Luke 9.57-62

PRIORITIES

(Luke 9.57-62)

It is good to be back here (in Weobley) having spent almost two months in or around Perth in Western Australia. Besides seeing my sons and especially my new grandson, Harrison, we also managed to catch up with many friends, most of whom go back twenty to thirty years ago when I worked there.

However, one friend I did not have time to see, and wanted to see, was Stan.

I first met Stan in 1979 when I was appointed as Senior Chaplain of the Missions to Seamen in Fremantle, and State Secretary for the Society in Western Australia.

Stan was the secretary of my Committee of Management and was a tower of strength to me in my early days. Being an insurance broker, he had a keen eye to details. Even the flowers in his garden had to stand at attention or else they were uprooted!

Stan was also a keen and enthusiastic member of St Michael's Church, Mount Pleasant. He was on the Vestry (the equivalent of our PCC), and also a Pastoral Assistant (rather like our Readers).

For some time, Stan had been thinking about taking Holy Orders. We spent many an hour discussing his possible vocation, but somehow we always came unstuck of the subject of timing.

Stan was happily married to Pat. He also had two sons at a fee-paying secondary school.

Initially, Stan wanted to wait until both his boys had finished their secondary education before offering himself for ordination. Sometimes, the wait would extend to include also their university education.

He also wanted to wait until he had paid off the mortgage, since like most Australians, he valued real estate as a source of security for the future.

Then he wanted to wait until his parents were no longer dependent upon him since they were elderly.

Then he wanted to wait until……well the excuses for delay seemed to grow every time we discussed the matter.

And yet one had to admit that all the excuses seemed reasonable and laudable.

One day, I could take his prevarication no longer. I said to Stan: "God does not want the fag end of your life. If he wants you, he wants you now”.

I am still convinced that he had a vocation to the priesthood and would have made a good parish priest, if only he could have sorted out his priorities in life.

And it was a question of priorities that faced the would-be followers of Jesus in our Gospel reading for today.

As regards the first would-be follower, we are not told the reason for his hesitation. We are only told that Jesus replied, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have their nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.' It would therefore appear that this would-be follower was concerned about his future security.

The second would-be follower was happy to follow Jesus, but 'first let me go and bury my father’, to which Jesus replied, 'Let the dead bury their own dead.'

This reply may appear rather harsh, particularly when one bears in mind that burying the dead was a holy and binding duty. Some commentators, embarrassed by the harshness of the reply, have suggested that he was talking about the 'spiritually dead'. Others have suggested that the words really meant ‘l will follow you after my father is dead.' In other words, he was concerned about his family responsibilities.

The third would-be follower is also happy to follow Jesus, 'but first let me say farewell to those at my home’. This does not seem an unrealistic request. However, Jesus is rather dismissive, and says, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back, is fit for the Kingdom of God'. Jesus wants people who look forward and not back. In other words, he was more concerned about the future than the past.

Whilst I do not seek to water down the words of Jesus, I think we do need to admit that we only have the minimum of details concerning these would-be disciples. This same economy of words is characteristic of many biblical narratives and parables. We only have the highlights of the story and not the full details, and therefore it is difficult to reconstruct the original situation.

However, the one thing of which we can be absolutely certain is that following Jesus gives one a new focus in life from which to view previous commitments.

In a similar way, marriage gives the couple a new focus in life from which to view their former responsibilities.

A married person who is always running home to their parents when difficulties arise in the new relationship is a person who is not wholly committed to their new relationship.

Likewise, a disciple who is always looking back to the past is one who is not wholly committed to a future with Jesus.

These three would-be disciples were challenged by Jesus to sort out their priorities, in the same way as I tried to encourage Stan to sort out his priorities many years ago.

And what of yourselves?

Stan used his boys’ education, his mortgage payment and his elderly parents as excuses for not following Christ immediately.

The 'would-be disciples’ used their future security, family responsibilities and the attraction of the past as excuses for not following Christ immediately.

And what excuses do you use for not following Christ immediately?

What conditions do you try to lay down before you are prepared to follow Christ?

Are you prepared to accept the insecurity that such following may involve? Are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifices? Are you prepared to trust Christ, wherever he may lead you?

Excuses are not confined to the laity only. They can also include the clergy who are expected to set an example.

Whilst in Australia, I had lunch with Brian, a retired Archdeacon. I asked him why it was necessary for the Diocese of Perth to advertise tor clergy in England.

I must admit that I was being rather naughty since Brian is very proud of being an Australian and very “anti pom”. It must there{ore have hurt him to say that Australian clergy are not always willing to move to where they were needed.

Nowadays, a major factor in moving is not children's education which has always been a problem in the bush, but the demands of clergy wives, who often have well-paid jobs which they are reluctant to give up. The result is that there are no Anglican clergy in the parishes between Merredin, on the edge of the wheatbelt, and Kalgoorlie in the goldfields, a distance of some 250 kilometres.

What is even more disturbing is the current diocesan policy in Perth of encouraging clergy to buy their own houses, in preparation for retirement, and to commute into the parishes where they work. This seems to put the needs of the clergy before the needs of the church.

So l come back to where I started and ask you: have you sorted out your priorities as regards following Christ? The most difficult choice is not between good and evil but between good and the best.