Don't Look Back!
What’s all this? Father Steve got off at the same bus stop last week: the preacher pours over the Scripture for Sunday and waits to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, who never shows.
This morning’s Bible readings are what my homiletics professor at seminary meant - -sometimes you “struggle with the text and lose”. What’s this all about?
First of all, the Lectionary included a reading from Paul, but I totally understand the story of Paul at Acts 20, where the narrator says,
20:7 On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and … kept on talking until midnight. 8 There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9 Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When Eutychus was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10 Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” 11 Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12 The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.
It’s entirely scriptural: I’m not the first person Saint Paul has bored to death.
There were two Old Testament readings for this morning, about Elijah and Elisha, both relatable to the Gospel, so I asked Madge to make an adjustment and omit Paul, giving us a good old Sunday school Bible story of two beloved prophets.
In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus says “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” The plowman must keep his mind on his task, look forward and drive the oxen firmly in order to plow a straight furrow. If he looks back, the oxen wander, the plow goes off course, and the furrow is ruined. Don’t look back.
Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt.
But what about Elisha the plowman? Elisha looks back, goes home, closes out his old life, and returns to follow Elijah. Contrast Jesus’ call of the disciples, fishermen at work along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Peter and Andrew drop everything and follow Jesus. James and John leave their nets and boat and father to follow Jesus. Matthew the tax collector, gets up from his tax booth and follows Jesus. Of course, not everybody does that: three people come up to Jesus in today’s gospel story, but we never hear of them again.
Twenty five or thirty years ago, Bishop Duvall assigned Linda and me to the Commission on Ministry, part of the discerning process for interviewing people who think they want to be ordained. One man who came before us asking permission to go to seminary and seek ordination was a young architect in practice with his father; he wanted to give up everything to follow Jesus. The problem was, his father was upset, angry, distraught, incredulous, heartbroken that his son would abandon their partnership and go. We on the Commission were deeply concerned about the family situation, but we approved him to go to seminary, which he did, and subsequently was ordained deacon and priest. He served in this diocese, then as a parish priest in the Diocese of Alabama. In Time, he was called back home. That young architect was Russell Kendrick, who is now our diocesan bishop.
Years later, I reminded him of that difficult family Time, and Russell told me that when he returned home to close out his participation in their practice, his father was so hurt and angry that he refused to speak to him for weeks. His father’s dead now, but they did reconcile, and the diocese is blessed to have Russell as our bishop (you can thank Linda and me for that!).
In today’s story, Elisha goes home, says goodbye to his family, makes it irreversible, impossible to look back, by killing and cooking his oxen; feeds oxen stew to the poor, and returns to follow Elijah.
So, the First Kings reading tells the beginning of Elijah and Elisha as prophets together. With our reading from Second Kings, their story ends: Elijah is carried away to heaven in a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire. Elisha watches astonished, picks up Elijah’s mantle, gets on with Elijah’s prophecy, - -
and the precedent is set for Luke’s stories of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, carried away bodily into heaven as his disciples look on astonished. They return to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then carry on with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ life-parallels with Elijah and Elisha are impossible for even a kindergarten Sunday school child to miss - - although Jesus is not Elijah returning: as we saw at the mountaintop Transfiguration, greater than Elijah is here. When Jesus says “Elijah HAS come” he’s affirming the ministry of John the Baptist, who came to proclaim him.
Not everyone who is Called can stand up and walk away from ordinary life as Peter & Andrew, James & John, and as Matthew did. Most, like Elisha, are bound to those they love, and need to go back and make sure loved ones are well as they say goodbye.
For the rest, who love and serve Jesus while going on with ordinary life, Peter & Andrew, James & John no doubt had other family who stayed home to continue the work as Galilean fishermen. Matthew surely had an assistant stand up, take over, and the tax booth continued business without interruption!
You do not need to turn your back on those you love to follow Jesus. But your Baptism is indelible, so don't keep rehashing it! Once you are a Christian you are not to look back and wish you had never come. You must do your best throughout life, to keep your promises to God, as the Holy Spirit living within you helps you keep your baptismal covenant.
Along with caring for those you love, and who love you and depend on you, there’s nothing more important in the Christian life than that you keep your word, honor your promises to God.
You’ve made covenant with God. You and God have bound yourselves to each other.
A promise is a promise. Just get on with it.
Don’t look back.
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Sermon/homiletic endeavor by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Sunday, 26 June 2022, Proper 8 Year C. Old Testament Lectionary readings for both Track One and Track Two, instead of the Galatians reading.
The First Reading
1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21
The Lord said to Elijah, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place."
So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." Then Elijah said to him, "Go back again; for what have I done to you?" He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
The Psalm
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Voce mea ad Dominum
1 I will cry aloud to God; *
I will cry aloud, and he will hear me.
2 In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord; *
my hands were stretched out by night and did not tire;
I refused to be comforted.
11 I will remember the works of the Lord, *
and call to mind your wonders of old time.
12 I will meditate on all your acts *
and ponder your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy; *
who is so great a god as our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders *
and have declared your power among the peoples.
15 By your strength you have redeemed your people, *
the children of Jacob and Joseph.
16 The waters saw you, O God;
the waters saw you and trembled; *
the very depths were shaken.
17 The clouds poured out water;
the skies thundered; *
your arrows flashed to and fro;
18 The sound of your thunder was in the whirlwind;
your lightnings lit up the world; *
the earth trembled and shook.
19 Your way was in the sea,
and your paths in the great waters, *
yet your footsteps were not seen.
20 You led your people like a flock *
by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
The Second Reading
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here; for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.
Then Elijah said to him, "Stay here; for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. Fifty men of the company of prophets also went, and stood at some distance from them, as they both were standing by the Jordan. Then Elijah took his mantle and rolled it up, and struck the water; the water was parted to the one side and to the other, until the two of them crossed on dry ground.
When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, "Tell me what I may do for you, before I am taken from you." Elisha said, "Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit." He responded, "You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted you; if not, it will not." As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, "Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, saying, "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?" When he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over.
The Gospel
Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he 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 plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”