Following Jesus

 I keep thinking about the Gospel story for last Sunday.

            Jesus out there in the desert being put to the test.

This Sunday the followers of Jesus are finding themselves 

            in a metaphorical desert of testing, 

                        being told to take up their cross of self denial.

            Maybe we should look more deeply at the spiritual testing

                        that we are being blest with.

Life, the created order, the ways things are at any given moment

            provide us with countless lessons and just as many exam questions

                        testing us and who we are and who we want to be.

The good news in this is that we are not victims of our circumstances,

            and if we can get that, then problems become opportunities 

                        and life can be much more affirming and creative and enriching.

 

My spiritual director once wrote:

“…we  easily remember the characters, plot and action of good stories, 

and the stories of the Bible are wonderful, often strange, even bizarre, intensely personal narratives in the lives of real human beings 

living the intensity and often confusion 

of an intimate open or closed relationship with God…”

The Gospel reading for today is just such a story:

            personal, about Peter, as a real human being 

            living the intensity and confusion of an intimate relationship with Jesus                                     that is both open to and closed to what Jesus was saying to him 

                                                                                                AND to the other disciples.

 

First we need a little background to give some context for the story.

To understand the Gospel for today, 

            we need to back up and read what came just before today’s reading.

And then you may come to see that what we are dealing with here

            is radical, counter-intuitive and off the charts.

But then we are dealing with Jesus,

            or rather I should say, HE is dealing with us.

He loves us so very much,

            and so he disturbs us.  That’s part of the love.

 

So the historical context:

In this particular time in history for this tiny nation

            the Hebrew ideas regarding the Messiah

were caught up in the movement of vast empires sweeping through,

            how the people were focused in their despair, their hopes, their prayers

                        for the Messiah who would rescue them  --  and more than that:

the Messiah who would take on the foreign oppressors 

            and actually would conquer them, and the nations of the world,

            bringing them to their knees,

so that it would now be the Romans who would come to Jerusalem 

            bearing their tribute money

            instead of the other way around.

 

So Jesus had just asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

And they had related ideas about his being a prophet.

And then he had asked them point blank, “Who do YOU say that I am?”

And Simon Peter, bless his heart, blurts out, “You are the Messiah/

            the Christ/the Lord’s Anointed.”

And in Mark’s version, Jesus simply says, “Don’t tell anyone THAT!”

 

Why?  Because that was not the kind of Messiah 

that had anything to do with Jesus and what he had been doing and preaching.

 

Then, the passage picks up with today’s reading,

            and Jesus began to teach his disciples – what does he teach them?  

            that the Son of Man MUST undergo great suffering  --  Oh, no, no, no!  

            and be rejected by the elders, the chief priest, and the scribes

                        -- What?  

                        NOT be affirmed in messiah-ship by the religious power that be!

                        instead, to be considered a heretic and outlaw

            and THEN be killed             and after three days rise again.              Huh?

He said all this quite openly.

 

This was not what the disciples expected Jesus to say,

            nor what they wanted to hear.

This was the moment when the fingers go in the ears:

            “La la la la la.  I’m not listening.”

 

Jesus would keep repeating this however.

 

Well, all this just flew in the face 

            of what Simon Peter had just claimed for Jesus, 

                        because the Messiah was not supposed to die, but live forever.

What Jesus was saying was totally unacceptable.

It seems Peter was ashamed of Jesus for backing away from 

            his (and his culture’s) ideas about the Messiah.

For Peter, being a good Jew,

            the idea of Jesus being rejected by the religious leadership is unthinkable.

And the kind of death Jesus says he will die is incredibly shameful.

 

I’m sure Peter thought 

            he was expressing positive concern and appreciation for Jesus,

but that was so small and so off-track from this greatest of all spiritual actions

            that would be the salvation of the whole world.

So Jesus comes down fast and heavy on Peter

and makes his rebuke of Peter for the sake of all the other disciples present.

And today’s reading ends with a final rebuke for Peter

                        - and anyone else for whom the shoe fits -

            “If you are ashamed of me and what I am telling you,

                        then I’m ashamed of you.”

Ouch!  

 

Well, one crucial part in what Jesus was saying had been missed:

            Jesus would be killed, and after three days rise again.

The deal is the resurrection.

            If we don’t get that, what Jesus said next can’t make sense.

 

Because Jesus then called to him not only his disciples, but the whole crowd,

and said,

            “If you want to follow me,

            you have to deny yourself, forget yourself, 

                        refuse to acknowledge that with which you identify yourself.

            In fact, take up a cross of your own, your own means of execution.

            Then you can follow me,” said Jesus.

 

Because here’s the great paradox:

            If you try to save yourself/your life,            you will lose it.

We all know that we have no control over how long we live.

If you try to save your life and cheat death,

            that will only go so far and then you’re dead.

                        -- The undeniable reality of our mortality. --

BUT if you lose your life for my sake, Jesus says, you will save it.

            If you lose your life for my sake, you will save it.

 

Now, what really does that mean?

 

It’s important for us to grapple with this because this statement

                        - If you want to save your life, you will lose it,

                        but if you lose your life for my sake and the Gospel’s,

                        you will save it. – 

this statement            appears in all four Gospels, a total of seven times.

Hmmm, must be important.

 

What does it mean?

Start with this thought:

            Jesus is saying that I need to lose the idea that my life belongs to me.

 

The word for life in the passage in Greek means more specifically

            life breath, life force, that which animates the body,

            the breath that God breathed into the first human 

                                                                                    formed of the dust of the earth.

Notice our own breath and the process of breathing.

It is hard wired into us, 

            not even needing my intention and will in order to function.

How is it that I can then claim that my life belongs to me.

Life is a gift that we get to live.

 

There is so much more

            but here’s the situation:  You have to give up the idea of your life.

Follow Jesus, and it is no longer your life.

Follow Jesus, and you will come to see the truth of this

            and the great liberation this brings.

Now be willing to see your life in respect to 

            the mission of the Kingdom of God coming on earth as in heaven.

Follow Jesus, and it is no longer your life

            and now life is lived out in Christ, in service and in mission.

 

We might say either that we can’t do that,

or we really don’t want to do that, we would rather have our own little lives.

But that is settling for the small self in place of the fullness of life,

            the full human potential, the abundance of eternal life 

                        which is not off somewhere when your body finally dies,

                        but is here, now, even if you don’t realize it.

 

Jesus would call us into a discipleship 

            in which you would die out of your life and into his life.

 

This may not be the message we want to hear, 

            but it’s Lent, so it’s a good time to listen to it anyway.

 

Read your Bible.

Those of you are engaged in praying the Daily Office, Morning or Evening Prayer, and those of you who read the scripture lessons that go with each daily reading in the Forward Day by Day 

            are already in a very good program of systematically reading the Bible.

 

The story for today is one of those stories 

                                                that can connect with us on the basic human level:

a story that is personal, about Peter, a real human being, like you and me,

            living the intensity and confusion of an intimate relationship with Jesus.

 

Think about your own mortality

            in the light of what Jesus is saying.

 

And remember that one crucial part

            about after three days rising again.

 

The deal is the resurrection.

For Lent Be Discipled

 We often think of Lent as a special time for deepening our spiritual practice 

            and being more self disciplined about what we know 

                                                is spiritually beneficial for us.

 

But consider this:  Rather than thinking that during Lent 

            my job is to go about making myself a better me, 

            achieving for myself greater spiritual stature,

            and possibly think instead that it is about discipleship.

Think of Lent as a time for attending more seriously 

            to what discipleship consists of, namely, being a disciple of Jesus.

 

Let us define discipleship as simply following Jesus.

And following Jesus is about taking up the cross.

            That’s the way he described it; 

            in all four gospels it is recorded that way.

“If you would be my disciple, take up your cross and follow me.”

 

I would say to you that Jesus in the Gospels was letting those disciples know

            that the spiritual process they were in with him

                        required them to let die all their own efforts 

            and to let go of the way they each thought 

                        that their spiritual work was their own to be accomplished 

                                    to make themselves into good disciples.

But if those who do that will only succeed in reinforcing their own ego.

            You will be trying to save yourself through your own efforts.

 

In the spiritual tradition of discipleship 

            common to Jesus in his own time and setting

                        and also common to all great spiritual leaders,

            it is the Teacher, the Master who does the work in the disciple,

                        whose grace achieves transformation and reformation,

            the Master is the one who saves, 

                                                NOT the disciple.            Good News!

 

If our success as disciples rests on our own spiritual practices, 

                                    or how we carry out religious observances, 

                                                or how many good deeds we do,

then it’s shaky ground we are standing on.

 

But in the authentic process of discipleship 

it’s not about me, what I can accomplish,

but about my devotion and dedication to the Master, the Teacher,

                        my love for and reliance upon Jesus,

                        my openness of heart to him,

            my willingness to let him work the process of discipleship within me.

That is a different approach than we usually employ,

            but much more effective if we faithfully hold to it.

Good advice as we begin another Lent.

 

Let’s look at the Gospel for today.

 

The first Sunday of Lent we always get the same theme:

                        Jesus spending forty days in the wilderness, 

                        Jesus facing temptations.

 

In Mark’s Gospel we get the short version: 

            it only mentions being in the wilderness 40 days

            and being tempted, but Mark does not list the temptations

But this account adds a new bit of information not found in Matthew or Luke:

            “he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.”

 

Immediately after the baptism of Jesus, immediately after the heavens part 

and the Spirit as a dove descends and the voice comes from heaven, 

then Jesus is impelled with great force by the Spirit 

out into the desert, out into the wilderness.

 

The desert is the place where you see wildlife, the undomesticated critters,

            and you are away from the tamed environment, the cultivated fields, 

subjugated by the force of human culture.

The desert has always been seen as 

                        the place where the environment is outside our control,

but also the place of encounter with God.

 

The Holy Spirit drives Jesus into the desert

            for retreat time to consolidate his ministry            

                        which is about to commence

In this location, then, temptations are 

            significant because of their relationship to ministry.

                        These are not personal temptations 

                                    like being tempted to eat chocolates during Lent

                                    or the temptation to engage in convenient moral shortcuts.

The temptations Jesus faced in the desert had to do with 

            how he would minister.

 

Temptations,

they were a part of the desert experience for Jesus, 

and for us too.

 

There are always some temptations that come up for any congregation 

            and Nativity is no exception.

We might speculate about what temptations there are for Nativity.

 

Temptation, defined biblically, means being put to the test

            The pandemic has put us all to the test,

            extra pressure on top of the current big task we have embarked on

                        the calling of a new priest for the congregation.

 

Tempers flair, words are spoken, moral indignation expressed,

            standards to be upheld, accountability called for, judgments expressed.

It’s not that we should try to avoid falling into these behaviors,

            but that we recognize them when they happen, 

                        and admit them and repent.

 

The temptations were a test for Jesus in the wilderness,

            and so are the temptations we face – tests.

They are our teachers there to test us regarding our humility,

                        to test if we get it about our dependence on God’s grace,

            and also a reminder that we are to love one another as we love ourselves,

or to put it another way, 

            to have love for ourselves, warts and all,

                        so that we can more faithfully love one another, 

                                                with their warts and all.

 

So Mark’s Gospel, 

the shortest and most concise and efficient in wording of the gospels,

            simply comments that Jesus was tempted,

but adds that he was with the wild beasts and the angels waited on him.

 

“…with the wild beasts…”

            He was not in the cultural setting of the city or the nation 

                        or even his religion.

            He was in the primary environment of creation, nature, untamed,

                        as God created it.

            This was the setting for the Gospel, good news, the teaching 

                                                                                                            he would bring,

            and that teaching would undercut the religious culture of his time.

This has profound implications,

            for the Gospel, the message and meaning of Jesus,

                        his life, his death, his resurrection

            would go beyond his own religious tradition,

and it will not be limited to the institutional structure of any denomination

            that tags itself as Christian.

Jesus, the Eternal Christ, was and is always way beyond that,

                        much more expansive and  universal,

and our worship is a pale reflection of his spiritual presence in the world.

 

Jesus was out in the desert with the wild beasts “…and with the angels…”

            This primary environment of creation included all things created,

                        seen and unseen, as we say in the creed, visible and invisible.

 

And Jesus would emerge from the desert walking in the will of the Father,

            in full union with the Father and in harmony with all the created order

            and all the created order would serve him.

                        Fish would swim into the net at his word, when he told 

                                    the fishermen to cast the net over the other side of the boat.

                        Water would support his walking on it.

                        Bread would expand to feed thousands.

                        Bodies would heal.

                        Eyes that had never seen would be completed in their creation

                                    so that they could fulfill their function of vision.

 

Mark is saying, one could read between the lines,

            “Look out, world.  Here comes Jesus, 

                        and he’s going to blow you away.”

 

The desert is the place away from the domesticated environment; 

                        it is the place where the environment is outside our control,

it is the place of encounter with God.

 

And so, the desert is often the place where the best spiritual work is done.

Lent is a form of spiritual desert, 

a season of time provided for us 

to set things up for encounter with God.

It is good to be driven by the Spirit into such a conducive environment 

for awakening to God at work within us.

 

This is the most important point to note:

            it is the Spirit of Jesus who is at work within us.

Take courage, disciples here at Nativity.  Your Lord, your Savior is with you.

 

So as the exhortation for Ash Wednesday states, 

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, 

to the observance of a holy Lent. 

Ash Wednesday

                   A year ago when we started Lent together we really didn’t know what we were in store for.  I don’t know if we can say what is in store for us this year either.  I know what we want to plan for: return to in person worship, the calling of a new priest, a fresh start in your life together, the hope for a new normal that has promise for a better future.

 

                  Yet this moment right now is what we have for today as we embark once again on that Lenten journey from the ashes of our mortality and repentance today to the flame of new life kindled again at the Easter Vigil.  Just today wherever we are, however we are, here we are with our present reality.

 

                  The liturgy for Ash Wednesday helps us to stay with and look at our present reality, but not in a comfortable way, yet in a way that leads to healing for our sin sickness and reconciliation with God and with one another.  It’s the Litany of Penitence that is the real heart of this liturgy and gives us what we most need to make a good start for Lent.  I urge you all to turn to page 267 in your Book of Common Prayer, and pray that litany on your own.  Use it weekly or even daily as a helpful spiritual tool for observing a holy Lent.

 

                  The Litany is our confession.  The wording is in the first person plural – we – recognizing that we are all in this together.  We all have a common denominator – this sin sickness.  We all have been infected with the sin virus.  It’s something we have to admit is our own fault.  To move on to the healing of this sin virus we have to own that we have it. The vaccine is the Cross, and the good news is that inoculation came with baptism.  

 

                  Now sin is not just wrong actions, but also – and probably especially – what we have said, and even what we think to ourselves that no else can hear.  And it’s also both our sins of co-mission and sins of omission.

 

                  In the Litany Penitence we have to admit that our ability to sin pretty comprehensive; it covers the field from the first and greatest commandment to love God with all our heart and all our mind and all our strength to the second commandment that is like unto it loving our neighbor in the way we would love ourselves.

 

                  The litany reminds us of that part in the Lord’s prayer where we say forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us, and we must examine our conscience to see if we really have forgiven, lest we hold God to forgiving us according to the standards with which we actually forgive others.  The litany reminds us of how we ignore God, don’t listen, even don’t want to listen at times.  I think God must weep when we shun the Spirit speaking with us calling us to our better angels.

 

                  Do we need a list of sins to check off the boxes? This litany does that beautifully: lack of faith, pride, hypocrisy, impatience, self-indulgence, exploitation of others, self-anger, envy, attachment to material goods and comforts, dishonesty, negligence in our spiritual life and prayer, and the way we avoid giving words to our faith both in witness to others and, perhaps more importantly, in witness to ourselves.

 

                  There’s more on this check list: turning a blind eye to the needs and sufferings of others, indifference to injustice, conveniently ignoring the cruelty we may witness, jumping to conclusions that judge without merit, any kind of thought that demeans and is unloving towards one another, prejudice in all its many colors and its corollary, contempt for those different from us.

 

                  And finally, our sin goes beyond what we do to one another as a species, and includes our profligate consumption and pollution of the creation God had entrusted into our care, because that shows that we have no concern for who comes after us as long as we get what we want.

 

                  Yes, we are in a sorry state, and occasionally we have to take a good long look at that, admit the truth of our condition and ask for help.  And that is very good – to come to the place where we have to ask for help.  We have too much of that enculturation about rugged individualism that says, “I can do it on my own, thank you very much.” How did that get so deeply engrained into our psyches?  It’s like those of us who won’t stop and ask for directions when we can’t find where we want to go.

 

                  Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent is a good time to put on the virtue of humility, that quality of character that has given up on the illusion of self-sufficiency.  Humility can be comfortable with not being perfect, because perfection is a very lonely place to be.

 

                  So here we are again at the beginning of Lent, and all of this last year has seemed like one long Lent.  But I say to you, drop last year’s Lent. Leave everything that caused you so much grief and suffering this last year in the ashes of the cold, dead fire of last year.  Take those ashes and use them to remind yourself that they can be dead to you, and that you can rise, like the phoenix, from the ashes, and heed the Holy Spirit instead of grieving the Holy Spirit. Let Lent be a time to come clean with God and a time to draw closer to one another because we will be able to do that and when we do may we always remember what a privilege it is to be able to be together as friends, as family, as a faith community as followers of Jesus who died and rose for us and shows us how.