When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him.

Once upon a time, when you were traveling somewhere, you would tune in your car radio, AM only, and you would listen to the 1 ¼ inch speakers that made it hard to tell if you were hearing the Beach Boys or Alvin and the Chipmunks and you would listen to whatever the DJ decided to play, or as we learned years later, whatever the DJ had been asked to play by the nice man with the brown paper bag full of money.

Then we got tapes, 8 tracks and cassettes, and we could listen to a whole album, in stereophonic sound. Until the tape broke and then we went back to the radios, which had grown up from AM to FM.

And now, of course, you can set up your own play list, whether it is on your ipod or by burning a CD and you can choose the music that leads you on your journey: you can play Jersey Girl when you are driving down the shore where everything’s alright, you can play New York, New York when you are stuck in traffic approaching the Lincoln Tunnel, you can play Surf City if you are going to, well Surf City, the possibilities are endless.

There has always been a connection between music and travel.

And I suspect that there is something profoundly human about that, I have read that the Biblical exiles who were returning to Jerusalem from Babylon sang their songs, many of the psalms, as they went.

Well, today our scripture lessons bring us two journeys, but not journeys of joy, journeys instead of determination and courage and faithfulness.

Jesus had opened a new chapter, he had experienced his mountaintop moment and now it was a straight line journey to Jerusalem.

If I were choosing the play list for this part of the story it would include Springsteen’s Born to Run; Peter, Paul & Mary’s Blowing in the Wind; and Bob Seger’s Like a Rock, serious songs for serious days.

Now I know that there is a perspective on Jesus that has him wandering through the world like a free spirit, taking things one day at a time, playing the cards that are dealt to him, with a smile, as he plays with children and marvels over lilies in the field and birds in their nests.

I like that perspective, it’s very much in tune with the Theologies and philosophies that shaped my soul and my mind when I was being educated in the 1960’s and 70’s. Jesus goes to Woodstock, that’s the perspective.

And it’s a good one, a valuable one to have in your bag when the pressures of this life start to surround you and smother you, it’s a good one for summer, when you get to be outdoors a bit more and remind yourself that it a big world and we are just small players in God’s ongoing drama.

However, it is not an entirely accurate perspective or at least, let me say it is not the only accurate and holy perspective.

These are darker times, as he moves through Samaria and the rejections begin. And his disciples offer to bring down the fires of heaven upon the Samaritan village and Jesus rebukes them.

There is a great lesson of tolerance here.

A couple of decades ago we were told that tolerance is not a good thing, not a good word to use because it implies a paternalistic view of others.

Well, under the category of “be careful what you wish for”, we have driven tolerance out of the public eye. Now you are either for something or against something, you’re either on our side or you are our enemy. Talk radio, which makes me wish for the old days when it was all music, feeds on deep and irreconcilable differences between people and groups. The fires of heaven are being called down, by Christians upon Muslims, Muslims upon Christians, Christians upon Jews, Jews upon Muslims, Republicans upon Democrats, Democrats upon Republicans and no one seems to be hearing Christ rebuking them.

It’s funny, I still hear people ridicule Rodney King, who was rather famously beaten by the Los Angeles police and yet, at the end of the process he sounds a lot like Jesus when he says "Can't we all get along?"

Abraham Lincoln, who we don’t make fun of, but don’t pay very much attention to, was criticized for being too courteous to his enemies who he should be destroying and he said “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Now I know some of you well enough to know that you are thinking, “Well, that’s fine and all but our nation has some real enemies out there and you can’t build a foreign policy on turning the other cheek.”

To which I can only say, today, I will bet that there is not a single person in the room who is going to be building our foreign policy this afternoon, or tomorrow or in the foreseeable future. And if I am wrong, well please forgive me, I would love an autograph and give the President my best when you see him this week.

But our lives have not led us in those paths of power, have they? Yet I would be willing to wager that every single one of us can think of someone or some group that we will encounter this week and we would love to bring the fires of heaven down upon them because they look different, they pray different, they love different, they eat different, they speak different, they drive different, this is NJ, everyone drives different, or maybe they just drive us crazy.

I would be willing to wager that every single one of us can think of a person who has rejected us, lied to us and about us, hurt us or the people we love, betrayed us, abandoned us and somewhere in our darkest corners we would love to bring the fires of heaven down upon them.

And I hear the rebuke of Jesus.

And I hear Lincoln, when told that Lee had surrendered and everyone was ready to celebrate, I hear Lincoln asking the band leader to play “Dixie”.

And I hear Rodney King’s question, "Can't we all get along?"

That’s what it means to turn your face toward Jerusalem. As the Native Americans called it, to walk the Jesus Road, a road of peace, a road of justice and, yes, a road of tolerance.

When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. The OT story is similar and more immediate.

Elijah is journeying to his death and he leave Gilgal, which was the seminary of the day, the place where prophets were trained, and then on to Bethel and Jericho where the prophets practiced and lived together and he keeps trying to get rid of Elisha, placing him in a community where he can grow and learn and thrive.

And Elisha wants no part of it.

Here is a snapshot of friendship, a picture of devotion, each time someone tries to tell Elisha about the end of Elijah’s life, he says, “I know, be still, hold your peace.” He knows it’s coming, but not yet, they still had this journey together, this road trip and Elisha – who would never be the superstar that Elijah was – displayed the sort of loyalty and commitment that is so rare in our world. I have told you the story, often, of our son Scott when he was young and riding the school bus to Woodfern and back. He spoke favorably of another boy on the bus and, we immediately offered to set a time for him to come over to play. And Scott thought about it for a minute or so and shook his head and said, “No, he’s a bus friend”.

We all have bus friends, people we work with, play with, study with, worship with and they are good and valuable people in our lives. But when we are done with our shared experience, when we are done working, playing, studying and worshiping with them, they will fade from our lives and perhaps become names on a Christmas Card list that make us smile once a year.

But then there are the forever friends.

The Elijah/Elisha friends.

The John at the foot of the cross friends.

The friends who will walk with us through the valley of the shadow of death and back out the other side to those great green pastures.

That is what it means to be a friend, to journey with someone, to have their back as the saying goes. Elisha gives no helpful advice, he provides no great wisdom, he simply and purely journeys with Elijah until the end.

It’s what we do as a Church, the reminder that we are here for each other at Baptisms, Confirmations, Weddings, Funerals, Holidays and regular days, journeying together.

Not understanding everything that we do or say, not even liking some of the things that we do or say, but we are here, together. And in some cases I watch friendship emerge and in many cases I see bus friends develop and in a few cases there is nothing more than tolerance, but that’s not bad in this world of anger and animosity.

When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. So we travel, with Jesus to Jerusalem even if it means we have to travel through – and put up with – the Samaritans, those people who reject him. If Jesus is OK with that, we can be also, can’t we?

And we travel, with our friends till God takes them from us, and if it means that we have to defend them and protect them even when they tell us to leave them alone, we are still there for them, aren’t we?

But there is one more piece to this journey imagery today, and I want to take you back to that carefree Jesus image and balance it with the carefully planned out Jesus that we find here, the Jesus who sends out messengers to prepare the way for him. It’s similar to what we find when he gets to Jerusalem and has the colt and the upper room all pre-arranged.

Now take your eyes off of Jesus for a minute and shift them over, to the messengers.

And he sent messengers ahead of him.

That’s us.

We are the advance guard, obscure TV reference coming up: we are Flint McCullough, we are the scouts entering new territory. Jesus sends us ahead of him, to prepare people not only here in worship, but in your conversations with co-workers, neighbors, bus friends and full friends and family members. Look at the way Tom O’Leary softens people’s souls by feeding them and caring for them and when they ask why, the answer is clear and faithful, God told me to.

We are the messengers, the scouts for the divine journey of God’s love to the places where it is most needed.

You know the people you know, you know where the pain is that God can lessen, you know where the joy is that God can multiply, you know where faith can be rekindled and hope can be reborn and life itself can be recaptured.

God is sending each one of us out, to take care of this getting ready business this week, we don’t heal anyone or fix anyone or really do anything, we just open the door for God to do her thing.

And if we do that with joy in our hearts and a song on our lips, not only will we prepare others, but we will be amazed at the blessings that we discover on our road, the ways that we are prepared for greater things.

When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him.