Written and Delivered by The Rev. Canon Paul S. Nancarrow

Our Gospel lesson this morning is all about getting our priorities straight. The Good News for us today is the call to let the most important thing be the most important thing.

We get that message right away, in the opening verse of the story, when we are told that, "When the days drew near for Jesus to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."

The way Luke sets up his story of Jesus, this moment is a major turning point in the arc of Jesus' story. Up until now, Jesus has been traveling, teaching, gathering disciples in the north country, in Galilee, with a couple of side-trips into Gentile territory also north of Judea. But just within Chapter 9 of the Gospel, some momentous events have taken place. Jesus has taken his disciples aside and asked them who they believe he is, and they've said "The Messiah," and Jesus has told them that, as Messiah, he must go to Jerusalem and suffer and be rejected and be killed and be raised. He'd never said anything quite like that before. Just a few days after that, Jesus took Peter and James and John and went up on a mountain to pray, and the glory of heaven shone forth from him, and Moses and Elijah appeared to talk with him about his departure, which he is to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and James and John have never witnessed anything quite like that about Jesus before. These events are a signal that something new is happening, that a turning point has been reached.

From this moment on, as Luke tells Jesus' story, everything that Jesus does is geared toward being taken up. His departure at Jerusalem becomes the fixed point around which everything else in his life and ministry now revolves. Of course, Jesus doesn't get to Jerusalem right away. This is Chapter 9; Jesus doesn't actually arrive at Jerusalem until Chapter 19. On the way, Jesus is teaching his disciples. On the way, Jesus is sending the disciples out to preach and teach on their own. On the way, Jesus is meeting people and healing people and proclaiming to people the coming of God's Reign. Jesus is still doing quite a lot of stuff in these ten chapters on the way to Jerusalem. But all the stuff that Jesus does is now aimed at being taken up. Offering himself for crucifixion and resurrection and ascension is the first priority that gives everything else in Jesus' life and ministry its place and its perspective and its purpose. Jesus sets his face to go to Jerusalem, and everything else falls into line along with that most important thing.

And it's that same sort of first priority, that same sort of letting the most important thing be the most important thing, that Jesus commands in his disciples. Just as Jesus' own first priority is being taken up into God, so that everything else in his life finds its proper place in relation to that, so Jesus expects of his followers that their first priority will be to offer themselves for new life in God, so that everything in their lives may find its proper place in relation to that. Following Jesus on the way to new life the Kingdom is the most important thing of all, and the work of the disciple is to let that most important thing be the most important thing.

The rest of the Gospel lesson today is all about Jesus calling his disciples--and and anyone who wants to be his disciple--to get their priorities straight.

James and John want to call down fire from heaven on a town of Samaritans who would not accept Jesus--and Jesus has to remind them that their job is to proclaim Good News, not to fry unbelievers. Jesus reminds them to get their priorities straight.

One man offers to follow Jesus anywhere--and Jesus warns him that following the Way of Life will take him into unfamiliar territory, and that staying on the Way is more important than material comfort or domestic security. Jesus warns him to get his priorities straight.

Someone else says he'll follow Jesus, but first he has to go and bury his father. And that was no small thing: giving a parent a proper, respectful burial was widely understood as being part of fulfilling the Fifth Commandment--Honor your father and your mother--and so it wasn't just a social duty, it was a religious duty, a fulfilling of the Holy Law. But Jesus tells him that responding to the living Word of God is more important than acting out a ceremonial duty--"Let the dead bury their own dead," he says--Jesus tells him to get his priorities straight.

A third person wants to follow Jesus, but first to say goodbye to his family at home--and Jesus reminds him that the love God has for him, and the love that he is called to have for God, is more important than the bonds of family or household or clan. Jesus reminds him to get his priorities straight.

Now, none of these things that these people wanted are bad in themselves. Family love, religious duty, material security, even a certain amount of righteous indignation, in the right time and the right place, all can have their role to play in the life of discipleship. But they can find their place, their proper place, only in relation to the first priority; they can find their importance, their proper importance, only in relation to the most important thing of all. Family and spirituality and security must be taken up into the wider reaches of God's grace, the deeper purposes of God's love, they must be signs and symbols and instruments of God's presence, if they are to be what God truly intends them to be. They only become whole when they are part of a life that is aimed at doing God's will, a life that has its face set to follow in God's Way, a life that has its priorities straight.

And that is the challenge of the Gospel to us today: to get our priorities straight, to set our faces to following God's Way--in our lives, too, to let the most important thing be the most important thing.

And for us here at St George's, in our particular time and place, at this particular moment in our parish's life--for us, I think the first priority, the most important thing that we need to let be the most important thing, is to pay attention to how we grow as a community of practice.

We have been paying attention to growth in a lot of ways at St George's, quite particularly in the last couple of years. We've asked ourselves some pretty serious questions about how we can grow our budget, how we can grow in our stewardship, how we can grow our numbers, how we can grow our membership, how we can grow our marketing, how we can grow our outreach, how we can grow our visibility in the community, how we can grow our service to the community. Growing has been very much on our collective mind.

And that's a good thing: growing is important for us. But our Gospel lesson today calls us to ask a deeper question: of all these important things, what is the most important thing? of all these good priorities, what is the first priority that gathers all the others together and helps all the others make sense? Do we at St George's want to grow our church just to have a big church? Do we want there to be a St George's just because we like St George's, or because we believe there is something God is calling us here to do? What is the first priority that gives all our other church busy-ness a reason to be?

I believe our first priority is to be a community of practice, a community of people who gather together to discover and encourage and hold each other accountable to do the practical things our faith calls us to do. I believe we're called to be a community of people who pray--and who talk to each other about our prayers, and encourage each other in our prayers, and turn to each other for prayer. I believe we're called to be a community of hospitality--people who reach out to each other, and to neighbors, and to strangers; people who intentionally build relationships that transcend the boundaries race and class and place so often set before us. I believe we're called to be a community of worship--people who gather together, each of us bringing what is most deeply true in our hearts, to raise up song and intercession and thanksgiving and communion that makes us all one in God. I believe we're called to be a community of reflection--people who think deeply about their faith, and the meaning of their faith, and the meaning their faith has for their daily life. I believe we're called to be a community of healing--a place where each and every one of us can catch a glimpse of God's shalom, God's peace, God's will for well-being, God's gift of wholeness in the places each of us needs it most. I believe we are called to be a community where each of us is inspired and encouraged and challenged to experience what Paul calls the fruits of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control--and each of us is inspired to learn from each other the practical ways and means we can let those fruits grow in our real lives.

I believe the first priority for us, the most important thing that we must let be the most important thing, is practicing together the practices of our faith. That is the core around which everything else can fall into place and make sense.

And so I want to close today with a question: What for you is the first priority? What for you is the most important thing? What for you is the practice of faith that helps you feel closest to God, that helps you know you're following Jesus, that helps you experience the fruits of the Spirit? How do you live out your faith in the most dynamic way? And what would it be like for you if you knew St George's as a place that would inspire and encourage and challenge you to live out that practice in the most powerful way you could, and to share that practice with others who shared with you what was most important in their faith? I want you to really think about this--What would it be like for you to focus your attention on St George's as growing as a community of practice?

Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem, so that everything in his life could be taken up into God. Let us today set our faces to follow Jesus, to set that first priority, to let that most important thing be the most important thing, so that everything in our lives can be taken up into God's grace, too. Amen.