God’s Urgent Call – Br. James Koester

Preached at St. Paul’s, Newburyport

Luke 9:51–62
Galatians 5:1, 13–25

I don’t know, and I don’t need to know, how the algorithms on YouTube work, so I have no idea what I watched in the first place to cause an old Carol Burnett clip to pop up on my computer the other day. Those of us of a certain age will remember The Carol Burnett Show, and perhaps you saw this one. It was her riff on Gone With the Wind when she appears wearing a gown made from the curtains, complete with the curtain rod extending from her shoulders. I still laugh when I see it. Oddly, I actually saw the Carol Burnett take off, or perhaps I should say take down of Gone With the Wind, before I saw the movie with Vivian Leigh. It was when I saw the movie, that I realized how terribly funny Carol Burnett’s version was!

If you know the movie, you’ll know that the subplot is Scarlett O’Hara’s repeated schemes to ensure that Rhet Butler falls in love with her, mostly because of his wealth. Her persistence is remarkable, as attempt after attempt fails. The movie ends with the famous line, I’ll think about that tomorrow. Tomorrow is another day.

This notion of thinking about that tomorrow, has rooted itself in our culture, although in many ways we have misremembered Scarlett’s persistence (and her motives), and it has become an excuse for not thinking about something today, or even ever. We have become a Scarlett O’Hara people, avoiding thinking about something today, especially if it is unpleasant or difficult, and putting it off until tomorrow, if that.

This, thinking about that tomorrow is not, however, a recent phenomenon. It’s part of the human condition. Even Jesus had to struggle with it, not in himself, but in those who listened to him.

To another [Jesus] 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 plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Many were obviously struck by the message Jesus proclaimed, but they had other, more urgent, more pressing, perhaps even more interesting things to attend to. Let me first bury my father … let me first say farewell.

It’s easy for us to read into these words of Jesus, Let the dead bury their own dead … No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom as uncaring. But that would be to miss the point. While his audience is interested, even captivated but what he says, their response is one of delay. Let me first bury my father … let me first say farewell … I’ll follow, but I’ll do it tomorrow, after all tomorrow is another day.

Jesus however reminds us that tomorrow may indeed be another day, but today is the time for action. There is an urgency, a single-mindedness to his mission, for he had set his face toward Jerusalem. This throw away line is full of meaning. For Luke, Jerusalem is not simply a place, it is an event. That event is the whole purpose of Jesus life and mission. Here Jerusalem means not a city, but the cross, tomb, resurrection and glorification of Jesus and the pouring out of the Spirit upon the people of God, and there is no time to lose. No time for delay. No time for avoiding. Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem because there is an urgency to his mission, and all that will happen there.

It is this single-mindedness that annoys the residents of that Samaritan village. They did not receive him, not because they were being inhospitable, but because they were annoyed. Perhaps like you, they remembered another Samaritan city where Jesus had spent several days.[1] It would be understandable if they expected Jesus to stay several days with them also. But that was not to be the case, for Jesus had set his face toward Jerusalem and they were disappointed, even annoyed, and so they did not receive him.

Unlike Jesus, but like his audience, we don’t have his sense of urgency. We have other things that must be done first before we leave all, and follow[2] for tomorrow is another day. Yet there is an urgency to Jesus’ invitation. Tomorrow may be another day, there may be people who need to be buried, or bidden farewell but the call of Jesus is urgent. Come, follow me, today, now, this instant. We don’t have the luxury of time, and we know it, and we see it.

The world is burning. We know it. We see it. The call of God is urgent.

This nation is burning. We know it. We see it. The call of God is urgent.

And what is that call which is so urgent? Paul, in the letter to the Galatians, puts it this way:

[The] fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control… If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

As the world and this nation burn, thinking about it tomorrow is not an option. God’s call to us to be people of the Spirit, bearing its fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control is as urgent today as it was when Jesus first set his face toward Jerusalem. There is not a minute to lose, and no excuse can excuse us from responding. We may have other things to do. There may be dead to bury. But the world is burning, and there is no time to lose. There may be family to bid farewell. But this nation is burning, and there is no time to lose. God’s call to us is urgent, and while tomorrow may indeed be another day, it is today that we are being called to be a people filled with the Spirit and pouring out upon the world and this nation the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control they so desperately need.

God’s call to us is urgent, and we need to respond, not tomorrow, but today.

[1] John 4: 4 – 42

[2] See Luke 5: 1 – 11