Sermon: Create in us hearts willing to love (Mar 1, 2015)

Lent 2B

March 1, 2015

Mark 8:31-38

            On Ash Wednesday, I stopped to get gas at the Delta Sonic near my house. I wasn’t on empty, but I was close. I pulled into the one empty spot, and popped the gas door. Nothing happened. I tried again. Nothing. I walked over to it and tried to pry it open with my fingernails, then tried wedging my credit card in there, and then my fingernail clippers. Nothing. In desperation, I looked at the man filling up his tank in front of me, and said, “Can you help me?” He was happy to help, and we tried with one person pushing the button and the other prying open. Nothing. He asked helplessly, “What are you going to do?” I answered just as helplessly that I had no idea. He said, “Here: go across the street to Firestone. Ask for Larry. He’s a really nice guy and he’ll help you out.” Okay, thanks, I said, and went on my way. The nice man beat me there and was already in the store, explaining to Larry my situation. I arrived in time to hear, “Can you help her?” I thanked him profusely as Larry led me out the door. Sure enough, Larry was able to open the gas door from the inside, put some oil on the mechanism, did some strategic bending of parts to make it work, and sent me on my way, not asking for a penny in return.

            A true Good Samaritan story! It’s exactly the sort of help we all hope to receive if needed, and that we hope that, if we had an opportunity to serve someone in need in that way, we would also be such a good neighbor. For the most part, I think most of us are good neighbors, right? We are kind people, eager to help those in need, to give a little money here, a little time there, a little smile all around. The myriad ministries people are involved in here is a testament to this fact.

            Yet I am finding that our focus on simplicity is pushing me to think about serving my neighbor in a different way, and not necessarily a way that I am as willing to do. Today’s Gospel text,

especially, gets me thinking differently about being a good neighbor. Jesus says to his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Suddenly, as I think about the ways that I am willing to serve people I encounter, I realize that I am very willing to be kind and giving and serve those in need… just as long as it doesn’t put me out too much. I help in ways that are either convenient to me, or that make me feel really good, so they are worth the effort. That doesn’t feel selfish to me – after all, I am also trying to balance my responsibility to you, my congregation, to my husband, to my family and friends, and to my own needs for rest and Sabbath. Self-sacrificial giving seems like a good, Christian thing to do in theory, but practically, life and our limited time and energy only allow so much, right?

            And yet, here are Jesus’ difficult words about denying ourselves and losing our life, clear as day and important enough that they appear in Luke and Matthew as well. So I think we are called this day to consider them seriously.

I mentioned that our focus on simplicity was what started urging me to think differently about what it looks like to serve my neighbor, to deny myself and lose my life and follow Jesus. Let me explain why that is. I think there are a lot of aspects of our journey toward simplicity that will be directly beneficial to us. De-cluttering our space will make our homes tidier, will create a space of calm that allows for less distracted time with God and with loved ones, and as an added bonus, we can give that extra stuff to someone who needs it. I like giving stuff I don’t need to people who do need it, but if we’re being honest, my primary interest in de-cluttering is the benefit it will have on my life, not the benefit on someone else’s. The effort of making more time for Sabbath is also one that benefits us, and our relationship with God. Being more conscious of our food choices does

benefit the earth – and we will learn more about that in our session on the topic in a few weeks – but my primary interest there, too, is for my own health.

            These are all good things, and being conscious of our own needs and how our faith can grow through these practices is important. But what efforts toward simplicity and serving God and neighbor are we ignoring because, even though we know they will benefit someone else in some way, or prevent harming them, they make our lives here and now a little more challenging than we’d like, or they cost a little more, or they take a little more time?

            For example: instead of buying products cased in plastic and then tossing the containers when we’re done, we could look for places that refill existing containers. Or we could make that product ourselves, instead of buying it. It takes a little more time and effort, but it is for the benefit of our neighbor, because it prevents that single-use plastic, both its production and its disposal, from polluting other communities. Are we willing to make the effort? Or, instead of buying food that was unethically grown and harvested by underpaid workers, we could more intentionally buy locally sourced food.  Or, instead of throwing everything in the garbage can or recycling bin and watching some stranger haul it away for us, we could think about what in that bin we could have avoided using

in the first place, what we could have composted, what we could have replaced with something reusable. It all takes a little more effort – at least at first – and a little bit of denying ourselves and our habits, and losing the way of life to which we have grown accustomed, in favor of a life that is with others in mind. It requires thinking about “the way I’ve always done it,” evaluating it, deciding if it is truly the way that best serves our neighbors near and far, and if not, doing something to change it.

            These may seem like such little things in the grand scheme, and like our little action won’t affect anyone directly and certainly won’t save the world. You’re right – it might not save the world. But being willing to deny your old habits and lose your old way of life for the sake of others – that could very well change you, and your heart, and your perspective, and your influence, and your understanding of God and love and neighbor. And that sort of change – that could change the world.

            And I think that might be, in some way, what Jesus means by these challenging words: deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. It means to get out of yourself and your insistence that you know the best way, and instead to accept that there might be some behaviors you need to deny and lose for the sake of your neighbor. It doesn’t mean to bear and suffer through whatever burden might be given to you, but rather to be willing to suffer a little bit because you know it is for the sake of others, you know that it is, ultimately, for the sake of life.

Last week we heard the end of the Noah story, in which God promises never again to destroy the earth by a flood. Because this is so often seen as a children’s story, it loses its punch – we don’t see just how costly a promise this was for God to make. The option to destroy the earth would have made God’s job a whole lot easier, when sin started to overcome. But no, God said that wouldn’t happen. Instead, God had to save the world by a much more costly route: by giving his only Son so

Haitian Floral Cross

that all who believed in him would not perish but have eternal life. To show his love for us, God pursued the most costly and inconvenient route possible.

To embrace the cross as a way toward life is difficult, and it requires some self-denial and losing of our way of life. But in the end, it is the only way that promises not only life, but eternal and abundant life. The question for us becomes: how will we not only embrace, but also participate in that costly promise, so that all the world, all our neighbors near and far, human or animal, might have life, and have it abundantly?

Let us pray… Life-giving God, we are hesitant to give up the way of life we know, even though we know our ways may harm our neighbors. Create in us clean hearts, O God, hearts that are willing to change, open to new possibilities, and eager to love even when it may cause us to suffer – all for the sake of your gospel. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.