Across the ocean a man
lays dying. His nearly 95 years on earth have been dedicated to the fight for
equality for any and all people who suffer oppression – his fight has been one
so steeped in the pit of politics, racism and prejudice that those of us having
been raised and formed in middle class America may not be able to truly
conceive of its magnitude. Nelson
Mandela, former prisoner and President of South Africa is in his final earthly
days and has been the focus of a nation and a movement for most of his life,
this is still true in his final moments.
To learn about the life
and fight of Nelson Mandela is to see a man who has been on the move – not
necessarily on the geographical move as much of his life was spent in the same
country and over twenty years in a prison cell.
Yet, from a very early age Mandela was moving on a path that always,
always pointed toward equality and abundant life for all people. Through protests and underground
organizations, through speeches and letters and leadership – Mandela fought for
the life of those who were being oppressed.
And then, through his own imprisonment and finally through a presidency
Mandela continued the movement of freedom and creating the free nation, still
flawed and broken as any nation, but a nation freed.
I find the arch of Nelson
Mandela's life inspiring – but not in that glamorous, romantic sense of the
word. The man spent decades imprisoned
in horrid conditions, he saw multiple marriages end in divorce, he toyed with
the notion of violent resistance – this is not a life I envy or desire for
anyone I know...yet he is inspiring! The truth of his message, the insight he
had to say it clearly and keep on moving towards what he knew to be
true....now, that is inspirational.
In our gospel reading we
heard of a man on the move. His face
steadily set with determination towards Jerusalem. The man, Jesus, knew that his movement
towards God and life for all would be costly – he and his followers would pay
the penalty of rejection, persecution, injustice, prejudice and death. This
pilgrimage towards Jerusalem was so costly and yet so inevitable that as others
offer to follow Jesus he laid out the terms of travel, erasing any romantic
notions of would-be-followers. To the nameless one on the side of the road who
yells out, “I will follow you anywhere Jesus!” our Savior responds, “Foxes have
holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
his head.”
Not much of an invitation,
certainly not encouragement either, but it is real and honest and there is
something compelling about that kind of upfront answer. The next would-be followers ask for a moment,
one to bury a father and the other to say farewell to his home and Jesus, with
brutal honesty tells them, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but as for you,
go and proclaim the kingdom of God. No one who puts a hand to the plow and
looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Urgency, steadfastness, forward
motion – this is the call to the followers of Jesus this day.
And there is nothing easy
about this call, the life of a Christian is not romantic or glamorous. The life of a Christian is one that
continually, day after day sheds off the old skin of yesterday and moves
towards God. Nelson Mandela once said,
“There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass
through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the
mountain top of our desires.” As people
on this earth, we are walking on the road of life and on our walk there will
always be times and places where the road splits and we will always have the
choices of walking in the way of life or death, in the way of health or
destruction, the choice of spreading the love of God or hoarding it…and that is
the very question Jesus puts to his followers.
Sisters and brothers, the
words of Jesus are asking us a profound question tonight, the gruff and blunt
words of our Savior are posing a questions to all would-be-followers, “Where
are you going?”.
Jesus is moving towards
the cross of suffering and the promise of new life for the world...where are
you going?
Jesus is telling all
would-be-followers we need not remain attached to histories of death and
allegiances to the tangles of the world....so, where are you going?
Every day God grants us
life and mercies that are renewed with the morning, will we be changed by these
gifts? Will our lives look different because we are following Jesus? Where
are we going?
Or, maybe we are not even
moving at all. Has the Christian life
become stagnant, routine? Has living been stalled by fear, grief and loneliness
with its paralysis? We can look back in faith, over the decades of Mandela's
life and spot the points of movement and victories, his brave fight for equality
and freeing the nation of South Africa.
Yet, I am sure – if we were closer, we could also point to the decades
of no movement, years spent imprisoned and whole decades of a warrior being
buried under the weight of injustice. Where are we going if we’re not moving at
all?
The difficult reality of
the Christian life is that we do not know – we pray that God will lead us
through on paths never yet taken, through perils unknown – we pray because we
do not know where we are going! Jesus' words to the people in the gospel
story tonight certainly do not lay out a road map, his words are the equivalent
to “shut up and get in the car!”...so, perhaps asking such a difficult question
as where are you going is asking too much of the Jesus-follower.
So, let's change the
question to something sure, something that we know has movement, a movement
that has carried the story of all people through all histories to this
movement: where is God going? Where is God going that Jesus was sent to
this earth? Where is God going that Jesus was so determinedly marching toward
Jerusalem?
God was moving and is
moving towards you, beloved children of God.
God has always been moving towards the people who stand paralyzed with
fear and grief, God has always been moving towards the people who sit alone in
the darkness, God has always been moving towards the people who suffer
oppression and injustice and so God called upon Jesus to move, too. God called Jesus to move all the way to the
cross of rejection and suffering and then, miraculous gift of grace and life we
were introduced to freedom, to blessing, to life in God through Jesus
Christ.
God is still moving, the
grace of Jesus is still here with us...and with that assurance we can be so
bold and so free as to look at our lives and ask the difficult question where
are we going? We, followers-of-Jesus, will we move and live in a way
that others will know we move with God, too? I hope so, because there is still
freedom to fight for, there is still oppression that needs uncovering, there is
still sin that needs grace and darkness that waits for the light of God’s
children.
So, we remember the mighty
saint of God, who lies dying and his truthful, prophetic words,
“There is no easy walk to
freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the
shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountain top of our
desires.”
All you followers of
Jesus…get moving and follow Jesus. Walk on, with the demands and grace of our
Savor, for we walk with a God who is forever and always walking towards
us. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment