Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church

Cornel Barnett
Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church
San Francisco, California
February 24, 2008

Luke 9.51-62
“He set his face to go to Jerusalem 3: Walk the Walk”

In the last two weeks we looked at Lent through the eyes of two cultural events: the Chinese New Year and Black History Month. We read the biblical story of Jesus’ descent from the mountain of transfiguration. We continue the story today.

The popular phrase “walk the walk” is used in my sermon as a metaphor for the Lenten journey. I say this to be sensitive to those who cannot walk. As metaphor everyone can walk, even those in wheelchairs.

The sermon begins with a story from John Grisham’s book, The Testament. It was recommended to me by Suellen, an avid Grisham reader. The Testament, as the name implies, has a mission-related theme. A testament is also a legal document in Grisham’s work.

In the book, the character Nate is a litigation lawyer. While very successful as a lawyer, and at heart a nice guy, Nate’s personal life disassembles with alcohol abuse. His two marriages end and he is alienated from his children.

In the beginning of the book he is in recovery at a mountain clinic. The novel proceeds through rivers and swamps of the Pantanal in Brazil, where Nate has been sent to find Rachel Lane, the heiress of a massive fortune. Lane is a missionary doctor working in a remote village and is the illegitimate daughter of the deceased. Nate’s search and adventures take a good many pages of the novel. Eventually, he finds Rachel.

In the course of their business, Rachel gently communicates the Gospel testament to Nate. After their business is concluded, Nate returns to the US with mosquito-borne dengue fever. He recuperates in a small Massachusetts town where he meets Phil, an Episcopal priest, in a worship service.

Nate strikes up a relationship with the priest and the two work on a building project in the basement of the church. In one of their conversations, Nate tells Phil he wants to visit his children. Phil asks: “Do you expect the trip to be successful?” Nate replies: “I’m not sure what to expect. I want to hug my kids and apologize for being such a lousy father, but I’m not sure how that’s supposed to help them now.”

Phil says: “I wouldn’t do that. They know you’ve been a lousy father. Flogging yourself won’t help. But it’s important to be there, to take the first step in building new relationships.” Nate replies: “I was such a miserable failure for my kids.” Phil rebounds: “You can’t beat yourself up, Nate. You’re allowed to forget the past. God certainly has. Paul murdered Christians before he became one, and he didn’t flail himself for what he’d been before. Everything is forgiven. Show your kids what you are now.”

Jesus says a similar thing in our text today. He says, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” and, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Jesus exaggerates to jolt listeners out of their staid way of ordering their universe and to view existence from an entirely new reality — that of discipleship in response to the realm of God preached by Jesus.

Jesus speaks these words in the context of setting his face toward Jerusalem. Nothing would deter him from the journey, which we call the Lenten journey, to Jerusalem, where he would die and rise from the dead. He knew that his message of love, justice and freedom was already upsetting the religious authorities of the day. He would be smeared as a religious and political troublemaker.

The Samaritans reject him because they always rejected Jews on their pilgrimages to Jerusalem. Some scholars conjecture that Jesus was rejected because his message was too difficult for them to handle. They wanted to remain in their safe, comfortable place free of the challenges of this religiosity. The same challenge comes to us today.

The Rev. Martin Luther King was not swayed in his march from Birmingham, Alabama, to Washington, D.C. for the civil rights of his people, and he was smeared as a religious and political troublemaker. A seventy-four-year-old American nun, Dorothy Stang, was smeared in Brazil for her support of the poor and her commitment to social justice and environmental protection. She defended the environmentally fragile region for 20 years.

Jesus, Martin and Dorothy’s faces were set toward Jerusalem, which meant obedient resoluteness to fulfill God’s will despite all opposition. The unfortunate consequence for all three was that they would die for their commitment. Jesus was hung on a cross and Martin and Dorothy were gunned down. Starting from Jesus, how many martyrs are there who have given their lives for the good and for the sake of God’s beautiful, fragile world and people? There are too many to count.

Death certainly was not the goal for Jesus, Martin and Dorothy when they set out on their journey. Who wants to die? Their eyes were on the prize. They wanted God’s will and life for themselves, for all God’s people, and for the earth. The Lenten journey recalls their obedience to the gospel message and faithfulness to Jesus. Outcomes vary.

It’s a tough road. Most of us will not see the trauma meted upon Jesus, Martin and Dorothy but we are called to take the journey with Jesus anyway. We could reject his message like the Samaritans or we could seek and understand and listen to what Jesus is telling us as we set our faces towards Jerusalem.

We are called to walk the walk with Jesus. Some of us have made Lenten commitments by the way of praying, fasting, and works of compassion in order to identify with this walk and to focus on the cross. Our disciplines and sacrifices remind us of the major sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf. We walk the walk by remembering and fulfilling the best we can these commitments.

We walk the walk by accompanying Nate in his Lenten journey. We build new relationships with our family and friends. “You can’t beat yourself up, Nate. You’re allowed to forget the past. God certainly has. . . . Everything is forgiven. Show your kids what you are now.”

We walk the walk by affirming our wonderful lives in Christ. We are being made whole in Christ and therefore can reach out in fresh, new, and sacrificial ways.

We walk the walk by sharing a kind word, speaking the truth in love, caring, challenging injustice, sharing love to the loveless and hope to the hopeless.

We walk the walk in gratitude for all those who have gone before us and given their lives for the sake of God’s Gospel. We listen to their stories and live them the best we can. Ours might not be as great a sacrifice but we walk on in faithful obedience to the best of our understanding of the Gospel.

We walk the walk when we listen as best we can to God’s word for a future that may not seem safe, but we know that God in Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, walks with us.

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in The Christian Century in 1960: “Due to my involvement in the struggle for the freedom of my people, I have known very few quiet days in the last few years. I have been arrested five times and put in Alabama jails. My home has been bombed twice. A day seldom passes that my family and I are not the recipients of threats of death. I have been the victim of a near-fatal stabbing. So in a real sense I have been battered by the storm of persecution. I must admit that at times I have felt that I could no longer bear such a heavy burden, and have been tempted to retreat to a more quiet and serene life. But every time such a temptation appeared, something came to strengthen and sustain my determination. I have learned now that the Master’s burden is light precisely when we take his yoke upon us. . . . The suffering and agonizing moments through which I have passed over the last few years have drawn me closer to God. More than ever before I am convinced of the reality of a personal God.”

When we walk the walk we are always drawn closer to God who nurtures, sustains, and guides us. King found this in his walk and Nate was drawing closer to God. It was found in Rachel Lane’s quiet witness to Jesus Christ and in Dorothy Stang’s passion for justice. Let us join this band as we build God’s realm on earth together. Let us walk the walk with these brave souls and with Jesus. Amen.