“Of
course, spiritual things are important—but there
are other things a lot more important at the moment.”
“I’ll find time for God later. Right now,
there are too many things pressuring me.” “My
children will make their own faith decisions when they
are adults. I don’t want to influence them one way
or another.” “God can wait until I’ve
had all the fun I want to have.”
As
a pastor, I find these words both troubling—and
common. I also know on a personal level how easy it is
to put my own spiritual health on the back burner and
deal with things that I know and that seem much more urgent
and important now.
In
the midst of pondering these things, a troubling biblical
story is beginning to make sense to me. At one point,
someone comes up to Jesus and says that he wants to follow
him, but has to go and bury his father first. Jesus’
reply grates on modern ears, “Let the dead bury
the dead,” he states. Or in a more modern version
of the Bible, the words are translated, “First things
first. Your business is life, not death. And life is urgent:
Announce God's kingdom!”
These
words seem unfeeling—how could Jesus even suggest
that one should not deal with the death of a parent? Is
that not important? But I’ve realized that when
the man says, “First I have to bury my father,”
what Jesus heard and understood is this, “I’ll
follow you some day, after I’ve done all the usual
things I want to do, including living at home until my
father dies and I inherit my portion of the estate and
am nice and comfortable. Then I’ll come.”
In the first century world, a person “buried his
father” by staying with the family until his father
died a natural death—which could have been many,
many years off. In other words, these are just first century
words for “Of course, spiritual things are important—but
there are other things a lot more important at the moment.”
Jesus’
reply really doesn’t give any wiggle room. The time
is now, according to Jesus. The time is now to leave behind
the old way of living—which is really death—and
discover real life. Will you accept the invitation now
into life—or just keep putting it off?
As
a confirmed procrastinator in certain areas of my life,
I know what an interesting habit that can be. Once I’ve
decided that I will not deal with a particular issue when
it first presents itself, I’ve discovered that the
act of putting it off takes on a life of its own. I sit
here looking at my desk—for two weeks, there was
a piece of mail I needed badly to deal with. And after
the first time I said, “I’ll get to it another
time,” it seems like that was all I could do with
it. I did finally open it, took care of it, and in the
process, cleared a bit of a backload all around. But it
fascinated me how easy it was just to keep saying, “There’s
always tomorrow.”
I
do believe God is infinitely patient with us, but I also
believe we can get in such a habit of saying “no”
to God that after a while we are unable to say “yes.”
I also think much of this comes from a deep-seated fear
in most of us that God is going to ask us to do something
we really don’t want to do. Yet, Jesus’ words
are intriguing—they are a call to move from death
to life. But we often find that call so disturbing. I
believe that many of us would rather stay in the death
we know (“let me bury my father and live the life
I’ve always known and then I’ll consider coming”)
than move to a life that might be challenging and mysterious
and different.
Among
the things that had been sitting on my desk this week
was a need to arrange for a post-Easter flight to Paris,
France. My oldest son, his wife and their two small sons
live there now and they’ve been giving multiple
invitations for me to come for a visit. As much as I want
to see them, I found myself reluctant to actually commit
to a ticket. It would be easier to stay here (i.e., let
me bury my father) and just continue to communicate with
them by email, photos and video conversations. I’m
not the world’s best traveler, and there is a big
part of me that would rather just stay in what I know
rather than explore the unknown.
But
I heard the invitation, and finally booked the ticket.
And then I thought, “ARRGGHH, I don’t speak
French and can barely read it! I’ve never been to
that airport in Paris! How will I find them when I get
there? How will I know what to do in that different place?”
And
then I received a sweet email from my son giving a careful
description of what I’d see when I land in Paris
and how to find him and the family in the airport. And,
should I miss him, he gave further instruction as to how
to reach his cell phone from a French phone. How like
him to know that I should have such questions—and
to quickly offer all guidance as well as great expression
of pleasure that I should be coming soon.
And
what a picture this became of God who continually invites
us by saying, “The time is NOW. Come, respond to
My invitation to life, even if you don’t know what
it looks like. I’ll lovingly guide you—but
you have to agree to come first. You’ll never regret
accepting this invitation—and your life will never
be the same again.”
The
time is NOW. Hear the invitation from death to life. Don’t
put this one off.
