHANGE? WILL WE KEEP GOING?
In these weeks coming up to Easter,
let us face up to our continuing sin
whether it be greed, or pride, or bitterness cherished against another person
or saying ‘Yes’ to Jesus with our lips but living out ‘No’ in our lives.
In these weeks coming up to Easter,
let us resolve to follow Jesus more closely,
to cope with rejection and disappointment,
with difficulty and suffering, even with disputes with other Christians.
But let us never ever give up,
as we remember that Jesus went on a hard journey for us
and he never gave up.

Father God we thank you
for the determination of Jesus,
how he set his face as a flint
to go to Jerusalem to die for us.
May we, his weak and wavering disciples,
be firm and resolute -
to do what lies before us.
to overcome difficulties
and to persevere in spite of failures.
When we meet rejection,
When we are tempted to return wrong for wrong,
When we are distracted and disheartened
and ready to give up,
please fill us with fresh courage and determination
to follow Jesus and become more like him

May the Holy Spirit help you
to keep walking the resolute road of suffering after Jesus.
May you know the joy of eternal spring time in heaven,
the joy that Jesus reached after enduring pain
the joy set before us ...