Distracted Following (Third Sunday after Pentecost)

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Since the advent of cell phones, we’ve all become accustomed to being warned about the dangers of distracted driving.  And since cell phones have made the problem so much worse, we tend to forget that the problem of distracted driving has been discussed almost since the beginning of driving. In fact, I remember reading that the very first AAA warning about distracted driving was in response to cars beginning to be equipped with … windshield wipers!

And indeed, today, when you look at websites for AAA and various car insurance companies, there are all kinds of things they warn you about that can cause distracted driving.  Typically, they group these into three different kinds of “distractions”: manual (messing with your phone, the radio or your coffee cup); visual (things that cause you to take your eyes off the road, even if it’s just looking over at passengers); and cognitive (that is, thinking about something else, whether you’re having conversations or just daydreaming)…

But even in the first century, there was distracted driving.  And in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus uses a common form of “distracted driving” as an analogy – being the guy in charge of driving the plow and looking backwards.  It’s a form of “visual distraction”, and everybody Jesus was talking to knew you should never do that.  You’d mess up the row you were plowing, possibly plow up stuff that was already planted, and potentially cause the oxen or whatever was pulling the plow to get into a place you wouldn’t want them to be.

But everybody had probably known someone who had done this.  Maybe they themselves had, too.  Distracted driving is sometimes hard to avoid, even when you know better.

And so Jesus uses this analogy as a way to warn his followers, not against distracted driving, but against “distracted following.”  At this point in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is leading his followers towards Jerusalem.  It’s an important goal in accomplishing Jesus’ mission.  And his followers need to stay focused, and not get distracted.

But even as the journey begins, Jesus’ followers – or potential followers – are distracted.  And they’re distracted by lots of things, to which we can probably relate.

“Distracted following” happens because people are distracted by:

• Trauma, tragedy or obligations in their lives – Just before the plow analogy, a guy comes up to Jesus and says, “let me first bury my father.”  It’s probably NOT the case that this guy has left his father’s funeral for an hour or so to come listen to Jesus.  Instead, this is probably a way of saying, “my parents are in bad shape, I have too many people to care for at home, so once I don’t have those obligations, I’ll come and follow.”  It’s totally understandable, and Jesus doesn’t tell him he has to leave home.  But he does tell him to “proclaim the kingdom of God” in spite of his other obligations.  Like some of the others, sometimes even legitimate obligations, like personal stress and trauma, distracted people from being part of God’s inbreaking in their lives, even when Jesus literally stood right in front of them…

• The obnoxious and outrageous behavior of other people – and lest we think “distracted following” is just a problem for random potential followers, the core disciples themselves are the first example!  They’ve been sent by Jesus as “advance people” to go the places where Jesus will visit.  They have one job: get hotels lined up (or something like that!)  But when they enter a village in Samaria, the people are nasty to them.  And they get all bent out of shape about how bad these people are.  They stop focusing on the mission, the journey and the goal, and they make these outrageous folks the center of their attention.  Jesus, on the other hand, is not distracted, and just moves on…

• The desire for distractions – sometimes, in the midst of either stress or boredom, I look for distractions.  And clearly the disciples did, too!  Unhappy to just move on, they want some fireworks!  “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?!”  In fact, they don’t just want God to do it – THEY want to do it!  Jesus rebukes them, not just because their request is wrong, but because they’re letting their desire for show and fireworks distract them from what God IS calling them to do…

I think Luke includes this story because, just as “distracted driving” has clearly been a problem since the first century, so has “distracted following.”  Jesus calls us, also, to be his followers.  And while we sometimes read stories like this and wonder, “would I have been able to leave home and physically follow Jesus along the way to Jerusalem?”, that was only part of “following.”  Indeed, following Jesus, even in the days of his earthly presence, meant more than physically following Jesus around.

Instead, for them and for us, following Jesus meant being open to the in-breaking of the kingdom of God in their lives.  It meant focusing on what God was doing in them and with them, in spite of everything else that was going on at the moment.  And it meant being willing not only to receive the kingdom of God, but to participate in that kingdom and share the presence of God with others around them.

That’s the kind of following Jesus calls us to as well.  And yet, for us also, it’s easy to fall into “distracted following.”  And so in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus calls us to follow and not get distracted.  And sometimes for us, that means:

• Not waiting for a “better” time to do the things we feel Jesus is calling us to do – or worse yet, not even being open to what God might be doing because this isn’t such a good time; like some of the folks who spoke with Jesus in today’s reading, if I waited for a time in my life when I wasn’t distracted by obligations, personal tragedy or general busy-ness, I’d probably never get around to it…!

• Focusing on ourselves – which sounds strange!  But, what I mean by that is that it’s often easy to get distracted by the “outrageous” behavior of others; in fact, we live in a news eco-system that encourages that!  But Jesus called his first disciples to focus on what God wanted them to do, not to be distracted by what others did or failed to do.  And often, not being distracted means focusing on what I think God wants me to do in this moment to make a difference in the lives of others in the world around me…

• Resisting the urge to be distracted by the fireworks – hopefully, none of us would actually want to call down fire from heaven on anybody!  But, hey, 4^th of July is coming up, and I like actual fireworks partly because they’re pretty and distracting.  Indeed, most of us have times every day where we’ve wanted or needed to be distracted because life is hard all around us.  The challenge is sometimes simply to recognize that we’ve let the distractions keep us from important things that God may be calling us to, and to move on towards Jesus’ goals for us…

Like distracted driving, distracted following has always been an issue.  It was for Jesus’ first disciples, and sometimes it is for us as well.  The thing is, in spite of the momentary distractions, Jesus is still leading us forward, and calling us into new life and new possibilities.

And so Jesus calls us as well not to be distracted.  Jesus calls us to follow him, even and especially when we get preoccupied with the outrageous stuff going on around us.  Jesus calls us to focus on the actual things we can do to make a difference, even when those things seem small.  And most of all, Jesus calls us to pay attention to what God is doing in us and among us, instead of being distracted by the light and noise of the fireworks.

Amen.