The hardest bit is letting go

“…Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ (Luke 9:62)

Second Sunday after Trinity, 30^th June, 2019 (Year C)

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AN OVERVIEW OF THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS

COI	RC
2 Kings 2: 1–2, 6–14	1 Kings 19:16-21
Psalm 77:1-2,11-20	Psalm 16(15)
Galatians 5:1,13-25	Galatians 5:1,13-25
Luke 9:51-62	Luke 9:51-62

Parallel Gospel Readings to Luke 9:57-62:

Matthew 8:18-22

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SERMON NOTES (732 words)

Human life has many a valley and many a hill. Just when we might have thought that we were secure and happy something arrives to blow us off course. We make plans but God has other ones for us. He loves us very dearly and gently leads us in ways that we might never have imagined.

Again and again Jesus reminds the disciples (and us) that the way forward will not be easy. Once we set out on a journey we must keep going. It starts with a choice, a simple but profound yes to God. Where it leads is unknown to us. How can we plan or plot our future when so many things can arise to change our lives in the flash of a moment. We can only trust. But, we must keep our eyes fixed on the ultimate destination and there must be no looking back or harking after the past. Letting go is the most difficult challenge in life. This is especially so as we approach death. Letting go of good things, good people and good relationships for even better ones planned for us by God is part of the journey. A death, a breakdown in relationship, a loss of job or income, a traumatising experience of one sort or another can knock us off our course. Yet, if we trust in God and let the past go the more free we are to live in the now. That is the best way to prepare for what lies ahead.

In today’s Gospel we hear that Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem’. Other translations render it as: ‘Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem’. Setting out on a particular journey, especially one that leads to certain challenge as was the case of Jesus, is a tough call. Such is Christian discipleship. Anyone who decides to follow Jesus and live as he teaches us is bound to meet with major challenges and sufferings. The only alternative is not to follow him which leads to even more challenges and sufferings!

But, there is another sub-plot in today’s reading. It concerns how we relate to those who are different to us. Jesus came to unite people and not to set them apart. He came to save and set free and not to condemn or imprison. I am particularly struck by a line from Luke’s gospel which is contained in some ancient manuscripts. It is the following:

Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.  For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. (Luke 9:55-56)

(King James version)

How often in small ways as well as big ways we undermine others whether by things we say or the way we behave? Or, perhaps, others may undermine us and seek to deprive us of the dignity we are owed because we are, all, children of God. No matter how correct or upright we may think we are we are not of the spirt of Jesus Christ if we destroy the dignity of others.

Jesus, we have heard, was making his way through the territory of a foreign people called the Samaritans as he was heading towards Jerusalem. This might be roughly the equivalent of a group of Donegal lads passing through a very Protestant town in Tyrone in the 1970s on their way to a GAA match in Dublin. Or, it might be the equivalent of the Ballylumford Defenders making their way down the Falls Road on their way to the Field outside Belfast!  The more alike people are by virtue of ethnicity, language and professed Christian faith the more they squabble over land, power and details of belonging and belief!

We should not forget that in the famous parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus provides us with an example of human compassion by someone regarded as a foreigner or an outsider. If only we realised that the one who disrupts our lives might be a type of secret messenger serving God’s purposes even in the most difficult and unfair of circumstances.

May God set us free to persevere on life’s journey. May He show us once again his unfailing kindness, mercy and grace. May we let go of what is in the past and what needs to be so. May we embrace the future by living fully in the now. Amen.