13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (C); 6-26-2022

1 Kgs 19:16b,19-21.  Ps 16.  Gal 5:1,13-18.  Lk 9:51-62

Deacon Jim McFadden

            Kris Kristofferson’s classic song, Me and Bobby McGee, made famous by Janis Joplin, penned that famous line, “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose,” which became a rallying cry for the ‘60s generation.  That line is kind of a head-scratcher  and the following line isn’t much help: “Nothin’ ain’t worth nothin’, but it’s free.”  These lyrics seem to say that freedom is the irreducible good.  Along this line, a biography on Neil Young credited him as defining freedom as “doing what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it.”  Putting these together, it seems that the modern way of defining freedom is to be free from external constraints so as to be liberated for self-expression and self-determination, popularized by Abraham Mazlow’s famous book, Towards a Psychology of Being which trumpeted “self-actualization” as the ultimate good.

According to the this logic, the least free people would be those who are incarcerated in prison.  But, in my sixteen years of doing prison ministry, I did find rare cases where the person was free within the prison walls.  If that were the case, why are some inmates freer than many people outside prison walls?

            I think the answer to that gets back to how the Bible construes freedom.  Biblical freedom means freedom from attachment, for those God-substitutes, so as to find freedom-for to do God’s will.

            With that in mind, let’s look at the readings from the 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  The first reading is taken from 1 Kings and recounts the commissioning of Elisha who succeeds Elijah.  This is a story of transition when the great prophet Elijah is choosing a successor.  We hear that Elisha was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen.  The number of ‘twelve’ represents an all-encompassing number, such as the Twelve tribes which contain the nation of Israel or the Twelve apostles, who become the foundation of the universal Church.  Also, the twelve oxen suggests that Elisha is very rich.  To have one draft animal was to be a farmer of means; to have twelve would be the equivalent of driving around town in a Maserati.  Elisha is loaded.  We’re meant to understand that this young man has a lot to lose—he has a lot of stuff to be attached.  The goods of the world are in his possession.

            We then hear that Elijah comes over and throws his cloak over him.  The gesture of doing that was claiming the other and passing one’s authority over to the recipient.  Notice how contrary this is to our conventional way of thinking.  Elijah didn’t ask permission.  He didn’t wrap his arm around his shoulder to see whether he was up for this prophesy thing.  He didn’t sit down and discuss the parameters of being a prophet.  No, he simply claimed him because he had been told by God to do so. Again, this violates our sense of freedom but not the biblical sense because the purpose of human existence is to discover God’s will for us and to act on that conviction.  This truth is foundational, which is why Jesus included it in his perfect prayer, the Our Father.  And, since God is everywhere, we can choose to do God’s will here and now.  There’s nothing stopping us.  God told Elijah to commission Elisha.  What was Elijah going to say to God?  “No, get someone else to do it!”  Are you kidding me?  God’s will is what brought Creation forth and sustains the universe.  When we say “yes” to God’s will, we are simply being sane!  So, by doing God’s will, Elijah was not only doing the right thing at that moment, but he was also bringing  Elisha closer to authentic freedom.

            Now, Elisha, sensing that this is his vocation, left his oxen and ran after Elijah.   He left is former life, his old way of living and went in a different direction. This episode simply describes that wonderful moment when we realize that our life is not about ourselves, but is about God.  Elisha knows what God wants him to do and he does it!  That’s the excitement of true freedom because nothing else really matters than doing God’s will on His terms not ours.  Think about it, brothers and sisters: is there any better situation than to have your will united to God’s will.  What could possibly be better than that?!  NOTHING!  And, when we say “yes” to God’s will, we are truly free!

            But, then we hear that Elisha does something even more dramatic.  He takes his oxen, which was the very source of his wealth and he slaughtered them and burned his plowing equipment as fuel so as to feed the people.   In so doing, Elisha is giving away his old way of living in order to do God’s will.  His old self-referential, egoic, attached lifestyle was seen not as a means to freedom, but as the blocks to freedom.  Similarly, we gather our attachments, our addictions, our false loyalties, and we burn them!  In doing so, Elisha is not able to return to his old way of living.

            Now, let’s turn to today’s Gospel in which someone tells Jesus that “I will follow you wherever to go.”  That’s biblical freedom.  Jesus answers, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Lk 9:58).  Jesus is asking this eager young person whether you ar ready to forgo  comfort, security, and home in order to follow me?  Do you really want to be free or would you rather be enslaved by your attachments?  “If the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” thatmeans that you and I will have nowhere to lay our head.  Are we ready for that?  Are you ready to let go of the obsession of self-protection, of seeking security in the false promises of the world, of being in control?  Instead, are we free enough to follow the prompting of God’s will?

            Even more dramatically, Jesus says to another, who wanted to follow him but first wanted to attend to the burial of his father, something astonishing.  Jesus says, “Let the dead bury their dead” (v. 60a).  For us this is shocking enough, but to a 1^st century Jew this was a breath-taking thing to say.  There was no higher social obligation than duty towards one’s family because the latter was the most important social relationship in a kinfolk society one could have.  But, with his deliberately provocative words, Jesus is emphasizing the Kingdom of God—where the Father’s will is happening—even over and above the most important familial and social realities, such as the family.  Put simply, even that family allegiance has to go in order to be free to follow Jesus.

            With these stories in mind, let’s turn our attention the second reading, Paul’s letter to the Galatians in which he says, “For you were called for freedom, brothers.  But, do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” (or attachments) (Gal 5:13ab).  The freedom that Paul is talking about doesn’t have a thing to do with self-expression but it has to do with vocation: the liberty to follow the will of God no matter what.  Don’t submit to the yoke of slavery, whether it be wealth, honor, control, and hedonistic pleasure.  Don’t submit to them but find the freedom that Christ gives you.

            Paul challenges us go use our freedom “to serve one another through love” (v. 13c).  He goes on to say that “the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (v. 14).  That’s what it means to follow Christ.

            People of God, what is keeping us from following Christ?  What is our dominant attachment?  What do we need to let go of?  What frees us to love is our  vocation.  You see, this is the question—this is the hinge: have we found the freedom in Christ? Amen.