Jesus’
Zen Words About Saving and Losing
Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser
February 28, 2018 Lent 2B Mark 8
In my first year as a minister, I was
deeply surprised to learn how much pain and suffering and loss there is in
people’ lives; even hurt and problems in families. I guess I assumed Wally
& the Beav were reality, and it was only my family that had troubles.
Pretty naïve for 25, huh? As a new
pastor, I was with folks in their health crises, when they cried about a child
in trouble, when they were bereaved, when a relationship was in trouble. I hadn’t known all this as a younger person,
and it was rather staggering to know. I
could look out over my congregation and know trouble in almost every life
there. It was overwhelming to me. And as I go to hospital rooms at Conway
Medical now in chaplain training, which isn’t even a major trauma center, there
is so much suffering of all kinds.
These last weeks as we’ve enjoyed the
beauty and skill of Olympic athletes, we’ve also heard of another school
shooting and seen the pain of the surviving students and the families of those
who were killed. In this life, everyone
gets bad news at some point. Among our
first reactions to news of death or great illness, denial is almost universally
instantaneous. “No!” we blurt. “Not
him!” or “Not cancer, not me!” “Not another shooting!”
So if we were with Jesus when he spoke of
his future rejection and even death, we’d probably join Peter in saying, NO, Jesus! You are the hope we’ve awaited, you are
the promised Messiah, God is going to use you to re-establish Israel so that
all nations stream to us like the prophets wrote! What is this nonsense about being rejected
and killed? NO, Jesus! That’s not the
way!
Jesus then calls Peter “Satan,” the
Tempter, for tempting Jesus to accept a lesser path than that difficult one God
called him to, the path that will lead to opening salvation to the world. Jesus has already
submitted to God’s way instead of what might seem like a good human way. He has already accepted the path that will
lead to this call, in a radical obedience to God. Peter is still clinging to his human
understanding of what the Messiah is and does – that’s why Jesus names him as
the Tempter, the satan – I’m sure it is very tempting to Jesus to avoid what
sounds like – and WILL be – a difficult and painful time.
In fact, if you remember the film ‘The
Last Temptation of Christ,’ that raised such a bruhaha some years ago, this is
what the film was about – in the film, Jesus is tempted by the desire for
normal Jewish man’s life – marriage, achievement, children, getting old with
grandkids around him – and avoiding the early death from the cruel and unusual
pain of crucifixion that is coming from his preaching. Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it – Jesus
sweats blood, but stays the course God has set for him.
Next in the text, Jesus has some words of
explanation about saving life and losing it, or losing life and saving it - that
sound rather paradoxical. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will
save it. (v 35) Sounds
kinda like a zen koan – what is the sound of one hand clapping? Something to puzzle over. If we’d been there, we’d probably say, “Say
what, Jesus?” “Would you repeat that?” There’s a joke I practiced and practiced
as a kid, because I loved playing with the words the way it does. “What goes up
the chimney down, but can’t go down the chimney up?” Say what?
(Its an umbrella – figure it out!.)
So Jesus says that if we try
to save our life, in human understanding and goals we assume are right because
lots of people are doing it, then we lose our real life with God; if we lose
that lesser version of life by choosing for the gospel, we save that real life. In Jesus’ own case, it meant literally dying
– yet that literal death only happens because he has already laid down his ego,
his will, his clinging on to earthly pursuits, in order to follow his call.
We
aren’t usually asked to submit to this kind of death outwardly, although
admittedly there are some who have died as martyrs in our history. And back in
the Columbine school shooting, my
confirmation class were moved and convicted by the story of that one young
woman was asked if she were a Christian and shot because she said yes.
We ARE asked this kind of “losing our
life” that means laying down of our ego, our will, our clinging to expectations
that pull us from fully bowing to God in submission and obedience. The risk is that we don’t know what God may
ask– but the bigger risk is that in trying to cling to our own understanding of
things, our own desires that run counter to God’s, we may lose our very
soul. And just because our call is not
the same as Jesus’ call, doesn’t mean it isn’t difficult along the way.
Of course, God blesses us and invites us
to enjoy the richness of creation, too.
Jesus says our call is to abundant life, the life of the heir of the
estate, children of God. We have to see
that its all from God in the first place, and good. The 10 commandments we’re looking at during
Lent are FOR us, for our thriving, for life as God created it to
be; and thus, for the salvation of humanity from our own worst impulses and
desire for death.
I used to hear the “Thou Shalt Not’s” as
ways God can ‘get’ us, and punish us if we slip up. Maybe that’s the way our less-developed
brains first learn them, as just more rules.
Rules to ruin our fun, and punishment if we fail. We think of them as rules we can make
ourselves follow with our own ego strength, and rules we can try and make
everyone else follow, too – and in the way we’ve interpreted them.
Our adult brains can work on a more
abstract and encompassing level, and we people of faith can realize these basic
commands for honoring God and living with neighbors more as, “Here’s how folks
will get along and thrive, and attitudes to have towards life that promote
goodness. Signed with Love, God.” And if
or when we fail to observe them, natural consequences seem to be set in
motion. Relationships are damaged,
people die, our hearts and our souls suffer damage. So in faith, we accept what God’s telling us
about how we’re designed to function. In
faith, we take God’s promises as true.
And in love for God, if we’re asked to say no to something that seems to
be a strong desire but runs counter to what’s been said to be good, we trust God
and don’t do it. And usually it DOES
take some ego strength, and a strong backbone – with the courage from the
Spirit and the fire of love for God underneath.
One of the weird ‘mom-isms’ I used to tell
my kids was, “It wouldn’t be a temptation unless it really looked good and
really pulled at us.” If it was easy to
resist, it wouldn’t be a temptation. For
example, God says its good for human relationships and community to not get
involved with someone besides your spouse.
But every once in a while, we meet someone whose chemistry so mixes with
our own that there’s a real pull, a strong force of attraction. With God’s help, we can make a choice not to
go along with it. I’m not saying its
easy, or it wouldn’t be a temptation. Earlier we talked about how God says to
remember to observe Sabbath. Its good for humans to regularly carve out time to
worship God and enjoy life and family.
Yet the busy-ness of getting ahead and the stress of work pull us to not
take this time away – and it’s a real pull, whatever it is, and we begin to
burn out, or worse. We really have to
order our lives purposefully to follow what God has said is good for us.
In a lesser example, my genetics make this
body God gave me not deal well with sugar – yet its also what I crave, and
difficult to resist. It feels like a
huge loss to deny myself what tastes so good – I’m working to tell myself that its
actually a positive thing for my body, to let it go – that I have to actively
submit myself to what is actually the best for me it sounds like a “duh!”
thing, yet its difficult. We all have
certain things that tempt us more than others….
This obedience, or submission to what God
has told us works best for us might be part of the idea behind the Adam, Eve
and apple story. People have known this
about being human from way, way back.
And have known the consequences of not listening, not accepting it. And we learn that difficult lesson about good
and evil. Our story in Genesis is a
very insightful telling about the whole “submission-to-God’s-truth-versus-what-really-seems-like-a-good-&-strongly-
attractive-idea-to-us-but-goes-counter-to-God’s-truth” thing.
In reaching out to grab what looks like
something good that we’re being denied by old kill-joys, we’re actually losing
our life in God. That’s what the
Scripture call the way of death.
The way of life, Scripture says, is to
submit to what God has told us is good and right. Far from being a sad life of giving up
everything that looks good to our eyes, its actually the way of abundance and
living spirit. And eternal life. Our Scriptures are full of the things God
says make for life – not just the “Thou shalt nots,” but lots of “seek afters”
like love, joy, peace, kindness, caring for one another, bearing one another’s
burdens, welcoming the stranger, seeking justice, gathering together, worshipping… All these are other ways of living into the
reality of life as God intended, life in the realm of God.
That’s what it means to lose our “life”
and therefore save it.
Interestingly, the idea of submission to
God is the meaning of the word “Islam.”
One who submits to God is called a “Muslim.” The basic concept of Islam is submitting
oneself to God, which is actually what following Christ is about, too. Unfortunately, both traditions have those who
go towards the fundamentalist, legalistic and rigid enforcement of bad
interpretations…. And miss the whole point….
I really dislike the word “obedience,” as
it jerks me back to that little girl fearing punishment. The word “submission” works better for me, to
mean that joyful acceptance of God’s truth.
So obedience, or submission, both of which are New Testament words, is
the spiritual practice of this week. I
hope you don’t hear me as advocating merely a lot of will-power or
hyper-religiosity or moralizing, because that’s not at all what I’m saying. This submitting
to God is the continual practice of willingly choosing to accept what God has
told us as the actual best for us, and the way of life in God’s realm. And of course temptation is still called
temptation because it calls to a place where we’re still struggling. In my experience, temptation never goes away
– there’s always some place where my acceptance and trust of Christ’s way needs
to be reaffirmed.
I trust and pray that during this Lenten
season, pondering these things and examining our lives will be present and important,
so that we might surely continue to learn to lay down our “life” and save our
souls. AMEN.
