Lent 2 (B) + Stay Woke + 2.25.18

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M. Campbell-Langdell
All Saints, Oxnard
(Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38)
“¿Qué te pasa iglesia amada, que no reaccionas,
sólo a veces te emocionas, y no acabas de cambiar?” [1]
"What is happening with you, beloved Church, you do not react,
just sometimes you get emotional, but you never really change?" [1]
Says Marcos Vidal, speaking of the church in his song, "Cristianos."
Is a sometimes fearful thing living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Recently we have noticed more people losing housing, but often some of our lives seem sheltered. And I know that many peoples’ daily reality is not so easy. But life here is sweet, and easier at times than in other places, with the best climate. Even though it is difficult to make a living here.
But we cannot be lulled just by sunshine. We must stay awake.
I went to a conference on Tuesday in which several activists and theologians spoke. It was a very interesting place. An author, Ched Myers, spoke of this passage that we have today and also on the role of Peter in general in the gospel of Mark. Myers called Peter the "chief knucklehead” and therefore the patron saint of the church. He means to say that we who form the church need someone imperfect for our example. Someone who hears the truth that Jesus shares and who doesn’t know what to say, or in fact, says the totally wrong thing! But he learns. Ched Myers says that the church is asleep, hung over by the wine of the Empire. And Jesus tells us that we have to keep awake. We have to forget our individual concerns for long enough to "carry our cross" which is about seeing what God wants us to do in the world. [2]
I saw an example of this this week when I saw students from Florida talking about their fear and the changes that they want to see to some of the most powerful people in our country. I saw this when I saw parents thinking of their children and how to take care of themselves spiritually as parents. Sometimes our cross is something fearful and sometimes it is something more everyday, but still a challenge in a more subtle way. Sometimes is holding vigil at the side of a loved one who is suffering as many have done with Haydee in recent weeks.
A popular song has the lyrics "Stay Woke." This popular culture term means that we have to keep awake to what is happening in the world. Not to let that cultural institutions deceive us if they do something wrong. For people with a melanin deficiency like me, it means that I have to keep awake to the ways in which I have a life better than others who may have a slightly darker skin tone. My cross is sometimes not as heavy as that of my undocumented brother or my African-American sister. But my cross is also to be aware of this and do what I can to correct what I see as unjust in the world.
Jesus tells us that we have to deny ourselves. This does not necessarily mean denying our individual needs forever, but it means thinking for a while about what God wants and what God is doing in our midst so that we can be aware of what God wants us to do.
Peter did not do perfectly after this not-very-nice talk with Jesus. And it really wasn't a very nice talk. One commentator notes that Peter literally tries to shut Jesus up and Jesus begins to rebuke him as if he were an evil spirit. [3] Shut up! Get away from me, Satan! These were not nice words. Jesus raises his voice here because Peter needs to wake up to the situation. We may not want to raise our voices to one another, but sometimes we have to raise our voices together. When there is injustice. So that we are not silent when we see something that isn't right. For this reason I posted on Facebook this week when I saw that the Immigration Department has changed his description of mission and has removed its previous description of the United States as "a nation of immigrants." But isn’t that the truth? Who of us here doesn’t have immigrant blood running somewhere in his or her veins? I would wager few to none. .
What are other ways that we can keep awake every day? As a church, and individually?
But to return to Peter, the slow learner, but really neither am I. He will deny Jesus, and as Ched Myers points out, he will do it while warming up beside the fires of the Roman Empire, or at least that of Roman Imperial soldiers. We, like Peter, have to remain awake so as not to  deny our truth in the face of what the world presents.
Every Sunday in Lent, we walk the Stations of the Cross before our worship in Spanish. And every Sunday we have to remember to take up that cross again. Now, this is not our neighbor’s cross, nor even your best friend's cross. Although sometimes, as Simon of Cyrene did with Jesus, we can help one another in shouldering our burdens. But God has something different for everyone. We cannot carry another’s long-term.
So … keep watch. Stay woke and may God guide us this Lent. To listen you need to listen to your own heart and take the action that is given.
Thus ends the aforementioned song by Marcos Vidal:
“Ojalá el maestro pueda decir como dijera hace años:
"No lloréis sólo duerme no está muerta".
¿Qué te pasa iglesia amada, que no reaccionas,
sólo a veces te emocionas, y no acabas de cambiar?

Jesús se levantó de la muerte,
¿Y acaso a ti no habrá quién te despierte?”

“I hope the teacher can say as he said years ago:  
‘Weep not, he only sleeps, he is not dead.’
Beloved Church, why do you not react,
only sometimes get emotional, but never really change?

Jesus rose from death,
Won’t there be someone to wake you up?"
Who will awaken us, but Jesus?
Amen.


[1] "Cristianos," by Marcos Vidal, https://www.musica.com/letras.asp?letra=812043 .
[2] Ched Myers, "Digging in Our Heels," (also: Rose Berger, Art Cribbs), Kinsler Institute, February 20, 2018.
[3] C. Clifton Black, "Commentary on Mark 8:31-38," For February 25, 2018, https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=3568.




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