|
Homily for the 5th Sunday after Pentecost 27 June 2010 (Proper 8; Year C)
As they were going along the road, someone said to him “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” When Jesus speaks of foxes having holes and birds having nests, it sounds a bit like a parable. We may not be sure what Jesus is getting at, but we are reasonably confident he has a point because he has spoken like this before. But when he tells the young man who wants to bury his father to leave that task to the dead, Jesus sounds at best cryptic and at worst callous. Yet he is being neither. He is being insistent. He is in a hurry to prepare the world for the end of time. And things get hectic as the end of time approaches. You have probably seen the t-shirt: “Jesus is coming. Look busy.” At this moment in Luke’s Gospel, with “his face set toward Jerusalem,” Jesus has no time to lose. He tells the young man “Let the dead bury their own dead,” but he is also saying “There’s not much time left; I am on my way to Jerusalem, to death on a cross, the resurrection, and my ascension into heaven.” He is saying, “Following me is too important to let other things get in the way.” But burying the dead? Can burying the dead be one of those things that cannot be allowed to get in the way of following Jesus Christ? Giving the dead, especially a family member, especially a parent a proper burial is one of the most solemn obligations a good Jew would ever encounter. Surely Jesus Christ cannot be so unmindful or so uncaring about such a situation. So why this dramatic and seemingly harsh exclamation: “Let the dead bury their own dead?” One scholarly theory suggests Jesus knows the young man’s father is not actually dead . . . yet. According to this theory, Jesus knows the father is ill and that the young man is asking to postpone for days, weeks, or even months the moment when he goes “on active duty” as a follower of Christ. In that case, perhaps it makes sense for Jesus to respond sternly to a request for a “deferment.” A different idea occurred to me. Could Jesus be speaking of the spiritually dead as well as the physically dead? Could Jesus be saying that those with little or no faith might as well put the task of burying the physically dead ahead of following him? Perhaps. But this young man has said he wants to follow Jesus and Jesus, far from accusing him of having little faith, instructs him to “go and proclaim the Kingdom of Heaven.” Jesus’ instructions about proclaiming the Gospel seem plain enough, even if his words about the foxes and birds seem cryptic. If Jesus is aware of the young man’s faith, he cannot intend to be callous or hurtful. When he tells the young man to drop everything, Jesus is preoccupied, focused on the great tasks at hand and the fate that awaits him in Jerusalem. He is impatient with niceties and eager for the faithful and would-be faithful to understand what needs to be done. In such a moment, Jesus’ harsh and unexpected words are unsurprising for someone whose face “is set toward Jerusalem.” The Jesus who says, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” is saying, “This is so important you must not fail to make it a priority. You must believe me when I tell you how important it is to follow me, how urgent it is to heed my teachings, how essential it is embrace the Gospel.” Jesus is saying, “Drop everything!” How do we do that? What will “dropping everything” involve? For most of us, “dropping everything” seems like a tall order. Rightly or wrongly, we believe we carry a lot, deal with plenty, and cope with just about as much as we can handle. When God asks us to “drop everything,” some of us are apt to feel guilty and many of us are likely to feel torn between our duty to Jesus and our duty to family, to friends, and to the jobs, institutions, and other causes that seek our attention and our talent. We need not feel guilty or torn. Today’s Gospel lesson tells us to make the proclamation of the kingdom of God a priority, but it does not sweep aside the message Jesus gave us when he commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. And if we strive to love our neighbors as ourselves, we cannot abdicate our duties to loved ones and friends for what we may see as a different duty we have to God. We don’t neglect an ailing parent in order to go to a soup kitchen; we don’t refuse a request to deliver a eulogy at a friend’s funeral in order to attend a diocesan convention. Jesus does not ask us to make those kinds of choices. He does ask us to make the Church a priority. We all know women and men who make the Church a priority, who will “drop everything” when God asks. Though they would not neglect an ailing loved one, these are the same people who will put aside their own comfort and rise above fatigue to look after the wellbeing of their neighbors. In every parish I have served, I have known women and men who routinely, “drop everything” to serve the Church. Reading today’s Gospel passage, I thought of a woman from the church I served as a curate who was always willing to serve cheerfully. I can only recall her turning down a request when personal circumstances absolutely prevented her from saying “yes.” This good Christian—I will call her Patty—would change her schedule, and make the extra effort to visit the sick, serve at the altar on Sunday mornings, and serve alongside the clergy when we buried the dead. Patty follows Christ through service because she understands that for Christians, the ministry of service is the only “perfect freedom” we can know in our mortal lives. Patty takes care of her personal responsibilities, but she also makes answering God’s call a priority. She does not drag her feet or wait for all the loose ends to be tied up. She understands what Jesus is telling us in today’s lesson: Christianity is an urgent matter; let’s get on with it. God does not ask us to “drop everything” if dropping everything means neglecting the beloved people in our lives who deserve our attention. God does not ask us to abandon our everyday responsibilities. But God does ask us to make the urgent matter of Christianity a priority. Although we must make time to go to work, pay our taxes, water the lawn, and yes, bury the dead, following Christ cannot come last on our “to do” list. Jesus is in a hurry, he’s ready to go. He makes that clear is today’s passage from Luke. When all is said and done—even before all is said and done—we should be in a hurry to go with him. AMEN.
The Reverend Daniel LaRue Gross Rector Emmanuel Church, Chester Parish |