No Turning Back

“No Turning Back” was preached at Sunnyside Presbyterian Church on June 30, 2019. This sermon was inspired by Scripture, commentaries, Immigration Sunday in the PC(USA), the current heartbreaking border crisis in the USA, and several articles on families separated (especially this one and this one).  You can listen to an audio clip of this sermon here. You can watch a video of the entire worship service here. You can find more resources on immigration through the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly here. 

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1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21

15 Then the Lord said to him, “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus; when you arrive, you shall anoint Hazael as king over Aram. 16 Also you shall anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel; and you shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.

19 So he set out from there, and found Elisha son of Shaphat, who was plowing. There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle over him. 20 He left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” Then Elijah said to him, “Go back again; for what have I done to you?” 21 He returned from following him, took the yoke of oxen, and slaughtered them; using the equipment from the oxen, he boiled their flesh, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

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Luke 9:51-62

51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; 53 but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 Then they went on to another village.

57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” 60 But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

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I remember the day that I accepted and followed the call of God to seminary vividly—the day that I left behind all that I had known and all that I had to move across the country because this is what God wanted of me.

I spent the few days before the move packing. I couldn’t honestly take all of my possessions, so I was ready to follow the call of God by parting with them. But then I thought to myself, well I need some of these things to take with me: my clothes and my books, a tv, a mini fridge, my Xbox of course. So I would take just the necessities, and follow the call of God by parting with everything else.  Like did I need to bring my entire DVD collection or my posters of favorite rock bands from high school or the cheap trinkets I received from way too many college fairs that I only went to for the sake of receiving these cheap free trinkets. But then I thought to myself, well what if one day I want to watch that movie I bought that I never watched or what if one day I want to play with the collapsible Frisbee with the name of some unknown insurance company across it. Well, I guess I can’t part with those either. So I’ll just shove those in a closet at the house I grew up in to, of course, one day possibly come back for them. Or at least let my parents deal with those things.

Speaking my parents, I guess I needed to follow the call of God and leave them behind too. It sounds painful, but it was what I was called to do. I could do it! Well, except I needed a ride to the airport that was two hours away. So not yet, I can’t leave them behind just yet. But once we got to the airport, I would do it. Two hours more with them wouldn’t stop me from following the call of God.

But then along the way we got hungry and there’s a Chili’s conveniently located on the interstate we take to get to the airport. A Chili’s my family eats at almost every single time someone is being taken to or from the airport. Hey, your family has your traditions, and we have ours. We eat at Chili’s. So what’s another hour to stop and enjoy each other’s company and greasy quesadillas and cheap margaritas. I’ll follow the call of God after that.

So we stop and we eat, but then we’re back on the road and the airport is approaching. It’s time to leave my parents behind. I’m supposed to be leaving my former life behind to go to seminary. This is the call of God.

But! Oh wait! I have a lot of luggage. That tv and mini fridge took up a lot of room. I could probably use the help of at least one of my parents. So I guess I’m leaving my dad behind and my mom is now going with me, to help me move across the country. “Bye dad; thanks for the ride!”

So now my mom and I are carrying my luggage across the country. We take a flight to Newark Airport and then a short train ride to Princeton. At least I followed the call of God by leaving my car behind back in Colorado. While walking from the train station to the seminary campus, which is less than half a mile, one of the plastic tires on one of the suitcases breaks and so does the handle on another one of the suitcases so it won’t go up. So on that walk, as we’re struggling, apparently we also left our dignity behind.

But eventually we made it and it was time for me to leave my mom behind. Or really, for her to leave because she was the one who came with me all the way to New Jersey. But not until she helps me unpack everything, all my clothes and my books, the Xbox of course; that’s a priority. Not until she helps me do all of that. Then I can leave her behind or whatever. So we do that, my mom stays for a few days to make sure I’m settled, and then she goes back to Colorado.

There, I did it. I followed the call of God. I left everything behind to move to seminary. I left all my possessions behind… except for my clothes and my books and my tv and mini-fridge and Xbox. I left my family behind… except for I called them later that week to tell them how my first week of classes went. I left my car behind… except I actually took my car to seminary the next year. And I left my dignity behind… okay, that one I really did leave behind; never really sure I got that one back.

That’s the story of how I was called to leave everything behind and follow the call of God to seminary.

Now let me tell you another story:

This is the story of the Mutu family. Married couple Vasile and Florentina grew in up in a small hillside village in Romania, where in their own earliest years as children, helped their parents beg for money. You see, Vasile and Florentina were both born into the Roma minority group. In Romania, the Roma were enslaved for over 500 years. Violent attacks against the Roma still persist to this day throughout Europe and even more common, the Roma face exclusion against schools, jobs, and social services. These exclusions included the Mutu family as they couldn’t find or hold a job that would provide enough resources for their family. It is also documented by several human rights groups many cases in which Roma women are forced into sterilization procedures when they go into hospitals for something even as small as a fever.

Florentina, while giving birth to their youngest child of five, Constantin, needed an emergency C-section. Vasile quickly sold two pigs and a cow to pay a doctor to do the procedure. It was when Florentina returned to the hospital to check on her recovery that she was told by another hospital employee that the doctor had performed a tubal ligation, sterilizing her.

Devastated, Vasile and Florentina formed a plan: they would try to seek asylum in the United States with their two youngest children and send for the others when they were settled. Maybe God was calling them to this, to leave everything behind, their home, their country, three of their children, because the United States, with job opportunities and humane medical practices, must be better than what the Mutus were currently experiencing.

The Mutus sold their home and paid a man to get them into the United States through Mexico. With one suitcase for the four of them, the Mutus set off. While traveling, Constantin, now four-months old, started running a fever. When they all arrived in Mexico City, Vasile and Florentina had no choice except to split up and look for medicine for their sick baby. Vasile took Constantin with him, and Florentina took their four-year-old. Vasile found the medicine Constantin needed, but when he returned to where he was supposed to meet his wife and other child, the two were gone. After looking frantically and unsure of what else to do, Vasile paid a cabdriver to take him and Constantin to the foot bridge into the United States. There, he told the officer, that he lost his wife and son after the four of them were fleeing persecution in Romania and that he was now seeking political asylum.

Within moments, Vasile was shackled by his hands and his feet, while other officers took Constantin into another room. Some way, somehow, border officials were able to get ahold of Florentina’s mother, who then called Florentina, explaining what was happening to Vasile and she too would be arrested if she tried to seek asylum. Desperate and scared, Florentina flew back to Romania with their four-year-old but without Vasile or Constantin.

Four-month-old Constantin was taken from his father that day, transported all the way from Texas to Kalamazoo, Michigan, where he was placed with a foster family. Vasile was still in a Texas immigration detention center, where he was driven, from constant beatings from his cell mates and from a lack of sleep and food, into deep depression and suicidal thoughts. After two months of this, an immigration officer came to him, offering him the chance to give up his claim for asylum and to be deported back to Romania with Constantin. Vasile agreed to this. However, the moment Vasile signed a document stating this, he was forced unto a plane, without Constantin, and he was flown back to Romania, without his son.

Constantin lived in Michigan, forcibly separated from his parents who were now back in Romania, for five months (more than half of his life!) before the government declared that he should be reunited with his parents. After all the trauma, of being arrested and separated, the Mutus were back where they had started, with nothing more than PTSD and a greater financial debt.

So we have two stories: one of which features a young man who didn’t feel the need to leave everything behind to follow God and now lives a wonderful life and the other story which features a family who did actually leave everything behind to find a better life for themselves and instead faced only hardship and heartbreak.

And then in our two scripture passages today, we also have similar yet different stories.

In our story from 1 Kings, Elijah the prophet is told by God to fill three holy roles, one of which would be the successor to his own role as a prophet. Elijah sets out and finds the appointed, Elisha, plowing in his family’s fields. Seeing that it is him, Elijah puts his cloak over Elisha. Elisha understands what this means and runs after him, ready to follow him as his servant and the next would-be prophet. But the moment Elisha catches up to Elijah, he asks Elijah if he can turn back and say good-bye to his family, not quite ready to leave everything behind. And Elijah gives him permission to do exactly that. So Elisha goes back, prepares a meal for his family, says his good-byes, and the accepts the call to follow Elijah, and therefore follow the call of God.

In our story in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. After facing rejection from a village of Samaritans, Jesus enters into another village. As he was on his way, people start following him. Three different people actually tell Jesus that they are ready to follow him, once they each finish something that they need to do. But Jesus denies this. To the first, Jesus says that person must leave behind his home. To the second, Jesus says that person leave behind the sacred rite of burying his dead father. To the third, Jesus says that person must leave behind his family without saying good-bye. Jesus says to all of them and the surrounding crowds, that none of them can look back; they must only look forward and they must be willing to leave everything behind if they want to follow the call of God.

Friends, I’m confused, and I need your help with this. Elijah a prophet of God allows Elisha to not leave everything behind and still follow the call of God, and that’s what I did when I went to seminary, and everything turned out in my favor. Jesus who is God does require the crowds to leave everything behind in order that they may follow God, and that’s what the Mutus did, and nothing worked out in their favor.

Which then makes me think it’s all just situational. That sometimes God calls us to leave something behind in order for us to follow God and that sometimes we don’t actually need to leave something behind in order for us to follow God. And that sometimes thing work out in our favor when we follow the call of God and that sometimes things don’t work out; that things can actually be quite difficult or even traumatic when following the call of God.

And if it is all just situational, then none of us are truly wise enough to know when things will work out and when things will not work out based on if we do or do not leave something behind. And if we don’t know when or if things will work out for even ourselves, then we don’t know if they will for others, especially strangers. And since we don’t know for these people that we don’t know, then maybe there’s just something we can do to make everything just a little bit easier on all of us. Maybe what we really need to do is be a little more supportive and affirming and loving for the people who are willing to leave everything behind to follow the call of God, praying and hoping and helping to make sure it does end up working out in their favor, which therefore works out in favor of the kingdom of God, which therefore works out in favor of all of us.

Because in our story for today, what does Jesus end up doing for the crowds of people who were called to leave everything behind and follow him? He cared for them. He taught them. He fed them. And then Jesus died for them. Then, he rose for them. And he defeated death for them. He forgave their sins, and he gave them eternal life with him. He did the same for us, and we weren’t even the ones who left everything behind…

Next, Sunday in the Presbyterian Church (USA) is Immigration Sunday. Not Independence Sunday; not USA Sunday. It is Immigration Sunday. I wonder how many churches will preach on immigration with Independence Day on Thursday. I wonder if we will remember that we are a nation built on immigrants. I wonder if over the next week we will pray for… Franklin, an 11-year-old Honduran boy, and his 7-year-old brother Byron as they sleep on the floor in their cage shivering under a thin foil-sheet? Or 16-year-old boy Sergio, separated from his Father for over 45 days? Or Dixiana, a 10-year-old, whose meals each morning were frozen, blackened ham bits? Or the 6-year-old boy who recounts seeing his father shackled by his hands and feet right in front of him? Or the case worker who said she saw officers take a 6-year-old girl’s doll before putting her in room of so many other girls that all they could do is stand? Will we this week pray for the many named and unnamed children and their families at our borders who are still in cages and detention cells and shackles?

Did you know in confirmation class we teach our youth that to truly read and understand scripture, they must see the heart of the message that beats throughout its entirety? That to grasp what God is saying to us in the Bible, they must see the many streams of thoughts coming together to one as living and flowing holy river— the Holy Word? We also teach that are 66 books in the Bible (because there are) and that they are divided into seven sections, from the Pentateuch to Historical Books to Wisdom Literature to Prophets to the Gospels to the Pauline Epistles to the Rest of the New Testament?

Guess what is mentioned multiple times in each of those sections? The Holy Word, the many streams, coming together letting us know exactly how we should treat our immigrant neighbor. In the words of Jesus that paraphrases all the other passages on how we should treat our immigrant neighbor, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me… Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”

Friends, what is God calling you to leave behind so that you too can help every child and family be freed from the cages we have put them in? People who literally have left everything behind so that they too can have a better life. We can’t turn our back on them now for helping them is the proclamation of God’s kingdom here on earth.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.  

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