3/15/03
In Denial - Mark 8:31-38
(view lectionary notes for this text)
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 lost it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
In the season of Lent, talk about self-denial, about giving things up, is very familiar language. Often we try to 'give something up' for Lent - our favorite food, soda, chocolate, pizza, or watching TV. Sometimes people even choose instead to 'add something' during the season of Lent, visiting patients in a nursing home, volunteering at the Welcome Hall. Personally, I've always had a difficult time giving something up for Lent. I usually have good intentions leading into the season, as I try to decide what to go without. But my internal conversation usually goes something like this: I heard my friend Erica is giving up diet Coke for Lent. Wow - that's really impressive. Maybe I should give up diet Coke for lent. Yeah right, who am I trying to kid? I could never go 40 days without diet Coke! I can barely even go one day without it! Ok, so what is something easier I can give up? Maybe I could give up pizza. Yeah, I could do that. But wait - what if my friends want to order pizza when we're watching a movie? What will I do? That won't be very convenient if I can't have any. Alright, what else could I give up? And so the conversation goes.
Convenience. This year I am leading a covenant group at seminary for first year students. We've spent a lot of time studying the beliefs of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. In our reading together, the theme of fasting in Wesley's life kept coming up again and again, until finally, we decided that we would try fasting together as a group, picking a day of the week to fast, to go without food, and to see what our experience was like. When my friends found out I would be fasting, they all had their comments of course. "I fast everyday - from the time I go to sleep at night for eight hours until I wake up in the morning," said my friend Chris. It was a difficult experience for us - and it made us realize how much we consume - not just in terms of food, but in terms of everything - we are truly a consumer society.
Self-denial is certainly not my strong suit, and it does not seem to suit our society well either. In fact, the only kind of denial that seems to suit us is the kind of denial which causes us to reject that which Christ calls us to do, to deny who Christ is calling us to be, luring us to become. It is this kind of denial that we have down to a T, and this kind of denial for which Peter is unfortunately often known. Peter denied Christ during his crucifixion, and here he is denying Christ when Jesus foretells what he must undergo. Instead of denying himself, he denies Christ and what Christ must do.
Christ calls us to deny ourselves. What kind of denial are we talking about? Have you seen the movie Chocolat? In it, a woman comes to a small French community during Lent and opens up, of all the self-indulgent things, a chocolate shop, to tempt all of the good Christians from their disciplined self-sacrificing ways, or at least so it seems to the Mayor, who tries to keep this little community faithful. He himself practices the utmost self-denial, eating hardly anything at all, and then only perhaps some bread. To him, denial seems to mean no joy, no fun, no freedom. He is so overwhelmed and weighed down by his self-denial, that on Easter Eve, he breaks down, breaks into the chocolate shop, and ends up eating himself sick, to be found lying in a chocolate mess on Easter morning. Is this what Christ wants of us? Is this the call to self-denial we must heed?
Clearly, Jesus indeed calls us to self-denial. But it's important to understand exactly what that means. Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, not because this is an easy task, not because it is easy for us to give up things that seem important in our lives. The God of All-life certainly knows all of the many facets of our lives, all of our goings on, all of the details in our every days. Christ calls us to deny ourselves not to take away from us, but to give to us, the fullness of life that is possible in Christ. When we deny ourselves, when we empty ourselves, we are ready to be filled, then, by all the blessings which God would bring into our lives. We just need to make room, but letting go of some of the things that are in the way of that which God sets before us.
I want to turn back to what Rose shares with us in our skit here tonight. She says to her young visitors, and to us, "there is a parallel in life and on the stage. On the stage the actor must sacrifice - must lose himself or herself in a role to discover the person behind the lines. In life, we must lose ourselves in the life of our Lord, Jesus, to discover the person behind the Scriptures." I'm so struck by that last phrase - to discover Jesus the person behind the Scriptures. To know Christ, to walk with Christ, we must prepare ourselves, empty ourselves, deny ourselves, so that we can be open and ready to share with Christ. In our play today, it didn't matter who was what role when it came time to help out someone in need. Everyone could forget themselves enough to serve in the way that was required. This is the kind of self-denial Christ asks of us - to forget ourselves, our needs enough, too not be so wrapped up in ourselves that we put a wall between ourselves and the people God would have us serve. So, as Rose says, let's go. We've got a lot of living, and giving, yet to do. Amen.