Dying to Live Again and in New Ways

2 Lent B      March 4, 2012

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25  Mark 8:31-38

Lectionary Link

  Imagine that you are a rabbi who has become a follower of Jesus Christ.  And not only a follower of Jesus but a missionary apostle of Jesus Christ.  Jesus was a Jew who lived within the religious setting of Judaism.  But Rabbi Paul came to proclaim the early Christian version of Judaism and he took the message of Jesus way beyond Judaism; he took the message of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.  And in so doing, an eventual split occurred as Christianity became a distinct faith community that was no longer regarded by the Jews to be under the umbrella of Judaism.   Saul who had his name change to Paul, was on his way to Rome and he penned a letter to the church in Rome, from perhaps the city of Corinth.  He had met people from Rome who informed him about the competition in the various church gatherings in Rome.  Some followers of Jesus were Jews who thought that all followers of Christ had to adopt all of the customs of Judaism.  Some followers of Christ in Rome were Gentiles and they did not think that it was necessary to conform to all of the Jewish ritual customs, such as the dietary rules and the practice of circumcision.

  St. Paul wrote a long letter to deal with the competition between Jewish and Gentile Christians.  He used extensive argumentation to appeal to both communities to keep them together.  St. Paul used history and reason to appeal to the Jews to show how the Torah actually provided for people of faith, who were not Jews.  St. Paul asked, “Was Abraham a Jew?”  Well, no he wasn’t because he pre-existed the birth of the Israelite people.  Did Abraham have a covenant with God, even before the Israelites had a covenant with God?  Well, yes, Abraham was before Moses and the giving of the Law.  So was the faith of Abraham, without the benefit of the Law, as valid as the faith of Moses and his successors who had the benefit of the Law?  Yes, of course.  Paul’s argument is really rhetorical because he is assuming the answers are accepted by his fellow Jews.

   So how can the outcast Gentiles be accepted into the faith without the benefit of following all of the practices of Judaism?  Well, the greatest Patriarch of all, Abraham had a name-changing covenant and so did his wife.  Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah and the changing of the names signified that they would be Father and Mother of countless people, who like them, would be people of faith.  They believed God and it was accounted as being pleasing and accepted to God. The Israelite heirs of Abraham who followed the Law and accepted Christ were pleasing to God, but also the Gentiles who accepted Christ, can be pleasing to God without following all of the laws of Judaism, since they in some ways are like Abraham.

  This letter of Paul became passed around and read and preserved and it was voted into the book of Books by the later church and so Paul’s letter when read in the church, has an epitaph, “The word of the Lord.”

  And we who are neither Jews nor even Gentiles in the ways in which the people in Rome were, wondered how infallible such specific words in a particular context can be?  Perhaps what is really infallible in the Bible is the godly intent of the writers, not the specific details of words that relate to the particular setting.

  Our efforts to live the life of Christ now are not infallible in the details of our words and action but they are infallible if our motive is love and good will.

  What seems to be the infallible essence of the Bible is that God in many ways and times and place is calling people into loving relationship with God and with each other.  The ways, deeds and words will always be less than perfect; what is perfect is the heart and deeds of people who want to be accepted by God, not in their own way but in the way that God presents to them.

  The Christian or Christians or Christo-Jews who wrote the Gospel of Mark were writing a narrative form of a spiritual reality that had become practiced in their community.  How was Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah?  And was it important to have the correct answer?  Peter represented the one who is a Jew who confesses Jesus to be the Messiah but does not understand what kind of Messiah he was.  Many Jews believed that the Messiah had to be a triumphant conquering king like David who would intervene with great power for his people.  The writer of the Gospel of Mark was certain that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, but not because he would be a conquering king; rather he was a suffering servant on behalf of the world.

  And the suffering servant, Jesus, who suffered even unto death upon a cross, would provide the spiritual metaphor for everyone who wanted to change their lives for the better and find acceptance with God.

  So, taking up one’s cross and following Jesus became the metaphor, the teaching and catch phrase for the method of spiritual change that was occurring in the lives of the early Christians.

  These were people who wrestled with perennial questions that face each and every soul?  How can I become better than I am?  And if I know I am to become better, where do I get the power to make it happen?  And how do I become better without it simply being a matter of being proud about my own accomplishments?  How do I get better without ruining the accomplishment through a supreme act of pride?

  The method is dying to ourselves so that we might live again in a new and better way.  One Greek word for life is psuche and this refers to the interior life of the soul; our soul life has to let go of habits of mind, emotion and will, to take on new ways of thinking, feeling and acting.  And in taking on these new ways of thinking we attain to a more abundant life, called in the New Testament, zoe  life.  And this life is experienced as God’s gift to us; it is experienced as the presence of God’s Spirit within us as a higher power to help us become our fuller selves through surpassing our selves in future states.

  The people of the community of the Gospel of Mark, believed that there was power in the dying of Jesus on the Cross that could become the power in their lives in dying to what was keeping them enslaved.  They also believed that the power that God granted for Jesus to live again is the same power that allowed each person to renew their lives with new living, new joy, new possibilities.  The Gospel writer of Mark encoded this spiritual reality in the Christ narrative.

  And this narrative was relevant to their community; it was relevant to the Roman community, and it is relevant to us.

  What this means is that there are no outcasts?  Not Gentile, not Jew, not male, not female.  Why?  Because in acknowledging the power of the death of Christ as a grace and power within our own souls, we in any condition can humble our selves to receive a higher power to overcome what controls us, and receive resurrection higher power to take on a new experience of abundant life.

  And we need not get complacent or stuck in any form of abundant life; since the process is on-going.  We live in this process of dying to our tendency to make idols in our habits of mind and feelings.  We also live in the process of resurrection freedom to take on new habits of mind, feeling and choice.  And this process is open to anyone and since it is open to all, there can be no outcasts. 

  Would that we at St. John’s would be devoted more to this process of grace in our souls, than to any particular ritual style that we might prefer.  Our ritual only celebrates the grace in our souls.

  So during Lent, we take up our cross in the circumstances of our lives, because we are hopeful that the power of the death of Jesus will also be a power in us to leave what we need to leave, and take up the new and abundant life that is promised us by the presence of God’s Spirit.

  By taking up our cross and following Christ, we are not outcasts to God; and since it is offered to everyone, we can never make anyone an outcast from God’s grace in Christ.  Amen.