Danbury United
Methodist Church
Pastor Karen Karpow
June 27, 2010
Galatians 5:1, 13-25 selected
Luke 9:57-62
Prayer in Motion
V V V
Pray
also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known
with boldness the mystery of the gospel. Ephesians
6.19
V V V
“Tell us about your call.”
That’s one of the questions a candidate
for ordination in the United Methodist Church can expect to hear over and over
during the course of the seven years (or more) it takes to become ordained in our
denomination. At the beginning,
when you’re just an inquiring candidate, or when you first go before your own
district’s boards, they don’t expect a totally complete, coherent account. Something along the lines of “God seems
to want me to do something, and I’m not quite sure what it is, but here I am”
will usually suffice.
But as the candidate approaches
commissioning, and then three years later, ordination, the boards want to hear
something that convinces them that you’re convinced that God wants you to be doing this. And so I have quite a complete account,
beginning with the night more than 21 years ago when God first began bugging me
about going into ordained ministry.
Some of you have heard the story, and maybe in some other sermon I’ll
tell you the whole thing.
Because today, what I want to know
is: what about your call? Tell me about your call.
You might be
thinking that’s a nonsense question.
Some people have “calls,” and others don’t, and maybe you think you
don’t.
But Paul says you
do. We all have a call. Repeat after me: I am called to freedom. It’s Galatians 5.13:
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters…
Say it
again: I am called to freedom.
Ok, fine. But what the heck does that mean? One thing is does not mean is, “I am
called to do whatever I want.”
Paul says:
13
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use
your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence…
Freedom has two
aspects: freedom from, and freedom for.
We tend to think mostly of freedom from—which is necessary and valuable. For instance, we can be free from illness; free from oppression;
free from worry; free from having to do anything tomorrow morning. That is the side of freedom that we
usually think of—freedom as release, as an opening of the way before us. We have come to equate freedom with not
being inconvenienced. But it is
freedom for a purpose
which is far more important.
In today’s gospel
passage, Jesus speaks with three different people about their call. The tension between different kinds of
freedom is very poignant here.
Jesus asks them if they are free for his work. First, Jesus responds to someone who enthusiastically
volunteers:
57
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow
you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him,
“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has
nowhere to lay his head.”
Jesus clearly hasn’t learned
about church growth strategies.
Talk about discouraging new volunteers! The scripture doesn’t tell us that the person went away
disheartened, but we also don’t learn that a new person was added to the twelve
disciples that day—so I think we can assume that “I will follow you wherever
you go” didn’t last very long.
Following Jesus would have been exciting, but the uncertainty of how it
would work out was too much for this person. The freedom for
following Jesus was overshadowed by the loss of the comforts of home.
Next Jesus finds someone who
looks promising:
59
To another [Jesus] said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me
go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus said to him,
“Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom
of God.”
It may seem that Jesus is
being unreasonably harsh. A
disciple is not even allowed to grieve the passing of a parent? But a deeper investigation of the Greek
words used and the customs of the time reveals that the person’s father was
probably still alive, and likely to be so for a long time. The person Jesus called was trying a
delaying tactic, one that was well-supported by the culture. People were supposed to take care of
their elderly parents. And so when
Jesus says, “Follow me,” this person has the perfect excuse. He is not free for Jesus, because he is not free from the obligations and expectations of society.
Next there is another
volunteer, who is signing up with just one teeny stipulation:
61
Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say
farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him,
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of
God.”
This Jesus is
tough. Once again, the Greek
reveals that the “farewell” the volunteer needs to say is probably to ask
permission from his parents to leave and follow this itinerant Jewish rabbi
with no place to lay his head.
Will the parents say, “Sure!
Good idea!”? I think not.
Three calls, no
answers. None of these people were
free for following
Jesus, because they were not free from expectations or comforts or fears that held them back. But sometimes, paradoxically, being
free for something can
mean being bound by something else.
Nine years ago, I
was free from being married or employed.
I was a single mother, a full-time seminary student, the head of a
household of three children, a live-in babysitter, a dog, and a cat. I had a great deal of freedom to choose
how and where I spent my time and my money, such as it was—to study, or not to
study? Mac’n’cheese, or
beans? I was free to choose how I
ran my home, how I brought up my children. But I don’t remember feeling particularly free.
I was in a very
in-between state—not knowing whether I would make it through school; not
knowing whether I would ever be ordained or where I would end up working or
where we would live if I did. It
was all wide open. And that
wide-openness didn’t feel free.
Now I am
married—no longer “free” to run my life to suit myself alone—and I am appointed
here to Danbury—no longer “free” to work wherever I want and live wherever I
want. Methodist pastors have to
serve where we’re sent, and next week I will begin my fourth year of being sent
by our bishop, Jeremiah Park, to Danbury.
And what’s funny is that I feel far more free now than I did back then. I feel free to become who I am supposed
to be. And that is the freedom that Paul is talking
about—freedom that includes boundaries.
We are like
gardens. Boundaries make us free
to grow—like a garden that is fenced in, protected from pests. Following Jesus sets us free, but it
also places limits on us. As
followers of Jesus, there are things we simply don’t do any more. Paul talks about those “works of the
flesh,” many of which might sound like freedom to do what we want—sex,
mind-altering substances of all sorts, emotional indulgence. Sounds like fun! Well, maybe for a while—but we are made
for so much better. We don’t feel
good, we don’t feel right until we begin to live up to the real freedom that
God has designed us for.
The first step is
to put up a good fence to keep the pests out. It’s essential—but if nothing is planted, nothing will
grow. So Paul talks about what God
wants to plant in us:
22
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness,
and self-control.
We can pray for
this to happen—to become good gardens—but we are not just passive recipients of
God’s work. We can become much
better gardens if we cooperate with God.
We can put our prayers into motion. We can keep the fences in good repair—the boundaries against
things that are not good for us, no matter how much fun they seem to be at
first. We can pull the weeds that
get in—when we make mistakes, we start over. We can water and fertilize—spending time with God’s word and
God’s people, studying the Bible and working together. We can actively seek out what God
desires for us.
Let me highlight
a few ways we put our prayers into motion. Our Appalachia Service Project volunteers will leave next
Saturday morning. In August we are
hosting Vacation Bible School, and our objective is to triple the number of
children we reach. A lot of prayer
has already gone into that, and now it’s time to put those prayers into
motion. Every month our Helping
Hands put their prayers into their moving hands, knitting and crocheting and
sewing for others. We feed people
on Thursday nights. We feed hungry
people at Dorothy Day once a month.
We work together to maintain this property that God has given to
us. And at the end of the service
today, we’ll hear from our guests from Church Women United about a life that
puts prayers into motion.
Every week we
pray for one another, and for those we love. As we begin our prayers, let’s put them into motion.
Lord Jesus, we
want to say, “I will follow you wherever you go.” We are called to freedom—set us truly free. We pray this in your holy name,
remembering how you taught your disciples to pray, “Our father…”
Galatians 5
1
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not
submit again to a yoke of slavery. …
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers
and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for
self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14
For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” …
16
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17
…19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20 idolatry,
sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21
envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as
I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of
God.
22
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness,
and self-control. There is no law against such things. …25
If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.
Luke 9
57 As they
were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you
go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes,
and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his
head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he
said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and
proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I
will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62
Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is
fit for the kingdom of God.”