Exodus 4 (selected); Luke 9:51-10:20
March 8, 2009 - Second Sunday of Lent
40 Days of Community – Part 2
“We Can Do This Thing Called Love”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Have you seen the advertisements on TV from time to time that are advertising new movies about to be released? Last fall, I saw one of these advertisements for a movie called Flash of Genius. The story caught my attention and I watched for the movie’s release. Unless I missed it, it never came to the mall over in Scotland. I must have spoken my disappointment out loud because for Christmas, Molly and Randy gave me an IOU present: they said that the movie Flash of Genius was going to be released on DVD in February and they had ordered it for me from Circuit City. Well, in case you didn’t know, Circuit City announced bankruptcy right after the first of the year. Molly said she kept getting emails telling her that the movie was going to be shipped on such and such a date – but the date came and went with no movie showing up at my door. Now usually I would just let it go. But, I kept thinking about this movie. Usually when that happens to me, I believe God wants to show me something. So, I finally gave in this past week and went to Blockbuster to rent the movie.
Flash of Genius is a movie based on a true story about a family who lived in Detroit: the Dr. Robert Kearns family. Dr. Kearns, in a flash of genius one day back in the late 1960’s, realized that to make a windshield wiper that could blink intermittently like our eyelids blink intermittently, would be a huge service to the driving public. And so he did it: he invented it! He patented it, and he took his invention to Ford Motor Company. Ford was interested and Kearns and his family invested money in manufacturing the device. Then, all of sudden Ford had a change of heart. They were no longer interested. To say the least, this news was devastating. Some time later, Ford brought out a new line of cars with none other than an intermittent windshield wiper!
The movie is about Robert Kearns’ obsession with getting credit for his invention. In 1978, representing himself (because no lawyer would represent him against such corporate giants) Kearns took Ford Motor Company to court followed by Chrysler in the early 80’s: He won recognition and a total of approximately $30,000,000. For us little people, we want to say things like, “Way to go, Robert! Way to take on the big boys!” But there’s a part of the story that must be known: In his drive for justice, he left his wife of 27 years and 6 children behind. Listen to a bit of an article from the LA Times:
"Flash of Genius" barely touches on the inventor's staunch Roman Catholic beliefs. When I met Kearns, he had prevailed against Ford and Chrysler and was preparing to take on General Motors. "This is not my battle," he told me, "this is the Seventh Commandment" -- Thou shall not steal. Kearns used a $300,000 chunk of his lawsuit settlement to buy and restore the remains of a suburban Detroit church, from the parish where he had grown up idolizing Henry Ford.
At that time, Kearns, who called himself "God's engineer," was planning to install the Stations of the Cross on the rural Maryland estate he'd bought with his legal proceeds. He believed that by pursuing his lawsuit he was enacting a kind of pilgrimage, enduring a test of his moral worthiness. The lawsuit was his holy Grail, his quest for absolution. It was, he once told his daughter Kathleen, "what I was put on Earth to do." The lesson to be drawn from Kearns' remarkable struggle is that it takes a tremendous amount of guts, smarts and perhaps a touch of craziness to stand up to powerful interests in one's society. Those who do it must be prepared to sacrifice time, health, love, peace of mind or, in Kearns' case, all of the above.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
In the movie, Kearns’ children helped him as he prepared for the case against Ford Motor Company. In the movie, we get the picture that at least Dr. Kearns didn’t lose his children – that somehow they understood. But from some other articles I’ve read, the movie was too kind to Robert Kearns. His children were hurt that their dad was able to show infinitely more love for his cause than he could show to them, that somehow he had come to believe that winning a lawsuit was God’s purpose for him, a purpose over and above a father’s love expressed in time and attention to his children.
Let’s turn to the Gospel of Luke 9:51ff:
51As the time drew near for his return to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. 53But they were turned away. The people of the village refused to have anything to do with Jesus because he had resolved to go to Jerusalem. 54When James and John heard about it, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we order down fire from heaven to burn them up?” 55But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56So they went on to another village.
57As they were walking along someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you no matter where you go.”
58But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head.”
59He said to another person, “Come, be my disciple.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
60Jesus replied, “Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God.”
61Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”
62But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Now, Robert Kearns might have read that passage and said, “See? You must be willing to give up everything for the purpose God has for you – even your family.” A person could interpret this Scripture in such a way, couldn’t they?” Let’s look at it together.
Jesus has set his eyes on Jerusalem. His purpose was to come to tell the world about God, to call us to live lives of love and holiness, and to die as the one perfect sacrifice for our sin so that we could live with God forever. He couldn’t get into a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem, a place the Samaritans had decided was God-forsaken. They thought the temple in Jerusalem had been compromised and defiled, and so they turned their backs on it. When they heard Jesus wanted to come into their village on the way to Jerusalem, they said, “No. We will not allow our village to be compromised and defiled by false teaching.” And so they missed the opportunity to welcome Jesus into their community.
Jesus was focused. He was focused on love in its purest form. Remember, love is a command. Love is a commitment. Love is a discipline. Jesus was sent to demonstrate God’s love for us on a cross in Jerusalem. He was focused on love.
The Samaritans were focused, too, on protecting themselves from “outsiders.” They probably thought they were doing the right thing out of love for their community.
Then Jesus has this conversation with those traveling with him. One fellow says that he will follow Jesus anywhere, and Jesus is quick and clear in telling him that the road ahead is rough. Jesus wants to be sure that this volunteer knows that the life of love is not an easy life – it is not comfortable or predictable. It comes with suffering for the sake of others. It is not written whether the volunteer continues the journey after hearing Jesus’ warning.
Then Jesus makes an invitation to a man to follow him – but this man insists that he must go back home to make funeral arrangements first. Now, we know this fellow’s father has not just died or the man wouldn’t be out among the crowd. It was custom for a son to take care of the family business in the absence of the older male in the household, and it sounds like this son wanted to go home and make sure everything would be in order when his father did pass away. We might think well of such a responsible son. But Jesus doesn’t buy it. He hears this statement as an excuse for not following him to Jerusalem.
The final guy just wants to go home and tell everyone goodbye. That’s seems reasonable. But listen to this: the particular Greek word translated “goodbye” here is only found 5 other times in the New Testament and every other place is translated “to take leave of.” It would have been the tradition of this culture for those who are leaving to go somewhere to ask permission to “take leave of” those who are staying. Those who are staying then respond by offering a blessing to those who are leaving. Therefore, it seems that this last possible follower of Jesus is telling Jesus that he needs to go home and ask for his family’s blessing. So, what do you think would happen? Is his family going to say, “Oh sure, go ahead. Go – follow that itinerant, homeless, religious fanatic who thinks he is the Son of God.” I doubt it. Jesus knows this man is not willing to go to Jerusalem with him.
Do you remember when God called Moses and Moses made up all of those excuses why he couldn’t do what God was calling him to do to get the Israelites free from Egypt? It’s all back in Exodus 4. “Suppose they do not believe me or listen to me?” “I am slow of speech. I am not a good speaker.” “Please send someone else.”
Folks, here’s where we are: We are traveling together on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus is among us. He is teaching us. He is correcting us. He is sifting out those who are only along for the ride, who are able to talk the talk but who are not willing to walk the walk. He is asking us whether we believe that he is truly the Son of God sent to earth to seek and save the lost. He is asking whether we are only interested in singing about a wonderful, merciful Savior, or whether we really believe he is that Savior. Is it possible that Jesus was just a man obsessed with something like Robert Kearns’ purpose of getting recognition for something he did? I mean, let’s face it: he did some pretty weird things. Supposedly, he fed 15 thousand people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Maybe it was a trick. There was that one time he was walking in a crowd and a woman who needed healing touched his robe, and he stopped and brought a lot of attention to himself by saying, “I felt power going out from me.” Then remember when his supposed friend Lazarus was sick, that his sisters asked for Jesus to come and heal him, and Jesus intentionally stayed away 3 more days? That doesn’t seem right. How does that show love? Oh yeah, how about that time he told that rich guy to go sell everything so that he could follow him? That doesn’t seem loving or fair either! I mean, we work hard for our stuff. We have a right to go home to our houses and open our refrigerators to get out the food we bought we our hard-earned money. And Jesus says that in order to keep up his mission of seeking and saving the lost we are supposed to leave it all behind and trust him for what we need.
Well, either we believe that Jesus is God, sent to earth to bring the message of love to the world, and to make a way for all people to live eternally with God, or we do not believe this.
If we do believe it, then it should show in our own willingness to let go of the stuff that holds us back from continuing his love-focused eternal mission of seeking and saving the lost.
We have lots of excuses, don’t we? Sort of like Moses, we say, “I wouldn’t know what to say.” “I feel sure I’d be rejected.” “What if they don’t believe you sent me?” “I don’t want to go.” “They’ll label me.” “They won’t want me around.” “Please send someone else.”
Do we have neighbors and friends and co-workers and family members who don’t go to church?
Of course we do. Some of them might say they believe in God. But folks, there has to be good, eternal fruit in our lives if we truly belong to the Lord. Let me put it this way: if someone followed you around 24/7 and couldn’t know for sure whether you are a Christian or not, then you’ve got a fruit problem. Now, we can do all sorts of good things. We can be the most generous person in town. But if what we do is not clearly, clearly, clearly pointing to Jesus Christ and proclaiming him as the source of our life and love, then we are noisy gongs, clanging cymbals, and I dare to say, unworthy of the name we bear.
I’m guessing that 98% of the excuses we come up with for not inviting someone to come to church with us point back to our own insecurities. But love cares more about the eternal destiny of others than about our own insecurity. Love is willing to go back to our neighbor’s door and ask again, “Can I pick you up for church this Sunday?” Love tells another person what faith in Jesus means to you. Love invites. Love prays. Love doesn’t give up. Love doesn’t grab onto those thoughts of rejection, but grabs onto Jesus who promises to be with us always.
Robert Kearns won recognition and lots of money – but he lost his family. The article said he was a devout Catholic and was doing good things with his money for the Church. But the way he treated his family didn’t back up his faith.
What keeps us from going all the way to Jerusalem with Jesus? What do we cling to that keeps us living for ourselves instead of dying to self and living for him?
Comfort
Substance abuse
A relationship that you know is not godly
Sports
Worry
Fear
Work
Money
Family
Hobbies
A desire to fulfill plans you have set for your life rather than live according to God’s plans and purpose for you
A need for recognition and success
Temptations to which you just won’t say no…
Jesus said, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you, even to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Folks, we can do this thing called love. Jesus has put his confidence in us to do it, because he has given us his Holy Spirit to work it out. We can do this thing called love. We can keep walking with him to Jerusalem. We can say with Jesus, “Lord, please take this cup from me. I don’t want to do this thing. But we must follow it with the same words Jesus prayed next, “But not my will, but your will be done.” We can have our own flash of genius right now – and begin wiping away our excuses and our hesitations and our fears. We can learn how to love each other and love our community with selfless love. And once we start doing that, no one can steal the joy that comes back to us. No one can take away our freedom in Christ. And no one can get the glory except Jesus Christ, our wonderful, merciful Savior. Amen.
March 8, 2009 - Second Sunday of Lent
40 Days of Community – Part 2
“We Can Do This Thing Called Love”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer
Have you seen the advertisements on TV from time to time that are advertising new movies about to be released? Last fall, I saw one of these advertisements for a movie called Flash of Genius. The story caught my attention and I watched for the movie’s release. Unless I missed it, it never came to the mall over in Scotland. I must have spoken my disappointment out loud because for Christmas, Molly and Randy gave me an IOU present: they said that the movie Flash of Genius was going to be released on DVD in February and they had ordered it for me from Circuit City. Well, in case you didn’t know, Circuit City announced bankruptcy right after the first of the year. Molly said she kept getting emails telling her that the movie was going to be shipped on such and such a date – but the date came and went with no movie showing up at my door. Now usually I would just let it go. But, I kept thinking about this movie. Usually when that happens to me, I believe God wants to show me something. So, I finally gave in this past week and went to Blockbuster to rent the movie.
Flash of Genius is a movie based on a true story about a family who lived in Detroit: the Dr. Robert Kearns family. Dr. Kearns, in a flash of genius one day back in the late 1960’s, realized that to make a windshield wiper that could blink intermittently like our eyelids blink intermittently, would be a huge service to the driving public. And so he did it: he invented it! He patented it, and he took his invention to Ford Motor Company. Ford was interested and Kearns and his family invested money in manufacturing the device. Then, all of sudden Ford had a change of heart. They were no longer interested. To say the least, this news was devastating. Some time later, Ford brought out a new line of cars with none other than an intermittent windshield wiper!
The movie is about Robert Kearns’ obsession with getting credit for his invention. In 1978, representing himself (because no lawyer would represent him against such corporate giants) Kearns took Ford Motor Company to court followed by Chrysler in the early 80’s: He won recognition and a total of approximately $30,000,000. For us little people, we want to say things like, “Way to go, Robert! Way to take on the big boys!” But there’s a part of the story that must be known: In his drive for justice, he left his wife of 27 years and 6 children behind. Listen to a bit of an article from the LA Times:
"Flash of Genius" barely touches on the inventor's staunch Roman Catholic beliefs. When I met Kearns, he had prevailed against Ford and Chrysler and was preparing to take on General Motors. "This is not my battle," he told me, "this is the Seventh Commandment" -- Thou shall not steal. Kearns used a $300,000 chunk of his lawsuit settlement to buy and restore the remains of a suburban Detroit church, from the parish where he had grown up idolizing Henry Ford.
At that time, Kearns, who called himself "God's engineer," was planning to install the Stations of the Cross on the rural Maryland estate he'd bought with his legal proceeds. He believed that by pursuing his lawsuit he was enacting a kind of pilgrimage, enduring a test of his moral worthiness. The lawsuit was his holy Grail, his quest for absolution. It was, he once told his daughter Kathleen, "what I was put on Earth to do." The lesson to be drawn from Kearns' remarkable struggle is that it takes a tremendous amount of guts, smarts and perhaps a touch of craziness to stand up to powerful interests in one's society. Those who do it must be prepared to sacrifice time, health, love, peace of mind or, in Kearns' case, all of the above.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
In the movie, Kearns’ children helped him as he prepared for the case against Ford Motor Company. In the movie, we get the picture that at least Dr. Kearns didn’t lose his children – that somehow they understood. But from some other articles I’ve read, the movie was too kind to Robert Kearns. His children were hurt that their dad was able to show infinitely more love for his cause than he could show to them, that somehow he had come to believe that winning a lawsuit was God’s purpose for him, a purpose over and above a father’s love expressed in time and attention to his children.
Let’s turn to the Gospel of Luke 9:51ff:
51As the time drew near for his return to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. 53But they were turned away. The people of the village refused to have anything to do with Jesus because he had resolved to go to Jerusalem. 54When James and John heard about it, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we order down fire from heaven to burn them up?” 55But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56So they went on to another village.
57As they were walking along someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you no matter where you go.”
58But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head.”
59He said to another person, “Come, be my disciple.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
60Jesus replied, “Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead. Your duty is to go and preach the coming of the Kingdom of God.”
61Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say good-bye to my family.”
62But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
Now, Robert Kearns might have read that passage and said, “See? You must be willing to give up everything for the purpose God has for you – even your family.” A person could interpret this Scripture in such a way, couldn’t they?” Let’s look at it together.
Jesus has set his eyes on Jerusalem. His purpose was to come to tell the world about God, to call us to live lives of love and holiness, and to die as the one perfect sacrifice for our sin so that we could live with God forever. He couldn’t get into a Samaritan village because he was headed to Jerusalem, a place the Samaritans had decided was God-forsaken. They thought the temple in Jerusalem had been compromised and defiled, and so they turned their backs on it. When they heard Jesus wanted to come into their village on the way to Jerusalem, they said, “No. We will not allow our village to be compromised and defiled by false teaching.” And so they missed the opportunity to welcome Jesus into their community.
Jesus was focused. He was focused on love in its purest form. Remember, love is a command. Love is a commitment. Love is a discipline. Jesus was sent to demonstrate God’s love for us on a cross in Jerusalem. He was focused on love.
The Samaritans were focused, too, on protecting themselves from “outsiders.” They probably thought they were doing the right thing out of love for their community.
Then Jesus has this conversation with those traveling with him. One fellow says that he will follow Jesus anywhere, and Jesus is quick and clear in telling him that the road ahead is rough. Jesus wants to be sure that this volunteer knows that the life of love is not an easy life – it is not comfortable or predictable. It comes with suffering for the sake of others. It is not written whether the volunteer continues the journey after hearing Jesus’ warning.
Then Jesus makes an invitation to a man to follow him – but this man insists that he must go back home to make funeral arrangements first. Now, we know this fellow’s father has not just died or the man wouldn’t be out among the crowd. It was custom for a son to take care of the family business in the absence of the older male in the household, and it sounds like this son wanted to go home and make sure everything would be in order when his father did pass away. We might think well of such a responsible son. But Jesus doesn’t buy it. He hears this statement as an excuse for not following him to Jerusalem.
The final guy just wants to go home and tell everyone goodbye. That’s seems reasonable. But listen to this: the particular Greek word translated “goodbye” here is only found 5 other times in the New Testament and every other place is translated “to take leave of.” It would have been the tradition of this culture for those who are leaving to go somewhere to ask permission to “take leave of” those who are staying. Those who are staying then respond by offering a blessing to those who are leaving. Therefore, it seems that this last possible follower of Jesus is telling Jesus that he needs to go home and ask for his family’s blessing. So, what do you think would happen? Is his family going to say, “Oh sure, go ahead. Go – follow that itinerant, homeless, religious fanatic who thinks he is the Son of God.” I doubt it. Jesus knows this man is not willing to go to Jerusalem with him.
Do you remember when God called Moses and Moses made up all of those excuses why he couldn’t do what God was calling him to do to get the Israelites free from Egypt? It’s all back in Exodus 4. “Suppose they do not believe me or listen to me?” “I am slow of speech. I am not a good speaker.” “Please send someone else.”
Folks, here’s where we are: We are traveling together on the road to Jerusalem. Jesus is among us. He is teaching us. He is correcting us. He is sifting out those who are only along for the ride, who are able to talk the talk but who are not willing to walk the walk. He is asking us whether we believe that he is truly the Son of God sent to earth to seek and save the lost. He is asking whether we are only interested in singing about a wonderful, merciful Savior, or whether we really believe he is that Savior. Is it possible that Jesus was just a man obsessed with something like Robert Kearns’ purpose of getting recognition for something he did? I mean, let’s face it: he did some pretty weird things. Supposedly, he fed 15 thousand people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. Maybe it was a trick. There was that one time he was walking in a crowd and a woman who needed healing touched his robe, and he stopped and brought a lot of attention to himself by saying, “I felt power going out from me.” Then remember when his supposed friend Lazarus was sick, that his sisters asked for Jesus to come and heal him, and Jesus intentionally stayed away 3 more days? That doesn’t seem right. How does that show love? Oh yeah, how about that time he told that rich guy to go sell everything so that he could follow him? That doesn’t seem loving or fair either! I mean, we work hard for our stuff. We have a right to go home to our houses and open our refrigerators to get out the food we bought we our hard-earned money. And Jesus says that in order to keep up his mission of seeking and saving the lost we are supposed to leave it all behind and trust him for what we need.
Well, either we believe that Jesus is God, sent to earth to bring the message of love to the world, and to make a way for all people to live eternally with God, or we do not believe this.
If we do believe it, then it should show in our own willingness to let go of the stuff that holds us back from continuing his love-focused eternal mission of seeking and saving the lost.
We have lots of excuses, don’t we? Sort of like Moses, we say, “I wouldn’t know what to say.” “I feel sure I’d be rejected.” “What if they don’t believe you sent me?” “I don’t want to go.” “They’ll label me.” “They won’t want me around.” “Please send someone else.”
Do we have neighbors and friends and co-workers and family members who don’t go to church?
Of course we do. Some of them might say they believe in God. But folks, there has to be good, eternal fruit in our lives if we truly belong to the Lord. Let me put it this way: if someone followed you around 24/7 and couldn’t know for sure whether you are a Christian or not, then you’ve got a fruit problem. Now, we can do all sorts of good things. We can be the most generous person in town. But if what we do is not clearly, clearly, clearly pointing to Jesus Christ and proclaiming him as the source of our life and love, then we are noisy gongs, clanging cymbals, and I dare to say, unworthy of the name we bear.
I’m guessing that 98% of the excuses we come up with for not inviting someone to come to church with us point back to our own insecurities. But love cares more about the eternal destiny of others than about our own insecurity. Love is willing to go back to our neighbor’s door and ask again, “Can I pick you up for church this Sunday?” Love tells another person what faith in Jesus means to you. Love invites. Love prays. Love doesn’t give up. Love doesn’t grab onto those thoughts of rejection, but grabs onto Jesus who promises to be with us always.
Robert Kearns won recognition and lots of money – but he lost his family. The article said he was a devout Catholic and was doing good things with his money for the Church. But the way he treated his family didn’t back up his faith.
What keeps us from going all the way to Jerusalem with Jesus? What do we cling to that keeps us living for ourselves instead of dying to self and living for him?
Comfort
Substance abuse
A relationship that you know is not godly
Sports
Worry
Fear
Work
Money
Family
Hobbies
A desire to fulfill plans you have set for your life rather than live according to God’s plans and purpose for you
A need for recognition and success
Temptations to which you just won’t say no…
Jesus said, “All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you, even to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)
Folks, we can do this thing called love. Jesus has put his confidence in us to do it, because he has given us his Holy Spirit to work it out. We can do this thing called love. We can keep walking with him to Jerusalem. We can say with Jesus, “Lord, please take this cup from me. I don’t want to do this thing. But we must follow it with the same words Jesus prayed next, “But not my will, but your will be done.” We can have our own flash of genius right now – and begin wiping away our excuses and our hesitations and our fears. We can learn how to love each other and love our community with selfless love. And once we start doing that, no one can steal the joy that comes back to us. No one can take away our freedom in Christ. And no one can get the glory except Jesus Christ, our wonderful, merciful Savior. Amen.
