The prophet Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha, and Elisha responded, "Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you."

Jesus says, "Follow me," and we hear:

The "yes but…" "First…then…" response was alive and well, even in the 9^th century BCE of Elijah or in the first century Palestine of Jesus!

"Yes, but…" "first…then" forms the parameters of so much of our lives – and technology has extended its shape:

It’s not that we don’t want, or don’t intend, to respond… it’s just that we’ve become masters at compartmentalizing the way we live our lives, masking "distraction" as the ever-so-much-more-adequate sounding "multi-tasking"…

Today’s lessons of call-and-response, tend to organize themselves – and, by extension, us! – into categories of Good and Bad, and set up what for us seems unrealistic expectations when it comes to following Jesus: what’s wrong with burying one’s father? Or saying goodbye to those at home?

Who among us doesn’t find his or her sympathies with the individual, wishing to follow Jesus, and being found wanting, reprimanded, because he also wants to do the "normal" thing, the saying farewell to his family?!

Who among us could – or would?! – drop everything, without turning back?

And should we? Must we?

It’s easy to leap into the world of "all or nothing" – Let the dead bury their own dead… No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God…

Is this what Jesus is really asking of us?

It’s so extreme – so radical!!!

Yes, what Jesus demands of us IS radical.

But what he demands of us, I believe, is far more radical than simply "this, not that."

I think the call to follow Jesus, to "drop everything and come," is not a separatist call at all, not a divisive demand, but a unifying force.

Yes, it is possible to bury one’s father over here – fight with one’s siblings, contest the will, rage at one’s mother for past injustices… and then, over here, to follow Jesus – or say we do, splitting off, as though one thing has no relationship to the other.

OR, we can follow Jesus AND bury our father, allowing the one to inform the other, our faith to be lived out in what we believe as we commit our father’s body to the ground, as we interact with our mother and siblings…

And this, I believe, is what Jesus is asking us to do.

Now!

Not leave behind the world in which we live – the family ties, the work, the friends, the communities – but to leave behind the old ways of doing things, and, in following Jesus, allow our behavior to be shaped by his teaching, allow who we are and what we do to be grounded in his mandate to love one another as I have loved you.

Now!

Not later, or with equivocation!

In all areas of our life, and not, like the soldiers of Constantine, who were rumored to have been baptized with their right hand carefully extended to keep it out of the water so that they could go on wielding the sword and wreaking havoc without contaminating their newly professed faith.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t about compartmentalizing our lives.

Being a follower of Jesus isn’t just about showing up at church on Sunday morning, reciting the creed, keeping current on our pledge, saying the prayers, and taking communion – good things, all!

It’s about who we are and how we live, all the time.

In Isak Dinesen’s book Out of Africa she tells of a young native boy who came to work for her household. The boy was a wonderful servant, and she was devastated when, after three months, he asked for a letter of recommendation so he could go to work for someone else – a Muslim. She tried to keep him by giving him a pay raise, but he insisted on leaving, explaining that he had decided he would become either a Christian or a Muslim. He had gone to work for her to see up close how being a Christian shaped her life: how did it affect the way she lived? Now he was going to go to work for a Muslim for three months, and then make his decision.

Suppose you – or I – were the Christian example? The litmus test of what it means to be a Christian in today’s world? Would this young boy become a Christian on the basis of our example, on the basis of the way following Jesus shapes our lives?

A sobering thought!

Barbara Brown Taylor, an Episcopal priest and author, reminds us, "Once you are baptized, you belong to God, and all that remains to be seen is what you will do about it." (p. 212 – Home by Another Way).

So – what will we do about it?

Will we follow Jesus?

Fully?

Occasionally?

When it doesn’t interfere with something else?

Or can we give ourselves over completely, offering up our selves, our souls and our bodies, to be filled with his powerful presence, that we can do the work he has prepared for us to do in this world?

We find ourselves in that season of the church year which is frequently referred to as "Ordinary Time" – the long, green season. The "big things" are behind us, the significant markers in the life of Jesus and the life of our faith as members of the body of Christ: the anticipation of Advent, the joy of the Incarnation at Christmas, the showings of Epiphany, the somber days of Lent, the wonder of the Resurrection at Easter, the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost…

I think it’s harder to remember what it means to be a Christian in Ordinary Time when there is nothing dramatic going on, no outward focus or out-of-the-ordinary occasions to celebrate. It’s what we used to refer to at work as the "gutter and gate" challenges, the non-glamorous, everyday routine… It’s easy to lose our passion in Ordinary Time, to forget what we’re all about when our days are filled with morning commutes, spilled milk, checkbooks to be balanced, dry cleaning to be picked up, dog yards to be cleaned, cars to be serviced, etc.

We fill our lives with busy-ness, and our spaces with noise, making it difficult to hear, let alone respond, to the call to ‘follow me." We assume an "either/or" response, not an integrated one. We are good at "yes, but…" "when I…" "after…" Unconditional, unqualified responses are difficult for us.

And Jesus calls us back. He says, "I’m here, too – answer me as you bury your father, as you say farewell to your family, as you plow your field…"

Today we hear once again the theme of call and response: As Elijah threw his mantle over Elisha, so, too, Jesus throws his mantle over us. The call is "follow me, become my servant."

Can we give ourselves over fully to that call? Not later, but now; not partially, but completely? Can we let Jesus’ teaching be completed in us, in the context of our ordinary time? Can we risk allowing God to transform our lives? Can we say, "Yes, today, now, all of me!??

Amen.