Thirteenth Sunday

I Kings 19: 16-21 Psalm 16 Gal 5: 13-18 Luke 9: 51-62

1. There is a sports company called Nike. The motto of the company is “Just do it.” Those words seem to best sum up the message of our Scripture readings this Sunday.

The first reading and the Gospel both had stories of a Call. It is a Vocation. The one aspect that both “Vocations” have in common is the abruptness of the Call. There is no preamble. There is no build up to this invitation which will radically change the way of life of the one called. But the conditions or circumstances seem to be radically opposite in fact.

2. Elijah calls Elisha to the ministry of being a prophet. Elisha is in the middle of ploughing. It seems to be a big enterprise, there are 12 yoke of oxen. The call is symbolic. Elijah throws his cloak, his mantle on Elisha. Today it would involve passing the Chain of Office and the Keys of authority.

Jesus does the same in his call. There is no formal sit down meal over martinis and a reading of resumes. They are on a journey and Jesus calls. But this is as far as the similarity goes. Now comes the radically differences in the circumstances of the call.

Elisha would like to go home:

he says good bye to his parents.

he throws a party. It is a huge party - imagine two full grown animals being slaughtered and the feast that follows.

Jesus on the other hand seems to be a spoil sport, a party pooper, a grinch who stole Christmas.

there is no time for good byes

you put your hand to the plough and work. There is no time to take your hand off the tiller, to slaughter the animals and have a farewell party.

there is no time even to bury your relatives.

The conditions seem harsh and one wonders why.

3. There is just one reason: there is a sense of URGENCY. There is no time to ponder about the pros and cons, as the Nike logo would say: “Just do it.” In the case of Elijah and Elisha, the Kingdom was not yet at hand. They were awaiting the messiah, but the Messiah was not waiting in the wings, waiting for his entrance cue. And so there was time for farewells, there was time for a party.

But in the case of the call by Jesus, there was a sense of Urgency. It was not a matter of the Kingdom that was about to come. The Kingdom of God was already in their midst.

We are all aware of Emergency situations: floods in Britain, wars in Iraq and Palestine, the genocides in Sudan and Dafur, the craziness in Zimbabwe. There is no time to make contingency plans, there is no time to prepare a backpack. You pick up what you have and leave. If we keep this in mind, we can understand the conditions that Jesus proposes: “Foxes may have holes, but the Companions on the Journey have no time to pack an extra tunic, or shoes, not time to carry a haversack with provisions. Here are echoes of the Exodus, where the People of God ate their food standing, their loins girded, their walking staff in their hands.

4. In our day and age, we might find it difficult to understand when a disciple was not even allowed to bury his father. We have traditions of wake services, and funerals are delayed so that relatives from afar might have the time to arrive to pay their last respects. However that is not the scenario over here.

The father might not even have died.

Poor people usually indentured or contracted themselves, hired themselves for many years, sometimes as much as 20 years to rich land-owners. The land-owner would guarantee a place to live, and provisions for the family. If the head of the family, the father died before that contract was over, then the eldest son had to fulfil the years that were left over in the contract. So even though the father was not dead, the eldest had to hang around just in case the father died to make sure the full term of the contract was fulfilled. But Jesus could not wait for that contract to be terminated. There was no place for men or women who were tied up with world and secular commitments. There was just ONE commitment and that was to God and it was here and now.

The response had to be one of the young prophet: Here I am Lord. I have heard you calling in the night or day. I will go Lord. I will hold your people in my heart.

5. Jesus is meek and humble of heart. He would raise the dead to life as in the case of Widow of Nain, he would weep over the death of his friend Lazarus. He would have time for the little children even when he was very tired. But when it came to the Kingdom of God, there was no time to loose.

he would stay in the temple at the age of 11 - even when his parents did not understand.

he would make a whip of cords and drive out those who made his Father’s house into a den of thieves.

he would upbraid the Scribes and the Pharisees, not because they were bad men. In fact they were good intentioned. But they were caught up in so much red tape, in so much legalistic jargon, in so much small print written at the bottom of the page - and

Jesus did not have either the time or desire to give importance to these insignificant details. The Kingdom of God was at hand. He came to proclaim that Kingdom and he was going to “JUST DO IT.”

Story: General Stonewall Jackson had a famous valley campaign. He reached a river and there was an urgency to cross. So he called his engineers to plan to construct a bridge so that the troops could get over. He then called his Wagon Master and explained his campaign. The wagon Master mustered the troops, collected all the logs, rocks and fence rails that were strewn about and soon had a make shift bridge. The next morning all the troops were across the river. General Jackson was astonished. “Where were the engineers and how did they build the bridge so quickly?” the Wagon Master replied the engineers were still in their tents making plans to construct the bridge.