July 1, 2007
5th After Pentecost
Luke 9:51-62 and Galatians 5:1, 13 -25
The Rev. Dr. George Hermanson
Here we are on nice warm holiday. A weekend that celebrates our nation's birthday - Canada Day. We have come to reflect on our place in the world. And we seek help from our faith for the living of this day - to live it well.
When you listened to the readings was there a bit of resistance to the words? They seemed harsh. They are very demanding, if not off putting. Heavy words for hot days and our brain is asked to work overtime when we rather be sitting in some nice cool body of water. Yet there they are - let the dead bury the dead - Tough words that cry out to be parsed for meaning.
Tough words that cry out to be parsed for meaning. It is helpful to understand the context of the sayings in Luke. It is also helpful to understand what Paul’s situation was to get the fuller understanding of his seemly moralistic list.
First Luke. Luke places them in the the journey of Jesus towards Jerusalem. There is a sense of urgency. Luke is creating a story for the community to mimic. Mimicking is how we pass on culture - children do not do things by instinct - we teach them by example, e.g., the etiquette of eating. We learn the rules by watching and reproduction.
Luke wants to the community to remember the events that formed them, and are now in story form, so they become second nature. The community will be so formed by the story of faith that in every day events and activities they will represent the truth of God’s love for the world. People will be so formed that the cause of justice and the common good will be second nature.
In Luke’s telling he knows how Jesus was faithful to God’s aim for beauty and the common good - God’s aim to love and care of those who are at the edge of society, and the care of nature. Jesus remained faithful even though it was dangerous and his message challenged the authority of the empire. And that challenge led to his crucifixion as an enemy of the state. Knowing it was dangerous, Jesus still continued. We can see the urgency in the sayings. It was a matter of commitment to the cause . To be part of Jesus’ way cost - to be a disciple was dangerous and they needed to have their eyes wide open if they were going to respond. It is like the old saying, "I never promised you a rose garden." Even in the creation of beauty there are thorns and dangers.
Luke rachets up the issue with the saying about the dead burying the dead. In the society of the time the honor system brought order. It had rules of inheritance and proper care of family. Both the Roman and Jewish cultures had the idea of honoring one’s father and mother. Thus this saying is a challenge to the order of the day. To leave the dead is to abandon the rules of obligation of the elder son and the saying this was to be done before the father was dead. There was a correct way of leaving one’s obligations and it took time. Here there is no time - it is to get on with what was most important to the present needs of the wider society. It is to leave behind those things that inhibits full commitment. The kind of behavior Jesus is asking for is not socially acceptable. It undercut the Roman Empire and the status quo.
The last saying is a community saying. It is the common sense of a new community. When you are on a journey it does not do to look back. To know what to do in a situation is determined in the situation. You bring the values of world care. The new Lucian community was on a journey. It had a mission and to ask who it had been is to miss the point. It is to ask who are we and what good do we bring. It is the value of the kingdom of God which is holy hospitality - the care of all creation and all that is within it.
Paul’s words still challenge us as to what kind of a people we should be. His assumption is that we have freedom. The question is how will we use that freedom? Galatians is a long reflection of the nature of the freedom faith brings and how it is not license.
Paul develops this in response to others who want to impose religious rites that worked in the past. However, those rites had become the end in themselves - they had become dogma. And one’s duty was to reproduce dogma. Over against this theology, Paul argued that freedom in Jesus meant that dogma was not the goal, it was only an aid to faithful action. It is action of freedom and love that forms a person, not some artifacts of dogma. Doctrine is a growing and changing process. In ritual it has a mimic function in forming our identity in Christ. In using baptism as the entrance to the community, Paul is suggesting that it is who you are now not who you were that is the question. All are equal in Christ, there is no superiority. He is reminding the Galatians that they had accepted equality in Christ and thus the old fights of who is superior in faith are gone, finished, no longer worthy of the community. It is a rejection of all theologies of superiority - only we have the truth.
This idea grows and becomes a challenge to all hierarchy systems. It becomes a threat to the Roman Empire and all empires. Ideas that echo down through history until it forms our sense of reality. Ideals to be reflected upon this Canada Day.
We have created great freedoms, ideas of pluralism and multiculturalism that affirm a sense of all are equal. We have this great destiny of freedom. But what are we doing with it? Paul warns us that if we use our energy to try and consume others, we run the risk of being gobbled up ourselves. This is a warning to be modest, and humble. (Thanks James)
Our passages give us a way to understand our past and our future. They point us to how we are to create a future for all. The images can help us both in our personal life and our life in community. These readings make a connection with issues of our day - in fact puts them into context.
Let the dead bury the dead can be reworked into: pay attention to what is before us and not what was in the past - to get a fix on the now so there can be a future. As I said a few weeks ago, the past does not necessarily determine the present nor the future. We are not caught in past identities and past hurts. We are called to leave the past behind, not to be caught up in blaming the past for our present situation. It is true that past hurts have really have hurt us, but we are not to hold on to them, let them determine the present. Let the dead bury the dead is a call to push off those negative realities and to understand that as individuals we have some power to redeem the present.
When we understand that God is in the redemption business we can let go and move on, addressing what is needed in the present to make our life and communal lives better. Just look around and stay the course.
This past week we had a day of action where we were reminded how much is needed to heal the lives of aboriginal. Land claims demand our attention now. It does not help us to go back and seek blame, what again is needed is attention to the needs of now, what is needed, what are the issues, so we can create a future for all of us. We ask what is at stake? This begins a process of listening to the needs of the other. As long as we debate the past this stops us from address what is in front of us. When we address the needs of the present it is now possible to create an inclusive future.
We live in freedom from the domination of the past and ideas that imprison. When we take that reality seriously we can create a world of peace and beauty. Let the dead bury the dead and move on.
George Hermanson
