Reverend Ref +

PENTECOST 12 - PROPER 16

Did you hear it? The methodical movement of Jesus on his journey. And as he makes that journey, he teaches in one town and village after another. Starting in Virginia City and moving through Nevada City, Alder, Laurin, Sheridan and Twin, steadily heading towards Butte and his showdown with the mining authorities; all the while, teaching as he goes.

And someone asks him, "Will only a few be saved?" I'm not really sure where this comes from. Jesus doesn't appear to have had a direct confrontation with Pharisees or Sadducees, and he doesn't blast the ever-present hypocrites. But there it is: Will only a few be saved?

Jesus response is both interesting and shocking. In a word, yes. And that response seems to shock our modern, all-inclusive, I'm-okay-you're-okay, everybody-let's-just-get-along sensibilities. After all, Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors, says that prostitutes will enter the Kingdom of God, heals all kinds of people of illness, constantly invites the outsider, and forgives people of their sins. But here, Jesus becomes exclusionary and says that the door is narrow. Many will try, he says, but will be unable to enter.

There are a couple of things that stand out in today's gospel. The first is that many will TRY. There's a big difference between trying and doing. My first summer in seminary, I worked as a hospital chaplain. Actually, "work" implies a paycheck -- I "volunteered" and paid $500 for the privilege of being a hospital chaplain. I spent that summer being with people in all stages of life, from birth to death and everything in between. There were seven of us in my group, which meant that once a week one of us was on call 24 hrs at the hospital.

Not everything was peaches and cream, and there was one member who was rather difficult. One of his annoying habits was to be consistently late to our 8 am meeting. We were having a discussion about this little problem, when he said, "I'll try to be here on time from now on." The supervisor did this: Take out a coin and ask several people to try to take the coin from my hand. Then ask one person to take the coin.

The point was that you can try all you want, but unless you do it, it doesn't happen.

How does that relate? How about this: I'll try to volunteer my time . . . I'll try to pledge . . . I'll try to buy food for the food bank . . . I'll try to say my prayers . . . I'll try "whatever." Trying doesn't get it done. Trying to enter through the narrow door doesn't get it done. Doing it gets it done.

The second thing that stands out is the line, "We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets." This strikes me as fair-weather friends. "We ate and drank with you." It's easy to be a disciple when times are good, but what about when the leader is taken away and people are left to fend for themselves. What about when Jesus was taken away to die? What about now when individual spirituality of loving nature seems more popular than belonging to a community and following Christ?

"You taught in our streets." Yes, Jesus taught, but did the peopole learn anything? Did they incorporate those teachings into their lives? Did they study? Did they do more than try?

I walked into the church last week to get ready for the service. On the altar rail was an envelope. Inside the envelope was a little tract from someone calling themselves "A Sower of God's Word." My first thought was, "Oh oh, now what?" I set it aside and read it later in the week.

This tract began with the battle over the Ten Commandments down in Alabama a few years ago. Remember that? The judge brought in this 20,000 ton monument into the court. Evangelical Christians gathered around and prayed. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth over that. But this tract eventually moved to challenging its reader to seek out all of the commandments given by Jesus. "We live by a New Testament," it said. It was asking if you knew what Jesus said as well as you know the Ten Commandments.

Something struck me as I read this tract. Nowhere did it say, "You must do THIS," whatever THIS is. Rather it said to seek out the commandments given by Jesus, to study them, and to live by them. One sentence that was highlighted said, "We are pilgrims on the journey of hte narrow road."

The story said that doing this put him one on one with Jesus. That God wasn't talking to a crowd he could hid within, but was talking to him personally. Say what you will about traveling evangelicals, but I have to hand it to this one -- no easy black and white answers here; simply a request to dig deeper, to wrestle with God, to move from a wide, generic and general Christianiy to a narrow, specific and focused faith.

Jesus seems to be saying, "You know about me, but you don't KNOW me." Is he being exclusionary? Sure he is. But when you start talking specifics you become exclusive. Airlines are exclusive about who they let into cockpits; hospitals are exclusive about who they let operate on people; you are exclusive about who works on your car. I know some general stuff about airplanes, medicine and cars, but you don't want my working on any of them.

When you start talking specifics, the field is narrowed. It becomes a discipline, and it takes work. Jesus is stating the obvious, he's not being intentionally mean. Christianity is a discipline. We have a responsibility to study and incorporate that faith into our lives. It is THAT that makes the door narrow.

Taking a second coin out: Many will try, few will actually do.