Did you catch that first reading, that first story about Elisha? First of all, it says he has twelve yoke of oxen. If I figure it right, that's twenty-four oxen. There are two on each yoke. So, I mean, he's well off. That's like having today maybe twenty-four eighteen -wheeler rigs to do your work for you. But he kills them. He kills the oxen. Then he takes the reins and the yoke and all his farming equipment and he builds a fire. And he cooks them and he gives the meat away. What's that all about? What's that all about?

It's about setting priorities in our lives. Because he gets a call. He's well-off and affluent, as we are. He's got his concerns. But he gets a call to be a preacher and he thinks about it. He makes this decision and he sets those priorities in his life. The same thing in the Gospel. Jesus is saying "Follow Me." And then there's all kinds of concerns that people have. And Jesus really says, "You've got to set your priorities."

So how do you set priorities in your life? How do you set your priorities? Our faith in the Scripture should be some help. It gives us some important values. And they are very important, although when it comes down to final decisions, they aren't as helpful as we would wish. For example, one value is wisdom. We're called to be a people who are wise. That's a great value, but it reminds me of the man who went to his mother and said, "Gosh. There are so many decisions I have to make, moral decisions, whether we should do this, or whether we should do.... what's the moral thing to do? When you're faced by a moral dilemma, what do you do?" And his mother said, "Oh, that's easy. You just do the right thing." Well, thanks a lot, Mother! The question was, "How do you figure out what the right thing is?"

We are called to be a people who are wise. We are called to be a people who are compassionate. We are called to be a people of service. And we are called to be a people who bring hope to the world. Those are basic values of our faith and of Scripture. But you have to put them in tension with your own daily life to figure out your priorities. You have to put them in tension with your job and with paying your bills and with raising your family and with educating your children and with providing for your future and for your health and for security. You have to fit all that together. It's not easy.

So today I'm going to give you one hint and four clues. Ready? Here's the hint. Number one hint is: Do not let a preacher or priest or pastor tell you how to set your priorities. You got to do it. You got to do it yourself. So, that's the first thing. I can give you some clues, but you got to set them yourself.

I'm going to give you four clues, quickly. First one is: Put people before things. Number two, with people, leave room for forgiveness rather than leaving them behind. Number three, although we have to be concerned about ourselves and our family, at the same time, look beyond yourself and your own. And number four, try to make a difference. Try to make a better world. That's it.

The Fourth of July is coming up this week. The gospel today gives us something as a nation to think about. There is that scene where these two brothers, James and John (Their nickname is "The Sons of Thunder.") .... They want to destroy the bad guys. They are going to wipe that village out, destroy the bad guys. And Jesus stops them cold. I think there's a lesson there for us. There's that English writer and playwright, Oscar Wilde. One of his plays is called "The Importance of Being Ernest." I think Ernest is a guy in the play. But, in "The Importance of Being Ernest," there's a woman by the name of "Miss Prism." And she is writing her first fiction, her first novel. And someone says to her, "Does it have a happy ending?" And she says, "The good end up happily and the bad end up unhappily. That's what fiction means....That's what fiction means." Well, that's fiction, but we get raised on fiction. Our nation is raised on fiction, our culture and we ourselves. We are raised by TV, which is fictional. We're raised by the movies, which are fictional. We're raised by politics, which, most of time, are fictional. And all three of those keep telling us that the world is divided into Good Guys and Bad Guys. And the bad guys are supposed to get destroyed, usually with a significant amount of overkill. For example, by James Bond or Indiana Jones or, more recently, "You are the weakest link. Goodbye."

We think very much in those terms of our nation's history, Good Guys and Bad Guys. And it's not always easy. I'm going to make it autobiographical, my own reflections, growing up and learning history. First of all, there was the American Revolution. And we give thanks for that and celebrate it this week. Brought blessings to us, the American Revolution. That's very clear. That's easy. We're the Good Guys and the British Redcoats are the Bad Guys. I found that very easy because both my fellow citizens and my Irish parents pointed out to me that the British Redcoats were the Bad Guys and we're the Good Guys. And, if you ever forget it you can watch The Patriot and Mel Gibson will remind you who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad Guys.

Then came the War of 1812. This is easy again because, once again, we're the Good Guys and the Redcoats are coming at us again and they're the Bad Guys. If you ever forget, just watch late night TV. There's a movie with Charleton Heston and Yul Brynner as Andrew Jackson and the Pirate Lafitte, and they'll remind you who's the Good Guys, who's the Bad Guys.... real clear.

Then came the Mexican American War. Begins to get fuzzy, particularly for me because I'm Irish American. We go to war with Mexico and a large segment of the Union soldiers, who are all Irish from Ireland, recognize that there is something unfair about this. And they cross the boundaries and they join the Mexicans. And they form the San Patricio Brigade, the St. Patrick's Brigade, and they fight against the Union, against the United States. They are driven back to Mexico, the capital and outside in Chapultepec, they are all lined up and executed by the United States. And, til this day, every year, the Mexican Government celebrates and honors the Martyrs of Chapultepec, the Irishmen from the St. Patrick's Brigade. Who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad Guys? Begins to get fuzzy.

The comes the Civil War. This is brother against brother. I know I'm against slavery. I'm all for Abraham Lincoln. But who are the Good Guys and who are the Bad Guys? I went to the movies, growing up, and they always had Randolph Scott and Gary Cooper playing Confederate soldiers and wearing gray. Gets a little fuzzier.

Then comes the Spanish American War. Now we got Teddy Roosevelt charging up the hill at San Juan. He's clearly a Good Guy. No problem, except current U. S. historians tell us that the whole war was engineered by New York newspapers and publishers to market their newspapers. Little fuzzy.

Thank God! Then comes World War I and World War II that restore our faith in the division of the world into Good Guys and Bad Guys and "Just War," especially the Second World War that we can take a good deal of pride in, and our veterans there. But, just when you thought it was safe to go out and to blow up the Bad Guys and to bomb the enemies, there was the Korean War and always a little unease and unfairness to the men who fought and died there, because of our unsureness of what we were about. Although, when I was growing up, it was very clear, who was the Good Guy and who was the Bad Guy. The Good Guy was General Douglas MacArthur. The Bad Guy was President Harry Truman. Everybody knew that. Then, twenty years later, they reversed it. And they now tell us that Harry Truman was the Good Guy and General Mac Arthur was the Bad Guy.

And then, Vietnam, which disturbs us and confuses us and leaves us with a sense of tragedy, and no victory for the Good Guys this time. You know something? Maybe fiction is really fictitious after all. Maybe the world isn't simply divided into Good Guys and Bad Guys, and maybe Jesus wants to include us along with his disciples, the Sons of Thunder, when He stops them cold.

Now, I think our Nation has recognized that and realized it and worked at it, and when we've been at our best, we have worked at it through relief for people, whatever land, whatever situation, because of flood or earthquake or famine. We've done it with the Marshall Plan after the Second World War. We've done it with some welcome to some refugees. At our best, we have recognized that. At our very worst, and that has happened too, we have done just the opposite. We have seen Bad Guys and enemies everywhere. And so we have had anti-immigration laws within and outside our country. We've had anti-refugee sentiment. We've had the insistence on crushing foreign debts on collapsing countries and sanctions and blockades on starving people, and anti-poor legislation.

Comes down to the challenge is the same for our nation as it is for individuals. How do you get your priorities set? How do you set your priorities right? I would suggest, even if it means the loss of a few oxen, that it comes down to four things again, the same four.

Put people before things, even before profit. Leave some room for forgiveness rather than leaving all people and nations behind. Look beyond ourselves, even when it isn't always to our advantage. And try to make a difference. Try to build a better world. Amen.