Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.

As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
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From the terrible threes to the turned on twenties, from the success driven forties to the serenity of the seventies -- we humans go from one transition, stage or phrase to another.  It is not only individuals, but institutions, nations and even the Church that have transition moments.  Our parish is in a transition time.  These transitions can be times of great intensity.  These transitions can be times of hopefulness, joy and excitement.  They can also be best times or the worst of times.

Luke portrays Jesus as being in a transition:  he set his face to go to Jerusalem.   Our Lord’s ministry to Galilee had ended and he made a decision to move towards the future.  Having made the decision Jesus experienced what we all experience, and that is that not everyone will agree with the decision that is always a reaction to a transition time. He entered a Samaritan village, but they did not receive him.  

The reaction of James and John is typical:  they confused faithfulness with conformity.  They wanted to annihilate those folks with fire, the symbol of God’s power and wrath.  A contemporary cry would be “Let’s nuke em.”  The English translation of our Lord’s response is rather mild; it says, “He rebuked them.”  A more realistic translation would convey that he gave them a verbal tongue-lashing.  A few years ago the Supreme Court ruled that it was un-constitutional to pass a law that outlawed so called hate crimes, like the burning of crosses.  A lot of folks responded as James and John did.  No matter how distasteful it might be, forcing others to conform or take revenge on others because they do not conform is not an option that Jesus gave his disciples.  Outlawing those who do not conform or those who hate is about as workable as outlawing mothers-in-law.

Then Jesus encountered some folks who presented three challenges for him in his transition to move to the future.  There are three challenges that are present when you or I, or the nation or the Church are experiencing a time of transition.  

One of challengers said: “I will follow you wherever you go.”  A temptation we face during a transition time is to rely on our feelings and to respond emotionally to the challenge.  Enthusiasm, no matter how well directed, is never enough, for it does not have the staying power for the long haul.  How we feel about Jesus and his message or how we feel during our transition times does not prove out commitment.  The English philosopher A. J. Balfour once commented, “It is unfortunate considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.”  Like conformity, enthusiasm does not prove our faithfulness and it does not assist us in moving out of our transitions times.

Another challenger said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  A transition time calls us to move and that call always comes at crucial time in our lives.  If we are waiting for the ideal time we will never move towards the future.  Much of this waiting for the ideal time is the stuff we have inherited from our culture.  Our culture tells us put first things first, but Jesus calls us to put first what is most important.  The culture tells us not to burn our bridges behind us while Christ calls us to accept him as the bridge builder for the future.

The final challenge to Jesus in his transition time and the final challenge to us as individuals or as a community of Christ was the idea that we can have it both ways.  “Let me first say farewell to those at home.”  Jesus’ response:  “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  A transition time always means that fear is lurking in the shadows.  The symbol of that fear is the tendency in us to look over our shoulders and to allow ourselves to be drawn to the past.  We deal constructively with our transition times when we are proactive towards the future and not retroactive towards the past.  

We come to uncomfortable questions at the heart of the Gospel passage.  Are the demands of being a follower of Jesus so rigorous that they are unreasonable?  How easy is it for those of us who would like to put Jesus first in our lives to actually do so?  What do we have to leave behind?  What do we have to leave behind in order to go through our transition times?  What excess baggage do we need leave behind if we are to move towards the future your future my future, the parish’s future.

The answers will probably be different for each of us, but listening for it is something to take seriously.  We might begin by examining the things in ourselves that take precedence over following Jesus.  For some it might be family obligations, work, or business.  For others it might simple personal pleasure or enjoyment or desires.  All of us recognize these tugs at our willingness to follow, to varying degrees and with different intensities.  But if Jesus has set his face towards Jerusalem, and we are to follow him, then we must recognize that this requires self-sacrifice and service to the needs of others in the spirit of love, a focus on others and not on ourselves.

 Our faces, too, are set toward Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem.  A transition time, as individuals or as a parish, puts us on a road that is sometimes long, sometimes lonely and sometimes we will find it painful.  Some will choose not to understand the need of transition.  But this is our call.  This is our destiny.