Reading 31
Let me first
The reading
Luke 9:57-62
As they went on the way, a certain man said to him, “I want to follow you wherever you go, Lord.” Jesus said to him, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” He said to another, “Follow me!” But he said, “Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce God’s Kingdom.” Another also said, “I want to follow you, Lord, but first allow me to say good-bye to those who are at my house.” But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for God’s Kingdom.”
The companions
Psalm 63:1-8
God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory. Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you. So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches. For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings. My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.
Jeremiah 20:7-9
LORD, you have persuaded me, and I was persuaded. You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I have become a laughing-stock all day. Everyone mocks me. For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, “Violence and destruction!” because the LORD’s word has been made a reproach to me, and a derision, all day. If I say, I will not make mention of him, or speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I can’t.
The note
Three people want to follow him. None of them says no. Each of them says first.
Let me first bury my father. Let me first say goodbye. The requests are reasonable, and one is a duty nobody would argue with. Jesus presses on that word anyway, because that word is where things end.
Almost nothing important gets refused outright. It gets ordered. It sits second on a list where something else is always first, and the list is honest, because you do intend to get to it, and then a year goes by, then five.
Look at anything you have meant to do for a long time. It was never rejected. It was scheduled behind something.
The line about the plow is about attention, not enthusiasm. You cannot cut a straight furrow while looking over your shoulder.
This week
Find the thing that has been second on your list for more than a year. You know the one. Either do the smallest real piece of it this week — one call, one message, one hour — or take it off the list and admit you are not doing it.
Both of those are honest. Leaving it in second place is the only option that is not. Say out loud which one you picked.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (public domain). The divine name is rendered “the LORD” in the Jeremiah reading.
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