1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21
Elijah lived about 800 years before Jesus, and was revered as the greatest prophet in Jewish history. In today’s passage, he is nearing the end of his life, and God instructs him to anoint a successor.
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Some time after Paul had preached the Gospel in Galatia, other Christians came who insisted that to be a good Christian one also had to follow the Jewish law and be ritually circumcised. This caused great dissension in the Church there. In today’s passage, Paul reaffirms their freedom from the law, and pleads for greater harmony.
Luke 9:51-62
Bishop Untener’s Homily
The event Luke just described takes place at about the middle of his Gospel, and it tells of a great turning point in Jesus’ life. Jesus had been raised up north in Galilee, and that is where he exercised his public ministry. Now, like a great airplane banking and turning to change its course, Jesus turns to the south and resolutely sets his face toward Jerusalem. It’s the beginning of his death march. The rest of Luke’s Gospel has Jesus moving slowly, constantly in that direction, to Jerusalem, where he will die.
With that in mind, Luke has Jesus teach his disciples – and us – what is expected of us as disciples. It’s a long series of final instructions given by someone who is about to die.
Right at the beginning of this final journey, Jesus begins to teach something that is at the heart of being a disciple. Three unnamed persons come up to Jesus, and in each case the issue is following Jesus. The first person says "I will follow you wherever you go," and Jesus warns him that it may be costly. The second is invited by Jesus, "Follow me," but he wants to bury his father first. The third says, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family."
Right from the beginning Jesus teaches that our decision to be his disciple is the most basic decision of our life, and it stands before all others. I stake my whole life on it. It’s something I would die for. To follow Jesus means placing our relationship with Him absolutely first ... before anything else.
I have two questions. The first is have I made that decision? The second is when did I make it?
Have I made that decision?
Have I made that decision? There’s a difference between making a decision and "sort of" making a decision. I’ll use an analogy of going swimming. Let’s say that you’ve decided to go swimming and you’re standing on the shore of Lake Superior in your bathing suit. The water is cold, even in July. We all have our own way of getting into the water. Some just plunge right in. Others go in very gradually and it takes a long time, first up to their ankles, and on up very slowly, splashing themselves a little (it really gets difficult when the water starts to trickle up your back), and eventually they’re all wet and they can plunge in.
Now, others might start, and get up to about their knees, and never go farther. They just go wading. They might wade for a long time, but that’s as deep as it gets. They more or less pretend they went swimming. After all, they put their bathing suit on and they did go in the water.
So, back to my first question: Have I made the decision to follow Jesus – have I taken the plunge, even if it took a long time? Or am I just wading around in the waters of discipleship?
When Did I Make that Decision?
The second question: When did I make that decision? This may be the more intriguing of the two questions. Keep in mind ... there’s a difference between "sort of" making a decision, and making a decision.
I’m not suggesting that it has to happen in a flash. But ultimately we do or don’t make "the decision" on this. We can learn from watching the disciples in the Gospels. They accepted his original call to "follow Him" but it didn’t go as deep as perhaps they at first thought it did. Gradually they came to know more and more about Jesus, and what it meant to follow him. They had their ups and downs. Yet, after following him for a long time, they all fled from him when he was arrested. And Peter publicly denied Him ... three times.
It really wasn’t until after his death and resurrection that they made the decision, a total decision. It finally became a life-and-death decision, and they staked their lives on it. In Luke’s second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, we see them start to die for it. Stephen, not one of the Twelve, but an early disciple, is stoned to death. Remember James and John in today’s passage ... how they wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume that Samaritan village? Well, in the 12th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we read: "About that time King Herod ... had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword."
It was after the death and resurrection of Jesus that the disciples fully made the decision to be disciples of Jesus.
How about us? When did we make the decision? At our baptism? Well, most of us were probably baptized as infants. But even if baptized as an adult, it’s a major turning point, but it’s the beginning of the decision. It’s "a decision," but I’m not sure it’s fully "the decision."
I’ll tell you when we make that decision. We make that decision right here at Eucharist. The bread and wine represent us. And when it is placed on the altar, we are placed on the altar. We become the bread and wine, and the bread and wine become Christ, and we join with Him as on the cross He said, "O God, I give you everything – my whole life. I trust that giving myself entirely to you is the path to fulfillment and to the fullness of life." In the Eucharistic prayer, we join with Christ in doing exactly that.
At Communion, the Body of Christ is presented to us. And we say, "Amen." The Blood of Christ is presented to us. And we say, "Amen." It’s the biggest "Amen" we’ll ever say. And we say it at every Mass.
Every time we join in the Eucharist we make that decision, and renew that decision, and deepen that decision.
I invite us over and over and over at every Eucharist to take that plunge and enjoy not a half-hearted wading knee deep in the waters of discipleship, but with total trust immersing ourselves in the waters of the Lord’s love, and experiencing what it means to give ourselves with Christ completely to God.
Sr. Margo, your role is not to be a business manager at this parish. Your role is to help all of us make that decision, deepen that decision, and live that decision in our lives. Your role is to reflect that decision in your own life. May God, who has begun this good work in you, sustain you along the way, and bring it to fulfillment.
Originally given on July 1, 2001