Just Don’t Look Back—Genesis 19: 23-29; Luke 9: 51-62
[ONE] There are a few things from childhood that I expected would factor in more greatly into my adult life. [TWO] One of those is Algebra. I have not, since 9th grade, solved for x on anything or graphed an equations. Another of those is my Blockbuster card. I have not rented a DVD since 2009, but I probably still have that card somewhere in a desk drawer. But there is one thing above all others that I thought would be a big part of my adulthood and isn’t at all, and that is quicksand. [THREE] Think about it…Indiana Jones, Bugs Bunny, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, any adventure cartoon or sitcom, at some point and time, there was quicksand. I have yet to encounter quicksand in my adult life. What I needed to learn, taxes, banking, social skills, and general life skills were not in a single class.
[FOUR] But sometimes, what we expect, and what God does, don’t always align. I imagine, if we look at our Hebrew lesson for today, that Lot expected to live out his life in comfort and ease in Sodom and Gomorrah. There’s a very jarring disconnect in that God sees this abundance of wickedness, but Lot and his family seem to be oblivious to all the bad things going on around them in the city.
But two angels showed up at Lot’s door and changed his entire family and their lives. They leave the city as refugees, homeless, and fleeing for their lives based solely upon God’s command and angelic visitation. Were they to stay, regardless of their personal faithfulness to God, they would have been burned up with the city, for it was NOT going to be spared that day. God would have spared the city for 10 righteous people. In the end only four were led out. And only three made it all the way to safety.
[FIVE] One of the harder stories in the Bible is Lot’s wife being turned to a pillar of salt. While I understand she violated God’s command not to look back, in a very human way, we ache for Lot and his daughters who had to continue walking ahead even as their wife and mother’s life was ended and her body turned into salt. It’s a ghastly tale. And it is very hard for those of us who are blessed with comfort and privilege in the United States to understand. I daresay that it is far easier for us to identify with Lot’s wife than it is with Lot and his daughters.
That’s because as we get older, we tend to look back. Lot’s wife wanted to stay where she was, in a place and situation which made her happy. But her happiness in the city didn’t detract from the evil that was happening in the city itself. In looking back to a place filled with sin, it proved her heart and soul were not devoted into going where God was leading them to safety. Her looking back was not without reason. By all accounts, she, Lot, and their family had a good life, a house, the resources to accommodate guests, and still were connected to God. But they couldn’t stay there. That place had turned wicked.
[SIX] I said in the introduction that I thought quicksand would be much more prominent in my adult life. I meant that in the literal sense, but what I think many are not prepared for is that there is a lot of quicksand in our lives, but it’s spiritual. We get stuck on something or stuck in places, often where we don’t need to be. This escape was actually perilous for Lot and his family. He hesitated and hesitated to leave until the angels literally took him by the hand and drug him out. His wife looked back and turned to salt. Don’t be deceived into thinking this was cruelty. She looked back because her heart was still in the city, and she would follow on no more. If you are stuck, and if you look back, you can no longer follow Jesus because you’ve taken your eyes off of him.
[SEVEN] The Gospel lesson gives us other examples of folks who become stuck and cannot follow Jesus, no matter how much they want to do so. One person says to Jesus that they would follow Jesus wherever. Jesus tells of difficult existence he lives and the difficulties they would endure, not even a place to lay one’s head. We can assume they turned back and chose not to follow.
Jesus called on another to come and follow him. The man agreed to it, but wanted to go bury his father, a very noble and necessary thing. He was still looking back. Another agreed to follow but wanted to say bye to his family. This is also a very good thing. But it’s no different than Lot’s dawdling in leaving city. Jesus adds that anyone who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is unfit. Common sense says you don’t plow a field backwards. You have to move forward, or it’s a failure. None of these requests, none of these things are unreasonable for potential followers to ask to do.
But compare them to the disciples who dropped everything they were doing and immediately followed Jesus. Their priority was following Jesus and working for the kingdom of God. For these folks, God was not the priority. God was the fascination and hobby. They were curious about Jesus but not committed to Jesus and his mission.
Where do we find ourselves stuck? Where are the places of spiritual quicksand that we cannot escape? Where do we look back and find ourselves a bit salty about the future work of the kingdom God calls us to? I think too many Christians are stuck today. They are stuck in mode of ministry and evangelism that doesn’t exist anymore. They are stuck in social beliefs that sound more like a political theory than a theological truth. They are stuck in the 1950s and 1980s because no one was real thrilled with the 60s and 70s.
Christians who always look back to where they came from cannot see where God is leading. Christians who are stuck somewhere else will never find Jesus’s call to begin with. The truth of the Gospel of Jesus is unchanging. But the way the church lives and preaches that Gospel must change. And for heaven’s sakes, we all need to find a bit of urgency about our calling from God. In this day, people need the peace and love of Jesus more than ever before. If you don’t believe me about the need to grow and change, remember this: Isacc Watts was scorned and almost expelled from the church for writing and singing hymns like “Joy to the World.” The church in his day ONLY sang Psalms from the Psalter.
We even are given an example of this change in today’s reading. For their wickedness trying to sexually abuse the visiting angels, God saw the depth of wrongdoing in the city and destroyed it. When the Samaritan village refused Jesus entry under threat of physical abuse, he rebuked the disciples for wanted to rain down fire upon it. Jesus preached and practiced mercy, which was clearly on display here in our Gospel.
[EIGHT] The church of God is a living, breathing, growing, and ever-changing thing because it is not made up of walls, buildings, books, or papers. It’s made of people, generations, who in their lives try to find a way to follow Jesus and grow in their faith in him. It’s this weird sense of two things at once. I like to compare it to the modern hymn, “Ancient Words.” There’s a line that says, “Truth unchanged from the dawn of time,” and yet the very existence of that modern praise hymn proves just how much the church of God changes over time.
[NINE] I thought some things would affect my adult life much more than they have: algebra, video rental, shopping malls, pleated pants, but most of all was quicksand. Every single adventure show growing up had quicksand in it. But perhaps that is more of struggle than any of us realize. My friends, I pray we never become stuck in a place where we cannot follow Jesus. I pray we never look back and lose our lives because our hearts lost a love for God. [TEN] But most of all I pray that each and every day were are changed to follow Jesus more and grow in our faith. The only way forward in our lives of faith is to follow Jesus. So, let’s be on our way.
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