First Reading: 1 Kings 19:9b-21
9bBehold, the word of the Lord came to {Elijah}, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 11And he said, “Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. 13And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14He said, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.” 15And the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. 16And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. 17And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. 18Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 19So he departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. 20And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” 21And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.
Psalm 16
1Protect me, O God, for I take refuge in you; I have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, my good above all other.” 2All my delight is upon the godly that are in the land, upon those who are noble among the people. 3But those who run after other gods shall have their troubles multiplied. 4Their libations of blood I will not offer, nor take the names of their gods upon my lips. 5O Lord, you are my portion and my cup; it is you who uphold my lot. 6My boundaries enclose a pleasant land; indeed, I have a goodly heritage. 7I will bless the Lord who gives me counsel; my heart teaches me, night after night. 8I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand I shall not fall. 9My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. 10For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see the Pit. 11You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13-25
1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. 16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
51When the days drew near for {Jesus} to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55But he turned and rebuked them. 56And they went on to another village. 57As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Desmeysiphobia
Commitment…oftentimes it’s an action that gives us pause and causes us to reflect and consider the implications on our lives. At times it can cause anxiety, or for some, it can even paralyze. Yet making commitments is something people do throughout their lives in both large and small ways. If a service project here at church, or at a local charity, needs to be done, we’ll plan and commit ourselves, our time, and our resources to seeing the project or task to completion. On a larger scale, when the annual elections for church council come around, many of you have committed yourselves to serve on council. Again, commitments take time and often resources, and we’ll oblige ourselves to see the obligation to completion. Then there are times of even bigger commitment.
When we were in High school, we talked with guidance counselors and made choices about our future. We must decide if we’re willing to commit resources and time to college or to learning a new career? If you chose college, what path would you take and what are the demands of the degree path? If you chose to follow a craft or trade, what are the advantages or disadvantages to learning a new career? Or would it be more advantageous to sharpen the skills and gifts God had given you?
Could you make a living and support yourself and possibly a future family? Would you be satisfied with a new endeavor? Or would you simply plod along day by day simply putting in your time for little satisfaction and a paycheck. Would this commitment bring with it times of uncertainties caused by market fluctuations? Our farmers know all about this! And then there are significant commitments that not only affect us, but others as well.
Marriage, for example, is a commitment that not only impacts us, but our spouses and is one that’s supposed to be a lifelong commitment. Now I don’t want to get into the requirements and short comings of society’s views on marriage, but I would be remiss if I didn’t take the opportunity to remind ourselves that God, from the beginning, intended marriage to be a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman that is mutually supportive and encouraging. The point is, we need to recognize that with any obligation, short or long-term, commitments can bring fear or anxiety.
We all have fears. We all suffer from the anxiety associated with committing ourselves to a relationship or task. No one is immune to these feelings. Sometimes fears can be relieved by some planning, and at other times it requires that we accept the unknown. The concern we must always bear in mind is that we must guard ourselves against allowing our fears and anxiety from becoming overwhelming and then these fears begin to dictate our life and can develop into a “phobia.” Today it seems there’s a phobia for everything.
Some have arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. Others have agoraphobia, a fear of public places. Still others may have claustrophobia, a fear of small spaces. Many people have some form of aerophobia, a fear of flying. And based on several conversations I’ve had lately, a good many of us have Ophidiophobia, or the fear of snakes. And then there is one of the biggest phobias in the world, Glossophobia. It’s the fear of public speaking. As I said, it seems we keep coming up with new phobias all the time.
Today, we often say that many people have a “commitment phobia” a term coined in the 1987 book, “Men Who Can’t Love.” If we were to add this to the common list of phobias it would be called des-meysi-phobia. Commitment phobia, or Desmeysiphobia, is in fact a rather new concept. This fear of commitment wasn’t brought to the forefront until more recently with the modern concept of marriage. For much of human history, parents chose your partner, marriages were arranged, and you learned to love their choice. Of course, times change, and when times change, new fears, new phobias emerge that provide identifiers about our time and culture. But one thing remains the same, we still have an apprehension about committing ourselves.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we find Elijah in a conversation with God. Now if we were to back up to the previous chapter, we find Elijah in a battle with the prophets of Baal. In this encounter, Elijah has challenged the prophets of Baal to a contest. Each were to call fire down from heaven, and whosever God sent fire, this was the true God. Hopefully you remember the story. Elijah and the prophets of Ball each build an altar. Wood is set in place, and an animal is placed on the altar.
The prophets of Baal go first. They pray, the dance, they cut themselves, and Elijah taunts them that their god must be asleep. Next, it’s Elijah’s turn. But instead of immediately praying, he orders a trench to be dug around the altar and then water to be poured onto the sacrifice, the wood, and the altar. In total, 12 large jars of water were poured over the altar; so much water is poured onto the altar and sacrifice that the trench is filled. Elijah then prays and God sends fire down that consumes not only the sacrifice, and the wood, but also the stones of the altar and all the water in the trench. Following this, Elijah then orders all 450 of the prophets of Baal to be captured and then killed. Because of this, the Queen Jezabel wants revenge and orders Elijah to be killed.
When Elijah hears that he has a price on his head, he flees into the desert. Tired, he finds shade under a Broom tree where he falls asleep. Soon an Angel of the Lord comes and feeds Elijah, not only once, but twice, and in the strength of that food, Elijah travels 40 days to Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. It’s important to note that Mt. Horeb is the same location where Moses went up onto the mountain and received the 10 Commandments and also witnessed God pass by. So, it seems appropriate that Elijah would make his way to the same mountain. All things considered, one has to wonder why Elijah is even having this conversation with God.
God has sent fire to prove His superiority over Baal. God has given the 450 Baal prophets into Elijah’s hand. God has sent an angel to feed Elijah in the desert, and Elijah has traveled 40 days in the strength of this heavenly food. So why is Elijah hiding in a cave? Maybe, Elijah is doubting his call. Maybe Elijah is questioning God’s absolute power over creation. Maybe Elijah is questioning his commitment to the task that God has given him. Or, maybe Elijah simply needs another reminder that God is indeed in control. So, God once again shakes, breaks, and burns the mountain.
But as Elijah learns, God isn’t in the chaos that surrounds him. Rather God is in the calm, and it’s from this calm that God gives Elijah his new marching orders, an assurance that God is indeed in full control, and gives Elijah not only a helper, but also his replacement. Starting in verse 15 we read, “5And the Lord said to [Elijah], “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. And when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael to be king over Syria. And Jehu the son of Nimshi you shall anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah you shall anoint to be prophet in your place. And the one who escapes from the sword of Hazael shall Jehu put to death, and the one who escapes from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha put to death. Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
From this we can be reassured of three things: God never abandons us, God is still at work and there are others God has appointed and who are faithful, and third, when our time does come to turn things over, God will provide a replacement. However, and this is important to remember, we don’t always get to choose the time or situation to retire. Remember, Elijah wasn’t finished until God sent a fiery chariot to take him home! The bottom line is, God is always at work, not only in our lives and situations, but God is at work in the lives of others that we aren’t even aware of.
Remember what God said about there being 7000 others who have not given themselves over to the worship of idols? Rest assured, even in the most difficult times, there are others who remain faithful to God’s call. Our job is to remain committed to the task God has called us to and let God take care of the rest. This brings us to Elijah’s replacement, Elisha. Most of what we know about Elisha’s background is unknown. What we do know about Elisha is that his prophetic work is recorded in second Kings.
From the book of II Kings, we know that Elisha was an amazing prophet that obeyed God and served as a prophet to the nation of Israel in a mighty way. But you don’t become an amazing servant of God without commitment. This is where the final two verses of our Old Testament reading becomes important. Starting at verse 19 we read, “So [Elijah] departed [Mt. Horeb] and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him” (vss. 19-21).
The first thing I want you to consider is that Elijah threw his mantal, or his cloak, on Elisha. What we need to understand is that Elijah’s mantle wasn’t simply an article of clothing or a physical symbol – it represented his calling, the prophetic office, and ministry. It’s much like the stole I wear. Yes, I wear a different color for each season, but as a symbol, it’s a sign that I have been called to the office of Word and Sacrament ministry. And in the same way, that during the Rite of Ordination, a new pastor is given their first stole, Elijah cast his mantal upon Elisha as a sign that he was chosen by God to be the next prophet to God’s people. Elijah threw his mantal on Elisha to confirm his call to continue Elijah’s mission of proclaiming God’s word and power. It was a call that was to be taken seriously, and one that required a life-changing commitment.
Second, notice Elisha’s response. “[Elisha] returned from following [Elijah] and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him.” Back in verse 19 we read that Elisha was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. If you were to look that up, what that means is that Elisha was using 12 pairs of oxen, or 24 total animals. It’s a good bet that this was the entirety of the oxen that Elisha and his family owned. Then we’re told that he sacrificed all the oxen and even used the yokes and most likely the wooden parts of the plow to build a fire big enough to boil some 24,000 lbs. of meat. More than this, he gave all the meat away to feed the people.
Think about what Elisha was willing to do as he accepted God’s call to be a prophet to God’s people. In essence, he sacrificed his livelihood, he burned the instruments that brought him a living, and he gave away the very food he could have held in reserve. Finally, he left his home and family to apprentice under the current prophet until it was his time to take over. Accepting God’s call and committing yourself to that call is a life changing call. It’s one that requires a commitment to not only change one’s outlook, but one’s life as well.
Truth be told, very few of us are called to leave everything we have behind and depend solely on God to provide. But all of us are called to make disciples for the kingdom, and this call is a life-long and life-changing call. It’s a call to commit ourselves to be in this world, but not of this world (Romans 12:2). It sometimes means we must make difficult decisions for the sake of the gospel. We may have to give up some of the pleasures of this world. We may have to give up some associations that we align ourselves with. It might even mean we need to cut ties with certain people whom we have been friends with for years. Our call to make disciples is a call to live out the gospel in all we say and do. And sometimes that call means we must sacrifice the comforts of this world. But in all this we need to remember Jesus’ promise.
In Mark chapter 10, Jesus answered Peter by saying, “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life (vss. 29-30).
In a co-pilot search of the word commitment, when it comes to the Bible, this came back, “commitment refers to a steadfast and unconditional dedication to God and His commands. It involves actions that reflect genuine faith and obedience, as emphasized in James 2:26, which states that “faith without works is dead.” Biblical commitment isn’t based on emotions or fleeting moments; rather, it requires believers to live out their faith daily through love, kindness, and service to others. Ultimately, true commitment means making God the sole authority in one’s life and being fruitful in one’s faith.”
When Jesus calls us to discipleship, He calls us out of our routines, out of our expectations, out of our comfort zones, out of our phobias, and into a sea of change, where we will sometimes fall down, but will begin to grow and learn. Benjamin Franklin used to say, “When you are finished changing, you are finished.” Jesus is in the business of saving the world. And Jesus isn’t finished engaging in the world. The Holy Spirit is alive and active and eager to help us in our call to make disciples. The Holy Spirit was given to urge and streghten us proclaim the gospel in every new generation. This is what we’re called to do. This is who we’re called to be.
A fear of commitment or Desmeysiphobia may be a problem for our society today, but God is still calling us to commit ourselves to a life of discipleship and that means we must sacrifice some of the fleeting comforts of this world. But Jesus has also reminded us that we’re to store up our treasures in heaven. And when our treasures are stored in heaven, moth and rust cannot destroy them, nor can a thief steal them. And where our treasures are, that’s where our heart is (Matthew 6:20).
Amen