The Call of Christ and Living Excessively

3 Pentecost, C p 8, June 30, 2019 

2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14  Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20

Gal. 5:1, 13-25   Luke 9:51-62  

Lectionary Link

Today's lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures is a story about the departure of Elijah and the changing of the guard; the passing on of the prophetic mantle to his disciple Elisha.

Elijah had been tempted to become a pouting, doubting old prophet.  He ran in fear from the forces of Ahab and Jezebel even after he won an incredible showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.

Elijah ran away in ministerial despair, presuming that he alone was left as the only faithful person in all of Israel.  Elijah, like any minister, might have felt obsolete when not enough of the faithful didn't throng around him proving that his ministry was a success and not in vain.  And God told Elijah, "You are not alone, there are more than 7,000 who have remained faithful....don't pout, just because you can't see them."

Obviously, God wasn't angry with Elijah; why would he get to avoid death and take a chariot of fire to heaven?  His disciple Elisha did not want him to leave and so he demanded to see Elijah leave as a sign that the prophetic spirit would remain alive and active in his ministry after his teacher prophet Elijah was gone.

And sure enough, the spirit which worked for Elijah was going to work in and through Elisha too.  And maybe Elijah should have shared some of the load with Elisha earlier and with others in the company of the prophets so he didn't feel so alone.

The God of Elijah was the God of Elisha, but God did different things through Elisha because Elisha lived in a different time and a different place than Elijah did.  Ahab and Jezebel died; Elisha had other challenges to prove the faithfulness of God.  God is the same in different times but how God works through different people in different time changes.  God is equal in all time; how God gets funneled into actual outcomes depends mainly on the "funnel shape" of the people involved.  The prophetic mantle gets passed on to another generation and how ministry is done will be different but God's grace remains the same.


In agriculture, there is the repetition of cycles; prepare the soil, fertilize, plant, prune, cultivate, and deal with the weather and the harvest is sometimes extra bountiful and sometimes sparse.  But every phase has to be faithfully executed even when we cannot know the exact success of the harvest.  As one looks at the ministerial cycles of parish life, one can observe going through many cycles.  It may be easier to be faithful when there is a very bountiful harvest, but we need to remember that faithfulness has to be the same and consistent during any phase of the cycles of ministry.

I would like to challenge us with insights from the Gospel reading for today and from the Epistle.

First, let us appreciate how infinitely flexible and adaptable the call of Jesus Christ is to each one of us today.  Second, one of the secrets in life is to discover where we can be completely excessive without addiction, guilt,  or regret.

We, in the church, have often limited the call of Christ to the specific ordained ministry.  When the church required the standard of poverty, chastity and obedience for the clergy, there was this notion that the call of Christ was something heroic and therefore only for a few people who could leave the ordinary life to live such a life of "heroic" sacrifice.

The Gospel reading for today provides us inappropriate responses to the call of Jesus based upon some wrong understandings of the call of Jesus.

The first misunderstanding is that the call of Jesus is necessarily a call to the heroic abandonment of one's everyday life.  One bold person said, "Jesus I will follow you wherever you go."  If I might paraphrase the response of Jesus,  "Hold on buddy....I don't know where I'm going to sleep tonight and I travel fairly light.  Perhaps you want to come with me as a way of escaping some important situations in your life.  Start first with finding my call within the particulars of your life as it is now.  Being faithful and obedient doesn't mean being heroic and leaving everything."

You and I might associate the call of Christ as something too heroic and so we excuse ourselves from activating our full response to the call of Christ in situations of our normal everyday lives.  We might view the call of Christ as something entirely negative, as having to give up too much.  Imagine this view of Jesus.  "Jesus, I can't follow you because you are not going to be good for my life and the life of my family."  Imagine Jesus thinking, "Tell me what you really think of me?"  The call of Christ is not the false choice between heroic obedience or nothing at all.  The call of Jesus is precisely adjustable to exactly where you are right now.  So you don't need to be heroic to respond and obey exactly where you are.  You remember the Gospel reading last week?  The man who was freed from the many demons in his life, wanted to follow Jesus.  What did Jesus say, "No, go home and tell everyone what God did for you.  Imagine what kind of witness you will be to the people who knew you in your former state."

The second misunderstanding regarding the call of Jesus is this:  The call is so heroic that it will interfere with all of the family loyalties which I must honor.  "Jesus let me wait until I have been able to bury all of my grandparents and parents.  Jesus, let me wait until I have honored and kept all of the farewell events with the people who are close to me."  What did Jesus say?  He said, "Don't let the normal rites of passage which occur in your life or the lives of your family and friends be an excuse not to respond to my call."  The call of Christ is within and adjustable to birth events, maturation events, sickness, vocational change, failure, success, marriage, divorce, graduations, aging and finally death itself."  Don't limit the call of Christ to that which is not inclusive of all of the events which can occur in anyone's life.  The call of Christ is totally integrated and totally accessible to us within everything that can possibly happen to us.  In my last 18 years of ministry, both of our parents have died and I've lost two younger siblings, and the call of Christ to me never diminished because of these losses.  Let us remember not to use any life excuse to refuse to respond to the call of Christ.  Accept the fact that the call of Jesus Christ is adjustable to you in your current circumstances.  And accept the fact the call of Christ to you in service in your parish church is adjustable to you in your life as it is now constituted.  Christ is not asking you to give heroically; Christ is only asking that you give exactly how you are currently constituted.  Do not say that the call of Christ is incompatible with your life.  That would be a lie.

Finally, I would like to end with the secret of life as written about by St. Paul.  St. Paul tells the secret of where we can be completely excessive in life.  Manifesting the fruits of God's Spirit is where we can live our lives completely open throttle and completely excessive.  "There is no law against the fruit of the Spirit."  Where we have been successful in the past, it has been a manifestation of the fruits of the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is given without measure; the Spirit is an inexhaustible reservoir of continuous gifts.  In parish ministry, we have have experienced the outcomes of love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, patience, self-control, kindness, generosity and faithfulness.  I believe in all of these.  I believe that these can never be exhausted.  I believe in the Holy Spirit who will continue to manifest these wonderful fruits of the Holy Spirit here and there will be dynamic and actual outcomes of blessing.

My charge to each of you:  Accept, receive, respond to the call of Christ even now as it is precisely adjusted to everything in your life.  Don't make the call of Christ into something that is inaccessible and then excuse yourself for not responding.  And finally, live in the excess of God's Holy Spirit who endlessly provides the wonderful fruits, love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, generosity, self control and faithfulness.  With the call of Christ and the fruits of the Spirit you have a wonderful future.

The call of Christ is adjustable to your life even now.  Respond and follow right where you are.  Do you want to live excessively?  There is no limit to what the fruits of the Holy Spirit can produce in us.  Let us ever access these inexhaustible fruits of the Holy Spirit of God. Amen.