The Gospel Lesson for this Sunday is Luke 9:51-62.  Jesus is headed to Jerusalem through Samaria. Some would consider it hostile territory for a Jew. Messengers went ahead to prepare the way but were rebuffed when they sought a place for the travelers to spend the night. How quick James and John were to take offense.  I suspect they expected Jesus to be rejected and were eager to call for divine punishment.  Their attitudes about Samaritans are stripped bare.  The worst thing about mirrors is how much you see of your self.  I can fool myself about a lot of things about who I am as long as I don't have to look in a mirror.  The Bible is an unflinching mirror telling the truth about human relationships.  It can make me squirm. So many of our problems could be fixed with "a little fire from heaven." I even have thought from time to time how handy a bazooka would be.

But Jesus rebuked James and John.  It says "Jesus rebuked them" in lots of places in the Bible.  I always wonder what the rebuke of Jesus sounded like.  I know the rebuke of my mother.  I even know the rebuke of some parishioners.  Sometimes the rebuke of Jesus cut to the core of one's being‑‑‑ swift, clean, surgical.  At other times, the rebuke was tender and careful.  I imagine that the rebuke of Jesus could even on occasion have been just a glance.  Some ancient versions of this passage include the rebuke: "You do not know to what spirit you belong; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy lives but to save them."  The rebuke is not included in every version of Luke because there is some question as to its authenticity.  It sounds like the kind of warning Jesus might have given.  Wish no person hell.

We can imagine the suffering and the separation, the deprivation and the degradation of the condition we call hell.  Some do not have to imagine.  They have been abused by those who were supposed to love and protect them.  They know the pain and terror of diseased bodies.  They have experienced the scorn and humiliation of their community.  They are swallowed by the hopelessness of increasing debt and disappearing jobs.  The trap of addiction is all too familiar.  They know it all too well, even the neglect of good church folk. Don't add to the burden.

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