Called to Freedom
Paula Willis Download: Audio
Sunday Reflection
Read Elaine Poproski’s reflection on this sermon called, “Called to Follow” on the Sunday Reflections’ blog.
Sunday Scripture Reading: Luke 9:51-62 (NRSV)
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Read more…
Looking to Sunday: Preparing to Hear from God
by Elaine Poproski
I’m really glad Jesus’ disciples so frequently didn’t get it. I’m glad they got it wrong as often as they did and had to be rebuked or corrected by Jesus so consistently. I’m glad because they make me o.k. with all the times and all the ways I don’t get it. They make me o.k. with my own repeated failures to truly grasp the wideness of God’s mercy, the depth of His love, the all-consuming, transformative power of forgiveness.
On Sunday we’re going to hear about a time when Jesus and His disciples were rejected by the people of a particular village (starting at Luke 9:51). When it happened, two of Jesus’ closest disciples, James and John, asked Him, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” When I read those words, I hear a brash, presumptuous kind of confidence. I hear a certain amount of glee in their words, like they really hoped Jesus would say, “Yes, give it to them, boys! Show them who we are!”
But that’s not what Jesus did. Jesus rebuked James and John and then led the lot of them out of the village and on to the next one.
On Sunday, our guest preacher, Paula Willis, will be exploring this short story as well as the challenging words that come immediately after, about Jesus’ expectation that if we follow Him, we have to be all in. We have to be all in in terms of forgiving those who reject us and hurt us. We have to be all in in terms of loving our enemies. We have to be all in in terms of going wherever He goes. It’s a theme I introduced last Sunday that I hope you’ve been wrestling with since then.
As you prepare for Sunday, I encourage you to continue reflecting on the question I asked, and that Heather reminded us of in her Sunday Reflection, published on our website this past Tuesday: What cost am I unwilling to pay in this journey of discipleship? Think about some examples of people in the Bible, or in your own history, or that you know who’ve paid a huge price to follow Jesus. Think about Abraham’s call to sacrifice his son. Think about Mother Theresa’s call to live among some of the world’s poorest people, even becoming one of the world’s poorest people to do so. Is there a cost to being Jesus’ disciple that you cannot or will not pay?