The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY (Retired)
Do you remember when you were young? You probably resented having to obey
your parents and teachers, especially when their rules were in conflict with
what you yourself wanted to do. You looked forward to being grown up when you
could do whatever you wanted. Do you remember?
And then you grew up. You found out that even if you were grown up you
couldn't do anything you wanted. You had to obey the law. You had to obey your
boss at work. You had to do things that you really did not want to do such as
pay taxes, sign up for the draft, do your share in the different clubs and
groups you belonged to. You found out that voting meant doing a lot of studying
and thinking about what was the best way to vote. And you looked back, perhaps,
at the time when you were young and did not have all those responsibilities. Do
you remember?
All of us have gone through that experience. The things we want for ourselves
are often not good for us. And so we, more or less reluctantly, learn to obey or
to follow the laws and customs that God and the government have found work best:
the things that help us not to damage ourselves and the things that build
community. Somewhere along the way, we come to a realization that what we think
we want is not always what is best for us or for the community. That, today's
readings show us, is a valuable understanding, a kind of "graduation" from being
a selfish, self-centered person (or child!) into being a mature adult, willing
to give up what is not good for ourselves or for the community, so that we can
live at peace with God and with one another.
God's orders to Elijah to go anoint two kings, and to choose Elisha as the
new prophet who would take Elijah's own place, could not have been agreeable to
Elijah. Syria was an enemy of Israel. Why should Elijah want to go and anoint a
new king for them, a king who had been the general of the army that had often
fought against Israel? Jehuson was the son of a man whom Elijah had had many
disagreements with, over the years. Certainly, Elijah would not have chosen
Jehuson for the new king of Israel if he'd had his own way. But God ordered, and
Elijah obeyed. As for ordaining Elisha as the new prophet to take Elijah's own
place, that could not have been pleasant. Nobody likes to be told that their
life is coming to an end and that they must choose and teach their successor.
But, again, Elijah obeyed.
It is interesting that when Elisha was chosen by Elijah, his first act was to
go say goodbye to his family, and his second act was to kill his oxen, cook them
and offer a feast to the people. Elisha knew that from now on, he would have to
obey God, and that he could not follow his own personal desires for
companionship with family, or do his own work of plowing and farming...he must
give up everything to do God's work. His killing of his oxen and cooking them to
offer a banquet to the neighbors showed that he understood that from now on he
could not live for himself, but only to do God's will for the good of all the
people.
Paul's letter to the church people in Galatia makes this same point. Once we
decide to follow God and receive baptism, we can no longer live according to
what we want to do. We have to put aside our own desires, plans, pleasures and
dreams, and live only the way God tells us to do, knowing that living this way
is for our own good and the good of the community. We need to put aside
selfishness, desires for fame and fortune and even family ties, and do what God
tells us he wants us to do.
Jesus was an example of this. He certainly did not look forward to being
tortured and dying in a terrible shameful way, but he had decided that he would
obey God, no matter what. So he started out for Jerusalem, knowing the pain,
shame and death that waited for him there. His road led through Samaria, the
area that most good Jews tried to avoid. Samaria had been settled by people who
were brought in by the Assyrian army to take the place of the Jews they had
deported after a war. The people of Samaria did not follow all the religious
customs and laws that the rest of the people of Israel lived by. They felt that
the mountain in Samaria was more important than the mountain in Jerusalem where
the Temple was. They felt that their own ways were more important than the ways
of the Jewish Holy Law. So, when Jesus and his disciples were refused permission
to stay overnight in a Samaritian town, the disciples asked Jesus if they should
call down fire and brimstone on that town as a revenge. Jesus knew that he, and
later his followers, would need to give up the human desires for revenge; so he
said, "No." Later, other people came to Jesus along the way and asked if they
could join Jesus' group, the group that followed Jesus and learned from him.
Jesus warned them that becoming a follower of Jesus meant that they had to give
up everything, home, family, friends, their own dreams and desires and
pleasures, to do what God sent them to do. They should be careful to think long
and hard before deciding to follow Jesus and become a member of his group.
The same is true today. We who are baptized cannot live for our own selfish
desires...for our own comfort, our own wealth, our own dreams and pleasures. We
often have to give them up because we know that we are called to live according
to God's ways, and the teachings of Jesus, which are passed down to us through
the church. Instead of blowing our tops, we have to accept humiliation and defeat
and nasty behavior from others. Instead of doing just what we want, we have to
do what we know is right, even though it goes against our grain. We often must
give up family gatherings or other pleasures in order to do God's work. And
because of this, people who are not focused on God often think we are crazy, or
that we don't love our families, or that we are not really devoted to our
careers or our own success. They are right; like Jesus, like Paul, like Elijah,
like all the disciples from Peter and Andrew down to us, we need to obey God
instead of our own desires and dreams. We, like them, must live in the world but
not let the world decide who we are and what we will do. That privilege, we
know, belongs only to God.
Amen.
