Sermon: Rejection Road

         Did you see those horrifying pictures of 2-year-old Valer-iaand her father Oscar? They’d traveled 1,000 miles from El Salvador seeking safety and plenty. They reached a bridge crossing to seek asylum, and were rejected before they could even be interviewed. So Oscar made the decision to ford the Rio Grande, and they drowned together.

         A tragic consequence of rejection.

         And today’s Gospel is full up with rejection.

-Jesus turns his face toward Jerusalem, where he will be rejected
-We are reminded that the Samaritan religion rejects the Holiness of Jerusalem.
-For that reason the Samaritans reject James and John
-These Disciples return the favor by rejecting the Samaritans
- Jesus then rejects his disciple’s violent inclinations
-Next Jesus rejects a would be follower
-And finally Jesus twice insists that all other things must be rejected so that the Reign of God might be proclaimed!

         Today we follow along a path of rejection, a rejection road.

Let us pray

         The first stop upon this rejection road is at this Samaritan village. The Samaritans are a group of Babylonians transplanted to Judea 700 some years before Jesus’ day. Foreigners who adopted and then adapted Jewish religion, accepting the Torah and regarding as holy Mount Gerizim…
not Mount Zion, not Jerusalem.
And as such, when James and John come around and tell them to prepare for the Messiah to visit on his way to Jerusalem, they reject them!

         The Disciple’s response is classic. They could just brush things off, after all sometimes those you reach out to do not want to be reached…
 but no, instead they get angry… 

         I would gently suggest that if you are reaching out to someone about good news, torching their village doesn’t really get the message across!

         And I imagine they aren’t the only folk who take rejection too seriously. Did you know the average member of the ELCA only invites someone to church once every 23 years… yet 80% of people say they would attend a church if they were invited to it by someone other than the Pastor.

         Now, that’s inviting someone to church, which is a little different than telling someone about Jesus… yet the concept is the same. Yeah, some folk aren’t going to listen to you—but if we zip our lips on account of the 20% who won’t come if they are invited, if we stop following Jesus because there will be Samaritan villages—we’re in the wrong business and going down the wrong road…
by the same token, if YOU get so offended by someone saying no, that you respond with meanness, like James and John…
Then you’re in the wrong business, going down the wrong road…

You see, telling people about Jesus is a gift not only for the person you preach to, but is a gift for you too… 

         Honestly, the secret blessing of the pulpit is that we get to practice telling people about Jesus every week, and in our telling, our own souls are renewed.

         I won’t go as far as my Pastor over in England, who said, “Every Sunday, I walk up these high steps not believing in God, and only at the end can I even say, ‘I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.’”
         I wouldn’t go that far, but regularly proclaiming—getting to practice the faith, knowing you’ll get it a little wrong, and knowing you’ll have another opportunity in a week’s time or less—it is balm to the soul! It is a gift I wish for every one of you!

         But if you are afraid of rejection—you’re in the wrong business… you’re going down the wrong road and following the wrong Messiah...

         This guy who wants to be Jesus’ disciple is looking to go places, even to Jerusalem… but not the Jerusalem Jesus has in mind…
the man is thinking of a Jerusalem that will be captured by the kingly messiah
—but Jesus is going to the Jerusalem where he will be rejected.

         It’s sort of like the “Great Google Map Disaster” that happened this week. There was some construction on the main road to the Denver International Airport and a whole bunch of people looked up a shorter route on their phone, one that would cut their wait time in half…
and before long 100s of people found themselves stuck in a muddy field…

         So too, Jesus warns the man about the costs of following him
—you’re not making your international flight
—you’re going into the mud and the muck with me…
you are looking for a whereverI’m heading to nowhereto lay my head reality.
Following me is a path to rejection!

         Then Jesus calls on two others, calling on them to reject funerals and farewells to follow him. It sounds incredibly harsh
(for example, I hope Valer-ia and Oscar said farewell to their family and will receive a good funeral, don’t you?), but at base Jesus is pointing to a question of priorities,
and right then, as Jesus heads to Jerusalem,
the one thing that mattered was proclaiming the Kingdom, preaching the Reign of God.

         I think of the do list on my phone. It is color coded by priority. Red, Orange, Blue, and Grey… by the end of most evenings the Red and Orange stuff got done, but some of the Priority Blue and most of the Priority Grey stuff did not.

         Or I think of the ELCA—as we shrink our capacity to do big things is diminished. But we’re no paper tiger, our denomination still has some heft and strength to it… at this point we can still do anything as a denomination
—we just can’t do everything…
it is a matter of choosing priorities.

         And the priority is proclamation of the Gospel—Preaching about the Reign of God!

         The Messiah goes to Jerusalem to be rejected… he calls on all his disciples to prioritize telling people about him, about how through him God rules!

         Imagine what good news this is!
To all the Rejected Ones:
To Valer-ia and Oscar,
to those who have ears to hear, but no one respects them enough to invite them in,
to those battered by religious threats instead of accepted as they are,
to those without a place to rest their head,
to the mourning ones,
to those who did not get a farewell,
to the rejected everywhere!

         He is with you. The Blessed One is rejected too. Therefore, God is with you! God’s footprints are found along Rejection Road. 

         In fact, Rejection Road is transformed into a Kingly Highway… for God Reigns!

         O’ Rejected Ones, God Reigns:

         God reigns, so there isforgiveness.

         God reigns, so the fallen are redeemed, instead of destroyed.

         God reigns, so humility overtakes hypocrisy.

         God reigns, so those who can not repay kindness for kindness or mercy for mercy, still receive both!

         God reigns, so possessions no longer possess us.

         God reigns, so we do good instead of storing up goods.

         God reigns so greed gives way to grace and generosity!

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