Lent 2 B + Live Whole-hearted + 3.1.15

(https://abluemug.wordpress.com/2013/01/26/whole-hearted/)

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Santos, Oxnard

(Gen. 17:1-7, 15-16; Ps. 22:22-30; Rom. 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38)

Hear some words from St. Clare of Assisi:

"Live without fear. Your creator loves you, made you holy, and has always protected you. Follow the good road in peace, and may God's blessing remain with you always."[1]

How foreign these words seem, next to Jesus’s from today’s gospel: “Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38).

But are these two statements at odds with each other? The more I pray on them, the less I think they are.

Brené Brown is a sociologist and a teacher, and she has an idea, one that she has been sharing with many around the country and the world, including the leadership of our Episcopal Church, recently. One of her key concepts is that we need to dare to be vulnerable in our interactions with one another, not in the sense of being weak, but in the sense of not letting our shame dictate who we are and how we relate to others. She describes this way of living as a “whole-hearted” approach at life, something that she, an Episcopalian, actually took from the confession in our liturgy. She heard the part where we say we have not loved God with our “whole heart” and says that she realized that the happiest and most fulfilled people life with our whole hearts.[2]

Listening to today’s gospel passage, I don’t know about you all, but I cringed. Can you imagine the shame of being Peter, on top of the world because in the passage before this one, you are the one who has figured out that Jesus is the Messiah, you are the one who is the rock on which Jesus will build his church, and then, when in your confidence, you feel empowered to check Jesus because, well he seems to veer off in a different direction, you get cut down? Not only cut down, but called an adversary? I can’t imagine Peter’s embarrassment or shame in that moment. Or maybe I can, and I sure don’t want to experience it myself. Better him than me, we might say!

But notice, something remarkable! Peter does not cower. He does not sink back into the shadows, the disciple who got told off, and bad! Not at all, he takes the correction, and as far as we know, moves forward. He lives into his role as a leader of the early church, a founding father. Why? Why does he not let shame hold him back?

Perhaps he hears Jesus say something between the lines of his rebuke: Listen to the second part.

So what does Jesus say, exactly? “Then Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (Mark 8:31).”

Sometimes, the world can distract us, and we can be caught up in narratives of pain, suffering and death. This is what seems to happen to Peter here. He hears Jesus, and he only hears suffering, rejection, death.

It is interesting. Later in the passage, we hear talk about giving up your life in order to gain it, and how that’s what discipleship is about. But I heard something about that. Apparently in the ancient world selfhood was much more defined by your community and context. It was about your family, and your trade. So in a sense, Jesus is telling the disciples that they will need to leave their families and trades, separate themselves from what makes them who they are, in order to live into a new identity as Jesus-follower, as beloved child of God.[3]

But Peter is still learning this, still learning to not be controlled by the shaming and damaging influences of his context. So he just hears the first part.
But notice! In God’s story, there is always resurrection and life. “And after three days rise again.” What!? This is the resurrection we’re talking about! I don’t know about you, but it seems that Peter totally misses the second part.

As God did with Abraham in ancient times, Jesus is making a new covenant with us, one that may make us fall on our face in vulnerability, but will also bring us to eternal life. But we need to remember to listen for the second part.

Where in our lives do we need to let go of fear or despair? This isn’t about ignoring the pain we see around us—the violence in the middle East and the losses we have experienced in community recently, but about looking for the space where God is telling us good news. Where there is a resurrection hope, even if we just glimpse it afar off, which is appropriate for Lent. For me, this resurrection hope is in the way this community has pulled together to support Mabel, or in the ways our youth support each other.

This Lent, look for the second part. When the world is telling you stories of suffering, death and rejection, look for the glimpses of new life.

And remember wise St Clare’s words:

"Live without fear. Your creator loves you, made you holy, and has always protected you. Follow the good road in peace, and may God's blessing remain with you always."

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[1] http://www.liturgies.net/saints/clare/clare.htm.

[2] Krista Tippett’s On Being: “Transcript for Brené Brown—The Courage to be Vulnerable,” http://www.onbeing.org/program/transcript/4932 (November 21, 2012).

[3] Matt Skinner, Karoline Lewis, Rolf Jacobsen, “Sermon Brainwave 404: Lent 2 (B)” for March 1, 2015, https://www.workingpreacher.org/brainwave.aspx.