6-28-19 - Walk and Don't Look Back

(You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.)

Jesus was in a tough mood the day he was vetting would-be disciples. He did not want folks running home to bury their dead ; he didn’t even want them going back to say goodbye before they threw in their lot with him:

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.”

That’s a hard word for me, having lived a life with many moves, all accompanied by amazing goodbye parties. It's time to leave when folks say, “Oh, are you still here?” Then you’ve said enough goodbyes. Am I unfit for the Kingdom?

As with everything else in the Scriptures, we need to hold this statement in tension with other things Jesus is recorded as having said and done. I pray there is more than one pattern of becoming a disciple. And if we take ourselves off the” judgment hook” this statement can generate, we might better discern the good news it offers. We all recognize the tendency to want to look back; where do we find life in not giving in to that impulse?

For me, it comes back to this: that the life of God is always forward, always ahead of us on the road. What has been is real and important and shapes where we are now, but we do not need to look back to the last place we encountered God. We are to trust that these encounters will multiply as we follow Jesus – as we spend time with him in prayer; learn from him in scripture; work with him in apostolic action. The more we move forward, the less we need to look back.

And what about those goodbyes? Don’t they need to be said? Perhaps – and maybe we are invited to trust that we will encounter those beloveds again in different ways. Maybe we don’t need to spend a lot of energy on goodbyes, because in God’s economy we remain connected in spirit to those whom we love, even when we’re not with them in body.

Earlier this week we heard from the Shirelles and U2. Today, let’s give the last word to Peter Tosh and Mick Jagger (also frighteningly young in this video) doing “Don’t Look Back.” This song was NOT about following Jesus, but let’s just focus on the chorus, on the walking and not looking back part. God will take care of what’s behind us as we look forward.

So if you just put your hand in mine,
We’re gonna leave all our troubles behind;
We gonna walk and don’t look back. Amen!

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