sustain:if:able kiwi

strangely familiar: how to respond to religious bigotry

I preached on Luke 9:61-56 on Sunday. What initally seemed a rather opaque text in the end became strangely familiar. This weekend a religious group marched in protest of family values. We have seen how the US responds to 9-11. We live in a world dominated by religious terrorism.

In Luke, Jesus meets religous opposition. He choses to journey to Jerusalem via Samaria. It’s a shorter trip, 150 km, but goes through an area in which a different ethnic and religious group dwell. He could have taken the longer route, 190 km, and avoided Samaria. Most religious pilgrims did.

For some reason, Jesus takes his pilgrimage into religious pluralism. He is faced, probably naturally, with opposition. Rather, than turn or burn, Jesus lives out the Sermon on the Mount. In the face of religious hostility, he will love enemies, and quietly move onto the next village.