How to be a follower?

Short homily based on 2 Kings 2.1-2,6-14, Galatians 5.1,13-25 and Luke 9.51-end.

I don't know about you but I find James and John's reaction to Jesus being denied entry to the Samaritan village in today's gospel reading just a little bit of an overreaction! “Do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” Was there anything that they’d experienced of Jesus that might have made them think that he would think this was a good idea?

I've said it before but the disciples, who lived alongside Jesus and shared his life, get things wrong so often that it gives us hope for ourselves and our ability to so often get things wrong.

During ordination training, and in life in general I guess, there's a lot of time and energy that goes into discerning what makes a good leader- in churches, business and communities. There's leadership books, conferences and courses. Very little time and energy goes into asking what makes a good follower, because after all that’s what we all are.

I feel that all three of this morning's readings are exploring discipleship, or what it means to be a follower, in some way.

Elisha has been chosen by God to succeed Elijah. We see him here at the end of Elijah's life, his mantle literally passing from one prophet to the other. We hear Elijah trying to put Elisha off continuing his journey with him but Elisha will not be dissuaded. He sticks by his teacher and is rewarded by having his wish granted.

In the gospel reading we have two lessons, firstly not to bring down the fire of heaven on those who don't want to hear our  message, and secondly being a Christ-follower sometimes means not following societal norms, and sometimes it means making new families outside of our blood ties, and sometimes it means not putting it off when we know God is calling us to something. I had dozens of things I should have been doing when I realised God was calling me to the priesthood, it was in no way convenient, but once I figured it out I couldn't say no.

Paul pulls it all together so beautifully in the reading from Galatians; "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. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another."

As Christ-followers this is what were called to, to examine ourselves and ask “how am I being called to love my neighbour, how am I called to serve my neighbour”. Paul even gives us guidance to help us know if we're getting it right in the fruits of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We see none of these in James and John’s response to rejection.

And yet so many times we see this is how Christians respond when they feel attacked or when they find views which oppose their own. As Christ-followers we’re called to love and serve, not just ourselves but all of God's people and the whole of God's creation, and in particular those who would reject us and reject Jesus.

Our Relationship Begins Here

I had the honour of preaching at the Ascension Day service

When I first started to come to St Michael’s Mike and I sat in this side aisle, so each week we were looking directly at the Ascension window. It was probably the first thing within the fabric of the church that I ever used for prayerful contemplation. It’s so beautiful, and the colours so vivid. When the sun shines through it, it takes on a magical and mystical quality, which I’m sure is what the artist was aiming for. I never, back then, thought much about the meaning of the Ascension, but of the ethereal beauty of the window.

The Ascension itself is nothing if not magical and mystical. It’s probably one of the most if not the most supernatural elements of the gospels, and that’s understandable as Jesus moves from the earthly realm to the heavenly one. And yet it’s quite tricky to get your head around. What we see in our window and in other art is the artists earth-bound imagination trying to literally depict a holy mystery, but kind of ends up looking more like Mary Poppins, floating above the clouds.

I think part of the problem is the linear way we think about heaven and earth. Heaven is above and earth is below. God up there and mere mortals down here. Up is good and down is bad. Even further down in this linear thinking is hell, super bad. It’s no exaggeration that the first astronauts thought they might glimpse heaven as they ascended beyond the earth’s atmosphere.

Celebrating Ascension day is a good thing because it’s a time be reminded of and ponder upon several things. 

Firstly, it’s a reminder that Jesus’ story and ministry in the gospels don’t end at the cross or even with the resurrection. He spent anther 40 days preparing the disciples for what lay ahead of them, and their stories will continue way beyond this. And our relationship with Jesus is only beginning here.

Secondly, as Jesus disappears from view it’s a reminder that there is so much about God which remains a holy mystery. Yes, our God is the God who became incarnate and dwelt among us, but there is, as David Bryant writes, a built-in invisibility, incomprehensibility, and otherness about God.

Finally it gives us an opportunity to contemplate what it means to have Jesus having been fully human, living amongst us, suddenly return to his place as the eternal Christ at God’s right hand, and the good news is that the last thing it makes Jesus is absent from us.

To understand this we need to stop thinking of heaven as a physical place up there. Heaven is God’s realm and exists alongside us. When Jesus was earthbound as a human man it revealed to us so much of what God and God’s realm are like, but during that time he was subject to the rules of time and space which God has built into creation. He lived amongst us but was limited to being present to such a small number of people.

In ascending, David Bryant continues, Jesus is no longer time-bound, culturally limited, and lumbered with the ethics and thought-forms of his day. He has taken on cosmic significance, and become universal, transcendent, and beyond time.

It’s by ascending that Jesus becomes accessible to each and every one of us. Far from being absent, the Jesus who has lived amongst us now sits and intercedes for us in God’s realm. The Jesus who has lived our lives, knows our joys and our sorrows takes all those joys and sorrows back to our Father and creator.

If we think of the readings we have at Michaelmas we have Jacob’s dream – the ladder between heaven and earth, then we have the Gospel where Jesus states he is now that ladder, the link between the earthly realm and the Heavenly realm.

In the ascension we have this revealed to us in an incredibly  dramatic and poetic way. It’s not just Jesus waving goodbye, it’s his anointing and his coronation, as he takes his place in the heavenly realm as King, High Priest, and Intercessor.