Letting Go

 LETTING GO – SUNDAY MARCH 16, 2025



Luke 13:31-35: “At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and tell that fox for me, ‘Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

➖

“See, your house is left to you.”

There has been nothing more painful in my life than having to walk away from something, or someone, that I love deeply. Some of us have had to cut ourselves off from abusive parents, destructive children, a marriage, job, politics or the church. I’m talking about people or situations in which we have invested deeply, trusted, and looked to as bedrocks of our existence. I’m talking about things that have defined us. Not everything, though, is under our control and sometimes we have to choose. Do we hang on to hope when hope itself binds us to a lie? Or, do we pull up stakes and – with tears in our eyes – just let go?

Jerusalem was the Washington D.C. of Jesus’ day. It was the seat of government, illegitimate and abusive thought it was. It was also home to the Temple, and the center of a feckless, fearful religious institution. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus laments, “the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!”

Jesus’ words are religious condemnation. They are also political commentary. They are an utterance of pain ripped from the heart of God and placed on the lips of a crumbling messiah, one soon to be eliminated by those very powers that should have protected him.

“How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” Jesus weeps. “See, your house is left to you.”

“See, your house is left to you.”

‘I can do nothing here. You are the author of our own demise. I must walk away.’ This is Jesus’ truth.

And Jesus was right. Jerusalem would collapse. Legal checks and balances that should have shielded him from crucifixion imploded. Those who fought the good fight with him scattered and hid. Forty years after his death the Temple in Jerusalem would be razed, "not one stone left upon another." Never to stand again to this this very day.

Instruments of our demise.

America, America . . . Land of the free, home of the brave . . .

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Prayers of the Church

Image
These are the Prayers of the Church from  Sundays and Seasons  that many ELCA congregations will be using this Sunday, February 9, 2025. (The First Lesson is the call of Isaiah and the Gospel a call to discipleship.) We  are  supposed to amend the prayers to our setting, right? I'm just a guest preacher this Sunday so sort of out of the loop, but is anybody else doing this - I hope? *   *   * "With the Spirit of Christ shining upon us, let us boldly pray for the church, the world, and all of creation. A brief silence. God of surprising abundance, you call your people to enter deeply into the world. Equip us to respond to your call, gather up what we have, and offer it to all.  We lift up especially today the ministries of Lutheran Global Refuge and Lutheran Community Service NW, defunded and told to cease their ministries by our Federal Government.  Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. God of creation, provide protection from the element...
Read more

Now We Start!

Image
 NOW WE START – SUNDAY APRIL 27, 2025 John 20:19-31 “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  20  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  21  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  22  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  23  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24  But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  25  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and...
Read more

Fragrance

Image
  FRAGRANCE – SUNDAY APRIL 6, 2025 John 12:1-8: “Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.  2  There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him.  3  Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’s feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.  4  But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said,  5  “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”  6  (He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)  7  Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial.  8  You always have the poor with you, but you do not al...
Read more