He Set His Face

In the movie “Up in the Air” we meet Ryan Bingham, a charming man whose job is traveling from company to company firing people. In addition to his day job he is a motivational speaker. His speech “What’s in your backpack” expounds upon the virtues of a relationship free life.

He begins his speech by asking his audience, “How much does your life weigh?” Then he places a backpack on the table and tells his audience to imagine that they are carrying their lives in the backpack. He goes on, “. I want you to pack it with all the stuff you have in your life and start with the little things the shelves, the drawers, the knick knacks: then start adding larger stuff, clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV – backpack should be getting pretty heavy now – and you go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home – I want you to stuff it all into that backpack. Now try to walk. We weigh ourselves down to the point we can’t move. Now burn your backpack completely. Exhilarating isn’t it.”

He then tells his audience to fill their backpack with the people in their lives. No he’s not going to tell them to burn the pack this time but he does tell his audience that the weight of all the people in the pack are the heaviest components in their lives. “All those negotiations and arguments and secrets are compromising. The slower we move, the faster we die. Make no mistake, moving is living.” (1)

In the gospel we hear Jesus giving the same kind of motivational speech to those who wish to follow him. This morning’s passage begins with the ominous phrase, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” A very determined Jesus is about to begin his travels to Jerusalem. He is not taking his eyes off his destination or his goal which is bringing about the kingdom of God. He does not let the fact that he is walking towards his death dissuade him. As a matter of fact this adds to the urgency to his mission so that even though some would not receive him such as the Samaritans, he presses on. As he is walking along the road a prospective disciple runs up to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” You would think that Jesus would be excited to have such an admirer in his flock, but his reception of this admirer is less than warm, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have their nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” We have no idea if this person became a disciple or if Jesus scared them off with the harsh realities of discipleship. Then Jesus sees someone on the road and in the same way he called Peter and James to drop their nets and become fishers of men, Jesus calls out to this stranger on the road “Follow me.” But this person does not drop everything to follow Jesus like Peter and James did. He says to Jesus, “Lord, first let me bury my father.” Jesus tersely replies, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Once again, we have no idea if this person became a disciple of Jesus. Then another on the road says to Jesus, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” To which an unsympathetic Jesus says to him, “No one puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

Ryan Bingham’s backpack speech and the responses of Jesus to his would be disciples are troublesome to say the least. Ryan Bingham and Jesus are encouraging a lifestyle that is free of attachments and burdens. For Ryan the emptying of attachments is all about freedom, freedom from responsibility, freedom from relationships, freedom from being weighed down by anything that would make you have to compromise your needs for the sake of another. But for Jesus the releasing of attachments is not about freedom but rather it is about the cost of discipleship. It is about giving up ones own needs for the sake of the other. We remember that throughout his ministry Jesus was homeless, traveling from place to place depending on the hospitality of strangers as he makes his way to Jerusalem. He had broken ties with his biological family and if someone wanted to follow him he expected them to do the same. His harsh and unreasonable demands tell his potential disciples that you’d better think carefully before making a decision to follow Jesus. You backpack will empty but your work will be plenty because you are doing nothing short of bringing about the kingdom of God on earth.

This is one of the harder texts about Jesus. There are no loopholes around these statements; these pronouncements are not metaphors that can be explained away as something deeper than what is being stated in the text. No, these are direct orders from Jesus that tell us that if you choose to follow in his mission you must be of a single mind and let go of anything that would get in the way of that mission, even the things you hold most dear.

An overarching theme of the Gospel of Luke is the coming of the Kingdom of God, an earthly reality where all of God’s creation live in right relationship with each other. It is the seeing of human affairs as through God’s eyes and becoming agents of establishing God’s reign as God would have it on earth, where those who mourn are comforted, those who are meek inherit the earth, those who hunger are fed, and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are satisfied. All of us who hear the good news are called to be God’s hands, feet and voice on earth to bring about this kingdom of God on earth. This may mean that some of us will have to make heart wrenching choices in order to make following Jesus our top priority.

Other important matters compete for our attention, both individually and as a community of faith. We all have bills to pay, children to raise, parents to care for, jobs to go to or jobs to find. As a church we also have bills to pay, things to repair, obligations to meet etc. However I wonder if we get so caught up in the dailyness of our stuff that we forget why we are a church. The church is not just a building to get married, buried and baptized in. And even though worshiping God is the most important thing that we do as a community faith, it is not the only reason why this church exists. God called Smalltown Congregational Church into being to transform lives through sharing the good news of the indwelling of God’s Kingdom here on earth. Not just through caring for each other but also in reaching out to those outside our walls who need to hear the good news.

Chuck Lazenby’s partner of over fifty years David had passed away. They had lived a closeted life throughout their relationship and when David died, Chuck had no family or community to support him. He was isolated and his grief led him to give up on himself. One rainy night, drunk and despondent he headed toward Mulkiteo Lake where he intended to drive off a pier. To steel his nerves he pulled into a parking lot on the way to down some liquor. It happened to be the First Congregational Church of Everett, an Open and Affirming church. He walked into the church and he was touched by how he was welcomed into their community. Chuck states, “Those people embraced me like I’ve never seen in a church before.” The pastor reached out to him and Chuck told her his story. She said to him, “Don’t you know that this is an open and affirming and safe church.” He had no idea what that meant. So she explained it to him and he was overwhelmed because for fifty years he and his partner felt that they were banned from the church and here was a community that was willing to accept him fully as he is. This began his road to recovery, healing and wholeness. (2)

My brothers and sisters in Christ, there are many Chuck Lazenby’s out there who are hungering to hear the good news of God’s love and grace given freely as shown to us through the life and ministry of Jesus. There are people who are wanting to join us in becoming God’s hands, feet and voice in bringing God’s justice to the world. There are people who are longing to find a community where they know everyone is welcome regardless of race, sexual orientation, economic means, or even previous religious experience. Smalltown Congregational Church does not exist just to sustain itself. God made us a community of faith with the mission to sustain God’s world.

May it be so.

Amen.


(1) Clifford, Jeffrey, et al. Up in the air. Hollywood, Calif: Paramount Home Entertainment, 2010.


(2) Emery, Drew, Larry Schlessinger, Lisa Halpern, Robert D. Lemon, Felicia Loud, and Eric Lane Barnes. Inlaws & Outlaws. [Seattle, Wash.]: True Stories Project, 2007.