Bible Tuesday for Pentecost 6, 2016

1 Kings 19:15-21

15Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.16Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place. 17Whoever escapes from the sword of Hazael, Jehu shall kill; and whoever escapes from the sword of Jehu, Elisha shall kill. 18Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

19So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. 20He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” 21He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

This is a small section of the truly amazing story of Elijah’s retirement from being the greatest prophet of God, perhaps with the exception of Moses. This portion of the story is coupled with the gospel reading below because of the mention of plowing and ministry.

This Elijah story begins with Jezebel, pagan queen of Israel, setting a bounty on Elijah’s head. Elijah is so terrified by that, and so burned out from fighting King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for all the years they have reigned, that is cries out to God, “Won’t don’t you just take my life now?! Better you than Jezebel!” Editing out significant portions of the story, God does hold audience of sort with Elijah, accepts his resignation, and asks him to go appoint his successor and two others.

Our pericope for today is the story of Elisha’s appointment as Elijah’s successor. The designation of one’s successor by laying one’s outer garment on the other’s shoulders is found nowhere else in the Bible or in ancient literature. When Elisha responds to this gesture by asking for a couple hours of time to say goodbye, Elijah acts as if he truly could not care less. “What’s it to me?!” So burned out and fatigues is Elijah that once he hefts his burden onto someone else’s shoulders, he doesn’t care what happens to it. “Not my problem anymore!”

Psalm 16

Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.

Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.

I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my kidney instructs me.

I keep the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.

For you do not give me up to Sheol, or let your faithful one see the Pit.

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

While this psalm sounds very much like many other psalms, there are some unique idiosyncrasies. Verse 7 “kidney” is unique to this psalm. In Hebrew tradition, the kidneys were the seat of conscience, the right hand the center of power, the left hand and the womb were the centers of compassion and nurturing.

This psalmist makes many references to God as wealth: portion, lot, goodly inheritance with boundaries falling in the psalmist’s favor. God is the source of eternal pleasure.

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

13 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. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 15If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

16 Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, 21envy,* drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Here the Apostle Paul lays out one of the knife’s edges Christians try to walk. Paul says in the first verse of this pericope that “For freedom Christ has set you free,” and then goes on to admonish the Galatians that they should not allow themselves to be enslaved, either to The Law of Moses or to their own desires and longings. Rather, they should embody the freedom Christ has won for them by bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

I interpret this admonition to freedom as encouragement to serve God by doing what is humble and loving in each situation. As Christians living with lots of other Christians, however, doing what is humble and loving is doing to look different to each individual in each situation and that is very unsettling to some folks, those who really like rules and policies. And, indeed, we live in a world that bristles at loosy-goosy, especially our legal systems. So this freedom to which Paul points is quickly turned into rules and orders that make it very difficult to bear love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Often, one must employ all these fruits, especially peace and patience, to get past the rules to the living of Christ’s freedom.

Luke 9:51-62

51When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56Then they went on to another village.

57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”61Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

The opening sentence of this text is the gospel writer’s idiom for telling the readers that Jesus knows where his life’s road is headed. At this point in Luke’s gospel, Jesus’ focus changes from teaching the disciples to recognize the Kingdom of God, to fulfilling his mission on earth: the cross. Jesus’ tone changes with his focus. Jesus gets more anxious and less patient. One man’s rock-star-devotional outburst is met with sardonic lament from the Son of God. Jesus has no patience even for funerals and interments, goodbyes or second thoughts. Jesus isn’t allowing himself any, and at this stage in the game, he brooks none from anyone else.

The fact of the matter is that Jesus has found no one fit for the kingdom of God during his time among us. Sure, there have been some who were close, the rich man whom Jesus “loved”, Lazarus whom Jesus raised, the apostles, the women who supported Jesus’ ministry from their own means. But all of them and all of us second guess ourselves when it comes to the gospel. We never act purely altruistically. We are a fallen people, and in this passage in Luke, we can see Jesus really knows who we are: 1) he gets a bit peevish, and 2) he changes tacks into the wind and heads for the cross. Jesus can’t change us, and finds it extremely difficult to teach us, so he cuts it short and just saves us. Once saved, maybe now we can learn and change.