Sweet Dude! Fire From Heaven!

Brad Sullivan
Proper 8, Year C
Sunday, June 30, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

The people did not accept Jesus, and Jesus didn’t want fire to be brought down upon him.  Rather, he wanted to continue with his ministry.  Jesus didn’t get caught up in pining for what he desired would happen.  He had hoped they would accept him; they didn’t.  He went on to continue his task of proclaiming the Gospel and going to Jerusalem to complete his ministry on the cross.

I’m guessing we’re rather fond of that part of our Gospel story, no fire from Heaven for not accepting Jesus, but then we come to the next part of our Gospel story.  Jesus invites a man to follow him, and when the man asks to bury his father, Jesus replies, "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 plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Ok, so I don’t think Jesus is intending to say, “funerals bad; leave the dead to rot.”  Rather, I think he’s saying something along the lines of, “if you wait until everything is perfect in order to follow me, then you’re never gonna follow me.  The world is not always going to be the way we want the world to be, and even so, follow me,” Jesus is saying.

I’m about to sing a song which I wrote called The Wild Hunt (words and music by Brad Sullivan, BMI).  It’s based on a Norse folk legend of Odin’s Wild Hunt which was this fearful time when Odin rode out to collect the souls of the dead.  This was during winter, the season of darkness and death, and people would hunker down, afraid of being swept away in the chaos of The Wild Hunt, this fearful season.  Then, the winter solstice, the longest night of the year came, after which the nights got shorter, the days got longer, and people celebrated the return of light in the world. 

So, I wrote this rather dark song about The Wild Hunt which I’m going to sing for you now, and then I’ll explain what in the world this has to do with the Gospel.

The Wild Hunt

words and music by Brad Sullivan, BMI

Winter’s come like lightning with Autumn’s setting sun,

The harvest stored preparing for the cold and dark to come.
The chilly wind a portent, death is stirring in the earth
Across the Texas plains as they wait for the Sun’s rebirth.
You hold your wife; you bless and kiss your daughter and your son,
And huddle close together.  The Wild Hunt’s begun.
 
The howling of the hounds is borne to you upon the wind,
And you wonder if tonight is the beginning or the end.
Chaos bleeds as thund’rous steeds advance across the night.
You peer into the darkness, but there’s nothing there to fight.
So you light a candle, praying, knowing there’s nowhere to run,
And huddle close together.  The Wild Hunt’s begun.

He comes with death surrounding him, his servants heed his call,

Drawn out from the shadows where they lay but did not fall.
Six more weeks to go until you reach the darkest night,
With the sacred promise that the world will be put right.
Knowing this, you also know the madness never ends,
For every day we walk the earth The Wild Hunt begins.
 

So there’s darkness and this fearful time and the song ends by acknowledging that even when the light comes back into the world at the winter solstice, the Wild Hunt never really end.  Every day we walk the earth, the Wild Hunt begins.  That being the case, it is also true that the return of the light happens every day.  There is darkness and chaos in the world every day, and there is the light of Jesus in the world every day.  We’re not just going to hunker down in fear of the chaos every day for the rest of our lives.  As disciples of Jesus, we step out into the darkness with the light of Jesus, facing into the chaos and continuing to live and proclaim the good news of God’s love and God’s kingdom in the Gospel of Jesus.

We’ve had some big changes in our world recently with the Supreme Court decisions over the last several weeks, overturning parts of DOMA and declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional.  Now the Texas senate is considering a bill about abortion, and other changes in our laws may be taking place.  For some of us, these changes are darkness.  For some of us these changes are light.  For all of us, these are substantial changes, adding to the chaos of the world, and as disciples of Jesus, we’re called not to hunker down in fear of the chaos or to ask fire to come down on those we think are wrong. 

As disciples of Jesus, we keep our faces set toward Jerusalem, as Jesus did, meaning we keep on in mission and ministry, serving as the light of Jesus in the world.  It’s a crazy world with new things happening all the time.  Sometimes we’re fans of the change, sometimes we’re not.  We can look back to the past, wishing the world was the way it used to be, but we don’t live in the past, we live in the here and now.  We put our hand to the plow and we don’t look back because our constant is Jesus.  Every day we walk the earth, the light of Jesus is with us.  Every day we walk the earth, we step out into the chaos of the world proclaiming by how we live and by what we say that the light of Jesus is here in the world.  Every day we walk the earth, the Gospel life begins.  Amen.