I would like to begin by thanking the Diocese of Polynesia Youth Mission from the Great Suva area for participating in our clean-up of Nubukalou Creek yesterday.
Today is the Second Sunday in Lent and in the lectionary there are two gospel readings. One focuses on the Transfiguration Which is usually used 0n the Sunday before Lent, the last Sunday in Epiphany as part of that last part of the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. In all his glory with the prophets Moses and Elijah up on the mountain.
I chose the second Gospel reading. And this is the last time we will hear from Mark until after Easter, as over the next few Sundays, the lectionary readings switches to the Gospel of John.
Today’s Gospel Reading really confronts the common notion that to be a Christian all you need to do is be nice and go to church once in awhile when there’s nothing better to do on a Sunday morning.
There’s a “back story” behind the Jesus story in the Gospels. It’s the story of Peter who has a bad case of “foot-in-mouth” disease. But I think he’s a person we can identify with more easily just for that reason, because all of us shoot ourselves in the foot over and over, and sometimes we even take aim. Like Peter.
But I think Jesus would have felt a more profound love for Peter whose heart was in the right place, even when his head wasn’t.
Peter may have messed up all over the place and repeatedly, but I think he was never “ashamed” of Jesus and his teachings. Peter didn’t have all the right moves, but there was no doubt whose side he was on.
Peter uses the term Christ to describe Jesus, and Jesus responds with a charge to keep silent, then a disclosure of his impending suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection.
This exchange between Jesus and Peter is quite heated. In Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ disclosure is a rejection of Jesus’ suffering and death as a necessary part of what Jesus has been preaching about the presence of the Reign of God. And, of course, Jesus’ response to Peter’s rebuke is to demand that if they want any part of what he is about, they too must be willing to die.
There are two distinct views of discipleship in contention here: One is a godly reflective decision to accept rejection, suffering, dying, and rising; the other is a human reflective decision to “gain the whole world.” This passage has been used to keep people in bondage of suffering in abusive relationships. The words “take up thy cross,” can be a powerful tool of abuse. This doesn’t mean we need to abandon the language, but we need to be careful, and understand the ways Jesus’ words have been used for evil.
Today, I would like us to reflect on the 2 questions Jesus asks in the midst of this exchange, between Jesus and his disciples, with Peter and with the crowds in v36 and 37:
What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?
There are many stories about people selling their souls for success, for position, for power, possessions, for fame etc… Lot’s of stories about musicians … and others….
In drama school, some 30 years ago, I was given the part of Dr. Faustus in the play - The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is an Elizabethan tragedy by Christopher Marlowe. Very briefly, Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to making a pact with the Devil at a crossroads, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.
This legend seems to have particular resonance at times of moral crisis and can also speak to the still current insatiable appetite for modern development which is oftne intolerant of those who do not acquiesce to the plan.
In the play Faust learns that an elderly couple, Baucis and Philemon, wish to remain in their remote cottage and refuse to be bought off. The couple’s quiet contentment is a rebuke to Faust’s will to power: he is infuriated by their resistance (“Their stubbornness, their opposition / Ruins my finest acquisition”), and he orders their land to be seized.
The ecological and human cost of this insatiable appetite for expansion is evident in the 21st Century. Climate change is perhaps the most fitting contemporary analogy for the Faustian bargain – decades of rapid economic growth for an elite, followed by grave global consequences for eternity.
Technology has highlighted our daily Faustian choices: who reads the “terms and conditions”? Smartphones make our attention spans fleeting, and we are like Faust, who promises to part with his soul if ever he lingers to savour an experience (“If ever I to the moment shall say: / Beautiful moment, do not pass away!”).
Our challenge today is that, to some extent, we are all in a Faustian bind. We are plagued by politicians offering easy answers to complex problems – especially when those easy answers are empty promises. The legend warns us to be wary of the cult of the ego, the seductions of fame and the celebration of power. These are hollow triumphs, and short-lived; indeed, “what good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?”
I wonder about the soul of our planet; I wonder about the soul of our Pacific; I wonder about the soul of our nation. What are we gaining? And what are we losing?
Yesterday we went beside, onto and into Nubukalou Creek… And it was quite interesting because as we were going in for the last few days those of us that have been sort of trying to coordinate this.
What was supposed to be a small clean up exercise which turned out to be quite a serious one. We were conscious that we couldn't see much plastic and styrofoam and things floating on the surface of the water. At one stage we were laughing to ourselves saying well what happens when we show up on Saturday and there's no rubbish. It's going to be a short clean up and maybe everybody either pick one piece of rubbish up or somebody suggested take our own rubbish. Put it in and pick it up.
Yesterday we were challenged to look at Nubukalou Creek in very different ways. The Anglican youth was sent up to the part of the creek that comes out of Holland Street just up from the Bishops House. There was a lot of rubbish. Plastic Styrofoam, Cans… you name it.
And some of us who were on the creek on our paddle boards or standing in the creek found below the surface so much rubbish. I mean at one stage I was pulling out computer parts bicycle parts. They were even pipes, bottles, and many other things that we couldn't even lift out of the water that we will have to look at later on. The water police pulled out a washing machine.
We reminded in this exercise to look below the surface to see what's there.
And so in the challenge that we face in our current crisis in Fiji and the Pacific and perhaps in the world. Jesus often challenges us to go beyond the surface and not just look at the issues we are facing.
But to look more deeply at the heart of the matter to look more deeply at structural Injustice. To be honest about our souls.. because every day we are asked to make choices, which may on the surface seem simple, but on deeper reflection become more difficult.
And not all the choices are big choices. A lot of the choices are small choices and therein lies the rub as they say because we are challenged to look holistically at those small choices that chip away at our soul. Each time for profit, for position, for power, for possession - We give away. We sell off. A little piece of our soul
And when you add those little pieces up, we realize how much of our soul we have lost.
How about that?
In our Lenten Journey
We're often challenged about the things that we want to give up. Many of us struggle with moving away from the physical act of the spiritual discipline. We're all too happy to let our bodies suffer by fasting and giving up certain things. But our attitudes? Our desires?
Those are things that we find hard to give up.
Make no mistake. The challenge of the Kingdom is about our soul. It is beyond politics.
It is beyond power and position. It is beyond the accepted norms through which we define success.
Because the world That we live in does not look well on kindness. The world sees compassion as a weakness. The world wants instant gratification and comfort above all.
When do we feel temptation to take the easy road? When we’re called to a difficult task, there is inevitably a time when we wonder if it is worth it. We start to think of plan B, or some way to sneak away. I saw a poster a long time ago that said “The workout begins the moment you want to quit.” In a way, Jesus ministry really begins when he is first tempted to take the easy way out. Instead he reminds everyone that his path does in fact head straight for the cross.
Lent is a time for us to think about the path for the cross.
But when we make those difficult reflections and think of the cross, we must always remember that the way of the cross is the way to new life, abundant and eternal life – for us, for others, for all.
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