Worship Sun 30 June: Change?

Having travelled over the water to the region of the Gerasenes in last week's readings, this week, Jesus fixes his face towards Jerusalem and continues his travels.
During worship, we also took a peek into a day in the life of 'Miriam', receptionist at the 'Jerusalem Excuses Bureau' via a monologue done beautifully by Ursula B.                                   

READINGS:
Ps 16; Gal. 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62

Let’s pray:
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer, Amen.
I suspect that by now most of you know I quite like movies –
because over the time I've been here as your minister,
I've tucked a variety of movies into my sermons.
One of my favourites is a childrens’ movie called ‘Up’.
The two main characters are a very grumpy old widower named Carl and a young boy called Russell, whose Dad has left his mum and started a new family.
In both cases, the characters are undergoing grief and loss,
struggling to fit into the changing world around them.
A strange friendship eventually develops between them,
as the wee laddie looks to the older man as an adopted Grandpa –
wanting love,
wanting reassurance.
Meantime, Russell reminds Carl
of the promise of youth,
of adventure,
and of the adventures he and his wife had dreamed of having together until other things got in the way.
Grudgingly, at first, the old man begins to look out for the boy,
who’s young life has been spent looking back to when his dad was still around, and wishing there was some way to impress him.
Basically, Carl and Russell are different sides of the same coin:
they need each other.

The neighbourhood that Carl lives in has changed dramatically over the years –
and he hasn’t.
In among the steel and glass skyscrapers,
his old, wooden house,
with its white picket fence,
stands as a rickety monument of resistance.
He’s lost in his memories.
He can’t move on.
This is where he’s always lived.
This is where he and his wife had lived.
Despite the best efforts of the developers
to relocate him to plusher, more comfortable,
more modern surroundings that will improve his quality of life,
his face is resolutely set to the past, looking back:
he will not move
and he will not change.
Well, that's what he thinks, until the developers change tack
and begin to make life difficult for him, after Carl accidentally injures
one of the workmen who’d damaged his lettterbox.
Deemed a public nuisance, a court order is issued ordering Carl to go to a retirement home.
Carl's determined this is not going to happen.

Going through his photo albums and reminiscing about the dreams he and his wife had,
Carl comes up with a plan.
They had always wanted to travel –
especially to South America to see the great waterfall named ‘Paradise Falls’
After a day spent shopping, he comes home.
In the quiet of the night he begins to blow up great balloons, tying them to his roof...
eventually the roof is covered in balloons;
he’s devised a control system,
he has his trusty map and compass,
and readies himself to go ‘up’ into the heavens
and on to adventure.
The old house, if it makes it, is set to land by the side of the falls,
where Carl plans to live out the rest of his life.
But of course, this is a movie, and things don’t go to plan.

Just as he cuts the last of the ropes holding the house down,
he realises wee Russell is on the porch trying to sell some cookies for the Boy Scouts.
Too late, the house rises...
up,
up,
and away:
now two of them headed for South America and the waterfall.
After many adventures,
including dealing with Dug,a very distracted dog,
they return home,
changed.
Transformed.
The old man is now able to look forward –
and so too, is the boy.
Carl is welcomed by Russell's mum into their home –
he now has a new family,
the wee boy, an adopted Grampa.
And the dog, who’s joined them for the ride home...
well, is still as distracted as ever.

The story has a happy ending –
and it’s also a story that has tears.
It’s a tale of people whose lives are initially facing the wrong way:
both Carl and Russell look back to what might have been
By the end of the story, they now look forward –
grounded in the present,
with hope for a happy future.
To get to that point, however, has not been easy.
There’s been pain, frustration, betrayal,
weird talking dogs...
it’s been costly –
there’s been a great amount of change –
but, it’s only with change that there can be transformation.
Both walk into their new-found, hard-won freedom...
and as they’ve been transformed,
so the lives of others around them also change and transform.

It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free.
‘But Lord, there’s this thing...’
‘Come and follow me,’ says Jesus.
‘But Lord, I need to just tidy up this wee matter first...’
Our gospel passage shows us Jesus:
we see his mind made up,
his face resolutely looking toward Jerusalem.
The journey will be good in places,
difficult in others,
and almost immediately,
having been begged to go away from the area of the Gerasenes last week,
Jesus is once again not made welcome by another group of Gentiles.
And, even as they travel, squabbles are breaking out among the disciples
as to who will be the greatest among them –
they’re jockeying for power,
especially James and his brother John.
And perhaps it’s these power games in play that makes them react in the way the do
to the lack of hospitality that Jesus is met with.
‘Let’s smite 'em, Lord!’
Perhaps they think this show of force will win the brownie points
in the battle for higher rankings in their group.
They’re wrong.
They’ve learnt little.
They’re rebuked soundly.
Instead of leaving death and destruction in their wake,
they choose the way of peace,
the way of love –
Jesus leads them away from the fight,
away from the old way of doing things,
the old way of understanding how power works.
For all that they follow this radical new rabbi with his radical new teachings,
James and John are still working within the old system...
they haven’t really moved on,
haven’t really changed that much...
and perhaps a little like Carl and Russell,
are, at this point,
a little bit stuck.

It’s only as Jesus remains facing forward,
making his way to Jerusalem,
to the Cross,
and to Resurrection,
that James and John along with the other followers of Jesus,
will be able to understand what freedom in Christ is:
what it really means to be a follower of Jesus,
what the joys are,
and what the cost might be.
It’s only as the wind of the Spirit blows through their lives in that upper room,
that they find that they too, can move from looking back
to facing forward –
their lives, literally, physically, turned around,
grounded in the reality of the present,
and finding the hope in their hearts once more –
looking ahead,
making plans,
working together to share the good news of God’s love,
working together to bring in God’s kingdom.
They were stuck.
Now ...they’re free in Christ
They’ve undergone pain, despair,
lived in fear,
lost much...
learnt much –
like putting aside their egos and the desire for worldly power.
And, living into that freedom,
having been transformed,
so the lives of others around them
also change and transform –
in Jerusalem,
and onwards,
outwards,
and eventually, around the world.

It is for freedom, that Christ has set us free.
‘Come and follow me,’ says Jesus.
Which way are you facing?
Are you looking back to what was,
or forward, to what could be?

Let’s pray:
Holy and Gracious God
We give you thanks for the gift of life
for the gift of your Son
for the gift of the Holy Spirit
Lead us through the trials
the suffering and sorrow
the challenges and struggles
the tired times and dark places
Lead us
with grace
with love
with peace
Fill us
with hope
with patience
with stamina
Transform us
in your image
in your Son
in your Name
Transform us
to grow
to understand
to see
Transform us
that we
can be
made whole
And in wholeness
may we be
the hands and heart of Christ,
agents of change 
and transformation in the world. 
Amen.*
                  [prayer via Terri C Pilarski]