EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and the deepening of my theological mind. This sermon originally took place on June 30, 2019.
As I mentioned earlier, this past week I was on the road for work, but instead of two or three days of dull windshield time and sleeping in a hotel bed, I was lucky enough this time around that my travels took me through Sioux Falls. And as you may know, that is where our oldest son goes to college.
So, for one night, instead of being cooped up in a sterile hotel room, and hacking away at the keyboard all night, our son Garrett, his girlfriend Anna, and his roommate, Ethan, picked me up and showed me around town.
They first took me a little ways out of town to a winery, where they were doing a summer concert series. There was a couple of food trucks, a three-piece folk band and some wonderful locally made wine. You could tell that the three kids really were proud to think of bringing dad to such a place, as this I know is not their usual hangout.
After that, we headed back into town for a driving tour: First we drove by the roommate’s workplace, then the kids’ house they lived in last year, then my son’s hospital where he works and then downtown Sioux Falls to see their favorite hangouts, hit a brewery and see the famous falls for which the town is named.
And then finally we headed to the kids’ house, where they proudly gave me the VIP tour, top to bottom.
When we passed through the kitchen, you could see on the whiteboard on the kids’ fridge that they had planned out the itinerary for the entire night. Winery at 6. Driving tour from 7 to 8. Brewery at 8. … Etc.
You could tell that they were very proud of their work, and that they were very proud to show me around “their” town. … I can’t lie: it was a terrific night.
But interestingly, the longer the night rolled on, the worse I felt. … It seemed strange. As anyone who knows me knows, I am at my happiest when I’m with my family.
It started early in the night: This little ball, sitting right here in my stomach. … I wouldn’t call it nerves, per se, but just uneasiness. … But the feeling grew steadily worse through the evening. By the time the kids dropped me off at my hotel at 11, I felt awful. … Not physically, mind you, but I could tell that there was an emotional issue that was eating at me.
But eventually, as I worked through the feelings, the answer dawned on me. … Three years.
Our oldest child had lived in Sioux Falls, and this was the very first time that I had gotten there to see their school, their places of work … their house for crying out loud. … This was the very first time in the past three years that I had a fuller sense of what their daily lives were like, and where they spent them. Who they spent those days with.
And then making me feel even worse I realized that the reason that they were so excited and proud to show me around town is that they were probably thinking, “He’s finally made time to come see us!”
And the ugly truth is that it was made possible not because I made time to go to Sioux Falls, but because I was swinging through on a business trip.
But to them they didn’t care why I was there: They just reveled in being able to show me their town, their home. … And it took me three entire years to get there.
From the outside, I’m sure that no one would blame me. Probably not even the kids themselves. Because, after all, I started school the same year that Garrett did. And so the last three years for me has been an exercise in powering through, keeping my eyes on the prize.
Segmenting my time. Compartmentalizing family, church, school and work. And I’ll be the first to admit that there are many times when these things collide. But you stay focused and you power through. We know this. This is what our parents taught us to do as we were growing up.
Focus: At its best it can be a powerful tool that helps us get tasks done, helps propel us forward through our daily chores. … And it can even help us finish our goals: such as powering through five years of seminary.
But there’s also a dark side to focus when that singular focus takes our eyes off what’s most important.
And that is what I think Jesus is talking about in today’s gospel. Focus. Focusing on what’s important and not letting other petty things distract our attention.
As you read in the description to this week’s gospel in the bulletin: “Jesus is unwavering in his commitment to his mission in Jerusalem and will not be swayed by pettiness. In a series of striking cases in point, he calls his disciples to a similar single-mindedness.”
You get a sense of Jesus’ single-mindedness in the very first verse of today’s reading: “When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.”
Remember, Jesus knows the story here. He knows what it means for him to go to Jerusalem. He knows that the stakes are final. And so he sets his face to prepare. He is going to his death, and he won’t let any of his disciples or other believers around him get distracted with less important, more petty things. And so three times in this short passage, he rebukes those around him for getting distracted by earthly things.
In the first episode, he rebukes James and John. They both are upset when a village of Samaritans did not receive Jesus -- did not invite him into the village. In fact, they are so incensed they ask Jesus if they would like them to command down fire from heaven and consume the village! How indignant they became!
But taking it in stride, Jesus, the one who is marching to his death, tells the disciples to calm down and he leads them to the next village.
Jesus, whose very life was at stake, didn’t have time to worry about whether one village invited him or not. He simply chose to move onto the next village where they would receive him.
Later on the trip, Jesus runs across another believer whom he invites to follow him. The believer says, “You bet, but first let me go and bury my father.” … Jesus’s answer is: “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
At first, Jesus’s answer may seem a harsh rebuke, but Jesus’s point was: Don’t let the earthly death we die here distract us from the eternal life we are promised. Let those who are dying bury your father, but as for you, you are pursuing eternal life so just come with me now. Because, if you think about it, we often worry about the dying of our flesh here more so than we do the life we are promised in Christ. And Jesus really doesn’t want us to lose track of what’s important.
Finally, a third believer tells Jesus, “Yep, right behind you there Lord, but I’m just going to stop home and give the folks a quick goodbye first.” … Jesus stops the believer and says: “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Ouch. That one really smarts. … Because how many of us do just this same thing? How many of us, with too much work at our jobs, and too many chores piling up at home, say I’ll get to those other things -- my faith, my family, my relationships -- after the work is done, after I finish my chores?
I’ll get to talking to my neighbor tomorrow, after the work is done. … I’ll get to that prayer routine right after this busy summer is over. … I’ll get into the habit of making those volunteer visits to the food shelf I’ve been talking about after things settle down. … I’ll get to down to Sioux Falls to visit the kids when it’s not so busy.
But here’s the problem, right? … It’s never not busy. Our lives are never not crazy. … In this modern world we fill up our lives to the brink of our cups running over. It’s a status symbol. We allow ourselves to believe that a frenetic life is a life well lived. When Jesus tells us it’s anything but.
In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that there are always going to be petty, earthly tasks and chores and issues that will get between us and our relationship with Jesus, between us and our relationships with others.
But it’s our job to sniff out those petty issues and keep our eyes focused on what’s really important.
We are not supposed to worry about the Samaritan villagers who wanted nothing to do with Jesus, but instead we are to focus on the next village full of people who did. … We are not to focus on the earthly death here, but to focus on the eternal life in following Christ. … And finally, we are not to hang onto the vestiges of our old life, the life we lived outside of Christ, but instead, we are to focus on what’s ahead in this life when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
I know this isn’t easy. A life in Christ isn’t, but maybe it never was meant to be. Our relationships with others aren’t easy either, but maybe those weren’t meant to be either.
But what is important is remembering to keep from allowing the unimportant things, the petty things to keep us from focusing on our lives with others and our life in Christ. … We, like Jesus, are to set our face to Jerusalem and carry on … Because if we do, if we pick up that cross and follow Jesus and leave the pettiness behind, it’s that eternal life we get.
And that is the good news this Sunday. … Amen.
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