“I Will Follow You”

Sermon delivered on 27 June 2010 at Belleville Presbyterian Church.

Scriptural Basis: 1 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14, Luke 9:51-62

 Do you remember playing “follow the leader?” You were expected to follow whoever was out in front of the line wherever they went and do whatever they did , no matter how silly or strange it might have been. Usually it was pretty harmless stuff, but as you got older it had the potential to get you in a whole lot of trouble, maybe when cars became part of the game and “follow the leader” turned into high speed hijinks that could have caused injury or even worse. Following is a big part of life; we’re supposed to follow advice, read and follow directions, and follow posted detours. In the military, you follow orders unless they’re in violation of regulations. We spend a whole lot of time following, sometimes we like it, sometimes we don’t. Sometimes following is easy; sometimes it’s hard and costly. If you stop and think about it for a minute, we choose to follow.  While it’s true that in some instances there are consequences for not following, you have to make a conscious choice to follow directions or orders or the leader. Leaders lead by the consent of those who follow them. In our society, we both revere and revile leaders. Right now it seems that “business leaders” are in the crosshairs of every talking head in the media, and I won’t even think about defending the chairmen of certain large banks, brokerage firms or British Petroleum but on the flip side there are some truly great business leaders out there, men and women of vision and integrity. Alan Mullaly at Ford, Roger Penske, Carly Fiorina (formerly of Hewlett-Packard) come to mind. Some of the most highly-regarded leaders in our nation’s history have been in the armed forces, men like Grant, Pershing, Nimitz, Patton and Halsey. More recently it’s been Schwarzkopf. And of course, political leaders always seem to in line for soaring praise for doing an outstanding job of working for the common good or to be fair game for harsh criticism for being self-serving dolts, often well-deserved but hey, in either case somebody elected them to office, right? On a much darker note, people chose to follow Charles Manson, David Koresh and Osama Bin Laden. My point is that all of these leaders, the good, the bad, the evil and the just plain wrong lead because people let them. We let them. And I want to make a distinction between leadership and management. These aren’t interchangeable terms, although we often use them as such. Leaders inspire and motivate, set positive examples and step up to the plate when things get tough. Managers, well, manage. They dictate and demand, measure everything whether it makes sense or not and when things get tough they crack the whip harder. Leaders make us want to follow them, as Elisha wanted to follow Elijah. As Jesus made the disciples want to follow him, as the three characters in today’s gospel reading wanted to follow him. Yet the three were shut down and rather harshly to boot because it seems that they didn’t fully understand what it meant to follow Jesus. I wonder if we understand what it means when we say “I will follow you,” whether it’s our boss or Jesus Christ.

 In the Hebrew scripture for today, Elisha is relentless in pursuing Elijah just before God was to take him up to heaven in a whirlwind, even though Elijah gives him three separate opportunities to stay behind. This even though Elisha must have known what his life as a prophet in Israel was going to be like. In the era when kings ruled over Israel, prophets were more often than not run out of town or executed if their prophesies didn’t line up with what the king wanted to hear. Elisha asks for a double share of Elijah’s spirit, which meant that he was asking for the share of inheritance that would normally go to the eldest son, even though the two were not related, in this context validating his role as the rightful heir to Elijah and also inheriting his special, intimate relationship with God. Elijah responds with a sort of “I don’t know, we’ll have to see about that” comment, much like a father would do when a child asks for something very big and very special. Here Elijah is deferring to God’s judgment as to whether Elisha can pick up the mantle and go forth as prophet to Israel’s kings. Elisha started out following Elijah as a servant, not his successor even though God had directed Elijah to anoint Elisha as prophet in his place earlier in first Kings, so in some respects what we heard today was a forgone conclusion – Elisha would be the next great prophet. He would indeed pick up the mantle left behind when Elijah was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire. Elijah’s mantle, an article of clothing that can best be described as a sleeveless robe, is symbolic of his authority as a prophet similar to Moses’ staff that he used to part the waters of the Red Sea and turn the Nile into blood. This mantel, rolled up and stuck into the River Jordan, parted the waters so he and Elisha could walk across on dry land. Elisha used the same mantel to part the river for his return trip across the river, proving to the company of fifty prophets that had accompanied the two on their journey to the River Jordan that he was indeed the anointed successor to Elijah. As an entirely practical matter, he also needed the mantle to replace his own garments, which he had torn in the traditional Jewish expression of grief but the fact of the matter is that both Elijah and Elisha had followed God’s direction and the follower has become the leader. Elisha will prove to be very different in style than Elijah had been, working with other prophets unlike his predecessor and mentor who chose to go it alone, yet he completes the task started by Elijah and serves the purposes of God who is working behind the scenes to establish his kingdom on earth.

 There are several parallels between the Hebrew scripture and the gospel reading for today. For instance, when Elisha is called to follow Elijah, he asks if he can bid his parents farewell. Elijah consents to this, but Jesus rebukes the would-be disciple for making the same request. Elisha asks three times to stay with Elijah; three potential disciples are addressed by Jesus. In both readings, the requests to follow are met with gloomy responses. Actually, Jesus’ responses to those who would follow him are pretty harsh and frankly not in keeping with our image of Jesus as kind and gentle, even though there are plenty of example of Jesus being pretty tough elsewhere in the gospels so his words in today’s reading aren’t really that much out of character. But still, these words don’t feel good to us; it’s hard to understand what comes across as almost cruel.

 Let’s back up just a little bit, to the beginning of the gospel reading. James and John are sent ahead into a Samaritan village to announce Jesus’ coming and to prepare a place for him to stay. They’re sent packing, primarily because Samaritans and Jews do not associate with one another because of hostilities that were centuries old. Their effort to share the good news with the Samaritans is rebuffed, and James and John want to bring fire from heaven down on the village and Jesus says no. It would appear that the disciples have forgotten their earlier instructions to “shake the dust from their feet” if they’re rejected in a village, so maybe some of Jesus’ prickliness is the result of frustration with his disciples. Yet Jesus’ words to the three people on the road don’t make sense to us.

 The first person to approach Jesus says he will follow him wherever he goes, and Jesus tells him that “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus and the disciples have just been denied hospitality by the Samaritans, so maybe this makes a little sense but beyond that this is a warning that following Jesus may mean that you will have no place to call home. The life of a disciple is an itinerant one, and you can’t count on being afforded hospitality in every town you stop in. To the second person, Jesus says “follow me,” and this person seems to be willing enough but he wants to bury his father first. Jesus says to him “let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Ouch. In a religious culture that had very specific, elaborate burial rituals, this comment had to cut deep. But again, it’s a warning that if you are truly going to follow Jesus nothing else can get in the way. Your loyalties can’t be divided between God, family, community and tradition. It’s a matter of priorities, and this fellow didn’t have his straight. And to the third, who says he will follow the Lord but only after he says farewell to his family, Jesus says “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Double ouch. Elijah let Elisha say goodbye, why won’t Jesus do the same for this person? Again, it’s about priorities. If you sign up for the life of a disciple, nothing can get in the way of getting to work. And the inference here is that once you start to plow the earth for God, looking back over your shoulder is going to keep your furrows from being straight. When you’re plowing a field, you can’t look back or you’ll be wandering all over the place and there’s no room for that in the discipleship business.

 So what do we do with this? We want to be followers of Jesus Christ, but we love our families. We want to be able to celebrate the lives of those who enter the Church Triumphant. We don’t want to be essentially homeless people, dependent on the hospitality of others. What are we to do? The austere demand in this passage have been used over the centuries to inspire asceticism, built on what our Catholic friends call the evangelical virtues of poverty, chastity and obedience, so are we being told to sell everything we have and enter a monastery? Man, I hope not! And I don’t think so.

 I think what’s being said here is that discipleship, true discipleship is a no-compromises business. If you want to follow in Jesus’ footsteps, all the way, you’ll end up on a cross. It’s the only way the story can play out. In the twenty-first century, the cross may be more figurative that literal but when all is said and done life as you know it will be over. Very few of us are called to a life of discipleship that looks like Jesus’ or the early followers of Christ who often did sacrifice their lives for the sake of their faith. But I believe that all of us are called to a life of discipleship that looks like loving our families and our friends completely. I believe that all of us are called to a life of discipleship that looks like living well within our means, being good stewards of the gifts that God has given us, not buying toys and gadgets before we pay the mortgage and buy groceries. I believe all of us are called to a life of discipleship that looks like extending hospitality to those in need, being generous in our charitable giving and being faithful in our prayer life. I believe all of us are called to a life of discipleship that looks like doing our level best to live lives of integrity, honor and faith.

 “I will follow you” means that you consent to be led on a path that’s different than the one that our ever more secular society wants you to be on. “I will follow you” means that your life will be simpler, less expensive and ultimately a whole lot more satisfying.

 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.