Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Mark 8:31-38
Take up your cross and follow Jesus. We've all heard sermons on this, some about giving up your own life, some about the lives of others who give up their lives in the persecuted church. They tell of an idealistic goal because what if hefting our cross was something as easy as being vulnerable, of being who we truly are with others. Isn't this what Abraham is doing? He is so free to be himself with God he laughs in response to being told he will be a father, at ninety-nine. God doesn't chastise him for this, or take away the promise, God is big enough to allow all of a real Abraham.
Peter is a different story because Peter is trying to tempt Jesus to become what he is not. Don't die, don't suffer, don't become vulnerable to all people. In other words keep your head down and your mouth shut. Fear takes over and Peter tries to deal with it in secret and Jesus brings it all into the open. He calls everyone to him and says this about taking up crosses and being truly who we are and even for us doesn't fear get in the way?
Fear gets in the way when we think about risking anything. We like to have plans and outcomes and achievable goals and ways forward that have results at the end. This way we are in control, we can count on outcomes and in risking we don't have one of those. In risking we may fail, in risking we may not obtain the result we thought we might get in risking we don't get a plan, or an outcome we just try our best.
This is the point of Lent, a journey into the wilderness, which leaves us exposed and making it through by using our wits and foundations of which we were taught. We admire the stories of those who have made it in the wilderness. The grit and determination, but they all had to adapt and change and adjust to things they couldn't foresee, which means they had to become vulnerable to failure, to facing death, to doing things they never expected they would do in order to survive. Sometimes their own expectations of failure were so big it lured them back to the wilderness in order to prove they weren't vulnerable and they died trying.
What practice have you taken up for the wilderness of Lent? Is it one which leads you to being vulnerable, to knowing your weaknesses? Does it put you in touch with what makes you uncomfortable in knowing about yourself? Because it is in being fully known where we can enjoy this journey of faith. And when the changes and chances of this world come through we can more adequately deal with them because we know what it is to have been in the wilderness. To be stripped of all we have known and to find the ways to make it through.
Come and journey through. Dare to be exposed. Dare to be uncomfortable. Dare to learn more about yourself. Dare to try and fail because this is another journey of faith.
Take up your cross and follow Jesus. We've all heard sermons on this, some about giving up your own life, some about the lives of others who give up their lives in the persecuted church. They tell of an idealistic goal because what if hefting our cross was something as easy as being vulnerable, of being who we truly are with others. Isn't this what Abraham is doing? He is so free to be himself with God he laughs in response to being told he will be a father, at ninety-nine. God doesn't chastise him for this, or take away the promise, God is big enough to allow all of a real Abraham.
Peter is a different story because Peter is trying to tempt Jesus to become what he is not. Don't die, don't suffer, don't become vulnerable to all people. In other words keep your head down and your mouth shut. Fear takes over and Peter tries to deal with it in secret and Jesus brings it all into the open. He calls everyone to him and says this about taking up crosses and being truly who we are and even for us doesn't fear get in the way?
Fear gets in the way when we think about risking anything. We like to have plans and outcomes and achievable goals and ways forward that have results at the end. This way we are in control, we can count on outcomes and in risking we don't have one of those. In risking we may fail, in risking we may not obtain the result we thought we might get in risking we don't get a plan, or an outcome we just try our best.
This is the point of Lent, a journey into the wilderness, which leaves us exposed and making it through by using our wits and foundations of which we were taught. We admire the stories of those who have made it in the wilderness. The grit and determination, but they all had to adapt and change and adjust to things they couldn't foresee, which means they had to become vulnerable to failure, to facing death, to doing things they never expected they would do in order to survive. Sometimes their own expectations of failure were so big it lured them back to the wilderness in order to prove they weren't vulnerable and they died trying.
What practice have you taken up for the wilderness of Lent? Is it one which leads you to being vulnerable, to knowing your weaknesses? Does it put you in touch with what makes you uncomfortable in knowing about yourself? Because it is in being fully known where we can enjoy this journey of faith. And when the changes and chances of this world come through we can more adequately deal with them because we know what it is to have been in the wilderness. To be stripped of all we have known and to find the ways to make it through.
Come and journey through. Dare to be exposed. Dare to be uncomfortable. Dare to learn more about yourself. Dare to try and fail because this is another journey of faith.
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