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Sermon from The Rev. Bill Payton
Cathedral of St. Philip
7:45 and 9:00 a.m., Mikell Chapel
June 30, 2007
Galatians 3:23-29 and Luke 9:51-62
I wonder if you can recall the last time you saw a two-year-old at play. Or maybe you can imagine a time when all we did was to play and learn, eat and sleep. Such marvelous freedom and glorious abandon. I remember before our two boys reached the age of picking up their toys and storing them, I could follow a trail through their play room of toys played with and then dropped off to move on to the next thing of interests. Sort of a “site plan” of their day. This passionate cycle of grabbing hold, reveling and letting go happens over and over until at the end of the day the child falls asleep exhausted from a full day. No responsibilities, no boredom, just boundless energy and passion for living.
The eagerness with which a 2 year old takes on the world is a very good metaphor for the kind of urgency to which God’s Word challenges us today. And the unfettered passion that a child knows is the kind of freedom into which God calls you and me..
As we respond to God’s call to discipleship, most of us want to follow but we never endingly need to take care of a few things first, like James and John and the unnamed characters in Luke’s Gospel who also want to be true disciples. They want to go with Jesus, but family obligations, sense of duty and social expectation tug at them.
When the Samaritans refuse to welcome Jesus, James and John want to respond with vengeance. They have been insulted, injured. Social codes call for punishment or at least for getting even. When the others hear Jesus’ call to follow him, they come face to face with what discipleship will cost them. The security of home and family, the comfort of things familiar, will have to go. Like the child they will have to live and learn by grabbing hold and letting go. For the characters of Luke’s story, discipleship comes at a high price. And so it is for us. We too want to go with Jesus, to follow where he leads without reservation, but our fear and lack of confidence, our social codes and conventions keep us tied down.
Who of us are willing to give up the comfort and safety of home, family and familiar friends? Which of us moves on to a new place or a new way of relating for the sake of the gospel? Few of us readily stands in contradiction to social norms in order to witness gospel values. When the call of discipleship would have us feed the hungry, we go in our designer Levis and Nikes. When we are called to stand in solidarity with those oppressed those imprisoned, those who are sick or dying or addicted, we risk no contamination. The expectations of family, friends and neighbors often hold us back. Our society’s norms bind our hands and stifle our will.
And yet there are certainly moments when the urgency of discipleship removes our chains and we find ourselves enveloped in the power of God’s reign. There are indeed times when we feed the hungry no questioned asked, or speak out against oppression without concern for our reputation. There are times when we reach out, touching the sick, the dying, the addict, without concern for our own safety.
How readily do we grab hold and revel in the good things we have? But, how easy is it to let them go? Discipleship demands that we embrace this simple pattern we knew so well when we were two. Only then can we say yes to Jesus. Only then can we know true freedom.
In Paul’s letter to the Galatian community, he urges us to remember that we have been called to live in freedom, even when we don’t always feel free. We are crippled by dead lines and meetings, work schedules, school schedules, housecleaning, shopping, cooking, etc. We are tied down by car care, health care, haircuts, bill paying. The grass needs to be cut and the bushes trimmed, the children must have new shoes, and company’s coming.
Where do we know freedom when life is so full of endless, ordinary tedious tasks? When fear, anger, aggravation, prejudice and isolation bind us. When we are tied to old grudges and hurt feelings, boredom and apathy?
Well, just maybe it is easier than we want to believe. Our freedom comes in loving, in placing ourselves at the service of one another. So even in the midst of all that holds us back, if we let go and put love before all else, we shall indeed be free.
Today, we are challenged by the Word to live as if we were toddlers again. We are simply called to let go of fear and the need for surety, to let go of the insecurities and social conventions we need to let go of. We are challenged by God’s word to gather at the Lord’s table embracing discipleship that calls us into freedom….freedom to delight in the good things and to let them go….freedom to love….placing ourselves at the service of others.
True discipleship is freeing. It frees us for love, it makes us lovers of life and all that is beautiful, true and good. It demands an eager response to an urgent calling…a passionate delight and honest letting go. True discipleship demands that we love and keep moving, even when we don’t know where we are headed.
As we move to the offertory of our Eucharist this morning, I invite you to begin by taking a quick look over your life. Find that place, that situation, that relationship where you want to experience freedom. Don’t start big, look for just one such thing that even seems to call your attention. At the offertory as we bring our money, the gifts of bread and wine, also make an offering of where God may want you to experience the freedom which lovingly flows from God’s presence. Answering Jesus call that we be his disciples is the simple act of letting go and letting God relate to us in the ways God chooses. One gradually responds to God’s call until the “letting go and letting God” becomes a constant exercise of faith. A pastoral warning, like the developmental life of a toddler, our relationship with God is always like starting over and over again. But, please be careful, if it isn’t like starting over and over again, then one may be headed into the stagnant life of idolatry and self righteousness which prevents a living relationship with the living God. The call to discipleship is the constant call to be aware of God’s presence and to respond to that presence in love.
Amen.
Comments? Contact The Rev. Bill Payton at: bpayton@stphilipscathedral.org