Second Sunday after Trinity
“Jesus said...., ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’ ”
Overview
The readings don’t get any easier do they? Last week we had Jesus braving foreign lands, naked lunatics and suicidal pigs. This week he sets his face to Jerusalem, Luke 9:51-62, and warns his followers of hardship. He will have no place to lay his head, nowhere to call home. Similarly in 1 Kings 19:15,16,19-21 the prophet Elijah warns Elisha not to follow him. Elisha leaves his home to do just that. As an act of commitment to his chosen path, before he leaves Elisha slaughters his oxen, the symbol of his previous role as a farmer of the land. Today we would say that he is burning his bridges. It is not possible to have one foot in and one foot out of the kingdom of God. Importantly, Elisha cooks the oxen and offers the food to his people. What he has and who he is, is no longer for his use but is to serve the world God loves. Today’s readings encourage us to reflect on what we need to leave behind to follow God’s call to us.
FIRST READING
1 Kings 19:15, 16, 19-21
Then the Lord said to him, ‘Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram.
Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.
So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was ploughing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.’ Then Elijah said to him, ‘Go back again; for what have I done to you?’ He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
GOSPEL READING
Luke 9:51-62
When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set towards Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?’ But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village.
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’
