Hitting the road

Text: Luke 9:51-62

Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but Jesus moves on and keeps moving on, and doesn’t look back.

The Gospel of Luke, to which we’ve returned and which we will read weekly until Advent, dedicates a large portion of its narrative to Jesus on the road. All the stories we will hear between now and All Saints Sunday take place on the road, as he moves from Galilee through Samaria into Judea until he enters what is for him the promised land, Jerusalem. Our Gospel lessons will all be dedicated to following Jesus as he moves from place to place, doing his work and teaching his disciples, healing, engaging in conversations, going to dinner parties, and both encouraging and challenging people who are interested in becoming his followers as well as debating those who oppose him. Jesus is pretty edgy on this journey, saying some things that are hard to hear, but always doing the work of healing and restoration, intent on showing what the kingdom of God is like - and what the consequences of living out those kingdom values may be.

Sometimes people had a hard time understanding Jesus, including and sometimes, as we see today, especially his disciples. They were exhilarated by him and recognized in him a kind of power that they’d only heard about in stories, stories about the great prophets like Moses and Elijah. On the other hand, they didn’t know how to handle that power, how to use it for God’s purposes. It can be so tempting to use power to get ahead, to overcome or overwhelm, to build up and destroy indiscriminately, just because you can. 

So Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, aware that this exodus of his, this journey to the promised land, would take him to the cross. He did not set up shop in a carefully created location, a destination church; he did not create a big new physical complex complete with programs and residential staff so that people would come to him. He invited people to follow him, to follow him out into the world where people needed hope and healing and someone to stand up for them when they were suffering.

This following-Jesus life is kinetic. It moves. It goes. It acts. It defends, it stands up for. It seeks out. And in doing so it becomes a beacon, a city on the hill, a light to the nations. This is what Jesus invites us to. He invites us to follow him out there to seek out the lost, the lonely, the ones who keep getting the short end of the stick, and to be with them where they are. There is a whole world out there that is just waiting for us to go out into it and be like Jesus there. There is a whole world out there that desperately needs us.

So maybe, then, you’re wondering what I’m doing in here, what we’re doing in here, in this large building complex carefully located at a major intersection complete with its programs and staff. Well, that’s a very good question and one you should be asking.

I have mentioned before the dynamic that Christian theologian and teacher Verna Dozier calls the church gathered and the church scattered. This is what we do as a community: we gather, and we scatter. We gather to build our community, to find love and trust and companions on the way; we gather for sustenance - for Bible study, for music, for worship, for Eucharist - the things that feed our souls and bodies; we gather for learning, for deepening our understanding of the ways of our God; we gather to hold one another up in our own times of trouble and to rejoice with one another in our times of joy. We gather to love each other and support each other in our life in Christ.

But gathering is not all there is to following Jesus. Coming here is important, essential even. But just coming here is not all there is. After the church gathers, regularly, for prayer and sustenance and encouragement and learning, then the church scatters. The church follows Jesus out into the world because the world is hurting and needing care and is hungry for love and companionship. The scattered church goes with Jesus to the places that are overlooked and undernourished and uses the power that the church has gained not to condemn or judge but to lift up and heal and bring life. We do have great power, and we are to use it for the good of the world around us.

Friends, during this interim time we have, understandably and needfully, focused on ourselves as we shore up structures (physical and systemic), iron out nagging issues large and small, bring out and let go of hurts and disappointments, consider our strengths and our weaknesses. We have continued to minister to our neighbors through our food pantry and pantry garden and supported families and children through our preschool and community music program. We’ve lent a hand where we could to various community organizations either thorough providing financial support or material goods, such as CARITAS or our diaper drive for Little Hands. We’ve worshiped indoors and outdoors and sung and prayed. All good.

But we also have to look toward following Jesus further out into the world and not looking back and dwelling on the part “in here.” We have to think about how we can and must use our power - our resources - for the purpose of following Jesus. The way we will grow our church and deepen our faith and spiritual health is not by tweaking our worship or wearing hip clothing or planning fun parties, it will be by following Jesus out into the world and standing with the lost and lonely and bringing life where death has been holding sway so that we too are a beacon of hope that the world can see and be drawn to. So that the world can see that we stand for something and not just that we exist for ourselves.

It’s great in here where we gather. But there is so much out there where we must scatter. Jesus moves on and keeps moving on and doesn’t look back. And so must we.