No Excuses

Luke 9:51-62

You may remember something that happened during the 1984 presidential primaries: There arose a discrepancy between the career hopes and the personal life of one of the candidates. The candidate was Gary Hart, a young, bright, promising man who was forced to withdraw from the campaign and end his political career because he was caught in some suggestive, incriminating situations with a young woman, Donna Ricer. While Hart's dreams of the presidency went up in smoke, Donna Rice's career began to rise. It began by being an advertising symbol and spokesperson for a new brand of jeans. For several months we saw ads featuring Donna Rice in the jeans that were emblazoned with the name "No Excuses."

We all have our own excuses for not following through on our good intentions and for not living up to the challenges of discipleship within our faith. In today's scripture the three would-be followers, in their encounter with Jesus, came up with some great excuses that would allow them to gracefully bow out of discipleship when it got to be too demanding or uncomfortable. In Jesus' encounter with their excuses, he responds with a no-nonsense, no excuses mandate, separating those who could only hesitate and count the cost of their commitment from those who would follow.

In the first of the three potential disciples, the first person actually sounded as though he were actually committed to joining Jesus. But Jesus' response lays out the truth about the person's identity and mission and makes it clear how demanding a personal commitment to follow Jesus can be.

The young man claims that he would follow Jesus "anywhere" but the truth is that Jesus only has "nowhere." Being a disciple of Jesus would not give this man a security of place, profession or personhood. In fact Jesus says to the young man, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head."

Oftentimes with the credentials of discipleship comes the no home, no office, no pension plan, no IRA, no home owners insurance. Oftentimes, discipleship means moving us beyond the accepted standards of safety, job security, financial security. Missionaries, clergy and the saints of the past and present, and you, the laity, are called and challenged to move beyond the conventional safety of society's structure. The only true security in life for us, is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which gives us true freedom -- the freedom to love Jesus and to love our neighbors.

Jesus dashed the dreams of his first inquirer for a secure place in Jesus' ministry by pointing out that the whole strength of his mission was built on the apparently shifty sands of insecurity. Jesus knew that for his disciples to be moved by the Spirit with complete freedom, the must not be too deeply rooted in their own lives and selves. And so it is with us. We cannot be so firmly entrenched in our lives and selves that we cannot feel the freedom of the Spirit to move in the ministry Jesus would have us do. We cannot have total security on earth and enjoy the freedom of the Spirit. The two are not compatible. Discipleship for us may mean giving up some of our security.

The second person in the scripture received a personal invitation to follow Jesus. But, not unlike us, this man claimed family responsibilities which would tie him down and hold him back. With this man, according the Jewish tradition, it was the duty of the eldest son to see to the burial of his parents. The young man was making a request that he be given a period of grace -- an undefined amount of time -- until his father grew old or ill or died. We do not even know how long the father had to live or if he was already dead.

There isn't a person among us who hasn't at sometime in their life felt the tug at our psyches as we try to balance the demands of family with the demands of our jobs, creditors and our community. We all have bills, kids that outgrow shoes and clothes several times a year; school costs, whether in community schools or college tuition, ailing elderly parents, grocery bills that grow at an inversely proportional role to the number of sacks it takes to get the groceries home, car payments, house or rent payments, and so on.

But Jesus in our scripture today, denies us the opportunity to claim our family as some sort of discipleship-exemption loophole. There is no validity in claiming "bad timing" as our excuse for turning a deaf ear to God's call. Indeed, trusting in God's love and grace and plunging into the responsibilities of discipleship will only result in making us more capable of dealing with family crises that come our way. The road of discipleship is not littered with dumpsites for our family responsibilities, but rather is punctuated with pit stops to refresh us and renew our love and commitment to those who depend on us.

The final inquirer after discipleship, also like the second person, dredges up his family as an excuse to gain some time before taking any decisive action. In the case of this man, however, the excuse is far more cosmetic. The man wanted to be socially acceptable and courteously correct about the whole undertaking. After all, what would happen to his reputation, his social standing, if he simply were to walk away from his former life in order to follow Jesus? His anxiety was over what others might think about him and his first loyalty was to maintain decorum and proper obedience to the past -- not to have excitement and anticipation about serving God through Jesus Christ.

Jesus challenged this reluctant disciple to move beyond easy conformities, accepted conventions, risk-free familiarities, and to dare to do something new for God. The image of the plow Jesus used is a moving image. A field does not get plowed by turning it over in your mind. In order to plow a field, you must go along, always moving forward in order to prepare the ground. Jesus does not leave us where he finds us. Discipleship is not a static state. Rather than fretting over properness to the ex treme, Jesus gives us a new reference point for life -- freedom in God's Spirit to truly love and serve each other.

Luke's three examples of discipleship refusals is hardly unique. The Bible is filled with people with piles of alibis -- people who came up with all sorts of creative excuses for not serving God. But in the eyes of God, those who excuses themselves actually accused themselves, for they were arguing only with their own weaknesses and worries.

Consider Elijah who said, "Excuse me, Lord, buy my nerves can't take it!" Or Isaiah who said, "Excuse me, Lord, but I'm not pious or pure enough." Or Jeremiah who balked and said, "Excuse me, Lord, but I'm too young."

Or consider the most prolific excuse maker of all, Moses, who said, "Excuse me, Lord, but I'm too old -- and besides, I've earned a rest." When the Lord shot that excuse down, Moses came back with, "Excuse me, Lord, but I'm not good at public speaking. I stutter!" When that failed to convince the Lord, Moses finally trotted out the old, "Excuse me, Lord, but there are others much more qualified."

Is God calling you to discipleship? Sometimes our own insufficiency is what God finds the most useful about us. James W. Moore, author of Yes, Lord, I Have Survived, But I Have Several Excellent Excuses, tells of his own past to illustrate this quirky divine preference for turning weakness into strength. While a seminarian, Moore took a course in clinical pastoral education. One afternoon the head nurse took him aside and told him that a patient, Mrs. Davis, was in dire need of pastoral counseling. She was facing serious brain surgery the next morning with the double liabilities of poor physical condition and a soured, self-pitying spirit. Her chances of survival did not look good.

Overawed by the life-and-death responsibility his pastoral ability seemed to carry, young Moore decided to let Mrs. Davis do all the talking and serve as an "active listening" sound-board for her fears and anxieties. Unfortunately this plan was squelched when, at the last minute, Moor was told Mrs. Davis was not allowed to speak. In a panic, this young seminarian bumbled into the desperately ill woman's room, accidentally banging the door into the wall. He then lurched forward into the room and jarred the poor woman by kicking her bed. Mortified, he then launched into a stuttering, stammering series of platitudes and prayers, saying all the wrong things and feeling he had utterly failed to reach the woman's fears. Horrified at his inadequacy, Moore left quickly.

A few days later, Moore was amazed to find Mrs. Davis recovering nicely and in remarkable good spirits. Even more incredibly this patient praised him and credited him with practically saving her life. "But I don't understand. I felt so terrible; I was so ashamed. I did everything wrong," Moore moaned. "That's just it," she replied. "I felt so sorry for you! It was the first time I had felt anything but self-pity in months. That little spark of compassion ignited in me the will to live! And the doctors tell me it made all the difference."

Is Go calling us to follow a special avenue of discipleship? Is God calling us to a special task, such as erecting a sanctuary for all to come and worship God in? Is God calling you to a venue of service meriting your attention, but receiving only your excuses?

There are no excuses. For God has blessed us with an abundance of whatever we need to do what we are called to do. When you hear the voice of Jesus calling, will your response be "Excuse me, Lord," or will you spring up like the boy, Samuel, and eagerly proclaim, "Here I am, Lord?" Amen.