Luke 9:51-62
Proper 8 (13) - Year C
With a face set toward Jerusalem, there is no time for small talk.
Disciples, who have seen Jesus at work for awhile, suggest escalated retribution — ignore us and we won’t ignore you! Don’t argue, simply state what you know to be true. Hearers will know whether this is for them an affirmation or rebuke.
Easy membership vows still doesn’t make it. Don’t tell Jesus what you are planning on doing, simply do what you need to, and if that is following then get on with it, if it just a show of following, get real!
Convenient promises and excuses don’t cut it.There is no preparation possible, just get on with it!
This is a convenient mirror as the seasons change. Can you feel days increasing in length, decreasing in light? What about sap rising or lying fallow or bearing fruit or simply growing apace? Where are you now and how does this reading bring you up short to face down your temptations or pseudo-realities? There is no time here for subtleness or shaggy-dog story or doing a miracle for. There is only dealing with folks who have gotten too caught up with themselves being the measure of all things.
This passage has the potential to free us. It only needs one more example to make the point. That example of course comes from the reader’s life. What do you add as a fifth encounter with Jesus that exemplifies your particular struggle with integrity these days?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/06/luke-951-62.html
Reversal upon reversal. Hospitality turned on its head. How do we welcome a commitment to G*O*D that doesn't go astray for this reason or that?
Presumably the messengers smoothing the way for Jesus told some little not-quite-trues. Folks were ready to welcome Jesus until they saw that he wasn't stopping by their wood on a snowy or any other night - just passing through when he should be gracing them with bread or healing or a story.
So the messengers blame the villagers before the villagers could blame the messenger. And Jesus catches their cover up and says, "Nope, we are not getting rid of the evidence."
And others preemptively welcome themselves in, only to be turned away. And others are welcomed before they are ready to climb aboard. And others set conditions upon being welcomed into the family.
The starting spot never seems to be the ending spot. So it is with journeys and relationships. Throughout the next little bit we will journey to the strange land of Hospitality. How is it received; how is it offered? Does it, like opportunity, knock only once or is it background to every foreground?
If you were to use the villagers and the three along the road as measuring rods, how would you evaluate your current life? Are you feeling had or naive or tradition-bound or realistic? Are you feeling so committed that you are willing to misunderstand, impetuously volunteer, honor covenants in the face of greater opportunities, or be wonderfully inconsistent with a generous offer and a built-in excuse to not follow through?
Each is a learning about hospitality. Each contains both sides of hospitality in its freedom and constraints. This is a great place to pause and reflect on how basic hospitality is on the journey toward suffering, death and being raised is. How are you doing? We?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/june2004.html
When a whole village rejects Jesus his disciples raise the question of razing it and everyone in it. They were rebuked.
Were they so rebuked that when individuals rejected Jesus they didn't raise the issue of consigning them to hell? Or is there a qualitative difference between a group dismissing Jesus and an individual that keeps us from being quite so mean to an individual as we are to a group?
Might the different response from the disciples, from rage to oh-well, be based on Jesus response? With the village his face was set to Jerusalem and the rejection wasn't responded to by him. With the individuals he got his digs in.
Or could it be the difference between Samaritan and not-Samaritan? Have they made it out of Samaritan territory when the meet the individuals, or not? Were they dealing with their cousins when they were dealing with the individuals who had excuses for not following.
It could even be that the disciples didn't cotton to more followers and were secretly glad when the excuses were given. They have been a little dense before and they may still have some silly picture that the more followers Jesus has, the less their particular following means and the greater the risk that they will, at some point, not be in the running for the "greatest disciple".
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/june2004.html
Action and reaction is a well-known part of life.
Action: I have set my face toward Jerusalem where they kill the prophets and I will suffer, die, and be raised.
Reaction: I will have nowhere to lay my head; I will proclaim G*D to those who are alive; and having set my face I follow through the consequences.
What is the Action and Reaction or Stimulus and Response currently happening in your life?
I can't help but think, as I move toward a problematic next appointment this week, that all of this, and more, is still in play and at stake.
This passage can be viewed from the perspective of Jesus and that of his disciples. How does it look from the perspective of your life or the lives of the others in the pericope? Is raising that perspective to the level of consciousness helpful to you? Transformative for you and beneficial for the rest of us?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/june2004.html
It is so easy to take the flame of self-righteousness (always, of course, disguised as well-meaning for another) and to advocate for utter destruction of those who don't see what we see and respond as we respond.
"Command fire!", we call out.
And what do we get for our concern, for our protective reaction? .... Rebuke!
In reflection, after sulking for 2,000+ years, it appears we had taken our eye off a vision of G*D and narrowed it down to Jesus. We lost the vision in the form of a visionary. In looking back we can see how easy it has become to err in this direction. It means we never have to worry about putting our own eye on the metaphor "Jerusalem." We can always stop at how far the visioneer had come and forget the injunction to go further, to do greater.
- - -
in our current day
we lose focus
so much more to do
so little time
so easy to do one more thing
in our current day
we are tempted to pause
to make one more attempt
to teach one more lesson
to over-function again
in our current day
we set a system in place
and then are consumed by it
bowing to what we made
idolizing our way
in our current day
we struggle with constraint
and loosened reins
when to gee or haw
confusing ourselves
in our current day
the current available
has meet resistance
become heat not light
not fit
in our current day
a challenge remains
to keep an eye on a prize
a hand to the plow
and compassion along the way
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Have you ever "set your face"? Well, of course, we do it all the time. A perennial question is where we have our persona directed. Our vibes are our messengers - how are they doing in preparing a welcome for us? This question comes from the understanding that welcome leads to welcome.
James and John seemed to be spring-loaded to anticipate rejection. Not only do they expect it, but they have their response ready - "Incinerate them!" Which of your vibes have you named "James" and/or "John"?
This same anticipator process comes with folks thinking they are ready for any challenge, only to find the most ordinary ones of "comfort" and "ritual" tripping them up.
Bottom line - the mystery and challenge of the Freedom of G*D can't be avoided or evaded. There is room for all on the field. Are we going to play and welcome those currently on the sideline, or play and force others to the sideline