Ash Wednesday 2017
The reading
Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he
set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their
way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they
did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it,
they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven
and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to
another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go." 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." To
another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me
go and bury my father." But Jesus
said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and
proclaim the kingdom of God." Another
said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at
my home." Jesus said to him,
"No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom
of God."
The message
Today’s short reading from Luke’s Gospel can be
difficult to follow or find good news in. It is an odd place to look for the
strength to go through Lent. We hear Jesus being rejected by a village in
Samaria, his disciples offering to “command fire from heaven to destroy the
offending community” and Jesus own rejection of potential followers, writing
off the desire to follow him as insincere or made by people who were not ready
or capable of doing it.
To hear good news for us in todays reading, we need
to look at context, details and take a wide view of Jesus work. We start by hearing that Jesus had “set his
face to Jerusalem”. To set your face to
something was a Semitic saying at the time that meant total and complete
commitment to doing something (today we might say keep your eye on the
prize). In this reading from Luke,
Jesus has set his face on enduring trial, suffering, death and resurrection for
the salvation of all people (events that will all unfold through the layers of
political and religious power in Jerusalem).
This death and resurrection has already been misunderstood, ignored or
rejected by Jesus closest followers several times. (they cannot understand how
the Messiah, the all powerful, restorer and expected savior could suffer or die).
God knows how against a cultural of
power, wealth and glory this message is and God does not give up on people so
easily. Jesus does not just destroy them with fire from heaven and then go out
and get new disciples. Jesus keeps saying he will suffer, die and rise
again.
The Samaritans do not even get to the point of
hearing this uncomfortable message. It appears that they reject Jesus simply
because he is going to Jerusalem (they do not care to find out why). This
situation had its roots in events from centuries earlier. A dispute over leadership split Israel into 2
different kingdoms. Jerusalem was the
capital of the Southern Kingdom and Samaria was the capital of the Northern
Kingdom. Over time, the Samaritans were seen
as a different religious and cultural group.
The 2 kingdoms developed their own temples, leadership and rituals and
to put it mildly, they did not like each other.
Our first hint at good news in todays reading is in
how Jesus and his disciples respond to this rejection. Jesus followers have little time or patience
for this insult and since they didn’t like those people already, they want to
destroy the Samaritans with fire from heaven. Jesus rejects this response (and
yells at the people who suggest it). Instead, Jesus pushes on and they simply
go to another village. God does not give up on people so easily. Days later, Jesus will actually tell the
parable of the Good Samaritan (our reading for this upcoming Sunday). In this
story, the God loving and righteous person in the story is a Samaritan, a
member of the community that just rejected Jesus. It does not stop there, Jesus continues to
send his disciples to all nations and people, again and again. The Gospel of
Luke and the book of Acts (the story of the early church post Jesus
resurrection) are both written by the same author and stress God’s love,
welcome and salvation for all people. By Acts 8, there is progress in
converting and welcoming the Samaritans
and then the Gentiles (non-jewish people) into God’s kingdom.
That’s where this bowl of ashes comes in. We do not
need to have ash put on our heads as a reminder that we are dust and to dust we
shall return. We get that reminder more
than we need in our suffering, in the pain and struggle around us, in the
inequality, violence and anger we see and feel and take part in everyday, in
the news of death and fear of uncertainty.
We need ash on our heads as a reminder that we are dust that God loves.
We need ash on our heads as a reminder that God loves other people too, even
the ones we do not like.
The last verses of today’s reading, where Jesus
rejects potential followers because they seem to be filled with excuses and
reasons to procrastinate, is exactly what it sounds like, a reminder that
following Jesus is not easy, it is not a part time job, or the way to power ,
wealth and glory. Lent is a time for us
to set our face on God’s love and grace, to keep going back, to endure defeat
and rejection. It is an invitation for us to ask what have we set our faces
toward
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