Ok…
He (Kevin) is the one that suggested since it is a rainy day that I talk for four hours. You only have to ask me to talk for four hours once…
We have a significant moment in Mark's gospel [today]. Again I suspect you were talking about this at breakfast. An important turning point--Jesus is now setting out into the journey to Jerusalem. He resolutely begins toward Jerusalem. (now was that not the topic at Breakfast?) This is significant in Luke's Gospel. He is saying lots theologically even in how in his literary and geographical structuring. Jesus is moving towards Jerusalem, and we know Jerusalem is death.
He is talking about this journey, and Luke sets this up very clearly. He drops stuff out of Mark's gospel, he doesn't follow it because Jesus is going to another place. It is the journey to Jerusalem and his message and nothing, even its destination being death, will keep him from proclaiming God's love and living this life.
And the question, are people going to follow him. And people say "yes, just like us, we came here on a rainy day, we said 'let's go to church, let's listen for four hours." Good folks, all of us saying "yeah we want to follow him." And what is his response: Jesus is saying, "no, don't bury the dead." HE is basically saying "it is going to be tough. It is going to be difficult. It has to be your absolute priority and there is no turning back." Eweooo…that sounds like commitment. That is a bad word now-a-days.
So the gospel is asking us "where are we going?" "Are we following Jesus?" And then more importantly I would suggest, "if so, how so."
Now I wish I had a range marker right now. Did anyone bring one? (small child names Kevin says yes and holds up what looks like a large candle-white on the bottom, with a red top). You brought one! Kevin, you are good. Would you help Come here and be a range marker in the middle of this river. Actually the river is back here and you are on land. But you knew that. All you have to do is be a land range marker.
Ok, sometimes you have to have the people bring their own props?
So some of you know that one of my buddies shared this image with me, [it is] powerful for me. That when he was piloting back into port, down by near Wilmington Delaware. This huge fire ship. The captain said to take over. He said "do you see that huge pole with the red light that Kevin is holding?" Well Kevin wasn't there of course "aim for it."
And so we are steering towards this. A ship of football field length, many tons. And then the pilot said, "Ok, do you see that other range marker?" Now hopefully someone else brought one. Person in the back of the church speaks up and lifts up his range finder. Oh Greg, you're good. Perfect. [Greg walks 1/4 of the way down the aisle and stands in the middle of the aisle.--an aside to Kevin: see that Kevin, you have Greg backing you up, I hope he is as good, because you are good..]
Now, the captain of the ship (you said "he' but it was ambiguous) said " do you see that other range marker in the distance? Steer the ship so that the two of them are lined up and you will stay in the channel." You know this geometrically--through any two points in a plane there is only one straight line--you know that.
So this boat is going to be in safe waters. This image is helpful to me in terms of discernment. In terms of the gospel challenge this day--the journey with the Lord. Because we are caught up here, in the day-to-day problems. So focused. How do we follow, how do we journey with Jesus towards Jerusalem? Even the second reading said, we have freedom, it is the freedom to serve out of love. That is the challenge. A life of service out of love. How do we stay in it?
It is so easy to have good intentions and then to go adrift. Because if we just aim here (focuses on the near range marker), we can go aground. Sometimes it is because we lose the focus of where we are going and in our humanity, our weakness, get caught up in the emotions of the moment and scream and yell or move into inappropriate sexual behaviors because we not keeping focused enough on what is going on in the moment. We're just here.
But sometimes it is good intentions that get us out of the channel. It is not just running away with letting our hormones do everything ??but that happens to a lot of folks that we know? But sometimes we have a divided heart where we are trying to do good things but there is so much to do, and we are running and running and running and some of the people we love the most get neglected. Unintentionally, but we hurt them, or we neglect them; those kinds of sins of omission.
How do we journey towards Jerusalem with Jesus, and stay in the channel which is life giving, it keeps us from going aground. We have to keep everything that we are trying to do in the present lined up with that second range marker. Which is if you will, the cross, the footprints of Jesus, a life of service out of love, love itself. As we know in our life.
I think if we could just keep our vision more aligned, we would less often run out of the channel and run aground and get things screwed up, and find our own lives in turmoil. I am not suggesting it is just one quick easy decision. And that we do not need grace. We need to depend on God in our weakness but we need to cooperate with grace. This image helps me in trying to discern if I want to follow, how? How do I cooperate with grace? With all of the challenges, all of the problems, the day-to day nitty-gritty. You've got to keep looking through all that and Keep aligned with the second range marker.
Is this what what we preists love in our world????? Is this what really is service out of love? Because otherwise I am going to go aground. Ands the ship, my very being starts to cave in, begins to fall apart. And we know that, that inner turmoil. That ERR-err egh. Things are not going as well. The ship is going to fall apart. And we also know when we are in safe, less troubled waters. Even when though it might be stormy, there is something, we can keep going because there is that inner peace. That inner peace that even though it is storming we know we are in the channel.
The gospel says, there is no promise it is going to be easy. It is going to be tough. But it has to be an absolute commitment on our part and no turning back. Let's try to follow Jesus. This journey he is making towards Jerusalem, his own death, is to proclaim God as love. To live that life of love. It brings fullness of life. Even now and life forever with God. Why would we choose else?
But it is a commitment day to day to try to work that out. Because it is not one decision, one quick option and it is done. We call it by fancy names like discernment and all of this kind of stuff. Save those words for your breakfast conversations. I prefer the simpler "keeping aligned our range markers." Trying to sort out where ??? on course in and through this life of service out of love that I see in Jesus. That brings me into the channel which leads to the fullness of God's presence. Let us stay within the channel. Let us discern. Let us indeed commit to ourselves again to follow the lord on his Journey for a lifetime.
Thank you Greg, thank you Kevin. Hey keep bringing those to church,
you never know when I am going to use them again. Thanks.
| Most Popular |
|
Sign up for Finance Professor's free newsletter! Note: We have been having difficulty with delivery via Bcentral (our main mail server). Therefore we have added two back-up mail providers for the newsletter. You can sign up through Topica or Yahoo. In all cases I will never sell, give, or trade your email address. Most recent newsletter (well at least when I remember to update it-if not check the archive) |
|
NEW!!!
Message boards for Jim's Current Students and former students
|
|
Academic Finance Conferences and Conventions |
| Park and Shop-My favorite grocery store, find out why |
| You can Find almost any book at
Amazon.com (P.S. While I am not trying to make money on this, covering
some of the costs would be nice. So if you could, when you buy a book from
Amazon,
click through here. Thanks!)
|
