From the Daily Lectionary for Monday in the Twentieth Week after Pentecost
Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
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.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
I had an odd encounter this past Saturday. Several of us were standing out in the parking lot of All Saints about to leave, when a bicyclist, complete with all the cycling regalia, turned off of Ann Street and pulled up beside us. “Y’all talking about Jesus?” he asked, somewhat in jest. I said, “Well we could if so prompted.” “If you could only say one thing about Jesus what would it be?” he countered. I asked him if he noticed our Black Lives Matter banner hanging on our front doors. He said, in fact, he did. I said, “Well, that kind of says it all. Jesus’ life and ministry was dedicated to those whose lives mattered least in his world.”
He looked disappointed, his face disapproving. My remark was not what he expected. “Don’t you think Jesus loves everyone?” “Of course,” I said, “but Jesus’ particular focus was on those of his world that were marginalized by the powers that be,” and, I continued, “Much of Jesus ministry was spent critiquing the establishment, the system under which many suffered the indignity of poverty, and exclusion, and violence.” “That sounds political,” he said. “And I don’t believe the church should meddle in politics.” I don’t know what he expected. We exchanged pleasantries and he departed.
Our reading from Luke’s Gospel for today depicts a mission that will be opposed… opposed not only by the elite who control the system, but by the very ones who would benefit from the revolutionary proclamations of justice and equality central to the Jesus movement. Jesus is now down to the heart of his mission: which is to go to Jerusalem, the seat of power, and confront the corruption of the Judean leadership. He represents the alternative to hierarchical power… kindness, inclusion, compassion, dignity, and justice.
No one would admit that those aren’t desirable virtues, but the status quo, self-interested power, will resist the truth at all costs. Perhaps it is the fear of change that so disables the process for transformation. It seems we have a tendency to opt for the “devil we know,” rather than the angels of possibility.
This passage is, in short, an exhortation to courage. To “set one’s face” is to choose courage. We have a mission, good people, which is to stand as advocates for the least and lost of our world, knowing such a mission will be opposed by many, and some from whom opposition is least expected… Our mission will be opposed by “good people.”
Our goal is to set our face towards the seat of power, and do all in our power to effect change wherein “justice rolls down like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” The opposition notwithstanding, we keep our eye on the prize. Remember, we are in this for the “long haul”… we are the bend in the arc of the universe towards justice. So persist. Love your neighbor. Speak the truth. Vote your conscience. Live the Gospel…. Opposition and disappointment and disapproval are small prices to pay for the opportunity to make history.
A Prayer for Social Justice (BCP p. 823)
Grant, O God, that your holy and life giving Spirit may so move every human heart, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
