Becoming The Easter Movement:
“Forever Close…no matter what the cross you bear!”
Romans 4: 13-25; Mark
Jesus laid his hands on him twice….perhaps healing is a process, not a product…maybe miracles have more than one part/one stage to them…..laid his hands on him twice, the man looked intently…the Greek says the man looked up….and his sight was restored. Up. Not down surveying himself, but up and out…..might that be gratitude and a growing perspective on life? Jesus said to Peter, actually rebuked him after Peter would not accept what Jesus knew to be true in terms of his own death…perhaps Peter wanted a king, not a messiah…we all want a king to come and right what is wrong…save us from the world. Jesus does come to save, us, but not so much from the world as from ourselves….rebuking Peter he says to him/us not to set our minds on human things but rather on divine…Jesus says to those who have gathered around him…as we have gathered….Deny yourself…look up….don’t be so selfish, self-centered….look to the bigger picture, divine outcomes….pick up your cross and follow me. Many scholars believe it is not so much our individual crosses Jesus refers to here, but how it will take all of us, each of us, to carry the cross Jesus bears…it takes a community to raise…a cross. The cross…a symbol of ultimate justice, integrity, relationship with God palpable in our relationships with each other. >That cross you usually carry around, is it about justice and integrity? Sure you got the right cross….not a chip on your shoulder? Darn! Jesus reminds us of what we deeply know to be true: To really be alive, you may lose all things deemed important by the culture at large. In that way, the culture would say you are dead, a failure. But you will be truly alive, full of self, seeing the bigger picture, without shame….blame. Jesus implores Peter to see the bigger picture and take the longer view of things…he implores him…implores us…to face the faith, not just the facts. To make our move! Jesus implores us, just as God implored Abraham and Sarah, to believe…to understand that laws don’t create justice, people do. Jesus himself entered his own soul and there found…God and courage. Those who save their lives…just keep on living their lives in the same old ways…will lose their lives…nothing is going to change for them. Those who lose their life…who go beyond complaining and blaming and stop living their lives the way they’ve always lived them…they will find life….they create a movement, join with others, others are drawn to them….. You already know this. You were born knowing this and each of us has spent a life-time trying to forget it…we critique Jesus and the faith and religion, missing the point completely. The point? God loves you and you are special and what God most deeply desires for you is what you deeply desire for yourself. Life can be different. God is there….where are you? The covenant made with Noah is extended to Abraham and Sarah…has been extended to many others along the way…and now is extended to you. There is a popular religious mentality abominating the air today…it’s still with us after all these centuries. It says that if you have found favor with God, if you act in right ways according to religious laws you will be rewarded ….that if you figure it all out, then you will find the perfect boss, the perfect spouse, the perfect child, the perfect colleague, the perfect bishop, or in the case of pastors, the perfect church.
In sum, in our culture/religious culture there is still this notion that to be fully alive is to be blessed by wealth and happiness. This is all that many Americans want in their religion cause its all they want from their lives. They want a "Jacuzzi Jesus" -- an experience that will leave them relaxed, warm and bubbly and yet, at the same time, feeling fit and trim when they get out. But we don’t have a feel good God or a Jacuzzi Jesus…we do got a womb with a view …a new life where we can see the bigger picture! The real significance of the cross for us today is that it propels us forward. It is a sign of encouragement, not discouragement. It means we, too, can take chances…make a difference…make new choices for our lives that will pay off if we take the long view of things…live within the providence of God (God’s timing for us.). It forms us in a new way, a new radically traditional movement within the faith. We can make changes within ourselves to communicate love and care for ourselves and for others. It feels risky…maybe scarey to think of changing our choices. But there is something far riskier to us than changing…not changing our choices! Soemthing far riskier than joining a movement of church when you don’t even know what the church you’re moving toward may look like! That something is remaining the church we have been. We know the fate of church today…fete comple! The church we grew up in is dead. Dead. Dead. Die with it or move forward….that’s the choice. Pews or no pews, committee meetings or meetings of the whole, giving just enough of yourself or giving generously, these are all the distractions. The attraction is justice, support, peace. As a congregation, we are picking up our cross turning complaints into actions. We are more fully funding our ministry so we can be cared about and for and encouraged and propelled out into our lives. We are picking up our cross and reaching out through Living Waters, impacting our community as we support our contemplative justice Action Alerts addressing the issues of our day, as we support Hope House and Bay View Community Center, as we support One Great Hour of Sharing addressing worldwide need. As a congregation, we are picking up our cross. As individuals and as community, we pick up our crosses as we extend care to everyone who comes through our doors…no matter what race, gender, sexuality, age, class, ethnicity, health (physical and emotional health), no matter what their life story or life condition. We pick up our crosses when, taught by our teachable hearts, we live the wisdom of our faith beyond these doors and express our faith not on Sunday mornings, but on all the days we confront the temptation to put ourselves first…or last…. When we confront the temptation to hang on to the way the things are even if they are not all that good…the temptation to keep habits in place, to hide behind old choices and behaviors, to blame others for the way our lives are. It is out there, in the world, that we are called to be the church, not in the safety of this service or this building. Our faith identity is not tied to the name of our denomination or the address of our building, but to our individual names and the cross we pick up…a cross which speaks of a love which surpasses human understanding…a love that stood up for what is right and just in life and stayed the course all the way through crucifixion to resurrection….a cross it takes all of us together to carry. Jesus got nailed for what he believed in and what he did about it. His kind of love and integrity cannot be stopped by someone’s threats, temper tantrums, sarcasm, sabotage…not even by death. You know this is true…here we are 2,000+ years later talking about his love and courage. Yet, how often we act ashamed of Jesus…or maybe that’s embarrassed by the stories of Jesus….maybe because how others have used them for their own good or used them to judge us. Deep down within, I know we know better…and yet so often we do nothing. De-valuing Jesus is much easier than listening to him. This was so for the Pharisees and Pilot and the crowd…and it is still easier to blame/shame him than it is OK to follow him today. But not even our inaction can stop the love of God…can hold back the covenant and its promise. You see, like to Abraham and Sarah, God has promised to always be there for you. Despite the facts, they held onto their faith. They gave God a chance. Their faithful action is their legacy. Hoping against hope at times, hoping faith would surpass reality, Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Moses and Mary and Peter and YOU enter their own souls… find there the renewed life you long for…right there…already there ….the promise of God fulfilled in you. Every time we realize we are a part of the most powerful movement human kind has ever knows….light shines out into the darkness that is with us. Even the smallest action to stop complaining and pick up your cross and do something about the life you have…even the smallest new choice lets light shine from your soul. And the world is moved! In the light, I am beginning to believe in me the way God does. When you look back on your day, when you close your eyes and look at your faith and your day, what do you see? Does your faith journey move you out from your soul into the world ? Close your eyes and lean into your own soul. Jesus is laying his hands upon you as many times as it takes for you to see……and for you to become the movement…for your hope to become real….for you to see you are indeed the one you’ve been waiting for!
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