Don’t you sometimes just want to grab someone by the shoulders, shake them uncontrollably and say something like “MAKE A DECISION ALREADY!!” I also get crazy when I send someone an email or leave a message or text and don’t hear back within a reasonable period of time.
My retirement job is running a motorcycle touring business. I set up rides for groups, make the hotel reservations, pinpoint interesting sites and do the navigation. It is pretty fun…except when some people say, “yeah, I am interested in going on that ride” then…crickets. No further response.
So, when in today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Let Your Yes be Yes and your No be No” I am right there with you Jesus. Don’t be wishy washy. It also reminds me of the verse from Revelations: “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelations 3:15-16).
A group at our church started a bible study on the Gospel of John last week. One of the early themes of the Gospel is your relationship with Jesus. Being a disciple and just what does that mean. The leader of the study, Dr. Edward Sri, stresses that to be a true disciple is to make Jesus the very center of your life. It should not be that you have your life and being a Christian is one PART of that life. Sort of over on the side. Your life should revolve around the nucleus, which is Christ. Through consistent prayer and study you get to know who He is and what He would expect in various situations. Making decisions consistent with His teaching should become, after awhile, a “no-brainer”. There would be no need to go back and forth..”should I? Or shouldn’t I? ” Truth should reign supreme.
But as Pontius Pilate queried Jesus. “What Is Truth?” Is there objective truth? Is there an absolute reality? Is there an unchanging moral code that has not waivered throughout the millennia? I believe the answer to that is a resounding Yes!! And the church, I think, would back me up on this. As would Moses. After all, the Ten Commandments were written in stone, not on a word processor. Just prior to these statements in Matthew concerning Yes and No, he spoke of divorce, adultery, revenge, loving your enemies, etc. Standards of living that have held since the beginning of time.
In fact, Elisha shows us the virtue of timely commitment in today’s first reading from the first book of Kings. Elijah was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. A tough place for a virtuous person to be in that period of history. The Northern Kingdom was made up of 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel, with Judah and Benjamin comprising the Southern Kingdom of Judea. While there were some good kings in Judea, this was not the case in the north. King after king rejected God’s laws and worshiped pagan gods. One such god was Baal. It was Elijah who fought the epic fight with the prophets of Baal to demonstrate the one true God. This resulted in Elijah feeling the wrath of Jezebel, wife of King Ahab. Her ire forced Elijah to flee into the desert in fear of his life. Believing that he was alone in his worship of God, he fell into deep depression on the verge of death. But God revealed to him many other others who were also His followers, though in secret out of fear. And, specifically, he revealed Elisha to him.
Elisha was from a wealthy family, as seen by his ownership of a team of 12 oxen. Elijah found him working in the fields alongside the family servants. When Elijah chose him as his attendant by placing a cloak, a mantle, around his shoulders, Elisha did not waiver. He immediately went back to his team, slaughtered the oxen, cooked them and fed them to his servant family. Now this was commitment! There was no going back now. He had surrendered a large part of his livelihood and family attachments. He dropped everything at a moment’s notice and followed a man of God. Sound familiar?
Peter leaving his nets? Matthew leaving his cushy job as a tax collector? Moses walking out of the palace of the Pharoah and leading his people into the dessert? Andrew and John leaving the followers of John the Baptist because Jesus said “Follow Me”. Did they stop and do a risk assessment? Look into how their retirement funding would be impacted? Check around to get reports on Jesus from prior employers? Nope. They dropped everything and ran to Him.
Of course, they knew OF Jesus from all the talk that was going around Galilee and so they were somewhat ready to make that decision when it came up. Now they were going to actually KNOW Jesus from following Him. So, will we be ready when the call comes? Will we be willing to drop the golf game, or vacation plans, or a dinner out with friends in order to do a retreat weekend, join a bible study, accept your pastor’s offer to join a ministry? It may not be Elijah putting his cloak around your shoulders or Jesus glancing back at you and calling you….or is it?
