Denial And A Tsunami
16th Sunday after Pentecost, September 13, 2015 (Cross Day) (Rally Sunday) Mark 8:27-38 with James 3:1-12 in b.g and Proverbs 1:20-33 also in b.g.
These days I catch myself thinking of many things my mother has told me over the course of my life. Some of these words were first spoken when I was very young. "Be careful son. Eat well – don't spoil your dinner. Dress warmly. Put your mitts on. Be careful around strangers".
As I grew older, I received many other messages, not just from my mother but also from the society as a whole. Take care of yourself. Get a good education. Make sound financial decisions. Always pay your bills. Buy a house. Save for your kid's education. Exercise regularly.
More recently as I am being moved into the 6th and 7th decades of my life I have heard and occasionally internalize these messages, "Be leery. SAVE, SAVE, SAVE -for retirement. You can never tell if you will have enough...
Some of these "messages" seem to make sense. However, did you notice that they are all, focused on "us" – on me, myself and I? As Luther would say, this is navel gazing. Such navel gazing leads to enormous amounts of anxiety personally and collectively. The resulting battles for a piece of the supposedly limited "pie" results in very few winners, and many, many losers.
When we are trapped by such navel gazing fear we are not able to see others either literally or figuratively. We are too fixated upon ourselves. As we are entrapped by such navel gazing we certainly don't see God. We are too busy looking at ourselves, and consequently afraid for our survival.
This self obsession results in a blindness to beauty, to wonder; to need; to untold opportunities to care for and about others. Focused primarily on ourselves things often look bleak, dark, even hopeless. The spectrum of wonder, of hope, of mystery that God wills to impart is lost to us.
But Jesus interrupts all of these me-first, the poor me and the great me mentalities. Jesus interrupts our self obsession at the intersections of our living. For his earliest disciples such an interruption came at a place called Caesarea Philippi – where the Roman world of culture, sophistication, financial and military power clearly intersected and frequently overwhelmed their lives.
For ourselves, Jesus' interruption may come at church. Or, Jesus may question us at home, at work, in the meat and potatoes of our relationships with neighbors, friends, colleagues, and our own families.
Jesus asks the first disciples a question. He may also ask us that same question, "Who do people say that I am?" I wonder about that. Are many others even saying anything about Jesus?
Some Christians are saying things about Jesus. Some say: "Jesus is Lord!" Now that may mean different things to different people. He blesses our way of life in contrast to others. Following this line of reasons some say, "see how blessed our country, Canada or the US are, as opposed to others." Others claim that Jesus is the only way we can see God. They may proceed to say that because Jesus is my Lord I know what's right and everyone else or everyone who disagrees with me is wrong.
For some Jesus being their Lord and Saviour primarily means that they are going to be eternally rewarded while everyone else who doesn't see or "believe" in Jesus in this same way as Lord is going to be eternally punished.
For others, who may or may not consider themselves to be Christians, Jesus may be viewed as either 'the' or 'a' great example. In making such a statement I think they mean that Jesus was a kind, somewhat socially concerned person. They may mean that Jesus did what was "right". But is that what the Bible in its totality says about Jesus?
Finally, for many others, Jesus is viewed as a great teacher – in the line of other great teachers such as Socrates, Plato, maybe Gandhi, Confucius, or – well, you fill in the blank.
I could go on and on. There are many others who don't give a rip about Jesus or his supposed "followers". These people view Jesus as irrelevant to this contemporary globalized society – where economies rise and fall and many nations seem to be fading into the sunset while new corporate entities are on the rise both in terms of power and influence. To such people Jesus' followers are simple at best, completely and hopelessly out of touch at worst.
To be sure, different people are saying or not saying different things about Jesus.
But then Jesus asks those early disciples – who do you say that I am?
Ah yes, who do we say that He is?
We have had a lot of words, thrown at us, given to us about Jesus. Words like, "Son of Man, Son of God, Saviour, Good Shepherd, Bread of Life, my Lord and my God". They are words, often important words. But their meaning is revealed in the ways those who take those words onto and into themselves respond to God in their living.
So, who do we say that Jesus is?
Be careful. Your response in word and deed really matters...
So, listen to Jesus. He says, "If any want to become my followers let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me".
Might we hear him? Are we listening? These words have been spoken to us before.
If we wish to actually follow Jesus we are called to deny ourselves. I don't think that this means something so simple (even though simple may still be difficult for us to accomplish) as giving up a favorite candy or treat for a while, or even for the rest of our lives. Nor does denying ourselves simply mean to give sacrificially so that we feel better. Rather, there is a literal truth here – an act that Jesus calls for, that we cannot manage on our own. Deny ourselves. Take up our crosses.
Deny has the sense of letting go of ourselves, of being opened to not being the center of the universe ourselves, of not trying first and foremost to be careful, guarded or leery. Instead to deny ourselves may be to ask God to show us, to be opened to what God is calling us to do and be, personally and collectively. Jesus is the One who goes before us in caring for others, listening to them, always, always realizing that God loves all people and this world.
In this sense we are to deny ourselves in order to be particularly attentive to those most in need. We can give them our attention – a listening ear, a caring heart. We can help them with their daily needs!
As we do so, we may well enter into a struggle with ourselves, our privilege, our taking so much for granted. As we do so, we may come into conflict with others who have been trained to say and live as if they and many others are entitled to so much, while others have so little.
But this is not the way of Jesus, the One who goes to the cross, that place where society and the powers that be who say they are just trying to do the right thing, the practical thing, the logical thing – reject and kill him. Is it not better that one person die, say the authorities, than that the whole society (including ourselves) suffer at the hands of the Romans, the powers that be? . . .
So it is, Jesus calls any who would follow him to deny themselves and take up their crosses. He fleshes out what he means by saying this amazing thing – "For he/she who loses their life for my sake will find it."
It's like- well I'm not sure what it's like. Maybe in its depth it's so unlike anything else we have known or can remember. Maybe it's like being in the darkness and safety of our mother's womb and thinking, feeling – how good it is to be here – convinced that's all there is. After all, it's all we have ever known. But then, those living waters start to roar and rumble. Great forces, almost like a tsunami, begin to push us down this very crowded and difficult pathway. Then suddenly after a long or short journey we are ushered into light, into cold, into new possibilities, into an entirely new world of people, things and God. We are frightened. The old is passing away. The new is coming!
Will we deny ourselves and take up our crosses? Oh God, help us, push us down or up that birth canal – for everyone's sake. Amen.