Pentecost 5
Psalm 77:1-2,11-22
Luke 9:51-62
(prayer)
"When the days drew near for [Jesus] to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."
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These were the opening words of our gospel lesson today (a good literal translation from the New Revised Standard Version): it’s a good physical metaphor – he “set his face” to go to Jerusalem. The Contemporary English Version and the Good News Bible both say that Jesus “made up his mind” to go to Jerusalem: I’m sure that is what “set his face” means; I just like the physicality of the literal translation.
However you say it, Jesus now was very focused on the next phase of his ministry: which would include a potentially dangerous journey to Jerusalem, for this year’s Passover pilgrimage. Dangerous: because Jesus was well aware that some of his teachings were not supported by the temple hierarchy and some of the more orthodox sects in Jerusalem.
Focused. And he facing it head on.
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Focused. Determined. I can do that. I have one of those personalities that can keep things relatively organized. I have always been the kind of guy who could be counted on to get things done. At least that’s the reputation I am trying to perpetuate.
The reality is that I make choices of where my energy should go. When I make a commitment to a project or an activity, I am pretty reliable. But there are lots of things that I leave on the wayside. I pick and choose. The things that I deem as important or things that I simply enjoy tend to rank higher.
I suspect that most people are kind of like that – at least in theory. We gravitate our focus to the things we like or are passionate about.
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Jesus and his followers set out for Jerusalem to attend the upcoming Passover festival. The first part of the story we heard today was about a stopover along the way. The route they took was along the western shores of the Jordan River. Jesus had sent people ahead of him to make arrangements for the group to stay in the village. But this village was largely populated by people from Samaria. Samaritans did not recognize the temple in Jerusalem on Mount Zion as a legitimate place to worship God. They held to the more ancient practice (going back to the time of Jacob) of worshipping at Mount Gerizim. Up until about 200 years before Jesus, the Samaritans had a temple on Mt Gerizim. It seems that since Jesus and his group were travelling to the Jerusalem temple, the people of this town wanted nothing to do with them.
This part of the story ends with the curious threat of James and John: ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’
Could Jesus disciples do that? That’d be a pretty convincing trick. I doubt that this was a literal threat, but rather a rather dramatic curse: an insult to be hurled at the people as they left: (May God consume you all with heavenly fire). It seems that Jesus response was to say to them: “don’t worry about that, we’ll just stay somewhere else, stay focused on where we are going, not where we’ve been.”
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The theme of “unwavering focus” continues in the next verses.
I’ll follow you, but I have to tie up a few loose ends.
I’ve always been a bit uneasy with this passage: at how un-compassionate Jesus is in this passage. The “loose ends” don’t seem all that unreasonable: my father’s funeral, say goodbye to my folks - “Let the dead bury the dead. Don’t look back”. These sound like ‘cult-leader’ techniques: turn your back on the past.
In the small picture of the specifics of this story, it all seems harsh and without the Christ-like compassion we expect. But in the wider picture, I get it. I suspect that this memorable saying of Jesus was important for the Gospel writers (Q >> Mt, Lk), because they wanted their late first century audiences to hear that message of “staying focused”: especially when being a follower of Jesus became challenging or even dangerous, they were to focus on where they were going, more so than where they had been.
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So that’s the message: “stay focused”.
Of course that would be easy if there was only one thing in our lives were were trying to focus on. But most (all?) of us have more complex lives than that. We are busier than that. Is it really possible to narrow the focus.
I think that is one of the challenges that “I” continue to face. I let busyness cloud my focus.
Not that my busyness is necessarily bad – as I said earlier, I tend to pick and choose how I use my time. That’s what makes this a true dilemma: having good options before me.
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I think I am able to use a good part of my time, doing ministry, doing work of God. But I lament that I find myself losing focus on simply being a work of God.
I have to remind myself that “in-active time” can also be time well spent. I sometimes wonder: Doesn't anyone just sit still anymore? We have evolved our culture to want instant gratification: and so we move quickly from one thing to another. Sometimes, there is so much going on that we have trouble focusing on what is really important.
Part of that is … just being a work of God.
You’d be surprised how many ministers I know who have trouble finding time to be quiet in their own spirit: to just pray, to give thanks, to offer praise, to ponder the direction God might be calling. “Trouble finding time” is an excuse – if this is a focus issue, we have trouble making time.
I know that to worship, to pray, to wonder is a choice. When life gets busy – even with “good” busyness – we should still choose stillness as part of the mix. It is for our own good.
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I am glad that I was drawn to the psalm as one of the readings for today. I don’t often preach on the Psalms.
I cry to God in my distress. Calling to God in distress comes easy. You want to hear people praying or talking spirituality, turn on the TV during some news story about a disaster. But it is more challenging to have a regular focus that can feed our spiritual need to understand that God is with us always: not just at the edges of extreme good or bad.
I love how the psalmist is drawn to the stories of faith: almost forcing himself to be included. I will recall your deeds, O God; I will remember your wonders of old. The psalmist is choosing to focus on the Spirit.
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It was nice to read the psalm responsively this morning and to sing a refrain as part of that experience. That helps us become part of the story of faith. Many of the Psalms were intended to be participatory. They were sung, they read together. 39 of the 150 psalms are addressed to the [choir] leader. Psalm 77 is one of them. In most of these choir psalms, we also see a special note that is often missed if we just read the words of the psalm. In fact, it was not included in the Voices United version we used today. Not every English language bibles has it, but in some translations, you’ll find an extra word in some lines of some psalms that doesn’t seem to be part of the psalm narrative: it’s like a side note: se’lah.
You can see it for yourself in the blue covered Bibles that are in the pews. [slide] If you want, turn to Psalm 77: it’s on page 537. You can see that at the end of verses 3, 9 and 15 is the word se’lah.
The meaning of the word is not all that clear, but it does seem to be a notation rather than part of poetry. Most Biblical scholars are convinced that it was a message for the choir director. Perhaps there was to be a pause at that point, or maybe a musical interlude. It may be like the bold R we had in our psalm this morning that told us when to sing the refrain.
The placements of the Se’lah are not likely random, but well chosen. It could very well be a reminder to focus on what was just said.
One possible root meaning of the word se’lah could be similar to a word for “hang”. That brings to mind to image of measuring out the value of something by hanging weights.
I like that. It could imply that se’lah is an invitation to measure what is being said in the psalm. Maybe a musical interlude was added to provide an opportunity to let the mind work and really focus on the message; to provide time to engage the poetry of the psalm at a spiritual level.
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It is contrary to a world of acceptable uber-busyness, but the reality for us should be: that “Pause is Praise”. Whatever else is going on in our lives, we should not lose focus on that.
“Pause” is not necessarily empty or even quiet time. It is the opportunity to ponder, to wonder – to hang the weights and measure the importance of the spirit in our lives.
It is good for people to focus on questions like:
· What am I looking for?
· What am I longing for?
· What do I hope for?
· What’s missing in my life?
And perhaps most critically …
· What’s holding me back? and
· What am I going to do about that!?
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To engage in times of reflective pause is to be in communion with God. To allow ourselves relief from the distractions of life is to come close to the heart of Christ.
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I am uneasy with the fact that Jesus may have told someone that attending his father’s funeral was un-important. I am un-easy that Jesus might not have wanted a follower to stay connected to his family. The micro-literality of this passage still bothers me. But I get the broader message.
In fact, when I take the discipleship conversations as examples of broader patterns, I find much to ponder in this passage.
Did you notice that the gospel writer doesn’t tell us how the would-be disciples reacted to Jesus’ cautions. We can presume that they might not be as “interested” in following after Jesus gives them a reality check.
I will follow you wherever you go: Foxes and birds may have homes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Are we prepared to be a disciple (a learner) or follower of Jesus’ Way, even if that way is less than comfortable. Does dis-comfort cause us to lose focus?
I will follow as soon as I have gone and buried my father. Let the dead bury the dead. It’s an extreme example. How about some softer ones: I will follow as soon as I have finished mowing the lawn or I’ll follow as soon as I’ve slept in a bit longer, or I’ll be there as soon as I’ve finished my shopping. Have we developed a pattern where we give our faith the leftovers of our life? It’s important … if we can fit it in.
I will follow … later, I want to home first. You can’t plow in a straight line, if you’re always looking behind you. Are we distracted from a focus on our faith? On Friday, I caught an interesting show on the Discovery Channel. Some researchers blind-folded and ear-plugged people and brought them to a large flat field and told them to walk in a straight line for about 5 minutes. Their path was tracked with a GPS device. In each case, people walked in circles: some larger, some smaller, some clockwise, some counterclockwise.
Without something to focus on (a sight or a sound) straight-line-walking just didn’t happen. Now, the scientist had physical and biological explanations for why this happens, but I love the metaphor. It’s the same one Jesus used with the third disciple “you’ve got to look ahead if you want to plow straight”.
When we are overly ‘comfortable’ or too ‘busy’ or ‘distracted’, we can have trouble focusing on our calling to be followers of Jesus: to be disciples (learners) on Jesus’ way.
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We need to pay attention to those se’lah invitations in life. Let there be pause. Let there be times of wonder and ponder. Let there be praise and enlightenment and encouragement. Let the Spirit focus who we are, so that we can discover where we are in our journey with God.
A lot of us make time for public worship: in this church or in other places. Those can times of se’lah. But there will be se’lah invitations all throughout your lives, besides this hour-and-a-bit on Sunday mornings. Try to focus so that you can see them.
And when they are there, use them. Measure, ponder, reflect, challenge, change, grow, inspire … live in Jesus’ Way.
Let us pray:
God, Centre of all Creation;
Be our focus and our guide. Help us to live in the spirit all throughout our lives. AMEN.
#560VU “O Master Let Me Walk With Thee”
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