Putting Your Hand to the Plow

13th Sunday Ordinary C 2007 7:30 & 10:30 STORY It was a Sunday morning and a small group of people was gathered in a chapel for Mass in South America. Suddenly a band of guerillas came storming out of the jungle and smashed into the chapel with machine guns aimed at the people. The leader ordered the priest to be dragged outside to be executed. Then the leader asked, “Anyone else here believe in this Jesus stuff?” Everyone froze in fear. Then one man came forward and said, “I believe in Jesus with all my heart.” He too was dragged outside to be executed. The leader asked again, “Anyone else?” Several others came forward and they were dragged outside. Those inside could hear the blast of machine guns. No one else was willing to profess their faith. So the leader said, “You people have no right to be here,” and he herded them outside. They were shocked to see the priest and the ones who had professed their faith in Jesus standing there. The leader told the priest and those with him to go back into the chapel and continue the Mass. To the others he said, “Don’t you go in there until you have the courage to stand up and profess your faith.” Then the gorillas disappeared back into the jungle. It takes the courage of your convictions, the courage of your faith to put your hand to the plow and never look back. Sometimes you find yourself sneaking a look back at the values of your culture to see if you can straddle the fence between your culture’s values and your gospel values, to see if you can live the challenge of the gospel in the unchallenging comfort of the world. For example, when a group is demeaning someone, harshly gossiping about the person, you may think to yourself, I can to along with them as long as I don’t add to their callous rash judgments. On the other hand, if you have the courage of your faith, if you keep your hand on the plow, you will speak up and tell this group that they are doing wrong, that they are self-righteous, that they are committing the sin of rash judgment. You won’t be shot for doing this, like the people in our story who were threatened with execution, but you may be excluded from the group, you may be the next one they slander. But is such a group really worth belonging to? Jesus words about putting your hand to the plow are a symbol of commitment. Or as one of our seminary professors called it, bull-dog tenacity. It’s an apt image. You sink your teeth into the gospel and never let go no matter how many times or how many people try to pull you away from living the gospel. Commitment is putting your life where you mouth is. Go back to our example. You cannot say that rash judgment is unjust but act as if it’s okay under certain convenient circumstances. If you are truly committed to the teachings of Jesus, your actions will speak louder than your words. As Jesus says, they’ll know you by your fruits. The German theologian, Johannes Metz in his book, Poverty of Spirit, remarked, to put your hand to the plow means that you have no support and no power except the enthusiasm and commitment of your own heart. In other words, when every one around you is living according to the values of our culture, you reach into your heartfelt commitment to Jesus and live his values. Are you committed to the risk of doing this? Are you committed to shunning the corrupt opportunism of our culture even if this means you have to embrace the cross? Are you committed to living the gospel values as fearlessly as those people in our story who stood up to the gorillas and professed their faith? Only you can answer these questions. In the movie, The Ghost and the Darkness, one of the characters said, “The struggle is the glory” Humor: There is a humorous story about a reversal of commitment: A Florida senior citizen drove his brand new Corvette convertible out of the dealership. Taking off down the road, he floored itto 80 mph, enjoying the wind blowing through what little hair he had left."Amazing," he thought as he flew down I-75, pushing the pedal even more.Looking in his rear view mirror, he saw a state trooper behind him, blue lights flashing and siren blaring. He floored it to100 mph, then 110, then 120.Suddenly he thought, "What am I doing? I'm too old for this," and pulled over to await the trooper's arrival.Pulling in behind him, the trooper walked up to the Corvette, looked at his watch and said, "Sir, my shift ends in 30 minutes.Today is Friday. If you can give me a reason for speeding that I've never heard before, I'll let you go."The old gentleman paused. Then said, "Years ago, my wife ran off with a Florida State Trooper. I thought you were bringingher back.""Have a good day, sir," replied the trooper. Thought: Always live your commitment to Jesus.