| Sometimes life seems a little disconnected and | | | | Galatians illustrates this claim: "Freedom is what we |
| frazzled. At the end of the day we often look back at | | | | have-Christ has set us free!" (5:1a, GNT). But as the |
| what we have done (or not done) to manage our | | | | rest of the reading shows, freedom can prove to be a |
| home, raise a family, and please our supervisor. We | | | | double-edged sword even for followers of Christ. |
| may even add up the price we have paid as we dealt | | | | Freedom in Christ's Spirit requires vigilance and a |
| with stress, confrontation, or just the ordinary | | | | commitment to a life of love and virtue. Freedom in |
| responsibilities of life in general. It is easy to wonder if | | | | Christ does not mean, as some in Galatia had argued, |
| there is a thread that connects all the dots in our days, | | | | that believers are free to live wickedly. |
| giving meaning and fulfillment to the whole, even a bad | | | | Luke's passage marks the beginning of a special |
| day. | | | | section in the third Gospel, the journey through Samaria |
| Like some days of our lives, the following collection of | | | | as Jesus and his followers head toward Jerusalem |
| Bible passages (1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21, Psalm 16, | | | | (9:51-18.43). Because of his own commitment to follow |
| Galatians 5:1, 13-25, Luke 9:51-62) may strike us as a | | | | the will of his Father, Jesus undertakes this journey |
| little bit disconnected. After all, the Old Testament text | | | | even though he knows it brings him into hostile territory, |
| tells a story about a new job, while the Epistle and | | | | where the Samaritans, traditional enemies of the |
| Gospel texts speak about vice and virtue and dealing | | | | Jewish people, lived. Along the way, three Samaritans |
| with hostile villagers (Samaritans) and reluctant | | | | inquire about following Jesus. Testing their commitment, |
| followers, respectively. | | | | Jesus points the first toward the hardship and itinerary |
| But a thread does run through these readings, despite | | | | of discipleship - "The Son of Man has no place to lie |
| their very different story lines and social locations. It is | | | | down and rest" (9:58, GNT). For the second and third, |
| called commitment. The story about a new job | | | | he evokes the scene from 1 Kings 19 in which Elijah |
| introduces us to the figure of Elisha, an obscure 9th | | | | calls Elisha into discipleship. Jesus declares, "Let the |
| century BC farmer who is suddenly torn away from | | | | dead bury their own dead..." and "Anyone who starts |
| his farm to become the assistant, and later successor, | | | | to plow and then keeps looking back is of no use for |
| to the prophet Elijah. In modern corporate-speak, | | | | the Kingdom of God." (Luke 9:60, 62, GNT). |
| someone moved Elisha's cheese: Elisha had to face a | | | | Yielding to the Spirit, and the charge to commit oneself |
| life- and career-changing call. Despite the many | | | | irrevocably and unconditionally to God, is the thread |
| reasons he could find for not obeying Elijah (giving up | | | | that stitches these Scripture passages together. This |
| his home and the life of a comfortable farmer, for | | | | same thread holds our days together as well, no |
| example), Elisha committed himself to doing so. And, as | | | | matter how many disconnected hours and tasks one |
| a symbol of his commitment, Elisha slaughtered his | | | | counts at the end of the day. Even a fragmented day |
| herd and burned his plow. | | | | filled with hardship can be a day for the Kingdom if we |
| Paul's Epistle to the Christian churches in Galatia (the | | | | connect it to the great thread of commitment, love, |
| region of modern day Turkey) is often called the | | | | and life that the Spirit has woven in our lives. |
| Magna Carta of Christian freedom. The passage from | | | | |