Sermon 6/30/2019 “Setting our faces”
Preacher: Jo J. Belser
Location: Church of the Resurrection at Immanuel Chapel, Virginia Theological Seminary
Text: Luke 9:51-62
Day: 3Pentecost, Proper 8, Year C
I grew up in an evangelical Christian household where a knowledge of scripture could sometimes help me plead my case for something I wanted. The problem with this kind of persuasion was that my parents knew more scripture than I did.
I remember wanting to do something my father didn’t think was entirely proper. I told him I had “set my face” to be a cheerleader. “Just following in the footsteps of Jesus,” my argument went. “HE was heading for Jerusalem to be killed to carry out his personal Exodus from this Earth, to carry out his ascension plan. Surely, I can be fixated on MY goal, also.”
My father said I was just stubborn and quoted some scripture of his own, from Proverbs (23:13), “Withhold not correction from the child.” I don’t know what he was talking about—stubborn—but I did remember this episode from my youth when someone in Richmond called me (and, in fact, all of us at Church of the Resurrection) “wonderfully resilient” a year or so ago. I think that was a nice way of saying I, we, are “stubborn.” I didn’t mention we had “set our faces” toward building affordable housing. I was afraid this person might think building affordable housing was OUR idea instead of our mission, our purpose for existing in this portion of our corporate life.
In today’s gospel lesson we read that Jesus had “set his face to go to Jerusalem.” He knew he would die there, would be killed there. He had told his followers this twice already. We think his followers, his disciples, didn’t understand him. And maybe they didn’t, fully.
Maybe even today WE don’t understand, fully. Exodus? Why had Christ Jesus needed to be crucified in Jerusalem? Exactly what did his death and resurrection there and ascension from this Earth accomplish? Answer THOSE questions and get everyone to agree! But I’ll bet Jesus’ followers understood the “be killed” part, though. I’ll bet they tried to persuade Jesus to not go. But he was determined, so they went, also.
This time, though, Jesus’ followers didn’t actually FOLLOW him. They went ahead as an advance party. We don’t know the details of this portion of the journey. We don’t know whether Jesus selected the route, chose to go through Samaria on his way to Jerusalem, or whether his advance party chose the way. We just know that Jews typically didn’t pick this route, that Jews typically avoided Samaria due to the bitter enmity between them.
I know that you know, most of you, that the Jews and Samaritans were not friendly, hadn’t been friendly for over 700 years. They were long-ago related, and the history of their falling-out is complicated, not pertinent here except to say they each had their own Temple and their own rules for worshiping. Each was convinced their own worship was CORRECT and the other’s worship was heretical. Sound familiar?
Jesus had already given his advance party power and they had healed all manner of diseases. They had even, just before this trip began, argued over who was the greatest among them. What we don’t know, though, is whether Jesus’ disciples were PLEASED to be in Samaria. Were they HOPING the Samaritans would receive Jesus, or hoping for the excuse to fire-bomb them as Elijah had done with the false prophets and false offerings of Baal?
I mean, did the disciples say to the Samaritans, “Good News: The Kingdom of Heaven is drawing near?” Or did they say, “Jesus wants you to follow him to Jerusalem, where you should have been worshiping all along?” We just don’t know. But in any case, when the Samaritans understood that Jesus was determined to go to Jerusalem, they rejected him.
Let’s think about THAT for a second. Did the Samaritans offer to let Jesus stay with them, become their EXCLUSIVE savior? We don’t know, but don’t we humans always want God just for us? Did the Samaritans say something like, “We will follow Jesus, but only if he remains here with US and doesn’t go to THEM?” By continuing to Jerusalem, the Samaritans would have thought Jesus was choosing the Jews over them. But Jesus had a date with the Cross he was determined to keep for the sake of the entire world.
So, the Samaritans rejected Jesus, but Jesus did not reject the Samaritans. Not only did he not authorize their destruction, after his Resurrection Jesus told his disciples, “You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The Samaritans got other chances to say “yes” to Christ Jesus.
As a side note, there are only about 800 Samaritans left today. They live near the ruins of their Temple. Presumably they still have not learned what Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well: What matters isn’t WHERE we worship God (or I would add, at what TIME), but HOW, “in Spirit and in truth,” Jesus said.
I’ve always assumed the people who make excuses for not following Jesus as he left Samaria were people he met along the way. Maybe so. But now I wonder if they were people who had been among Jesus’ followers along the trip. People who were with him but who hadn’t fully committed to being his disciples. People who might have said, “I’ll go with you, Jesus, but maybe not ALL the way.”
There’s an old hymn called “Where he leads me, I will follow.” The refrain of this hymn ends, “I’ll go with him, with him all the way.” The hymn was written by a Salvation Army officer who chose an assignment to the New York City slum called Hell’s Kitchen rather than a safe post at an established church. This hymn sums up what Jesus always asks of us: to commit fully, wholly, to be “all in,” prioritizing our God-mission first.
The question for us today is whether we are prioritizing our Jesus-mission. I firmly believe God has given us each the skills, abilities, experiences, desires, and even sometimes the flaws needed to accomplish our purposes in life. Collectively, we have our “face set” toward The Spire [our affordable housing project] and our new church on Hope Way [the name the City has given the new road our church will be on]. What about individually? How will you go with Jesus “all the way?”
