Sermon for 3rd Sunday after Pentecost
Jesus Comes for Us All
By The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer -
Last Sunday was the 43rd anniversary of my ordination as a Lutheran pastor. It was such a busy weekend that I forgot the date. Samantha reminded me later that afternoon by posting some lovely words she wrote for my 40th ordination anniversary celebration here three years ago.
I wish you all could accompany me on my day to day ministry as your pastor. The days can be long and sometimes challenging, but the work is almost always rewarding and, on the days when it is not, I always have chapel with our 3 – 5-year-old preschool children and Jeremy and our other preschool teachers and staff.
I spend most of my days helping or trying to help people in our congregation and community. A lot of my time is spent with our older members, helping them navigate the tough times of life. Finding services for members, especially older members – food, health, legal – that is where I spend a lot of my time.
And then there are the people at the door, the desperate ones who mostly just need someone to see them, to talk with them. Carolyn and Maxine and Darci are my helpers in this part of my ministry.
As I have shared with you previously, it is a real privilege to be allowed onto and into the “second floor” of peoples’ lives.
I thank you for these last five plus years of ministry together. We have done a lot for God together in these years. And, with God’s help and guidance, we will be able to do much more in these next years. For the sake of this congregation, this community and the world which God loves so much.
It turns out, in my 43 years of ordained ministry, I have never preached on today’s Gospel lesson. Perhaps there is a reason – this is a very strange, even troubling text.
Jesus has “set his face to go to Jerusalem,” the text tells us. He is heading there. There will be no stopping him. He knows what is coming in Jerusalem and does not seem to care. Jesus has set his face to go to Jerusalem and will let nothing deter him from embracing the cross which awaits him there.
Today Jesus is traveling through a portion of Samaria and is so determined to get to Jerusalem that the people of the Samaritan town he is passing through do not want to host him or hear him. Perhaps they picked up that Jesus was not really there; he was already focusing on what was to come.
So, the people of the village did not receive Jesus. And, what was his disciples James’ and John’s reaction? “Let’s call down fire from heaven,” they said, “let’s consume the entire village with fire.”
Calling down fire, consuming an entire community. Burning them all – women, men, children, animals, everyone and everything. Just like the Game of Thrones on HBO, the thing Jon Snow killed Dany for.
Not the reaction I was expecting from James and John. And disappointing, shocking and confusing.
Or, maybe, just disappointing. Because “kill them all” is far too regular fare for us, whether in Game of Thrones or in the daily media, the relentless demonizing and dehumanizing of those who are different from us or disagree with us. Not always as outrageous as calling down fire to kill everyone, but whether it is the belittling of political opponents, the stereo-typing of those of a different faith, or the subtle but persistent signaling of our own virtue over and against those who disagree with us, it feels like we are increasingly quick to draw a line between who is in and who is out.
Now, shouldn’t James and John, who have been with Jesus for some time now, shouldn’t John and James know better? Yes, they should. But it turns out that even Jesus’ disciples can be affected by triumphalistic tribalism. Even disciples can see those who thwart their plans or disagree with their convictions as the enemy. Even disciples can decide that to be different is to be less than human.
Disturbing words, yes, but still important ones to hear and heed.
Recent studies have shown that empathy, the ability to see another person’s perspective and imagine or sympathize with their feelings, empathy has dropped 40% among college students since the year 2000 over the earlier student generation. If that is true, it is a disturbing trend.
Many sermons on this text focus on the second part of the text, on the importance of Jesus’ call to follow him and follow him NOW. No excuses, not even saying farewell to loved ones, not even funeral arrangements for a father.
But, perhaps, what holds this entire text together is urgency. Urgency which puts off Samaritan villagers and seems impatient with would-be followers who have, what would appear to me as legitimate things they need to do first. Jesus is urgently wanting to get to Jerusalem to die for sinners like James and John, who proved their need for salvation again with their cruel words, and to die for sinners like you and me. Jesus has set his face to the cross in order to redeem those who can always think of just one more thing they should do before heeding Jesus’ call to love each other. People like those in today’s text who make excuses for not following Jesus immediately. People like you and me.
And still, and yet, despite their and our own excuses, Jesus came for them and Jesus comes for us. Empathetic or not, self-righteous or not, too busy or too cool for God or not, Jesus comes for us. All of us, not just some of us who look or act or believe in a certain way. All of us.
And, if that does not pierce our insecurity or fear or need to be in control or numbness or privilege or whatever it might be that causes us to overlook the needs of others, I do not know what will. And, even it is does not get through our defenses to touch and even transform us, it is still true.
Jesus came, Jesus comes for all of us.
And, Jesus gives us work to do because he came for us. We are redeemed and loved and that does not mean complacent. Jesus calls us to be active.
Luke speaks about fire from heaven one other time. The other time is in the book of Acts, also written by St. Luke. In the second chapter of Acts the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples, the text tells us, like tongues of fire coming down from heaven. The true fire, it turns out, which comes from heaven, comes to make us understand each other, to reconnect us, to help us hear each other, to see each other, to care for each other.
Like John and James, we, you and I, can be all too quick to draw lines between others and us, to decide who is in and who is out for us. That is truly all too often the case for all of us.
But here is another truth – even though Jesus knows this about us, knows everything bad and good about us, Jesus nevertheless still comes for us, today and every day.
Jesus came for us. Jesus is still coming for us, this day and every day. And as Jesus comes, he brings his Holy Spirit so that we might see the face of God in each other.
Look around you – God is here in the face of those here at worship with you. Look around you – God is here in the face of others, all others, even those desperate people trying to enter our country to escape violence in their home country. God is here in the face of those in our family and friends, at work and at school and in the faces of those living desperately on the streets of our city and county. All of them.
Jesus came, Jesus comes for us all. So that we can understand each other, connect or reconnect with each other, to help us hear and see and care for each other. Jesus already knows everything about us, even those things about us for which we are ashamed. And Jesus does not care. Jesus loves us anyway. And, then, Jesus calls us to do the same for others, all others. For the sake of this congregation, this community and the whole world.
Amen
(With thanks to the Rev. Dr. David Lose)
The Rev. Eric Christopher Shafer
Senior Pastor - Mt. Olive Lutheran Church
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, June 30, 2019
