Guided by the Spirit
“Guided by the Spirit”
Third Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, June 30, 2019
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14 Galatians 5:1, 13-25 Luke 9:51-62
Pastor Andy Kennaly
Sandpoint, Idaho
Before reading Luke:
Alright everybody, if you haven’t already, find a pew Bible because we’re going to play a game. Get a Bible, there are plenty of them in this room. Presbyterians have a thing for getting the scriptures into the hands of the people, so there should be one within reach, or nearby. “Biblical literacy” is a term people use, sometimes as a test to see if you can quote scripture. I like to say being “biblically literate” means you have an understanding of the Bible, maybe not specific verses, but you know how to navigate the written word. For example, how many sections, or Testaments, are in the Protestant Bible? (two) Roman Catholics add the Deuterocanonical Books, or Apocrypha, in between the Old and New Testament. In the Old Testament the first five books are called, (The Pentateuch) including Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Then you have the History, then the Wisdom literature, the Major and then the Minor Prophets, not in terms of importance but in length. For the New Testament we see the first four books are the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, not in chronological order, Mark was written first. The rest of the NT includes letters, called Epistles, both General Epistles written to the larger church and more specific letters meant for a specific church. Many of these are attributed to Paul. The final book, Revelation (notice there’s no S on the end of that word), is an Apocalyptic genre, which is basically a dream or a vision shared in writing.
Now some navigating. If we open the Bible right in the middle there’s a good chance it will be either the Psalms or Proverbs, or really close to those books. History like Kings or the Chronicles that talk about those kings are before the Psalms, and Prophets, like Isaiah tend to be after the Psalms. Some books are tricky, like Hebrews. Where is it? It sounds like it should be in the OT but it’s a General Epistle so it’s actually in the NT talking about Jesus Christ as our High Priest. Someone call out a Bible book, and let’s see how long it takes us to find it! I’ll walk through some thoughts on how to find it as we do this. (allow the game to play) Notice that every Sunday when we select scriptures, typically I use the Lectionary, a three-year cycle that helps walk us through a general overview of the Bible. Every week there are at least four to choose from, coming from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the New Testament, and specifically the Gospels. We don’t always use four, but they are listed in the lectionary as possibilities. Sometimes it’s easier to be selective! So let’s go ahead and read from the New Testament section, the third book, the Gospel According to Luke, in Chapter nine, verses 51-62. We use chapters and verses because then page numbers are irrelevant. Page numbers depend on having the same publisher and version, where as chapters and verses are consistent no matter what printing it is.
Let me Read Luke 9:51-62.
SERMON:
Why did we do that Bible exercise? I thought it would be a helpful review on the importance of biblical literacy and being able to navigate through the larger arch of scripture’s story. Most of us say we’re Christian, or believe in God, but other than Sunday’s don’t really bother with the Bible. If that’s the case, then maybe our understanding and expression of love is also compromised or bruised by our day to day experience as we go through the week? Maybe we’re limiting our own potential as Christians?
The rock band called U-2 has a song inviting people to stand up for their love, and one of the lyrics tells us to get out from under our beds and “stand up for hope, faith, love, while […] getting’ over certainty…stop helpin’ God across the road, like a little old lady.” (U-2, song Stand Up Comedy, on the album No Line On The Horizon).
As I title this sermon, “Guided by the Spirit,” in the back of my mind, the skeptic in me wonders if we really want to be guided, or if we’d rather be the ones in charge, settling for a muted version of God as we focus on other, lesser things, our own agendas. Co-opting God to fit our molds is nothing new, and sometimes we can be quite sincere, thinking we’re honestly following God’s will, especially those voices that provide comfort and security. Thank God that passages like the ones today help prevent the domestication of Jesus and religion that we typically settle for!
God is leading us to deeper understandings, a more sincere level of faith, and a larger love. Today let’s look at some meditations on these biblical stories which help us learn beyond a surface-level reading.
One resource I have lists out some Questions for Reflection, especially as we read of the Prophet Elijah getting swooped up by that Golden Chariot as God swings low and takes Elijah to heaven, leaving his apprentice, so to speak, Elisha, to continue prophetic work among the people. Elisha loves Elijah and asks for a special gift, and this story confirms the gift is given as Elisha takes the mantle, the cloak or shawl, which Elijah has left, and strikes the water causing the Jordan River to part, and he walks across on dry land. Some questions to ponder include: What new mantle is God placing on your shoulders? Where in your life is the new beginning, the unfamiliar task, the calling to a path on which the ending is yet unclear? God doesn’t need babied and neither do you. What new mantle is God placing on your shoulders, what new beginning is waiting for your Yes?
Another resource, an online preaching helper, Suzanne Guthrie, picks up on the theme Luke shows, as Jesus sends out disciples two by two. She reflects on ministry, on being called by God to serve Christ through the church. She calls this, “The Hospitality of Attention – A Love Letter to Church Leaders” as she says,
“Church work - the endless minutia of it – can serve as a pretense, an avoidance, a foil, a distraction, and even a protection from loving God and neighbor. Sometimes profound emergencies arise involving raw pain, guts and blood and naked bone (sometimes literally) unexpectedly exposed between the time-consuming froth. There's minutiae. There's also conflict. Conflicts that draw all concerned away from loving God and neighbor. But sometimes conflicts draw you into the very crucible of loving God and neighbor. And also the weird in-between situations that are a tangled Babel-like confusion of the trivial and life-and-death. With all the things coming at you, what will receive the hospitality of your attention?”
Isn’t that amazing, “the hospitality of our attention!” She goes on to say,
“Now that I am retired, I'm thinking of you all: active ministers, pastors, church workers, leaders, elders, deacons, priests, laity trying to hold the church together – the passel of sinners that make a community, as well as brick, wood, shingle, dying furnace and peeling paint. I'm loving you. Admiring you. Praying for you. I remember praying in both frothy and fraught moments, “Reckon this to me as righteousness!” Or, “This counts, doesn't it?” How are you praying? In this Gospel, one person wants to follow but Jesus warns him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Two are called to follow. I just have to bury my father, says one. I just have to say goodbye to my relatives, says another. Let the dead bury their own dead, says Jesus. Put your hand to the plow.
“The moments come too fast. And yet, attention is what deepens, extends, transfigures. Dead moments are ones without attention. Think of housework. One way to sweep, wash dishes, do laundry is to open to Divine Presence, rooting the moment in the eternal. Another way just wastes time frittering away the sacred moment by not paying attention (not to mention jettisoning along with the time the self-respect of a chore well done.) I can pay attention or not, but life is better when I do. Let the dead moments bury the dead moments. Now is a new moment.”
Then she reminisces:
“When I look back at crazy church ministry, I don't remember a lot. Is it because of all that froth? Or, maybe because I offered the hospitality of my attention and therefore lost my own time for the sake of others? I hope so. And when I didn't ? Let those moments, too, be reckoned to me as righteousness. I know that ministry can mask love of God and love of neighbor. But I hope something eternal seeped through in spite of me, as I hope it does for you. And, good luck raising money to replace that that old furnace. Especially in summer time.” (Suzanne Guthrie, At the Edge of Enclosure, http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper8c.html).
On a Sunday where we see the intensity of Elijah passing on the mantle of prophecy to Elisha; where the Apostle Paul tells us to “Stand firm” in the freedom of Christ; and we see Jesus not giving in to the moralistic hatred his closest followers want to unleash on those who disagree with them, we are called to the intensity and extensiveness of nothing less than new life for old. God be with us as we ask hard questions, and allow the fruits of the Spirit to grow in us, both NOW, and forever. Amen.