Gazing in the Rear View Mirror

June 30, 2013                                          

Luke 9:51-62

 A Sunday school teacher was concerned her students might be a little confused about Jesus. So she wanted to make sure they understood Jesus was for real.

He asked his class, Where is Jesus today?
Steven raised his hand and said, He's in heaven.
Mary was called on and answered, He's in my heart.

Little Johnny, waving his hand furiously, blurted out, I know, I know! He's in our bathroom!!!

The whole class got very quiet, looked at the teacher and waited for a response. The teacher was completely at a loss for a few very long seconds. Finally, she gathered her wits and asked Little Johnny how he knew this.

Little Johnny said, Well ... every morning, my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door, and yells, Good Lord, are you still in there?!

Prayer:

Our gospel story from Jesus this morning is one that may be difficult for many of us. 

I mean… how do you deal with Jesus’ closing statement?

“Anyone who starts plowing and keeps looking back isn’t worth a thing in God’s kingdom.”

Another way of saying this… 

“If you’re always gazing in the rear view mirror you’re not moving forward.”

WOW… what do you do with that?

I don’t like it…. I mean… where is God’s Grace & Mercy? Where is God’s Love?

Where’s the loving Jesus… The caring Jesus… The forgiving Jesus?

Looking at the context of this story, we find Jesus and his friends have just experienced feeding 5000 people… healing a young boy… Jesus telling his friends he’s going to suffer & die…They go up to a mountain top for an awesome experience… Jesus breaks up an argument about who is greater… and now… Jesus refuses to engage with a Samaritan… and 3 guys who want to follow Jesus, but have excuses and expect Jesus to wait for them. Then… that disturbing statement… and it cuts right to the heart of the matter… and why I believe many pastor’s and congregants tend to downplay, soften, and dismiss because we don’t want to see Jesus’ unloving side.

Let’s be clear here… Jesus is not saying or doing anything unloving… if anything he’s being matter-of-fact in saying, if you want to follow me you can’t look back at what was. That’s not unloving… he’s pointing out… if you want to follow me… you have a choice… make me first in your life or don’t follow. Well… what do you think about that folks?

I believe this story has the church or the lack of the church written all over it. In fact… this story reflects the attitudes of 90% of the churches in the ELCA… perhaps 90% of all churches in the US!!

Listen to what happens when on guy says, “I will go anywhere with you, Jesus.” 
Jesus says, “I don’t have anywhere to live!”    
Jesus says to another, “Come with me.”  
He says, “Let me bury my Dad.” Jesus says, “Let the dead bury the dead.”  
A guy says, “I will go with you, Jesus, but let me take care of some home business first.”  
Then that statement… and I paraphrase… “Of your looking back you’re not worth it.”    OUCH!!!!

Luther Seminary Professor Michael Rogness asks, “Does the grace, mercy, and love of God found in Jesus trump our plans and shape our lives, or do we shape our faith to fit the lives we’ve already planned?”

So… Cana Lutheran, what are we to do with this? What does this mean for us?

It means… were IN through Faith in Jesus.

Last week I said we’re IN thru faith in Jesus… I like when my sermons have a continuing facet to them. Remember… in baptism God grabs hold of us and holds on even though we want to run in the opposite direction. Even though we want to do things our way… God continues to hold on shaping and molding us into being faithful people. No matter what we do as individuals or as Cana Lutheran God still loves us… NO MATTER WHAT!!!

The caveat is if we continue in patterns of the past we will never experience the treasure and blessings God has for us in the future. In baptism we are freed from the past and the future awaits us.

It means…No Looking Back.

We can no longer keep looking back to the past. We cannot hope for the good ole days to return… they will not.

As Jesus states… “You cannot keep looking back and expect to move forward.” You cannot keep gazing in the rear view mirror and expect to drive your car forward… it doesn’t work.

Presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Mark Hanson, in his book, “Faithful Yet Changing” says, “If we don’t become a changing church, we will simply be a museum piece in the religious history of the Am. people.”

Please hear me… it isn’t that your past, your traditions, your ministry was or has be bad or wrong. Many people have been blessed and positively impacted by it, and God has blessed you for it. But our God is not a God of the past or static… God is always moving… and God desires the church to be changing and moving as well. What once worked is no longer effective, so things need to be different. Looking in the rear view mirror, being sad about what was, working harder won’t make it better. The church needs to look forward through the windshield to the future and see what God sees and to what God is currently doing.

This is our hope my friends… that we have a God found in Jesus who joins us in our hesitancy, our fearfulness, & holds us while we both peer into and walk towards the future.

It Means…The Future Resides in Following Jesus.

I remember seeing a bumper sticker a few years ago asking, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” The point of this story is… are you really willing to follow Jesus?

In the book, Jesus Freak, Stories of Those Who Stood For Jesus,

Each of us must follow Jesus for ourselves. You may never have to face the decision of whether or not to die for your faith, but every day you face the decision of whether or not you will live for it.
A quotation from the book Jesus Freaks: Stories of Those Who Stood For Jesus, presented on the Web site Soul Food: A Taste of the Wisdom of the Saints, Xtremespirit.org/soul.html. Retrieved December 12, 2003.

It is no longer good enough to be a building in the middle of a neighborhood named Cana Lutheran and hoping people will find Jesus.

One of the hardest things for us to get is the fact that Jesus is not someone we carry around inside us, or someone who hovers around our shoulders whispering in our ears. Jesus is in the face of someone in need. Jesus is in the hands of someone hurting. Jesus is in the feet of someone who cannot take one step further without our help. That's where Jesus is.

We must give up the illusions of the past, take some risks and throw ourselves wholeheartedly into following Jesus, trusting that God will join us in the adventure, through all the ups and downs while holding on to us no matter what happens.

So my friends… are we saying we want to follow Jesus?

It’s a hard thing to do for all of us… and we’ll fall at times, but God is holding on to us.

It’s like riding a bike… if you don’t pedal forward, you fall… but you get right back on a pedal some more.

See You Out on the Road