Lent 2 B + A life awake + 2.25.24

 

M. Campbell-Langdell

All Saints, Oxnard

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

In a book I recently read by Philip Roth (which is not for sensitive readers), American Pastoral (1997), a man meets a boyhood hero in the first chapter who appears to go on and on about his family’s successes, only to realize that his American dream of a life had gone completely sideways, and the protagonist spends the rest of the book parsing out a perfect life gone wrong. The theme appears to be the life that we present for public viewing, and the life we actually lead. This is something that we currently experience on social media. And it brings to mind Singer Marcos Vidal’s moving song “Cristianos” which asks of the church:

“¿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]

How many of us know how to react to the world, to see it as it is?

It is a sometimes-fearful thing living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world. We try to do our part, for example with the Foul Weather Shelter gathering space that the church has provided recently. But we know that housing is tenuous, that life is not easy here even in this haven known as Ventura County. Even as we live wonderful, often sunny lives (despite recent rain), we cannot be lulled just by sunshine. We must stay awake.
I went to a conference a couple of years ago, and its learnings still resonate. There, several activists and theologians spoke 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]

Sometimes I think we need not only to think about this in some general fashion, but we need to read the signs of the times. How do we speak up for goodness, justice and mercy in our midst and how do we stand against injustice? This week, I wrote our lawmakers to ask that they reconsider the prison work program. That, if it will reinforce human dignity and allow those who are incarcerated to earn some money even if the program offsets the cost of prison, that it should continue, but that it should not be a new form of slavery. This is just one issue going on in our time. We sometimes think of “our cross to bear” as personal but I think it is also collective. How do others have unfairly heavy crosses? Can we be a Simon of Cyrene to help carry the cross?

A popular song from a couple of years back has the lyrics "Stay Woke." This popular culture term means that we have to keep awake to what is happening in the world. Unfortunately some folks have bashed that word of late, but I want to reclaim it. It reminds us not to let 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. This does not mean living with abuse- that is a travesty of the reading of this passage.

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.

What are other ways that we can keep awake every day? As a church, and individually? It is hard because sometimes we do feel awake- awake to the possibility of violence or the possibility that someone would take advantage of us, but how can we remain awake to positive possibilities as well?

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, as translated to English:
“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.

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^[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.