Today’s short gospel is literally in the middle of Luke’s gospel. It marks a turning point in the life of Jesus. In the 1^st half of the gospel, all the action is near Jesus’ hometown, in the north, near the Sea of Galilee. Now, in the words of the gospel, Jesus “sets his face firmly toward Jerusalem.” He already sends his followers- almost a hundred people- ahead of him. He tells them to take nothing with them, neither a walking stick, nor money nor clothes. This is no leisurely pilgrimage-it’s a mission. Most go. It’s a hundred miles away. They had probably never been there, but there’s urgency about Jesus. He knows what is going to happen in Jerusalem. And when those followers of his find out, they will abandon him.

Most don’t go at all. They have excuses. They sound like good reasons: one wants to bury his father who just died; the other wants to say goodbye to his family and friends. But Jesus won’t take excuses. He is going no matter what. And he simply says, as he said before: “follow me”.

In Texas they have a saying about someone who talks big, but produces nothing. They call such a person: “all hat, but no cattle.” Or, more commonly, they talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk.

Jerusalem was then and is now more than just a place on the map. It was then and is now the symbolic center of the earth; indeed the center of the universe. When we look at maps today, in this country, the United States is in the middle –with Europe to the right and Asia to the left. But in the middle ages Jerusalem is always shown in the middle. There’s actually a stone pillar, about 3 feet high in Jerusalem today that marks the center of the world.

And this is where Jesus is going, where he sends his followers and where he invites others to follow him. To the center of the world-and nothing else matters, or even comes close.

In our own spiritual journeys, we often take our own sweet time in going forward- in taking the next step. We have excuses: we’re not ready, we’re afraid, we have other things to do. We have a whole list of projects, and we even have this mythical “bucket list” of things we want to accomplish, places we want to go.

But Jesus says, and says clearly without any conditions: follow me. Now. Not tomorrow, not after graduation; not after getting a job, a family, a house, a retirement plan- nothing.

This puts everything-and everybody-in our lives in perspective. The only thing on a bucket list is to follow Jesus to Jerusalem- to the center of the world. Everything else is secondary.

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