April 23, 2007 - "Order Up!"

Title: “Order Up!”
Text: Luke 9:51-62
Day: SPECIAL SERMON FOR CLASS
Date: April 23, 2007

I worked several jobs while I was in high school. I started out at a greenhouse, working as a grunt labor slave who always seemed to get the jobs that called for digging through dirt and mulch in the cold, miserable spring rain while the rest of the employees enjoyed the benefits of working with beautiful, large, tropical flowers in the constant 80 degree greenhouse. I never worked with the customers directly; I never heard a Thank You; I never enjoyed the work. I quit.

That summer I worked at a local grocery store. That was the year that Michigan experienced soaring high temperatures and a drought to boot. My manager required proper attire of pants and long sleeved shirts despite the 100 degree plus heat wave, so fetching carts from the blacktop parking lot was miserable. When he finally allowed me to stay inside, he handed me a razor blade and asked me to scrape the scuff marks off the floor that had been left by the dragging wheels of the grocery carts. I never worked with the customers directly; I never heard a Thank You; I never enjoyed the work. I did the chore, handed him the razor and promptly quit.

I landed a job soon afterwards as a waiter at a local restaurant…something like a Bob Evans. Finally, I was able to work with the people themselves. I was on the front line. This is the kind of work I wanted. On my first night I was given a table of six heavy-set, raucous, and jovial people. Eagerly I approached to take their order. I don’t remember the exchange precisely, but it went something like this: Customer 1 wanted a Bacon Cheeseburger with extra bacon, no beef, one half slice of cheese on the side…oh, and replace the fries with onion rings. Customer 2 just wanted coffee…decaf…no, wait…regular…no, wait…yes, regular is fine, but when I refill it make sure that it’s decaf. Customer 3 wanted a salad with blue cheese dressing on the salad and on the side…oh, and give him the beef from Customer #1’s burger. And on and on it went around the table. Finally, I was working with the customers directly…and I hated it. I quit after two weeks. People are just too picky about what they want.

Come to think of it, people are pretty picky when it comes to pretty much everything…our clothes, our friends, our jobs, and, yes, even our God. Within these pages [showing the Bible] we are given impressionable images of a God who nurtures and provides for humanity. Within these pages we are given enticing descriptions of a God known most fully in and through the person of Jesus who undergoes crucifixion on our behalf, conquering the powers of sin and death forever, reconciling our fallen world unto Godself, showing us how to live in peace with one another and with this glorious creation. Within these pages we are offered an order of the perfect God as known most fully in and through Jesus the Christ, and the cost of this uncontestable gift – while costly – is utterly free.

But instead of simply accepting the perfect God in Christ that we are offered, we insist that God could be better if we tweaked the characteristics a little bit. We like the idea of Jesus, but we want a Jesus that meets our requirements.

Perhaps this is the hang-up that the Samaritans faced as Jesus was walking through their territory. Jesus’ determination to continue his journey toward Jerusalem, toward suffering, toward the cross is shown by the fact that his face is ever set towards that holy city. And the Samaritans cannot help but notice. The fact that Jesus’ face is set towards Jerusalem is a big problem for them. And since that didn’t meet the requirements of the God they wanted, they choose not to receive him. Send him away!

The two disciples, James and John, chime in as a result of the picky-ness of the Samaritans. One can almost sense a feeling of pleasure and excitement in their words: “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Their words betray the fact that they are intoxicated with a false sense of power. They have incorrectly assumed that by being associated with Jesus, who was earlier confessed to be the Messiah, meant that they could wield divine justice upon those who opposed them. The God they wanted would obviously allow them to smite their enemies swiftly and decisively. Yet Jesus rebukes them for their idea, and continues down the road.

As Jesus travels we soon find that just as we have requirements of the kind of God in Christ that we want, Jesus too wants disciples who meet his requirements as shown in a series of three brief vignettes. Customer number 1 is willing to follow Jesus wherever he goes. Yet Jesus responds by revealing the fate that befalls any who would follow him: there would be no place for that one to rest. Jesus demands disciples who can face constant rejection, inhospitality, and the loss of one’s place in the world.

Customer number 2 is specifically called by Jesus to follow. He replies that he must fulfill his duties as a son by burying his father. Jesus’ response “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” shows the utter importance of the disciple’s task. The proclamation of the impinging kingdom of God is more important than even the most important duty imaginable. Jesus demands disciples who are willing to put aside those things that seem important in order to take up a task that is crucial.

Finally, Customer number 3 steps up to the challenge, but first asks for permission to say good-bye to the family. Jesus, however, demands disciples who understand that the proclamation of the kingdom is all-consuming. A disciple who is distracted from the task at hand is useless and unfit for the kingdom of God.

These are harsh requirements set forth by Jesus for those who would be his disciples, which – ironically – doesn’t fit the requirements we have of Jesus. We want a Jesus who is kind to everyone. We want a Jesus who doesn’t impose stringent demands upon us. We want a Jesus who allows us to sit back and relax while he takes care of the world’s problems. We ordered a Jesus with power we can use to smite those whom we dislike, without rigid requirements of us, and with a side order of magic so that we might have whatever we desire. And since the Jesus we are presented with often doesn’t meet these requirements, we reject him.

Little thought is given to the fact that – although we can hardly say that we meet the requirements of an ideal disciple – Jesus accepts us. The hidden mercy in today’s gospel reading is that Jesus never rejects people. The Samaritans, though they would not receive Jesus, are shown mercy. Jesus does not rebuke the Samaritans for their unbelief. Jesus does not side with James and John and permit divine retribution to come upon them. Jesus does nothing of the sort; he simply travels along the road, and we are left to find that – at the end of the story – even these unaccepting Samaritans are accepted.

The three people whom Jesus meets along the road are never told that they cannot follow. Jesus does not point and laugh at them for their false idea of what it means to be a disciple. Jesus does nothing of the sort; he simply calls them to a higher way of discipleship, and we are left to find that – at the end of the story – even the disciple who denies him three times is accepted back into the fold.

There are no qualifications, exceptions, additions, or side orders needed. We are simply accepted as we are and freed to do our best to participate as disciples toward the coming kingdom of God. And living, then, as freed disciples we find that the God we wanted, the God we desired, the God we would have picked and chosen for ourselves, is not the God that we need.

While we want a God who is always on our side, what we really need is a God who can bring reconciliation in the midst of division. What we really need is a God who can bring healing in the midst of pain. What we really need is a God who can bring love in the midst of hate. What we really need is a God who accepts us despite our brokenness. Thankfully, this is the God we have.