Readings:
1 Kings 19, 16, 19-21, Please, let me kiss my father & mother goodbye.
Psalm 16, You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Galatians 5, 1, 13-18, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Luke 9, 51-62, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family.
Says Donna, "Welcome in, Everybody."
Introduction
[first reading] In our reading from 1 Kings, Elisha realizes that he has received a call from God to first be Elijah’s servant, then his successor.
[second reading] The gospel sets us free from the Law! For the whole Law is fulfilled by these words of Christ, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ We are led by the Spirit to be love, and this love is active in works.
Mabel and Marlene also say, "Hi, Folks, Come on in."
Homily by Mike:
How do we become the Lord’s disciples? Discipleship is a choice, through grace, to be led by the Holy Spirit to live the gospel by treating others with goodness and justice, with tenderness and compassion. ‘For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying to self that we are born to eternal live!’
Cole, our Candle Lighter, at work.
As Jesus walked along the road to Jerusalem with his aspiring disciples in today’s gospel, others joined to walk along with him. And a man said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus turned to him, ‘Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head.’ The journey to Jerusalem is the structural backbone of the Gospel for it is there that Jesus literally dies to himself for humankind. He is telling this man that if he wants to follow him he must die to self. Everyone’s Jerusalem is different; but the journey is the same. The inspired writers tell Jesus’ aspiring disciples to return to Galilee, in the written gospel. It is there that the Holy Spirit will lead them, and us, to their Jerusalem.
Happy Birthday, Alison.
Jesus said to another man who had begun to walk along beside him, ‘Follow me!’ The man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Obviously he wouldn’t have been walking along with Jesus that day if his father had just died. The man’s answer to Jesus was that he wasn’t going to make a decision until he received his inheritance when his father died. So Jesus said to him. ‘Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead, but you I have asked to be spiritually alive, to proclaim by word and deed the kingdom of heaven.
Offertory, John & Alison, Carrie & Paul. Thanks.
Still another said to Jesus, ‘I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say good-by to my family. Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit to serve in the kingdom of God.’ Those who are looking back over their shoulder literally do not know where they are going; they are likely to fall. Jesus is saying to him, ‘put the past behind; look forward, follow me.’
Special Good Wishes to you, John, on the big Wednesday Operation.
This past Sunday my younger brother and I were visiting our older brother in Florida. I took a short walk that afternoon to a park not far from his house. There, on Father’s Day, I began to enjoy watching a woman and her twenty-something son celebrating a picnic lunch together. Later, after joining them, I learned that her husband, the young man’s father, had recently passed unexpectedly. It had been difficult for them, but members of their church community had supported them with help and encouragement. She had gone back to work, was making good friends, and he had returned to college. Each of us has a cross to bear on our journey in the kingdom of heaven; but, we are called to assist one another, to press forward, our burden light.
Mike sharing his thoughts on today's readings.