Luke 9: 51-62 June
29, 2025
“The son of man
has nowhere to lay his head.”
“No one who puts his hand to the plow
and looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God.”
“Let the dead bury their
dead"
These are some of many quotes
from Jesus that
your grandma never had
needle-pointed on a pillow.
Jesus is kind of cranky today. No explanation why
really.
Maybe it was the Samaritan’s
rejection of him and the disciples,
Maybe it was because the
disciples went right to
violence when things didn’t
go their way,
like so many followers after
them would.
Maybe it was because people
seemed luke-warm
in their discipleship and
Jesus knew he didn’t have
a long time to get things
done.
It’s clear that Jesus is kind of frustrated over
people’s lack
of commitment to his message
and their lack of urgency
when it comes to God’s call.
I always thought that the roughest of Jesus’ quotes
from this one
was “let the dead bury their
dead”.
That’s definitely not making
the
tag line or mission statement
of any churches.
I always thought that it
was kind of rude
of Jesus to say this to a man
who’s
father had just died and was
just about to go bury him.
You think Jesus would be more sympathetic.
Maybe even go the funeral.
But I have read that the phrase “go and bury my
father”
is a euphemism that has lost
a some significance over time.
The thing is, this man’s
father isn’t dead yet.
It’s a turn of phrase that means he has to
take care of his father into
his old age.
After that, then he would
be happy to follow Jesus.
So it wasn’t that he was
grieving and needed
to actually have his father’s
funeral right then.
It was kind of just a cop
out. He was just saying,
I’m too busy for you now,
Jesus.
Come back later, Jesus. Much,
much later.
But Jesus face is set towards Jerusalem.
He was getting ready to face
the religious authorities.
He didn’t have time to wait.
He didn’t even have time to
wait for the person
who just wanted to say
goodbye to everyone.
Things were happening.
And even though Jesus will be with us forever now,
we still have that same kind
of urgency when
it comes to following Jesus.
People are hurting, people
are dying,
People are falling prey to
false religions
masquerading as Christian.
Food is being taken away from
food banks,
families are being torn apart
by deportations.
People are scared and they’re
hopeless.
Jesus can’t wait for a couple
of years.
And yet we still put Jesus off like that guy.
I know I’m always doing it.
We’ve all said, “Oh I’d love
to do that.
I can see that thing needs to
be done,
but I’ll have to do it later.”
When this project is over,
when I have more time, when
I’m retired,
when I’m not so busy doing
other things, when I feel better.
When I don’t have other
things to do.
We all have to set boundaries in our lives and
not take on too much in our
lives. I respect that.
But I always seem to feel
like there is some better time
in the future when I can do
what needs to be done for God
but you know what? That time
never seems to come.
We would really love to answer Jesus calls.
But life seems to get in the
way.
And tomorrow, becomes the
next day, becomes never.
And churches are usually bad examples for action.
As a whole body of people we
often react to
God’s call in that same,
slow, cautious way.
We keep saying we would do that ministry “if only”
If only we had more people,
if only we had more money,
if only we had more younger
people,
If only we had better
leadership,
If only we were in a better
neighborhood, or a worse neighborhood.
If only we were different
than we are right now . . .
If only we were like that
church over there
then we could do what God
wants us to do.
(Funny thing is, that church over there is saying,
“If only we were more like Christ Lutheran!”)
Jesus, we’d love to follow you,
we’d love to chase after the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
but call us later. Much later.
But Jesus says, No. There’s too much to do.
“let the dead bury their dead”:
Jesus is saying that the
kingdom of God is here now.
There is something happening
now that can’t be put off,
we can’t wait until the
perfect moment,
when we have whatever we
think we need.
And besides that following Jesus way
and
doing what God calls us to do
is
what brings us life here and now.
It’s what gives us energy,
and meaning, and purpose.
It organizes us and makes us
into what God needs us to be.
Besides that, following Jesus is something that we can
do
while we’re taking care of everything.
It is the way we take care of everything.
No need to wait to get our lives together.
Following Jesus puts our lives
together.
Sometimes it turns everything
upside down,
but still, it puts it
together.
We follow Jesus in the way that we run our congregation,
in the way that we spend our
money, lead worship,
conduct business, deal with each other in meetings,
care for each other.
We follow Jesus in the way
that we reflect the love of Christ,
embrace diversity, and serve
Hilton Head.
It’s the way that we do everything
that we do in the church.
And it’s the way that we live our personal lives as
well,
the way we treat people,
the way that we interact our
family and friends,
and the people we work with,
the way that we spend and
give our own money,
the way we think, and vote,
and engage the world.
The way that we live life every
day is following Jesus.
We shouldn’t always need to
stop what we’re doing to follow.
And whatever Jesus calls us to do,
we
have to know that we can trust God.
We can trust that God has
given us everything
or will give us
everything we need
to do what God wants us to
do.
Even if we fail, God will
always bring
something new out of our
efforts.
So, when we hear that call
we don’t need to wait for
that ideal time and place.
Don’t wait until summer is
over, or until
you get your life
straightened out a little more.
We can follow Jesus where he asks us to go now.
God will make the extra time
in our lives,
God will prepare us for the
task,
God will give us the strength
and the wisdom,
God will give us what we
need.
The Kingdom of God is at
hand.
So let’s put our hand to the plow and keep facing forward.
