Our Busy, Busy Lives Rev. Julie Jensen Proper 8 -- Year C June 27, 2004 How many of you have a PDA? [General lack of response follows.] I can see that in a more mature congregation, there are few who have Palms. I'm guessing that if I asked the same question at Kids' Church, with younger parents, more hands would be raised. My husband Chuck got this Palm as a retirement gift, and how it's become almost useless to us as we don't want to spend that much time learning how to "play" with it. Still, the calendar functions are useful. I can enter dates here, sync them with the computer's calendar, and vice versa. Calendars keep track of-- I guess the universal phrase is-- "our busy lives." I will admit calendars are handy. I have a bunch. Here's the calendar from the refrigerator. Chuck and I use it so we know what the other one is doing. He doesn't put down his classes because they're regular -- 4 days a week -- I don't put down church on Sunday, it's a given. We do use it for doctor's appointments and things such as the Three Churches meeting that is only once a month. I keep this small calendar, free from Long's, in my purse so that I can see what's happening when someone asks me to do something. The smaller, the better, a month at a glance! It seems, these days, that we can't get along without keeping track of what's happening all the time. "Let me check my calendar" is the first thing one says after receiving an invitation. Are we really that busy? I suspect, sometimes, that the answer is given to make it appear that we really are so valuable to so many people that we have a completely full life. On top of that, I suspect a perceived need to fill up one's time -- to make the most of every minute! We've become slaves to the great American need to be something to everyone, to be busy, busy, busy! Haven't you heard people say, with a touch of irony or one-upmanship, "Oh, I wish I had more time to myself!" "I'll get right back to you, as soon as I check my calendar." "I'll pencil you in for lunch". "I've just been SO busy!" The busy calendar of a truly wonderful person has become a bit of an idol. When the person who says she'll call back, doesn't do so in a short time, I just know she's much too busy for me -- and sometimes I feel a bit smaller for it. The need to be- or to seem to be- busy has grown exponentially over the last few years. Yes, a part of it is all the new toys that are around. People are punching info into their PDA's during meetings. I've heard that those who are truly adept at playing with PDA's can talk to one another via these gadgets while appearing to be listening to the topic of conversation! I won't even start with cell phones -- we all have enough stories about those! There is another layer to this need to be/seem busy that has crept into our lives in the last 3 years, and that is fear. 9/11 dropped a heavy mantle of fear over all of us, one that we were not used to wearing. Most of us who have spent even the major part of our lives in the U.S. have not truly lived in fear before, not like those in Europe and Asia during War II or those in the Middle East who live with that fear as a constant. I would doubt that there are many alive in those countries who have not spent most of their lives in fear. It's a heavy mantle, this mantle of fear, and it can paralyze us. Keeping busy, busy, busy can help us to avoid the pain of that fear. Last week Carol spoke of living with fear as a cross that we carry. It certainly has been so since 9/11, and each day that our people remain in Iraq we feel that fear weighing more heavily. Yes, it was very comforting to hear Carol speak of love's allaying, or at least lessening fear, so that we can live with and bear this cross. But we still do live with that fear and find as many ways as possible to be so busy that we can ignore that deep fear and sadness. "I'll get back to you on that!" "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." EXCUSES, EXCUSES, EXCUSES!!!! As I was preparing this, I remembered a guitar book that I used that had an inscription on the front reading, "Life is what happens while you're planning other things." First, Elisha and then Jesus' followers, find "REALLY GOOD" reasons why it just isn't the right time to change their lives -- their calendars are full. I'll follow you, Lord, after I check my busy calendar. I have all these things I must do to keep from really living and facing a challenge. Can't I just fit you in when I have more time? Now I don't know how much Elisha knew about Elijah, although we do know that prophets in the Old Testament didn't always lead the greatest lives. It wasn't all that easy to "say it like it is" -- to listen to God and then to warn people about shaping up in order to spread God's Kingdom on earth. We do know about Elijah and Jesus shortly before the passages we are reading today. Elijah had heard a still, small voice while he was lodged in a cave -- that still, small voice that was more powerful than the wind, an earthquake or fire. God called, and Elijah heard and listened. It was his commission to call Elisha as his successor, and he threw his mantle on Elisha. Elisha's immediate response was that he needed, first, to kiss his parents goodbye, and Elijah walked away. Stunned, Elisha killed his oxen and prepared the meat for the people, and then he followed Elijah and became his servant. Shortly before our reading in Luke, the transfiguration occurred. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" That story followed the passage we read last week, but it was lifted and assigned to Last Epiphany when we read it every year. That passage would fit much better just before today's challenge so that we could see that God's speaking to the disciples preceded the call to servanthood. The final line in today's Gospel, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God" -- OUCH! -- has an even greater sting when we read from Paul's letter to the Galatians. Uh, thanks anyway, but I'm not sure I can live with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Can I get back to you on that? I'm MUCH too busy to work all of those into my schedule. Isn't there a little wiggle room here? But God, through Jesus, is asking us to reach for the stars. We're not asked to do the best we can, with our busy schedules. We are asked to be the best we can be. In the Gospel, the good news, we read "follow" 3 times -- I will follow you wherever you go -- Follow me -- I will follow you, Lord. And so we are asked to follow our Lord. The very good news about the reading is that it is the beginning of what is known as the "travel narrative" as Jesus sets his face for Jerusalem. This narrative continues for 10 chapters, rejoining Mark and Matthew in the ninth chapter. Where Jesus goes is not the point. The point of the stories is the travel, the continuing on toward Jerusalem where Jesus knows he faces death; for us, the continuing on toward being the best disciples for Jesus that we can be, even if it means sacrificing some of our busy time or what, at face value, seems important in our day-to-day living. Jesus doesn't say that we must be the best to follow him. What we are being asked is to continue on that pilgrimage of discipleship, doing our best to be the people that God has called us to be, to follow our Lord. Life is what happens while you're planning other things. We are busy people. We are busy for many reasons, not the least of which is to help us to cope with the fears in our lives. AND Life is what happens while we're busy. We can continue on that journey with Christ, and the small details of our busy lives will fit in as we follow. Mark this in your calendar . . . in permanent ink. AMEN.