But First

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

June 26, 2016

8 Proper C

          One of the occupational hazards of being a priest is that I tend to spend more time than the average person thinking about funerals.  At our best, the Episcopal Church does funerals very well and those services are wonderful opportunities to proclaim the good news of God in Christ.  Whatever the circumstances, we can celebrate the workings of God in the life of the person who died and commit that person to their new life with Christ.  I have experienced glorious funerals that celebrated a long life well lived, such as the funeral we had here not long ago, with thoughtfully chosen hymns and scripture readings and people gathered from all over the community and even the country.  I have experienced very small services in funeral homes that have none of the trimmings and trappings of a church and rely solely on the liturgy to proclaim the good news.  I have experienced funerals for individuals whose lives were cut way too short by tragedy or illness and where pure raw grief was held gently by the liturgy in the promise that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  Funerals are important for the loved ones of the person who died as they provide an opportunity to celebrate a life, mourn a death, and hear Jesus say “I am resurrection and I am life.”  Funerals are important for the church as we have the opportunity to show God’s love and proclaim the gospel to those who are grieving.

          So, what does Jesus have against a good funeral this morning?  To a potential follower who simply wants to bury his father before he leaves to follow Jesus, Jesus says “Let the dead bury their own dead.  But as for you, go proclaim the Kingdom of God.”  That makes no sense on several levels. The dead cannot bury the dead.  And what about the commandment to honor one’s father and mother?  Would that not include providing a decent burial?  One of the curses the Old Testament prophets invoked upon those who strayed from the covenant was that their body would not be buried.  So to tell a grieving person to let the dead bury the dead seems downright heartless.  To another potential follower who wants to say farewell to those at home before he leaves, Jesus says “No one who puts the hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”  What does Jesus have against relationships that merit a good good-bye?  Does he want his followers’ loved ones worrying that someone has simply disappeared?  How does Jesus expect to draw any followers when he is so utterly unrealistic and demanding?

When Jesus demands an all or nothing response, I tend to respond in one of several ways.   One option is to romanticize the passage and wax eloquently about giving up everything to follow Jesus, and then look for someone else to do that. Another option is to simply blow Jesus off as unrealistic. After all, he did not have bills to pay or a family to care for. A third option is to think of following Jesus as a worthy goal once the bills are paid, the kids are out of school, and our other obligations are satisfied, which, of course, will probably never happen. Taking Jesus seriously is difficult when he is so demanding.

          I believe Jesus is responding more to two little words this morning than he is responding to what his potential followers want to do.  Those two little words are “But first." "But first let me go bury my father." "But first let me say farewell to those at home." Neither burying one’s father nor saying farewell to those at home are bad things. The problem was not the acts themselves. The problem was the "but first." Jesus calls us to turn our "but firsts" upside down, and to follow him first, rather than following once there is room on the calendar. If we wait to follow Jesus until the time when all our obligations are fulfilled, we are not really following Jesus. We are asking Jesus to follow us. Following Jesus means going where Jesus goes, and making Jesus our "but first." Yes, we have important obligations to our families, to our jobs and education, and to our communities, but Jesus asks that our commitment to follow him be the "but first" not vice versa. Jesus calls us not to abandon our responsibilities, but to radically reorient our lives so that he is our "but first" and to trust that all the obligations of our earthly life will follow and fit into place when we follow him. 

             In the reading from Galatians, Paul reminds us that this life of following Jesus and making Jesus our "but first" is actually a life of radical freedom. Freedom, says Paul, is not an opportunity for self-indulgence. True freedom, according to Paul, is not the freedom to do whatever we please, whenever we want to do it. That kind of freedom actually holds us hostage to our calendars and our earthly obligations. The freedom Jesus offers is the freedom to become servants to one another, through love. For Paul, the test of whether or not Jesus is our "but first" and we are truly free is whether our lives produce the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control, faithfulness, and generosity. 

               Jesus is not looking for followers who are irresponsible with regard to their earthly obligations, nor is he asking his followers to go anyplace he is not willing to go first. What Jesus is asking of those who wish to follow him is that they make him their "but first" and say to all of our earthly obligations "But first, I follow Jesus."  

                                                                      Amen.