Keep On Keeping On

Scripture: Luke 13:31-35

​In 2003, our space exploration program, NASA, was badly in need of a win.  This is because the organization’s last two exploration missions to Mars had ended in disaster.  In 1998, a climate monitoring satellite was lost due to an embarrassing math error and then in 1999 an expensive polar lander failed to survive the landing.  Hoping not to get a third strike, the highly ambitious Mars rover Opportunity was launched in 2003.  The rover landed successfully and began its ninety-day mission.   After completing this mission, the rover was still operational, so NASA scientists extended the mission.  They then found ways to smartly conserve the power of the rover to keep it going.  Opportunity was the little rover that could, and it kept on keeping on.  Opportunity finally went offline due to a massive dust storm in June of 2018.  When this happened, Opportunity had operated for 57 times more than its designed lifespan and exceeded it’s initial mission by fourteen years and 47 days.  Opportunity is a testament to human ingenuity and teamwork.  The team of engineers and scientists had to work together to overcome a variety of challenges to keep the rover going thousands of miles away on a completely different planet. 

The Opportunity rover is a shining example of keeping to the mission and pressing on in the face of adversity.  While the context is completely different, this morning’s scripture gives us another example.  The gospels give us small glimpses of Jesus’s ministry which about three years.  While we have a lot of snapshot stories, we do not get a lot of details.   This morning’s scripture gives us a glimpse at some of the adversity and struggles that Jesus faced.   We also get an authentic view at how the pressure and enormity of the mission Jesus had weighs on him in his melancholy lament for Jerusalem.  In this morning’s scripture we read of Jesus’ commitment to his mission in life, and how he was determined not just to keep to the mission but to do so with compassion.   In this morning’s scripture Jesus gives us an example of how we can keep on keeping on and be faithful no matter what we face.

This morning’s scripture is one that does require a little bit of context to understand. For instance, the political situation in Israel was complex.   By the time of Jesus’ ministry Israel was divided up.  Large parts of Israel, including Jerusalem and the coastal regions were part of a Roman province administered by Pontius Pilate the Roman Governor.  Other regions were client states, small kingdoms that were ruled by the descendants of Herod the great.   The Herod mentioned in this morning’s scripture is one of those descendants.  The kingdom of Herod Agrippa consisted of the regions around the Sea of Galilee and the Eastern side of the Jordan river.  In other words, Herod Agrippa ruled the area that Jesus spent most of his ministry. 

There is debate among biblical scholars why the Pharisees warned Jesus.  Some point out that this is proof they were not all bad.  They may have disagreed with Jesus, but at this point at least they did not think he deserved death and were trying to protect him.  Others have a less generous reading of the scripture and think that the Pharisees were trying to intimidate Jesus into leaving this region and heading to neighboring Judea where Herod would have no jurisdiction.   No matter what the motivation was, the Pharisees had a point.  Herod could have been perceived as a threat to Jesus.   The gospels already established that Herod did not like prophetic truth tellers because he had arrested and executed John the Baptist.   The gospel of Luke foreshadows this threat before this morning’s scripture in chapter 9.  There it is recorded that Herod hears about the miracles that Jesus is doing, the crowds that Jesus is gathering, and how people were whispering Jesus might be a prophet of old.   To this Herod replies in Luke 9:9, “But Herod said, ‘I beheaded John.  Who, then, is this I hear such things about? ‘ “

The threat to Jesus was real, but Jesus was undeterred.  He boldly stated he would keep on with what he was doing.   He told the Pharisees he would continue to be faithful to proclaiming the good news, because Jesus knew that his appointed time had not come.  Jesus knew that when he did eventually go to Jerusalem it would not be to save his life, but to lose it.  It is as if while making this proclamation, that Jesus realizes what his eventual sacrifice would mean for the people of Jerusalem.  Jesus wanted to save them.  He uses the lovely image of a mother hen protecting her chicks, but he knows that is not possible.  He knows that the people he wishes to save are going to crucify him and turn their back on him.  The gospel of John states it most plainly in verse 1:11, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” When I read this morning’s scripture, I cannot help but hear heart break in Jesus’ voice.  Jesus had the power to do miracles, to raise the dead, and ultimately Jesus displayed the power to defeat death itself.  Yet, Jesus could not make the people accept forgiveness.  He could not force them to say yes to God’s yes of grace and acceptance, and that is why Jesus expresses such sorrow for Jerusalem. 

 Even though Jesus was under threat, and even though Jesus knew that there would be people who reject his message and the forgiveness he offered, he did not give up.  As he stated in this morning’s scripture, “In any case, I must keep going on today, tomorrow, and the next day.”  Jesus knew he had a mission to fulfill, he knew that he was going to make all things new, reconcile people with their creator, and defeat sin and death once and for all.   In a similar way, as followers of Christ today we also have a mission to fulfill.  This is because our Lord and savior commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves, he urged us to do for the least of these, and he commissioned us to make disciples of all nations.
 
In our United Methodist tradition, we have taken the directives given by Christ and we have summarized that our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.   It is our mission to share the life changing, good news of Jesus Christ with people who do not yet know him so that they too may be his disciple.  It is our mission to work together to transform this world to be a more kind and loving place that better reflect the kingdom of God.   In this morning’s scripture we see Jesus is fully committed to keep on keeping on fulfilling his mission despite the potential resistance he faced and despite the weight of what he was doing.   When it come to living into our mission to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world, we can look to the example of Jesus to overcome the obstacles that we face.

 In this morning’s scripture, Jesus is distressed and saddened by the state of Jerusalem.   There is a sense of urgency and a longing to see the city saved.  One of the obstacles that we face is that we often lack the same sense of urgency.   Perhaps, we should feel a little bit more pressure to live into our mission to make disciples.  In 2007 16% of people in the United States claimed to have no religious affiliation.  Seven years later that number had risen to 20%.   Today 28% of Americans claim no religious affiliation. These are people who do not know God’s love, they do not know Jesus, and most of them do not really think much about that.   We do not need to go to the nations to make disciples, there are plenty of people right here in Rensselaer who do not know Jesus.  Our mission, as followers of Christ, is to make disciples.  It is to let these people know that Jesus loves them.  

The reality is we do not lack for people around us that we can share the good news with.  However, research shows that as American Christians the lack of urgency to do so is a real obstacle.  According to a study done by Lifeway research in 2019, over a quarter of regular church attenders do not even pray for opportunities to tell others about Jesus.   The same study found that less than half of all Christians have had a conversation about Jesus with a non-Christian in the past six-month time period.   There seems to be an especially steep lack of urgency within the United Methodist church.  In their book “Get Their Name” Bob Farr, Doug Anderson, and Kay Kotan’s research showed that the average member of a United Methodist church invites someone to come to worship with them only once every thirty-eight years. 

I understand, we are all busy.   We all have too much pulling us in too many directions.   We all have our own problems, and we all have dozens of concerns that take up all the mental bandwidth we can manage.   And yet, people need Jesus.  Rensselaer needs Jesus, and friends it is our mission to share the good news.  In this morning’s scripture, Jesus feels like he must keep on, he longs to gather people to know him.  If we are being honest, we all know that our to-do list is never going to get finished.  Things are never going truly slow down in a little bit.  If we want to make disciples, at some point we have to choose just do it.  I am not saying that we need to be going door to door, but we need to be more willing to share Jesus when God gives us the opportunity to do so.  In the very least, can we all please (please) agree to invite someone to come to church with us more than once every thirty-eight years? 

When it comes to the transforming the world part of our mission statement, one of the other obstacles we face is the enormity of it all.  It is not hard to look around and begin to identify things that are wrong, to see ways that our world is deeply broken, and see problems that desperately need someone to fix them.   However, it is a much more difficult thing to do anything about it.  When we look at the ways that generational poverty impacts people, that systemic sins like racism continue to rear their ugly head, or the ways that global exploitation and inequality causes problems it is much hard to figure out how we can do anything about it.  In the face of such big problems, under the shadow of such incredible darkness, and staring down so much evil it seems anything that we could possibly do is so inconsequential it would not even matter. 

Jesus came to change the world.  This morning’s scripture gives us a hint that he faced some stiff opposition, but he still kept on.   Even if we cannot fix the world’s problems we can still transform it through our actions.   There is a story that speaks about this.  It is an old story that has been around for a while, so you might have heard it before, but it is a tale that resonates deeply with me.  Along a coastline a strong storm blew in and greatly churned waters.   The next morning the beaches were littered with whole hosts of sea creatures that the waves had stranded on the sand.   Several people came out to gawk and see the spectacle of the debris.  They were surprised to notice one young boy walking the beach, finding star fish and throwing them back into the ocean.   One man went down and asked this boy what he was doing, he simply replied, “Saving star fish.”   The man, not really satisfied with that answer asked, “Why?”   The boy, not quite sure what the man was not understanding replied, “Because they need saving.”   Perhaps this man was just having a bad day, but he did not find this boy’s naive outlook very endearing.  He bluntly stated, “Why bother?   Look how many have washed up on this beach there is no way one little boy can save all of them.   Even if you do, they are just starfish.  What does it matter?”   The young boy reached down, grabbed a washed-up star fish, through it back in the sea and replied, “It matters to that one.”  

In this morning’s scripture we get a glimpse at the opposition and struggles that Jesus faced in fulfilling his God given mission.  We see how the weight of what Jesus was doing, was pulling on Jesus.   Yet, we also see how Jesus was committed to keep on keeping on.  We also have our own mission to make disciples and transform the world.  We face obstacles, but may we be willing to keep on today, tomorrow, and the next day.   May God give us a sense of urgency to share the good news and may we be willing to help people, because even if it is just one person- it matters to that one.   Trinity United Methodist Church, as followers of Jesus it is our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  So may we keep on keeping on.