Luke 13:31-35 (The Message)

Last week John began the Lenten series about temptation.
This week’s focus is on the
temptation to avoid or run away.

Temptation to run away is something I know about!
Some of you know that I am in the midst of
discernment of my call.

I am questioning,
am I to pursue Pastoral ministry? Am I to stay in the
United Methodist church?
Is my theology – the way I understand God
and the scriptures -
too out-of-line with the institutional church?
Am I to pursue some form of secular ministry?
For me these questions are
very intense and
cut to the core of my heart.
The temptation is to
avoid dealing with them,
because it is painful to do so…

Then, because I am able to preach this week and not next week,
I got the scripture that
deals with the temptation
to avoid or run away.
That’s God for you!

This is something we all know something about.
Difficult, painful,
crisis situations occur
where we prefer to
walk away rather than face them.

In fact, in studying
human behavior,
to lose touch, cut off, or withdraw is recognized as a
common temptation.

Interestingly,
what has been determined in
family systems therapy
is that cutting oneself off
from others does not show
lack of emotion but
too much emotion and
an inability to cope with
the intensity of emotion…

So, here we are with
today’s scripture.
I have sat with the text. What has come to me is
an imagination of an eye witness
to the event that the
scripture story describes today.

What follows is an imaginary account
of this incident in Jerusalem in a letter to "Eli".

Dear Eli,

You know the man from Nazareth
who was called the
"King of the Jews"
who was killed not long ago?
I was with him when he was
here in Jerusalem one time –
not long before he died.
My memories of that experience won’t go away.
I want to share them with you.

I was with my brother, Stephen. He had heard about Jesus;
he had heard he was a healer. Stephen asked if I wanted to go
with him to see this man.
I was curious, so I said,
"Sure! I’ll go along…"

So many people were
gathered to see Jesus.
People came from the east, west, south and north!
Some came from very far away.
It was quite a crowd;
I had to keep myself
from getting scared.

There were people with
open sores,
others moaning from pain,
children and men
carried in on stretchers,
women wailing, children crying,
and babies screaming.
Some people were so dirty and exhausted from their travels,
I didn’t know if they were there
to be freed of demons or
if they had some other kind of sickness.
Eli, the longing looks,
the ache for freedom from
their situations was palpable.

At one point, Stephen and I
were completely surrounded by these people – babies and elderly, blind and crazed.
The noise alone was overwhelming.

People were there enduring
immense suffering.
Their lives were so full of pain, sadness and loneliness.
One woman’ child had died;
another young person had a disease
that put him near death.

A family was there – their home had been destroyed in a fire;
A soldier had been wounded;
A teenager had contemplated suicide;
An old man wondered why he should still be alive.

I began to ask myself why I had told Stephen I would come along.
I wanted to get out of there.
Eli, as I said, it was overwhelming.

Finally we got closer.
Because all of these people were
trying to get near to Jesus,
some of his disciples were there trying to maintain order.

We finally saw Jesus.

Eli, he was fascinating to watch.
People would approach him with
one crisis in their life
after another.
Some people were on crutches;
others were in spiritual anguish – they felt so separate from God;
some were going through
some form of mid-life predicament,

and others had found themselves
in situations that were beyond their control;
they looked so lost.

Jesus would look at each person who came to him
as if they were the
only one present.

His eyes were soft,
his face caring.

He was with each person, Eli; physically,
emotionally and
spiritually.
He almost didn’t have to
say anything!
He conveyed his love - God’s love -
with his eyes,
by touch,
while nodding his head and
the look on his face.
Oh, Eli – you should have
seen his face!
It was like the sun –
It was like the sun was
shining through him;
he was so warm and caring.
And he was calm, Eli.
This one man came up to him
shouting obscenities and
waving his arms about.
Jesus was unflappable –
he was not the least bit anxious.
I couldn’t hear what he said.
His look alone said,
"You are not alone,
I am with you.
Together we can
carry the burden.
Don’t be afraid.
I am here."

The man fell to his knees in tears. It looked like Jesus
prayed with him.
People began to sing, Eli!
They were shouting "Alleluia!"

And then,
you know what happened, Eli?
Some Pharisees came up to Jesus
in the midst of the crowd
and warned him to run for his life!

"Herod’s on the hunt.
He’s out to kill you!" they said.
People gasped.
The place went silent.
You could have heard a pin drop.

And then Jesus said,
"Tell that fox I have
no time for him right now.
Today and tomorrow
I’m busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick,
and the third day
I’m wrapping things up.
Besides, it’s not proper for a prophet to come to a bad end outside Jerusalem."

And then he started saying these words as if from a song:

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
killer of prophets
abuser of the messengers of God!

How often I’ve longed
to gather your children,
gather your children like a hen.
Her brood safe under her wings –
but you refused and turned away!

And now it’s too late:
You won’t see me again
until the day you say,
"Blessed is he who comes
in the name of God."

Eli, I can tell you from the bottom of my heart –
I have never before
wanted to be,
longed to be, or
imagined being thankful to be
a chick under a hen’s wing!

And now that Jesus is gone,
I think I understand
what he meant
by the words,
"You won’t see me again
until you say,
"Blessed is he who comes
in the name of God.""
He knew he was
coming back to Jerusalem.
He knew he was going to die here.

And when he said, the third day
he’s wrapping things up;
he was foretelling his resurrection on the third day!

It’s as if he was saying,
"I must keep going here."
He was determined.

Eli, he could have gotten up and run!
…For his LIFE!

Was this courage to
face the trouble?

Was this compassion to
take care of us all
like a brood under a hen’s wing?

What I know is,
he wasn’t alone, Eli.
God was with him.

I’ll never forget this experience.
Especially in light of
all that’s happened.

May mercy, grace and peace be yours in abundance…

We all are tempted to run away or
avoid situations.

This story is a reminder that
God’s work is always at hand
for each one of us.

We can turn our attention to others and be concerned for them rather than ourselves.

We can be a non-anxious presence
for those in our lives who are in crisis.

We can look to God for guidance
as to our calling in life.

It is our responsibility to
know and use
our spiritual gifts.
AND

As we have been reminded
this winter,
if you aren’t sure what your spiritual gifts are you can still
sign up and attend the all-church
event on April 27^th and 28^th!

No matter what,
we can remember Jesus’ example.
He turns everything upside down. When you would expect him to run for his life,
he stays and shares his vision
of taking each of the least,
the lonely and
the lost – each one of us –
under his wing.

God was with him. God is with us.
Together we can
carry the burden.
Don’t be afraid.
We are not alone.

This is the prayer for my life,
may it also be yours. Amen.

Janet A.M. James

Pastoral Intern

Colgate Rochester Crozer
Divinity School

March 4, 2007