July 1, 2007 - Pentecost 5, Year C
Saint James Episcopal Church, Saint James, NY

It's like a photograph, today's gospel,
a brief snapshot
into what following Jesus
was really like.
It had been a crazy few weeks. Jesus had sent the disciples out, two by two, to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal, and they had come back
flushed with success.
When they tried to go off by themselves to debrief, the crowds followed,
and soon they were stretching
five loaves and two fish
between five thousand people.
And then there was the transfiguration, Jesus on the mountain top transformed,
Moses and Elijah beside him,
and then a dramatic healing
of a child possessed.
And of course
the not infrequent discussions
of who among them
was the greatest.

And then
Jesus's focus turned
and he set his face
toward Jerusalem.
And they went to one village
and the people turned them out;
and feeling rejected
they continued along the road.
It all seemed
a long way
from the glory
of the previous weeks.

And it was then, as they trudged along the road,
someone came up.
"I want to come with you."
And Jesus said,
"Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."
And someone else came up,
"I want to follow you, just as soon as I deal with my family responsibilities."
And Jesus said to him,
"Let the dead bury their own dead."
And another one,
"Can't I come with you, as soon as I've said goodbye?"
Jesus said to him,
"No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

It seems harsh, Jesus turning people away, one by one,
when you'd think he could use
everyone he could get.
But we all know it.
That naive enthusiasm
when we first get caught up in something,
whether it's love, or following a charismatic leader,
and we think we would follow them
to the end of the earth.
But we also know all too well
that when the initial excitement fades
so too does the willingness to follow
and the last thing Jesus wants
is to be stuck with a bunch of people
moaning about how their feet hurt
and they're sick of traveling
and why can't they have a few days' vacation!
It makes a whole lot of sense for him
to discourage them,
to force them to face reality up front
and not get into something
that they can't finish.
It's just like starting a building project
without making sure
you have the funds to finish, or at least
that's what Jesus said
another time.

That was then. This is now. So how do Jesus' words
relate to us?

We tend to read this story
as if what Jesus is telling us to do
is sell up our homes
and go on the road.
And we all know
that none of us
is likely to do that, not as a first step, any way.

But I don't think Jesus
is talking so literally.
Or at least, he might have been
to those people clamoring to follow him then and there,
but if we understand that he is also somehow, by the Spirit of God,
speaking to us,
then I'm not sure that he means quite the same thing.
Because it's one thing
to leave everything behind and follow someone who is right there in front of you. You just get up, and go with him.
But it's another thing
to follow Jesus
when we're not talking about a literal, tangible person, someone we can attach ourselves to,
but someone who we can only know
through the pages of Scripture
and the working of the Holy Spirit.
Following Jesus
is more about a way of living, a way of openness to the call of God
where we are willing to trust God to take us
where God will.

You see Jesus point is,
that if you follow him
you can't predict
what's going to happen.
He has no home to go back to;
don't think he's going to provide security.
He understands family ties,
but following him isn't quite so predictable
that you can make long term plans.
Following Jesus
isn't about entering a nice alternate world
where everything is straightforward,
where we know where we are going
and how we're going to get there
and what we're going to do on the way.
And nor is it a refuge from living in this uncertain world of ours.

Instead, what I think Jesus suggests,
is that following him
is being open to a way of living
where we don't always know
what comes next.
Following Jesus
is a way of living
where not everything
fits into nice neat boundaries.
Following Jesus
is a way of living
that's all about faith and trust
and even risk.
Following Jesus
is less like heading out on a journey
with a clearly marked map
and more like hitchhiking, going where ever
the next ride will take you.

Yesterday I was talking with a friend. His job is in the hospitality industry; most of his time is taken up with creating and running a space where people come to be fed and cared for and welcomed.
If he could, he'd invite the whole world to be fed at his table.
But he can't — not alone.

And so he's come up with and an idea
to reach out through faith communities
to get people active
in working to alleviate
global poverty.
At the moment
it's an idea;
but if it takes off
it may become a full time job.

And of course, like any sensible person, that scares him.
Because that's not
what he had planned.
His world is straightforward, planned, secure.
Something like this is risky,
uncertain, unpredictable.
But it's where God is calling him.

And we talked about how it is that we get called places
we could never have expected.
I remember back when I was nineteen, my church offered
a course in preaching.
I took it. I took every course they offered. I never expected that one
to be any different.
But there, in a group of 11 older guys and me,
I discovered that I could preach, and not only that I could preach, but that this preaching thing consumed me,
it was a passion
that somehow made me feel whole.
It was because ordination was the only way I could figure
you could make a living as a preacher
that I applied to the process in my diocese;
and that passion, that gift of God,
took me from Melbourne where I'd made my home, to Sydney, Newcastle, Princeton, south Jersey, and now to St James.

Would I have done it, would I have taken that class
if I'd known where it would lead me?
Probably not.
But I did, and it has led me places I could never have imagined,
and given me friends
and brought me into communities
I would never have known.
It's been wonderful. Difficult, at times, scary, even,
but incredibly rich, incredibly good.
It's where God has called
me.

But it's not just individuals. God calls us as communities as well.
And the same things are true of following Christ as a community
as following Christ as individuals.

Following Jesus
is being open to a way of living
where we don't always know
what comes next.
Following Jesus
is a way of living
where not everything
fits into nice neat boundaries.
Following Jesus
is a way of living
that's all about faith and trust
and even risk.
Following Jesus
is less like heading out on a journey
with a clearly marked map
and more like hitchhiking, going where ever
the next ride will take you.

That's where we are as a church. Some of you might think
that when you got a rector
the journey was over.
Or at least, that things had changed
from uncertainty
to certainty,
from risk
to safety,
from being kind of lost
to having a nice clear map.

But I'm sorry to say
that it's not so.
I'm here, but I can't just
tell you where we are going
Because in the end, it's not up to me.
It's up to all of us, and it's up to God.

God has brought us together, me as your rector, you as this people of God in this place, and together we need to discern the call of God for us
at this time
in this place.

I have my passions and gifts and dreams; you have your passions and gifts and dreams.
And then there's God.
Together we need to work out where our passions and gifts and dreams
fit in the passions and dreams and plans of God.
And we do that by talking, by listening, by exploring, by risking, by praying.

And so I invite you over the summer
to think about where you think God might be calling.
Calling you as an individual,
calling us as a church.
Don't just assume
that because we have always done things one way
that God is calling us to keep doing them exactly the same.
God might be,
but God might also be calling us
into something new.
Dream as wildly as you want,
imagine whatever you want.
And pray about it.
Pray that God will show us
not the whole map, because I'm not convinced that that's how God works,
I'm not convinced that following Jesus
is ever that straightforward.
But pray that God will implant a dream, a calling, in our hearts and lives,
and maybe even show us
the next step.
Together.

Dream, imagine, pray.
And trust that the God who in Christ
invites us to follow
will show us the way.
Amen.

©Raewynne J.Whiteley, 2007