Ever Feel Like You Do Not Belong Here?

“Forward to Discipleship”

Luke 9:51-62

A Sermon Prepared for the Hollywood Presbyterian Church

June 27, 2010

Rev. Stephen A. Herring

In our scripture lessons today, Jesus makes three statements.  Someone said to him; “I will follow you wherever you go.”  Jesus gave the first statement; “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  

In the second statement, Jesus says; “Follow me.”  His student answers, “Lord, let me first go and bury my (earthly) father.”  Jesus said; “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 

In the third statement, another follower said to Jesus; “I will follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say farewell to my family.”  Jesus said; “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

So, the three statements Jesus gives us in this passage are as follows: 

1. “The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  
2. “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
3. ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

The phrase, “Son of Man” has a Hebraic root which is “Son of Adam.”   These words are used to describe the Man of God in Ezekiel and in the Book of Daniel.  In these books, “Son of Man” refers to a human being who lives in a state of total devotion, total submission to the will of God.  The Son of Man, or Son of Adam, in the Old Testament is a human being living in the presence of God.  This is a person living in complete relationship, complete devotion to God.  Jesus uses these words to refer to himself so that we will understand that he, though human, lived on this earth as the incarnate Son of God.  As his followers, he calls us to try to live in continually growing commitment in our relationship with God.  He calls us to follow him in detachment from this world and in attachment to the world to come. 

In these verses Jesus is reminding us that the Person of God does not have a place of belonging, or a “home” on this earth.  She, or He, is not of this world.  Here is a list of similar texts. 

John 8:23, “You are from below, I am from above, you are of this world, I am not of this world.” 

John 15:19, “If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

John 17:14, and 16 “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world….They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”  

Romans 12:2, “Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” 

First John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world, or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but of the world, and the world passes away, and the lust if it, but he who does the will of God abides for ever.” 

Today, we need to be and to become that “Son of Adam”, “Son of Man”, or person of total devotion to God.  As the followers of Jesus, our calling is to live Jesus and to show Jesus and to be Jesus in the world.  We are human beings in the flesh, but in the Spirit we are called to live as the children of God. 

There is a part of each of us that does not belong here in this world, on this earth.  We are in this world, but we are not of this world.  Even though we may have lived here all our lives, this is not our permanent home.  There is a part of us that belongs somewhere else.  There is a part of us that does not belong here. 

Jesus calls us to follow him onward and outward to eternity.  Eternity is a place where the value systems and structures, the time and space constraints of this world do not apply.  Eternity is constructed of a completely different fabric of reality.  Things are not the same there as they are here.  Everything is made of different stuff.  We need to let go of our attachments to the failures of this place and move onward to a new birth in a new way of life. 

There is a tension, or a pull we feel whenever the part of us that is at home in the world conflicts with the part of us that is headed for eternity.  As soon as one part of us wants to move ahead toward a deeper relationship with God, another part of us wants to pull us back to attachment to this world. 

This world is a place full of temporary circumstances, temporary conditions, and temporary limitations.  Jesus calls us to leave it all behind.  This world is a place full of lies.  Jesus calls us to leave it all behind and to move into a world of unlimited truth. 

He calls us to leave our grief and sorrow behind. 

He calls us to leave our failure behind.

He calls us to leave our illness behind. 

He calls us to leave our stress behind. 

He calls us to leave our uncertainty behind. 

He calls us to leave our anxiety and our depression behind.    

He calls us to leave our pain behind. 

We need to leave our worry behind. 

We need to leave our poverty and scarcity behind. 

He calls us to leave our sinfulness behind. 

He calls us to leave our immoral addictions and obsessions behind. 

He calls us to leave our attachments to the lust of this world behind. 

He calls us to leave our worldly blind, greedy ambition behind. 

He calls us to leave our attachment to all the troubles of this world behind. 

When this life is all said and done, he calls us to leave everything in this world, all of it behind.  Our call is to eternity.  Our call is to salvation.  To be saved, we need to let go of all that we are holding so tightly to.  We need to let go and to trust our Lord Jesus instead. 

We all have a bad habit of growing totally attached to the problems and concerns which surround us.  We grumble and gripe and complain, we mumble, we mutter, we moan and groan about how bad everything is, but when someone offers us a solution we refuse it.  We somehow prefer to remain wrapped up in the comfortable, dirty rags of our own concerns.  Jesus offers the solution.  Jesus offers us a way out.  We need to let go of it all.  We need to trust it all without limitation to the care and wisdom of God. 

Jesus is calling us to be born into another world, another complete universe of possibility.  Jesus is showing us a totally new way to live in relationship with God for ever.  Jesus is showing us that, rather then being hopelessly attached to the failures of this world, we can begin to see that all this stuff which surrounds us is necessary in the deeper wisdom of God.  All the drama, the hardship, the uncertainty and the pain, all of it is needed for us to grow.  All the mess is necessary for us to grow into a deeper relationship with God.  It all helps us to become ready to take up residence in an entirely different world, the world of eternity.  Our lives in this world are the way they are in order to prepare us for life in the next. 

It is OK for us to give up our little fox holes and our little bird nests.  We do not need these attachments in the world to which Jesus is calling us.  It is OK for us to allow the dead to bury their own dead.  Dead fears, dead ideas, dead worries, dead habits, dead ways of thinking, dead attitudes, dead sins; all can burry themselves.  God does not call us to death but to eternal life. 

It is OK for us to move confidently and bravely forward into the future God calls us to.  We can let go of our past.  We do not need to look back.  This is true for us as individuals and as a congregation.  The past will not save us.  Our calling is to move forward into discipleship.  Amen.