Tell Me the Story of Your Journey
Luke 9:51-62
Some of you may be aware that I am what is known in the psychological journals as an “information gatherer.” This is a trait that makes me a great partner in games like Trivial Pursuit. But it also a trait which can make it seem that my head is full of some of the most useless stuff there is to know. I think being an information gatherer can be a good thing, in that it gives me a broader range of information to look at for making connections. But it can also be a bad thing, if people who know me decide that if most of what I know is useless, then it logically follows that most of what I say is useless.
I’m telling you all this because what I am going to say next may sound useless and therefore not worth listening to, but I offer it as part of the connections we can see in the world that can help us connect to God and our neighbors on our journey of faith.
One of the things we never considered when I was a teenager was the danger of texting while driving. Mainly, this is because I date back to a time when you couldn’t call someone on your phone from the car, much less send them a text. Phones were things that hung on a wall, or sat on a counter, and had rotary dials. If you wanted to send someone words, it meant writing them down on a piece of paper, putting them in an envelope, and sending them through the mail. It was efficient, if you considered two to three days between sending and receiving a message to be efficient.
Cars were also heavier then, and they had fewer safety features. Seat belts were optional. No one had ever thought of airbags in the steering column. There were no anti-lock brakes to help you stop, nor cruise control to help maintain proper speeds. There was no crumple zone to transfer the energy of the impact around you – you just crumpled along with the car.
What this all means is that you were responsible for keeping your focus on the road while driving, if you wanted to be safe. Driving distracted meant there was a good chance you could die while driving. To be a safe driver meant staying focused on driving, because the consequences for not being focused were real, and they were terrible.
Today, studies are showing that young drivers often don’t share that concern and focus for safe driving. They know, on a level they don’t even have to think about, that they have 3-point safety harnesses, and antilock brakes, and cruise controls, and power-assisted steering, and airbags, and crumple zones, and many other safety features that promise to prevent the negative consequences of driving distracted. Newer cars will even stop for you if you’re not paying attention. And some companies are actively working on driver-less cars so you don’t have to pay attention to the journey, at all.
To be fair, it isn’t just young drivers who text, and fiddle with their music, and talk on the phone while they are driving. Drivers of all ages seem to be focused on the text, or the song, or their conversations. Their focus seems to be on anything other than watching where they are going. People drive while distracted because they have this false sense of assurance that they will be saved from any negative consequences by the safety devices built into the car.
Of course, most of us, most of the time, are not crashing blindly into other cars, or careening wildly into trees or over puppies. Most of the time, most of us drive well enough to get from place to place without causing loss of life or limb, and without doing significant damage to our insurance rates. And as long as we are doing “well enough,” we think that is “good enough.” And when we think what we are doing is “good enough,” we are not usually motivated to do anything differently than what we are already doing.
That’s something that carries over from our life practices into our faith practices. Most of us, most of the time, are doing pretty well at following Jesus. We know we have the eternal safety feature of God’s grace to save us from the distractions, or sins, in this life. We do no harm, most of the time. We do good, most of the time. We do the necessary things to stay in love with God, most of the time. So, most of the time, most of us do this well enough to be considered good Christians. And because we are doing well enough, we are not all that motivated to do anything differently in our faith than what we are already doing.
In our reading, James and John have been following Jesus, and they have been doing pretty well. They get that they are to follow Jesus. They are excited about proclaiming the good news. They are learning to trust Jesus to do amazing things. In their faith journey so far, we could say that they have stayed between the lines and out of the ditches.
But when James and John get to Samaria, they run into a problem. It seems that they have been traveling distracted, focusing on their glory, and on their power, and on their position as disciples of Jesus. They have not been focused on their journey.
We know they are not focused because they have missed the times Jesus has told them that not everyone will hear the good news gladly. They have missed the signs that indicate they are to love their neighbors, even when they are not so lovable. They have missed the signs of the oncoming traffic of others who are not following Jesus.
James and John were on their way to Jerusalem, and BAM, their plans crumple all around them. The Samaritans have not yielded to them the right-of-way to heaven. The journey has hit a snag which delays them. The disciples are greatly inconvenienced because this crash needs to be dealt with.
James and John have discovered that they can’t travel blindly through this district on their way to their final destination – which, incidentally, they assume is Jerusalem, a place on earth. This is another sign that they have been distracted on this journey with Jesus. They have missed that getting to Jerusalem is not their final destination in their faith.
Like James and John, when we crash up against the hard realities of journeying through life, we have an opportunity for reflecting on how this incident might be used as a means of testing our faith. This is what John Wesley suggested we do. Trials are an opportunity for growing in the spirit of love for all persons, precisely because they do point out where we have been distracted in our faith.
Like James and John, however, when we are really distracted, we look instead where to place the blame for our difficulty on this journey. Sigmund Freud called that “repression and projection” – “it’s not my problem, but yours.”
That is what happens with James and John. They decided that the real problem is not that they have crashed into the Samaritans, but that the Samaritans have crashed into them. The problem is not that they were not paying attention to Jesus, but those others who are by definition not following Jesus.
For James and John, this problemis nothing less than a confrontation between the true God revealed in Jesus, and the supposed god of the Samaritans. And like the confrontation between Elijah and the priests of Baal, James and John believe that the best proof of their God’s superiority is a fire from heaven that utterly destroys the enemy. Their solution is not to do a better job of following Jesus, but to use extreme prejudice towards those who are obviously not following Jesus. “It’s not our problem, but theirs.”
And that seems to be a “good enough” answer. It is, after all, the answer many cling to today in dealing with what they see happening in the world. And it might even be a “good enough” answer, if not for a footnote in our Bibles.
In some of the ancient texts, there are some words of Jesus missing between verses 55 and 56, which are now included as footnotes in your pew Bibles. If you are using a King James Version, the words are included as part of the scripture. These words are addressed to James and John, and to their solution which ignores they have been distracted. Jesus said, “You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them.”
Even if we were to decide that there is not enough historical and textual authority to affirm that Jesus actually said this, it is not the only time Jesus has told the disciples, and us, that it is not fire that descends from heaven that brings salvation, but the Son of God who descended from heaven to warm our hearts.
Listen again to John 3 -- “No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
After James and John crash and burn, as evidenced by this rather dramatic rebuke from Jesus, we are then given three brief glimpses of persons who want to be followers of Jesus, but who are also faith-driving distracted.
We need to be clear that these are not bad people. These are the kinds of persons we would readily accept as members of this church, without giving it a second thought. We would accept them because these persons, most of the time, are doing well enough at following Jesus.
The first offers tofollow Jesus on the road, but is distracted bythe need for an assurance. The second is invited to further follow Jesus, but is distracted by some conditions that must be met. The third also offers to further follow Jesus, but only after it he is no longer distracted by his schedule.
Like we sometimes do on our journey of faith, they were distracted by things that are important. Being concerned for home, for family, and for relationships is important. Jesus knows that these things are important to us, and that they are important to the kingdom of God, as well.
Jesus is not telling us that we should just forget our important obligations. Instead, Jesus is telling us to keep between the linesand to stay out of the ditches of faith. There are consequences if we lose our focus, and those consequences are real. There are consequences if we journey with a distracted faith, and they are terrible.
Our problem is not that we do not have a vision of God’s kingdom. Our problem is not that Jesus was unclear about what it means to be a disciple. Our problem is not that there are people out there who are not following Jesus.
Our problem is that we have been distracted disciples who have been gathering lots of information about what is important, and we have been distracted from the path of our journey. Our problem is that we have thought that “well enough” is “good enough”, and we find ourselves in the ditches.
We get distracted because it is easier to gather information which is important to us, because it is often easier to see that it is also useful to us. Information about strengthening our home life is easier to put into practice than a calling to depend on God. Information about the advantages of multiple generations caring for each other is easier to measure than a calling to conform our lives to Christ. Information about successfully managing our relationships is readily more useful to us than a calling to have confidence in the Holy Spirit.
This is why we need to practice telling the story of our journey of faith. It helps us keep our focus. It helps us see where we got distracted. It helps us see how God works through the scriptures, and worship, and small groups to get us back on track. It helps us see that our final destination on this journey is not a place on a map, or a moment in time, but a kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Jesus is still calling us to follow him. And this calling comes at a time in our lives and history when it is so very easy to be distracted by the importance of families, and culture, and politics, and many other things which we are certain are very dear to us. But when we tell our story, if we are not distracted, we will be able to witness that we have been led by Jesus to take care of what is important as we have lived into what is vital.
Jesus is still calling us to follow. Let us listen to his call, and respond in faith, as we sing Hymn 593 “Here I Am, Lord.”