Rector's Sermon - Sunday, September 5, 2004

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Deuteronomy 30: 15-20	1	Philemon 1-21	Luke 14:25-33

    There is a folktale about an old man from the Island of Crete. He so loved his land that he asked to be buried with a handful of Crete’s soil in his hand. He appeared before St. Peter who welcomed him and invited him into heaven. As he was about to go through the gates, St. Peter said, “Please, you must let go of the possessions of your past life, including the handful of earth you are clutching so tightly.” “Never,” snapped the man, “I love my Crete too much.” So the man remained outside. Years went by and finally an old friend of his appeared, urging him to come and enjoy God’s banquet. The man agreed it was time, but as he got close to the gate, changed his mind, shaking his head sadly, “No, I can never part with my soil from Crete.” Another decade went by and then his son came to him, saying “Please Dad, you will enjoy it at God’s table. Please come with me and greet all the saints.” By now the old man had grown quite arthritic and he had to protect the soil with both hands. As he got up to walk with his son, his strength gave out and his fingers could no longer hold the soil. The dry soil blew out of his hand like dust and then he went through the gate. The first thing he saw was his beloved Crete in its full spring glory. (1)

    In today’s Gospel, Jesus was speaking to the crowds that had been gathering around him. How large these gatherings actually were is open to question, but Jesus knew that crowds, whatever their size, did not necessarily encourage deep commitment or understanding. Many people were there for the excitement of the moment and for the rather immature hope that all their wishes and desires would be answered. Jesus knew that they were holding on to so many things, and that to understand the Gospel, they would have to grow, be changed, and let go of some their past perceptions and ways of behaving. The misguided ambitions of the crowd also were reflected in the Gospel of John at a point when Jesus perceived that the crowd wanted to make him king, and realizing things were getting out of hand, he quickly withdrew from the situation.

    This morning’s Gospel is a clear illustration of why the Bible constantly needs to be interpreted in order to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words. Jesus didn’t teach people to despise each other or oneself. The expression “to hate” is a Semitic colloquial expression indicating detachment and differentiation. It was used to express the ability to be able to maintain and perceive a distance between oneself and someone else or even between one’s own personal wishes and the greater good of larger society. We all know children who try to totally possess their parents, and parents who try to possess their children, and spouses who attempt to possess each other. Such possession produces unhealthy relationships because there is no space to grow, no allowance to be oneself and all one’s actions are under the tight control of another.

    Jesus is saying that God always calls us to grow, to let go some of our past, and give others the freedom to grow likewise. This is a theme that carries over in all of today’s lessons. In the first lesson, the tribes of Israel were about to enter the promised land. This was part of Moses’ farewell address, reminding the tribes that they were now called to be a new people, and live together in a new covenant. They would have to let go much of their old culture when they were oppressed in a foreign land. Other people had governed them and now they had to learn how to govern themselves.

    In the Epistle, Paul, now an old man and near the end of his life, took in a run away slave, thereby putting his own welfare in jeopardy. While living with Paul, the slave became a Christian. Paul then discovered that the slave’s master in Colossae is someone he knew and was a supporter of the church there. Paul wrote reminding him that all three of them, Philemon, Onesimus, and Paul were new creatures in Christ, which necessitated some reevaluation of relationships.

    The Bible is richly spiced with idiomatic expressions and metaphors, and that is what we have in today’s Gospel. Yet today’s passage is a wonderful one for our town on this Sunday. After all, what teacher does not hope that all their students will grow, and change over the years they are here in Ithaca? Any educational institution, if it is to remain healthy, expects its faculty members to remain on a cutting edge; to continue to revise and expand their own thinking; and to let go of out-dated stuff that no longer reflects the best research or holds the best insights. An educational institution worthy of its name makes a commitment to the pursuit of truth and will not permit tradition to control or past custom to possess any substitute for integrity or anything less than the truth. In a sense that is what Jesus is saying to those of every age who seriously wish to be disciples and live together in a new larger society that God offers humanity. Discipleship involves being able to differentiate between the controlling pull of one’s past history and particular culture, and the liberating call of where God might be leading.

    And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.

(1) Adopted from William J. Bausch, Storytelling: Imagination and Faith, Twenty Third Publications