On Sunday, August 10, we will have ONE SERVICE AT 11am, which will be held at Three Sisters Farm (938 Scenic Heights Road). Our church picnic will follow. BBQ and bottled water will be provided. You are invited to bring a side dish and/or a dessert to share. Bring a friend too!
CLICK HERE for a worship video for July 20
Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost – July 20, 2025
Genesis 18:1-10a, Luke 10:38-42
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Don’t just sit there, DO something!”
When someone says that to you, whether it is a parent, or a spouse, or a co-worker or supervisor, it gets your attention. They don’t even need to use those precise words. There are more subtle ways to convey this expectation that doing something is better than just sitting there. It could be an overly dramatic sigh while standing at the kitchen sink. It might be a passive aggressive comment about how tired you are from all the work you have done, spoken loudly in front of people who are sitting on the couch watching TV. It might be a grumble under your breath about how some people aren’t pulling their weight around here.
There are lots of ways to say, “Don’t just sit there, DO something!” And they all come with a heavy dose of judgement. They stir up guilt and shame. They tap into the Protestant work ethic so deeply imbedded in our culture, which says that doing something is always better than doing nothing. It is certainly better than just sitting there!
Oftentimes doing something is important. It is good. It is beneficial. When it comes to the workplace, or the family, or the functioning of a congregation, it is important for everyone to pitch in in whatever way they can. It is important that there be a fair distribution of chores and tasks. It is important that people not just sit there, but do something. Many hands make light work. Hard work builds character. The people around us often depend on us not just sitting there but doing something.
This isn’t just the Protestant work ethic, it was very much a part of ancient Jewish culture as well. We hear in our first reading how Abraham and Sarah exemplified the Jewish work ethic of hospitality by doing something for the three strangers who passed by their tent. They brought them water and washed their feet and fed them some bread. Abraham and Sarah didn’t just sit there, they did something!
In our gospel reading for today we see Martha embodying this Jewish work ethic of hospitality. As Jesus came to Bethany, she welcomed him into her home. His disciples were with him, so this was a major effort. She suddenly found herself cooking for more than a dozen people. She had linens to prepare and pillows to fluff and water to fetch. She wasn’t just sitting there, she was doing something!
Her sister Mary, however, was just sitting there. While Martha was running around making all of the preparations, Mary just sat there at Jesus’ feet, listening to what he was saying. I can imagine Martha shooting some looks Mary’s direction, looks that said, “Don’t just sit there, do something!” As Mary continued to just sit there, Martha asked Jesus to intervene. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
And Jesus answered her, saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
It is important to note here that Jesus’ criticism of Martha was not her work as such. It was not the hospitality she was showing him, which was surely appreciated. The criticism was that she was worried and distracted. Jesus’ concern was that her work was getting in the way of something better, something even more important. She was serving him by doing something, but she wasn’t taking the time to sit at his feet and listen to him.
At this point Jesus could have said to her: “Don’t just DO something, SIT there!” Jesus praised Mary for doing just that – for sitting there! Jesus was not praising Mary for shirking the obligations of hospitality. He wasn’t praising her for kicking up her feet in a recliner while Martha did all the work. Mary wasn’t just sitting, she was sitting at Jesus’ feet. To sit at someone’s feet was to assume the posture of a student, a disciple. This language is used in Acts to describe how Paul once sat at the feel of his rabbi Gamaliel.
When Jesus came into her home, Mary assumed the posture of a student. This “sitting there” wasn’t about relaxation, it was about receptivity. This “sitting there” wasn’t about taking it easy, it was about taking in all he had to say. Doing something for Jesus wasn’t inherently wrong or bad – not at all! – but sitting there at his feet was even better. As Jesus said, Mary had chosen the better portion, which would not be taken away from her.
Abraham and Sarah performed the tasks of hospitality beautifully as those three strangers came by their tent beside the oaks of Mamre. But the doing eventually gave way to something better, something even more important. It gave way to the listening. It gave way to hearing one of the strangers say, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” The doing gave way to simply sitting there and hearing the promise of God.
There is much that we can and should do for Jesus. A congregation runs on the work of people like Martha, people who work in the kitchen, people who tend to our building and property, people who fix toilets and change lightbulbs and bring cookies and make coffee. This is all ultimately the work of hospitality – making our church a place that is hospitable for others. All of that is so very important! It is so appreciated! It is good! We could use more people helping us with these tasks!
But there is something that is even more important. There is something even better.
There is a better part for us to choose, which will not be taken away from us. And it is simply sitting there, sitting at Jesus’ feet, receiving the word he has to give us, taking in all that he has to say. This is the better part which will not be taken away from us.
I’ve had a lot of hospital visits to make recently. I’ve been visiting people who have been big doers in our congregation. And while they are frustrated about being bedridden and eager to get back to the things they love to do, they are still able to do the one thing needful. They are still able to sit at Jesus’ feet, receiving his word. Even when they can’t do much else, they can do this. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is everything. It is what Jesus calls “the better part.”
This reminds me of the title of a book Marva Dawn wrote many years ago about worship. It has the best title of any book on worship I’ve ever seen. It is called, “A Royal Waste of Time: The Splendor of Worshipping God and Being Church for the World.” Simply sitting and listening to God’s Word in worship doesn’t seem like you are doing much. It seems like a waste of time to many people. Perhaps it even seems that way to us at times. Many people, even church members, seem to only fit worship into their schedule when there is nothing supposedly better going on. Many people complain that they are too busy with other things to engage in Bible study or prayer. This is what Jesus is criticizing in Martha. She was worried and distracted by her work. She thought it was more important than the supposed waste of time of sitting at Jesus’ feet. She was focused only on the doing.
Martin Luther set a good example for us when he famously said, “I am so busy today that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer!” He had his priorities straight! He knew that the better needed to come before the good, the listening needed to come before the doing.
When we focus only on the doing, we burn out. When we focus only on the doing, we sometimes end up like Martha, resentful and bitter towards our brothers and sisters in Christ who we think aren’t pulling their weight around here. Focusing only on the doing is what leads to some of the worst bickering and conflicts in congregational life. Focusing only on the doing isn’t good for us, and it isn’t good for the people around us.
If you want a good family life, a good community, a good job, or business, or career, you need to work for it. You need a good work ethic. You need to put in the effort. You need to do something.
But if you want a relationship with God, you essentially “do” nothing. You just listen. You listen to and trust in his promises to you, which are completely unearned, and, frankly, undeserved.
So don’t just do something, sit there!
The Christian life isn’t primarily about doing. It is first and foremost about sitting still and listening to God’s promises. It is about sitting at Jesus’ feet. It is about sitting and receiving the gifts Christ has come to give us, the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
This is the better part, and it will never be taken away from you.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 13
Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost – July 13, 2025
Luke 10:25-37
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Today we hear one of Jesus’ best-known parables, commonly called the parable of the Good Samaritan. An expert in Jewish law asked Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus responded with this parable. You know how the story goes. A man is stripped and beaten and robbed, left half-dead on the road. A priest sees this man in need and walks right past him, crossing the street to avoid him. Then a Levite, a worker in the temple, does the very same thing, passing him by. Then a Samaritan sees him and stops. This Samaritan bandages his wounds, treating them with oil and wine. The Samaritan then brings the half-dead man to an inn where he can continue to receive care, where he can be nursed back to life. The Samaritan generously promises to cover any and all debts he incurs.
The shock of the parable is that the one who acted most neighborly was not the priest, and not the temple worker, but the Samaritan. You see, to a Jewish lawyer, there was no such thing as a “good” Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by the Jews. The Samaritans were seen as wayward Jews who had abandoned the true Jewish faith. The Samaritans were former Jews who had intermarried with people of other cultures and adopted many of their religious practices, even while retaining some aspects of Judaism. They were seen as traitors and heretics. They were seen as unclean. In some ways they were worse than Gentiles, because they had once known and then had abandoned the true God of Israel. And yet, here Jesus makes a Samaritan the hero of the story, the one who best embodied what it meant to be a neighbor. He might be a Samaritan, but he responded to the human need in front of him without regard to religious or ethnic or political or social differences.
This is a parable we need to hear. We need to be reminded that to be a godly neighbor is to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. This is not an abstract idea or principle. It is not a general policy prescription for others to fulfill. It is an individual obligation for those who wish to be faithful to God’s law. It is a call to personally attend to the needs of those whom God puts in our path, those who are close at hand.
There is some discernment involved in this. We should use wisdom in how we go about it. There are plenty of scriptures which give this very advice. But, generally speaking, this is what it looks like to love our neighbors as ourselves: responding to human needs regardless of human differences.
We saw this principle being lived out recently in the response to the devastating and deadly flooding in Texas. When a few people tried to exploit the situation to try to score a few cheap political points, the Texans on the ground weren’t having any of it.
I saw a video clip of an African American woman responding to these political jabs by posting a video on social media. While some of it is not what I would call pulpit language, I’d like to share her comments unedited. She said : “I just wanted to say as a proud Texan…those who are bringing up who people voted for…this is not about politics. One thing about a Texan, we’re gonna’ pick up and we’re gonna’ help our neighbors. We don’t give a damn who they voted for in this time of need. What needs to be done is we need to find these babies. That’s what we are worried about. No politics, no nothing…We all pull our boots up and help each other. We don’t give a damn – blue, yellow, orange, white, brown, we all are gonna’ help each other.”
This is the spirit of the parable of the Good Samaritan. This is what it looks like to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. And in this time of such deep polarization, in a culture which is so deeply divided by politics and social class and ethnicity and religion, this is something we need to be reminded of again and again.
But as important as this is, there is an even deeper issue involved in Jesus’ conversation with this scholar of Biblical law. Note that the first question this lawyer had for Jesus was how he could inherit eternal life. This was a question about salvation. And when Jesus gave him a reference to the law, pointing him to the passage in Deuteronomy about loving God and loving neighbor, St. Luke tells us his next question came because he was trying to justify himself. That is, he was trying to make himself right with God. He was looking for assurance of salvation, assurance which, apparently, the law wasn’t giving him!
This is where the parable becomes more than a simple lesson in morality and becomes a parable about salvation. Given this crucially important bit of context, we can start to read the parable in such a way that it isn’t just Jesus giving this guy more law, more advice on how to behave. Looking at what exactly prompted the story can help us to see this parable also as an allegory of the gospel. It isn’t just about what we do, but what Christ is doing for us!
The earliest interpreters of this parable saw it this way. The earliest interpreters of this parable, including such luminaries as St. Augustine and St. Ambrose, saw this not only as a moral example story, but as an allegory of the saving work of Jesus Christ, who is the true Good Samaritan, the true neighbor who saves.
The allegorical interpretation of this parable sees the half-dead man as representing humanity after the fall, beaten up by the devil, robbed of all hope and joy, abandoned and alienated. The priest and the temple worker represent the inability of the law and the temple sacrifices to deliver any saving help to the suffering sinner. Jesus is the Samaritan, the one who was despised and rejected by his fellow Jews. Jesus comes with oil and wine, symbols of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion, to bind up our wounds. Jesus delivers us into the inn of his church, where we can continue to be cared for, where our healing process can continue, all at his expense, with him promising to pay our every last debt.
Do you see it now? Do you see how this parable is not only a story about being a moral person and a good neighbor? Do you see how Jesus is actually responding to the man’s initial questions about how to inherit eternal life? About how he can be made right with God? It isn’t ultimately about doing a good job of keeping the law, which would contradict the entire rest of the New Testament and completely negate everything Jesus did on the cross for us. The assurance of salvation this man is looking for is instead to be found in the unexpected savior standing right in front of him, in the outsider who has come to meet him in his need. It is instead to be found in the despised and rejected One who has come to him when he was half-dead and when all his training in the religious law offered him no help. It is to be found in the surprising rescuer who came to him with oil and wine, gave him shelter, and took his debt upon himself.
We do need to be reminded of the moral imperatives of the parable of the Good Samaritan. We do need to be reminded that God does indeed call each of us to respond to human needs regardless of human differences. But we will never be such a good neighbor that we can stake our salvation on it. We will always be like the religious lawyer, wondering if we have done enough to inherit eternal life, wondering if we have done enough to justify ourselves before God.
What we need even more than a moral lesson is the assurance of the gospel, and the allegorical reading of this parable gives us just that. When we were dead in our sin, our Lord Jesus came to us. When the religious law offered us no help, he did. He gave us the anointing oil of baptism and the wine of his supper to heal us, to save us. He delivered us into the inn of his church where we can continue to be brought back to life. He has promised to cover our debts, to make everything right when he returns.
The two layers of meaning in this parable go together. We have both the gift of the gospel and instruction for the Christian life. The example and the allegory are tightly woven together. No one saw this more clearly than Martin Luther, who wrote:
[In this parable] Christ…especially wants to show that he himself is and wants to be the neighbor who correctly fulfills the commandment and demonstrates his love to the poor, miserable consciences and hearts of all people, which were wounded and perishing before God. In this way he also gives the example that his Christians should do the same as he does, even though he is regarded as a Samaritan by all the world.
We inherit eternal life through Christ’s work, not ours. We are justified, made right with God, through his keeping of the commandment, not our own. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who has come to our aid. He has come to rescue us, binding up our wounds, bringing us healing and salvation and new life. He has brought us into the shelter of his inn, the church, where we can continue to be brought back to life. He has promised us that the cost, the debt of our sin is covered. It has been paid in full – not with gold or silver, but with his own precious blood.
Jesus is the good neighbor who has responded to our needs, no matter who we are.
Now let us go and do likewise.
Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
CLICK HERE for a worship video for July 6
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost – July 6, 2025
Isaiah 66:10-14, Luke 10:1-11, 16-20
In our gospel reading for today we hear Jesus sending seventy of his followers out into the world with a mission. He sends them out in pairs to every town and every place he intended to go. Jesus sends these followers out to proclaim peace, to proclaim that in him the kingdom of God has come near. “Whatever house you enter, Jesus tells them, “say, ‘Peace be to this house.’” This might sound like he’s merely encouraging them to be polite, to mind their manners, but it is so much more than that. These are words of blessing. This is a proclamation. It is a word that does something. It is a blessing of peace: peace with God, the peace beyond all understanding, the peace that the world cannot provide, the peace only Christ can give, the peace that comes from being restored to right relationship with God.
This blessing of peace foreshadows the peace the risen Lord Jesus will bestow upon the disciples as he appeared to them saying, “Peace be with you, peace be with you.” This peace is not the absence of trouble. It is the presence of Christ, which brings comfort and hope.
Jesus also tells his disciples to proclaim to people that the kingdom of God has come near to them. In Jesus Christ, God is bringing people close. God is holding them near. Jesus sends the seventy out to those who need to receive this blessing the most: the sick, the vulnerable, those who are isolated and alone and suffering.
Jesus sends them out to tell them that the kingdom of God has come near, bringing healing and wholeness and restoration to body and soul.
At the risk of using imagery which may be awkward for some, I see a connection between this word Jesus has given his followers to proclaim and the picture of God’s comfort we have in our first reading for today, from Isaiah. I was warned by a lectionary podcast I listened to this week to avoid having that passage read by an immature lector, who might have a hard time not snickering about “drinking deeply with delight from God’s glorious bosom.” It is startling language, to be sure, funny only because it is so unexpectedly earthy. But the image is a beautiful one. It shouldn’t be awkward, because this God’s own design for how babies are fed. Nursing mothers are image-bearers, reflecting God’s nature. God uses this imagery to describe how he will comfort his people.
God promises to comfort his people as a mother nurses her infant. God promises to restore Jerusalem in such a way that those who currently mourn may come to her consoling breast, drinking deeply with delight from the glorious bosom God provides. They shall nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knee. This is a picture of the kingdom of God drawing near. This is God at work to bring his people close. As God says, “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
This imagery is especially vivid for me because last week we went up to Bellingham for a Bellingham Bells baseball game, and seated below us was a mom with twin infants. They couldn’t have been more than a few weeks old. Those babies were being passed around, held by dad, held by what looked to be grandparents, held by friends. (I was hoping to get a turn, but they didn’t offer.)
There was all the chaos of a baseball game in progress: the cheering, the taunting of batters, the criticism of the umpires, the obnoxious yelling of college students who were in a few beers deep. Over the course of nine long innings, there were times when those babies started to get ornery and out-of-sorts. Maybe they were startled by the noise. Maybe they were tired. Maybe they were hungry.
When they started to cry or fuss, they would inevitably get handed back to mom. And this mom welcomed it. She pulled them close and, one at a time, discretely began to nurse them right there in the stands. Their little bodies melted into her. When they eventually unlatched from her consoling breast, all was right with their world. You could see it on their little faces. Their eyes were glassy with contentment, rolling back in their heads in utter bliss. They were now at peace.
This got my wife and I to reminiscing about when she was nursing. There were times when she would go to the grocery store with all three of our boys when our youngest was an infant and his brothers were four and two and a half. When the newborn would start to get fussy, she would scoop him up out of his carrier, hold him close, and discretely nurse him while walking down the aisle. She would hold him with one arm while pushing the cart with one free hand while two toddlers bounced around at her knees! Within moments, he would be consoled, at peace.
I mention this in part to gratuitously brag on my wife a little, who was and is an incredible mom, but I mention it even more to draw out this imagery from Isaiah, where God is described as being able to juggle a whole people, nursing them, keeping them all close, drawing them near in order to console them, giving them comfort, giving them peace.
Jesus sent these seventy followers out to announce that God had come to draw people in close. Jesus sent them out to proclaim peace, especially to those who were vulnerable or suffering. He sent them out to proclaim that in him, the kingdom of God had come near. Jesus sent them out to bring people into God’s comforting embrace, there to drink deeply with delight of God’s glorious love and grace.
This is still the mission of the Christian church. The mission we hear about in our gospel reading for today foreshadows the mission Christ gave to the church after his death and resurrection, when he called his disciples to proclaim repentance and the forgiveness of sin to all people. All of this foreshadows the Great Commission Jesus gave to the church, to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that he has commanded us. All of this foreshadows our task and calling as Christ’s people here today. We too are sent out to proclaim the peace of God. We too are sent out to proclaim that in Jesus, the kingdom of God has come near.
I wish this were as easy as handing hungry babies to their mother, but of course it isn’t. Jesus is honest about this. He tells us he is sending us out as sheep in the midst of wolves. There will be dangers. There will be those who snarl and bite at us. This remains true. There are places in the world at this very moment where it is dangerous to be a Christian, places where proclaiming the gospel will get you killed. Jesus tells us that we can expect rejection. He is honest about the fact that not everyone will receive us or our message. Jesus tells us that when this happens, to just shake it off and move on. He tells us not to take it personally. “When they reject you,” he tells us, “they are really rejecting me.”
But there will be successes too. There will be those who receive this peace. There will be those who will joyfully receive the good news that in Christ the kingdom of God has come near to them. There will be those who drink deeply with delight of the gospel. After all, the seventy returned with joy, didn’t they? They shared with Jesus how demons submitted to them. Jesus rejoiced that so many had been freed from Satan’s grip. Jesus affirmed that they had an authority from his word which was more powerful than snakes and scorpions, which are symbols for sin and death. Jesus affirmed that his word gave them authority over the power of the enemy.
This was something to celebrate, to be sure, but even better, Jesus reminds them, is that their names were written in heaven. Even better is that the seventy themselves had been brought close to God – not by their works, not by their efforts, but through Christ, who had not only called them but claimed them. He himself had written their names in heaven.
Our mission today, collectively as the church and individually as Christians, is to share the blessing of Christ’s peace with others. We are sent out to announce that in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has drawn near. We are not sent out to build the kingdom, but to proclaim that through faith in Jesus Christ, it is already here! It is not our works which establish the kingdom, but Christ’s work of dying and rising for us for the forgiveness of our sin. We are sent out to proclaim this. We are sent out with a message, with an authoritative and powerful word, a word that can overcome sin and death and the power of the enemy. This word is powerful and authoritative because it comes from Jesus. “Whoever listens to you,” Jesus says, “listens to me.”
Whoever listens to the word Jesus has given to the church listens to Christ himself.
So listen to this and hear Jesus speaking directly to you: Peace be with you. Whatever is going on in your life to trouble you or make you afraid, it is no match for Jesus. He has stomped out every snake and scorpion, so that you might have peace. Hear this too: The kingdom of God has come near to you. In Jesus Christ, God has come near to all of us. In word and in bread and in wine, God pulls you in close, giving you forgiveness, giving you consolation, giving you comfort.
Drink deeply with delight from God’s glorious grace today, brothers and sisters. Know that your names are written in heaven. And then let us go out like the seventy to all those anxious, ornery, hungry, vulnerable, and suffering souls to share with them the good news that there is a place at God’s glorious bosom for them too; for in Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God has come near.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church
CLICK HERE for a worship video for June 29
Sermon for the Third Sunday after Pentecost – June 29, 2025
1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Galatians 5:1, 13-29, Luke 9:51-62
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Benjamin Franklin once said, “He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” Harsh? Perhaps. But it seems to be a sentiment shared by our Lord Jesus.
Today we hear two people respond to Jesus’ call to follow him with excuses. They don’t say no, but they say, “not yet.” They give Jesus excuses for why they cannot start following him right away.
To be fair, they are really good excuses! The first one said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” This is an awfully good excuse! You could make a case from scripture itself that it is a righteous request. We don’t know if the man’s father was already deceased and his funeral was pending, or if he was elderly and in need of care, but either way, this becomes his excuse for not following Jesus. And it’s a good one!
But to Jesus, even a good excuse is no excuse. And so Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
The next person responded to Jesus’ call to follow by saying, “I will follow you, Lord!” But he too had an excuse for why he couldn’t do it just then. He had some business to take care of first. “First let me say farewell to my home,” he said. This too is a good excuse! It seems like an entirely reasonable request. The lectionary reminds us this morning that there is even Biblical precedent for it. As we heard in the reading from 1 Kings, when the prophet Elijah called Elisha to follow him, Elisha asked if he could go home and kiss his mother and father first, and Elijah allowed it!
Is Jesus more demanding than Elijah? It sure sounds like it! In response, Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This sounds an awful lot like Franklin’s quote: “Those who are good at making excuses are seldom good at anything else.” His excuse, reasonable as it might sound, made him unfit. Jesus couldn’t use him.
There will be no looking back, Jesus is saying. There will be no “not yet.” Jesus will not be penciled in on our calendars. He won’t be patronized like that. Following him will not be a hobby to be fit in when it is convenient, when it fits into our schedules. It will demand one’s whole life. There will be no excuses, not even good ones, when it comes to following him.
Does this mean we should neglect or abandon our families for the sake of the gospel? Absolutely not. The Lord God established the family and cares about it deeply. Two of the Ten Commandments concern the family: The Fourth seeks to protect and preserve the family by honoring mothers and fathers, while the Sixth seeks to protect and preserve the estate of marriage.
The issue here is the First Commandment: “You shall have no other gods.” The issue here is not letting anything else, even good things, become more important than God. Jesus is making a First Commandment claim about himself here, demanding that we have no other gods before him. This is actually for our benefit. It is actually for the good of our families! We serve our families best when we put Christ first.
If you have ever been on a plane with kids, you know that the flight attendant tells everyone that if the plane loses cabin pressure, the adults should secure their oxygen masks first before putting one on their child. This is not a selfish act. It is simply the case that you are no help to your child if you are slumped over in your seat from lack of oxygen! In the same way, we need to put Christ first. We need to first breath Christ in so that we can be filled with his life and love, and in so doing have something to share with our families and friends.
In our gospel reading last week we heard how Jesus cast demons out of the man in Gerasa. When he was at last clothed and in his right might, the man said he wanted to follow Jesus. I find it very interesting that in this case Jesus instead sent him home! “Return to your home,” Jesus said, “and declare how much God has done for you.” His ministry was in his home. He would follow Jesus by serving him there. This is the case for many of us. Perhaps most of us.
Jesus’ concern in our gospel reading for today is how even good and godly things can come to take first place in our lives, the place the First Commandment reserves for God alone. There are no excuses, Jesus says, not even good ones, for not putting him first. There are no excuses for not responding to his call with immediate trust and obedience.
Sometimes we are like those Christians in Galatia Paul is writing to who have somehow gotten the idea that Christian freedom means freedom to answer Jesus’ call on our own terms, to shape and mold his call to fit our own thoughts and desires, to fit it in according to our own priorities and schedules. Not only does Paul say otherwise – Jesus does too. Jesus tells these would-be disciples that following him will involve a radical reordering of their lives. He tells them, and us, that he sets the terms, not us. If we are going to follow him, we need to put him above everything else – even those things we cherish the most.
The truth is, we all have our excuses. Even those of us who have said yes to following Jesus have our excuses as to why we might not be able to follow him in this area of our life, or on that day of the week. You are here today because you have been called to follow him, and probably all of you are eager to do so. But we all have our excuses, right? I know I do. And I’m in good company, because you know who else did? Every single one of the disciples! Peter ended up denying Jesus because he was afraid. Thomas doubted Jesus had risen because he had not seen him with his own eyes. All the disciples failed Jesus at some point, and they all had their excuses.
The Good News for us would-be followers of Jesus is found by reading between the lines of our gospel reading for today. The context here matters very much. The demands Jesus makes of his followers are not the only thing we hear today.
St. Luke tells us in this gospel reading that “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.” Luke tells us this twice in three verses! The language and the repetition here is drawing our attention to it. This is more than just stage direction. This is significant! Luke is telling us that Jesus was now resolutely headed to the cross. That’s what it means when he tells us “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.”
In the end no one was willing to follow Jesus to the cross. Everyone had an excuse. But “Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem.” He set his face towards the cross. Jesus went there for the sake of the Samaritans who said no to him. Jesus went there for the would-be followers who said “not yet” to him. Jesus went there for the disciples, who all had their excuses. Jesus went there for you and he went there for me. And in dying on the cross for us and rising again, Jesus has established a new covenant with us. He has made us fit for the Kingdom of God. He has established a new relationship with him based on grace, which we enter into through faith in him – by simply trusting in him and what he has done for us. In spite of our excuses, in spite of our failures, through his sacrifice for us in Jerusalem, we now belong to him.
And because we belong to him, we no longer live “by the flesh,” as the Apostle Paul puts it. “The flesh” is New Testament shorthand for our human nature, our standard operating system as fallen human begins. We no longer live according to the flesh. Instead we live by the Spirit.
Left to ourselves we will never follow Jesus. There will always be excuses. But when Christ’s Spirit goes to work on us, we begin to set aside those excuses and joyfully give ourselves over to a life of discipleship. When Christ’s Spirit goes to work on us, we find ourselves breathing him in and then pouring ourselves out in loving service to others, including our families, our neighbors, and those who are in need, near and far.
Another quote, not from Ben Franklin. You’ve probably heard it before. The quote is: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”
This quote often hits our ears as a warning. It warns us to not get so caught up in the future that we put off or ignore what is important or precious today.
It sometimes hits our ears as a judgement. It convicts us of all the times we have let life pass us by because we were focusing on what is coming next rather than what is right in front of us.
It can also be heard, however, as an invitation. It can be heard as an invitation to lean into the present, to live the life we have been given with intentionality and gratitude.
We can hear these words of Jesus in all these ways too. These words of Jesus warn us that there are no excuses for not responding to his call with immediate trust and obedience. These words judge us. They convict us for all the excuses we have already made to avoid following him at certain times or in certain ways.
But in light of the forgiveness and new life he has won for us by setting his face towards Jerusalem, they can also be heard as an invitation. In light of his death and resurrection and the forgiveness he has won for us, we can hear these words as a renewed call to follow him. Christ alone makes us fit for the kingdom of God, and by his grace he is inviting us once again into this new life guided and empowered by his Spirit, a life where he comes first – not at the expense of others, but for their benefit.
The Christian life is not something we can pencil in for later. It is not something we can put off until it is more convenient for us. There are no excuses. The Christian life is lived now. Following Jesus starts now.
What could possibly be more important than this? Why would we want to wait?
Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church