13th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Galatians 5:1, 13-18
Luke 9:51-62
A few
weeks ago I was in Washington DC with my husband Rob
It was a
business trip for him
And I
joined in to see the sights
I found
it impossible to be in DC
After
visiting the national Archives and the Library of Congress
The Lincoln
memorial
And the
new MLK memorial
and NOT
be overcome with thoughts of Freedom
FREEDOM
and the COMMON GOOD
Etched in
stone
It was
also the week-end of the
Nightclub
massacre in Orlando
I had one
morning to myself
I visited
the Holocaust Museum
Visited…Is
not the best word
…I
experienced the museum
Freedom
and the Common Good etched in stone
Plus
The
Holocaust Museum
Plus
Awakening
Sunday the news of more hate inspired deaths
Plus
Today’s
readings
It wasn’t
hard
To find a
word
Growing
up
my family
lived a military-like lifestyle
We moved
often…every two or three years
When I
was in 4th grade
we lived
in a small town in Germany
My
parents wanted us to take in
as much
as we could
And so we
visited lots of castle ruins
and
cathedrals
and quaint
medieval villages
At the
tender age of 11 my parents took us
To the
concentration camp at Dachau
It wasn’t
a full-fledged museum or memorial at that time
But there
were photographs
And a
tour that led through barracks,
to fake showers
and finally ovens
All the
castles and cathedrals and quaint villages…
they all
run together
But this
visit went deep…
And so
when I had that free morning in DC
I
thought…
“It is
important…It will be heavy…but important”
And so I
went
At age 11
it was the utter horror of it all that caught my imagination…
It was
almost voyeuristic.
I was not
a part of the story.
I was
outside looking in.
But now…for
my 55 year-old self…quite different
This time
I was intimately involved
And I was
overwhelmed and confused
by all my
questions
The
museum carefully sets the historical stage
Germany
after THE FIRST WORLD WAR
The
burdens of the Versailles treaty
Communism,
fascism and
new
ideologies are in the air
On our
side of the Atlantic
The great
depression was a fresh
and still
painful memory
Worry
over jobs lingered
Increasing
isolationism and fear of foreigners
hovered
In this
context
I read
about the story of the voyage of the
SS St.
Louis
And Its
950 Jewish passengers
This was
an episode in Nazi forced emigration which was Plan A.
The Final
Solution was Plan B
I stopped
at the mural depicting the voyage…
The map
with the ships itinerary in dotted lines took up an entire wall
Departing
Hamburg for Cuba,
Paperwork
supposedly in order
The ship
arrives
The
Cubans are not honoring their original commitment
then
Miami, and then other ports…all closed to them
…no place
to disembark
...foxes
have holes, birds have nests…
no place
for these 950
26 days
later the ship returns to Europe
to
Belgium.
that mural
haunts me
I don’t
think the designers of this experience
Want the
visitors to leave feeling guilty
But
rather to leave with lots of questions
the last
spot in the self guided tour
is The
reflection room
A place
to sit with all the questions
We read
this morning from
Paul’s letter
to the Galatians
It is his
great treatise
on the
nature of Christian Freedom
My
thoughts went back to DC
And back
to that room
And back
to that Sunday’s breaking news
We hear
this from Paul:
But do not use this
freedom
As an opportunity
for the flesh
Rather serve one
another through love
For the whole law is
fulfilled in one statement
“you shall love your
neighbor as yourself”
But
If you go on biting
and devouring one another
Beware that you are
not consumed by one another
Such
vivid language
Biting
and devouring
Paul goes
on to explain
that Freedom
Isn’t
just my license to do as I please
At least
not Christian freedom
Christian
freedom has a TOWARDS
Christian
Freedom is on the move towards love
We are
free to discern what that looks like
in our
individual lives
and in
the lives of our communities
But it is
a lot more than
Freedom
to do as I please
as long
as I don’t hurt anybody
Or tread
on anybody else’s freedom.
From a
Christian point of view there is no TOWARDS in that
I don’t
propose to have any idea what it was like
To live
under Nazi propaganda
Or to
live in a post Great Depression America
Would I
have been cheering at the Nuremburg rallies?
Would I
have been protesting Jewish immigration that exceeded the allowed quotas of the
time…
Shouting: TURN BACK THE SS ST LOUIS!
I can’t
know
And its probably
not a very helpful question anyway
But I can
look around my own world
I can
look
and I can
see
biting
and
devouring
I can
challenge myself to say or do something
To
undermine the feeding frenzy
I can do
that
The
price, Paul suggests,
Of NOT
doing that…
The price
of participating in this biting and devouring…
Is being
bitten and devoured.
And in
the Gospel we have these mini-stories
The first
episode gives of
James and
John…the revenge seekers
(the two
Mark’s Gospel calls “Sons of Thunder”)
Its
important to note that the animosity between the Samaritans and the Jews can be
traced
Back to 500+
years
When the
Jews returned
From
their exile in Babylon
They
found that those who had stayed…
The ones
from Samaria
Had
intermarried with foreigners
They were
half-breeds
They were
ritually unclean
They were
not to be allowed to participate in the building of the Temple in Jerusalem
So they
built their own.
On Mt
Gerizim
(In
today’s landscape they would have had their own nightclub)
Most Jews
of the time chose to walk around Samaria…But Jesus walks right on through
(perhaps
a hint of the universality of Jesus’ mission)
The lack
of hospitality would not have been surprising
So I find
James and John
a little
comical
Not only
do they
respond
to rejection with rejection
They go
for complete over-kill!
With a
scorched earth policy!
They seem
to think they can recruit GOD
To
destroy on their behalf!!!
And the
text says
Jesus
Rebukes them
That’s all
it says
He
rebukes them and they go on their way
They are SO
FAR off the mark
This is a
place where I would give anything to hear his voice, his tone, his body
language
Was it
complete exasperation?
He has
his work cut out for him
Their
whole mindset needs work
Patience!
The Good
Samaritan story comes in a few chapters…
Patience!
The next
episode gives us HARSH Jesus
Luke is
careful
The next
three characters are not disciples
Someone
said to him…
He said
to another…
Still
another
There is no
room…no time
for
groupies
High on enthusiasm
and
Low on
commitment
There is
a sense of urgency
There is
no time to wait and get affairs in order
No time
time to turn back and make sure you have your family’s blessing
Luke’s
mini stories don’t bother to tell us how these would-be disciples responded
Did the
first one’s enthusiasm dissipate?
Did the
comment about the “dead burying the dead” sting too much?
Did the
last one turn back and refuse to make the decision his own?
We can’t
know.
But I can
ask myself
How do I
handle rebukes?
Do I get
defensive and walk away?
So here
is where I landed
Maybe the
message is
Stay
Close
Stay
Close
I don’t
have to wait until the plan is clear
The 401K
is vested
The loose
ends are all tied up
Stay
Close
Stay
Close
and it
will be easier for my discipleship
to seep
into all realms of my life
Stay
Close
And maybe
I won’t get sucked into propaganda thinking…into biting and devouring
Stay
Close
And the
tension between family and discipleship
…Between
flesh and spirit
will be more
manageable
Stay
Close
Don’t run
away
Rather Allow
myself to be rebuked
Because
that is where learning and growth happen
When have
I ever learned anything important
From
being praised anyway?
I think
that is what I was invited to do in that reflection room at the Holocaust
Museum
Stay
close
Let myself
be rebuked
Rebuked
in a Jesus way
Rebuked
by being told the truth in love
Rebuked
with an intimate invitation
To Stay
Close
Weekly
In this
gathering
We pray:
I
confess…
By what I
have done
And what
I have left undone
I confess
I confess
my incompleteness
Not to
worry Jesus says
Stay
Close
Stay
Close
I have
more to show you
