“Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus the
Christ.”[1]
Please pray with me.
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart,
be pleasing to you my Lord and my redeemer.”[2]
Amen.
So I have to level with you all. I suck at “doing Lent”. Giving up something or taking on a particular
orientation or activity for the Lenten season is just not something I do well. While Jackie is Catholic and there are
lingering of the prohibition on eating meat on Fridays in Lent, we routinely
ignore it. I’ve been an eager sharer of
various Lenten devotional calendars, especially the interfaith power &
light carbon diet Lenten version, but I simply can’t keep on top of them. For all of my military background, with its
requisite disciplines and rhythms of routine, I just really struggle to
maintain the discipline that I ought to have during this season. And I’ll be blunt in saying, that if we listen
to the lessons today, you know what, that’s kinda OK. Because, for all of the goodness that comes
from such disciplines, such routines, such rules, such laws, they aren’t the
things that, in the end, really matter. What
matters is faith, faith that pervades and is a part of our very essence, not
just something we confess at worship on the weekends.
What is this faith that I speak? One of my former congregants, at Hope in Annandale,
Virginia,[3]
used a phrase “you have a good soul” to describe this faith. As she put it,
there’s just something that people of deep and abiding faith exude, that you
can’t but see and recognize, that makes it evident that all is right with them
and their relationship with God. And
it’s not what they do or don’t do, it’s not about them adhering to this or that
set of rules or devotions, it’s just the ease at which they simply exist that
makes their faith clairvoyant, which is demonstrative of a “good soul”.
So then, what is a “good soul”? Well, I think today’s lessons get at that
very question exceptionally well. If we
take them in order, we start with Abram and how God reckoned with his
righteousness through a covenant. What
is not in our verses today is the preceding interlude where God forewarned
Abram that he would be the father of many nations, in Genesis chapter 15, and
where the pronouncement of Abram’s righteousness is made, namely in verse 6,
“And he believed the Lord, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness”[4]. Abram would between that verse in chapter 15
and the reading we have today, listen to his wife Sarai, being a bit impatient,
who recommended Abram lay with Hagar, and ultimately begat Ishmael[5]. Here God again reconciles, knowing what is in
Abram’s heart, his “good soul”, and seals the aforementioned reckoning in a
covenant that is put into Abram, now turned Abraham’s, very flesh. We could wax long and deeply on circumcision
and its symbology, its physical effects, and much more, but that is not the
core of this lesson or even at the core of the covenant God is making with
Abraham and Sarah and all of their descendants (which, by the way, includes
us). God in his covenant making, makes
it clear that it is not what Abraham has done or not done, it is about his
faith and faithfulness to God that has enabled the covenant to come forward,
and the penultimate consequence is a form of tangible blessing. But the core of this is still about the “good
soul”.
Paul helps us understand this further in his letter to the
Romans. He states clearly, that “[f]or
this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law
but also to those who share the faith of Abraham.”[6] Paul goes on to further clarify this point
that “[t]herefore his faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ Now the
words, ‘it was reckoned to him,’ were written not for his sake alone, but for
ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was
raised for our justification.”[7] In essence, it is not about what we do, but
the fact we believe in God and his promises.
Famed Lutheran theologian Carl Braatan, called this justification, “the
doctrine on which the church rises or falls.”
And that brings us to today’s Gospel lesson.
In this famous segment, Peter, who only a few versus before
in Matthew’s telling, has his utterance of the Devine truth of who Christ was
affirmed as the rock upon which the church is built (Matthew 16:13-20),[8]
is now told to get behind Jesus as if he was Satan himself, for not accepting
the ultimate fate of the Christ (Matthew 16:21-28).[9] As Jesus makes clear to Peter, knowing in his
soul, that Peter is “… setting [his]
mind not on divine things but on human things.”
There is a lot to unpack in this episode, but if we borrow from the
Biblical principle of how scripture interprets scripture, and understand the other
lessons for today, the core of this comes more into focus. Jesus tells us, “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 for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”[10] Often we think of the notion of “taking up
our cross” as taking up the suffering and death of Christ onto ourselves. But in the context of this week’s lessons, we
can and should refocus this on the idea that we are to “put on Christ” as Paul
puts forth in Romans[11]
or, in other words, become the very faith that God asks us to be. The idea of “denying ourselves” is that we
are fully in, through and with the Holy Spirit that is written on our very
hearts, if we simply listen and live into it.
That’s the ultimate “good soul” that we need to be.
So this is all fine and good and we hear it, but like my
opening confession that I don’t do lent well, it’s hard to live into the life
we are supposed to be when we have the very tangible and challenging realities
of this present time and place and life on earth. So what I am going to now do is share with
you two reflections on the Christian life, on being a “good soul,” that came to
me from some friends this week. The
first of these two is from Carroll Boswell, whom you may recall is the husband
of the Priest at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Norwood. Carroll is a retired Clarkson mathematics
professor whose faith journey began in the southern Baptist tradition,
travelled through Methodism, before Kathryn and he found their home in the
Anglican Communion. He put forward this
post earlier this week with the following preamble:
“This is an extended quote from an anonymous letter to
someone named Diognetus, dating somewhere between 130 and 170 AD. It is a description of Christian faith to
someone who is not acquainted with it. How well can this description fit into
modern America, do you think?
Here is
that quote: “For the Christians are
distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs
which they observe. For they neither
inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a
life which is marked out by any singularity.
The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any
speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some,
proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian
cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the
customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their
ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method
of life. They dwell in their own
countries, but simply as sojourners. As
citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if
they were foreigners. Every foreign land
is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth is as a land
of strangers. They marry, as do all
others, they beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live
after the flesh. They pass their days on earth but they are citizens of
heaven. They obey the prescribed laws
and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men and are persecuted by all.
They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are
in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonored and yet in
their very dishonor are glorified. They
are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and yet they
bless. They are insulted and repay the
insult with honor; they do good yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened
into life; they are assailed by Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the
Greeks, yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their
hatred.”[12]
While
Carroll was putting forward a question for us to contemplate in our American
context, I think this quote actually is a good one to make anyone who claims to
be a follower/disciple of Christ in any society pause and think about how they
are “wearing their faith” or being “a good soul” wherever they find themselves
and in whatever situation.
The
second reflection that I am borrowing to share with you, comes from a Lutheran
Pastor named Tim Larson whom I interact with through the online ELCA Facebook
Group. Pastor Larson is the Pastor of
Peace Lutheran in Southfield Michigan.
He offered this story, which we both seem to have heard back at the ELCA
Youth Gathering in San Antonio in 2006.
Here is what he shared:
“Here's
a well known story that illustrates what it means to love people ‘objectively’:
A Christian sociologist and pastor named Tony Campolo spoke
at a convention I attended with my wife and a bunch of youth from my
church. This is a story he told:
Campolo was eating out very late in an all-night diner in
Hawaii when a group of women who were obviously prostitutes came inside. One of the women, named Agnes, said her
birthday was the next day and observed that she’d never had a birthday party in
her life. Campolo overheard the
conversation and asked a man behind the counter if the women came in every
night. He said yes.
The next night, Campolo brought some simple decorations,
hung them up and threw Agnes a surprise party in that diner. She cried tears of joy and ended up taking
the cake home, untouched. It was the first birthday cake she had ever received.
After she left, he prayed with the people who remained in
the diner, and one of the employees asked him what kind of church he belonged
to. Campolo said he belonged to the kind
of church that gives a party for a prostitute at 3:30 a.m. Not because he approved of prostitution. But because he cared for Agnes. He threw that party for her before he knew
how she’d respond, before he knew whether she’d leave the streets and before
he’d had a chance to say anything at all to her about Jesus. The party itself spoke to her more loudly
than any words could have.
That's the kind of Christian I try to be. It's easier than you think.”[13]
This
reflection by Pastor Tim is another one that I believe also should cause us to
pause think and also act on. Are we
ready to give a birthday party for Agnes?
Can we be constant sojourners in a constantly foreign land? Are we willing to put down our pride, our
prejudices, and our “hard earned” way of life, to be like Christ? As Tim offers, perhaps it’s not as hard as we
think it is. But it does mean we have to
be willing to return again and be refreshed and clothed in the living Christ
for the world. It seems daunting, and I
will admit, it seems that way to me. But
this is the “good souls” that God wants us to be. Not just in lent, not just when it is
convenient, but all the time, in all places, for everyone. As I said at the outset a faith that pervades
and is a part of our very essence, not just something we confess at worship on
the weekends. Jesus knew and knows we
can do this, he asks us to make the clear choice. Put behind us Satan and the earthly things
that falseness promises, and instead stand forward on the risk of all eternity,
Christ and his love. What we need to do
is have faith, deep and abiding self-evident faith, and we can be assured of the
ultimate core of the Gospel and its truth for us and all creation. Amen.
[1]
Cf Philippians 1:2
[2]
Cf Psalm 9:14
[3]
Unell Hobbs, whom is active on Facebook among other things, and still very
active at Hope
[4]
Genesis 15:6, NRSV
[5]
Cf Genesis 16
[6]
Romans 14:16 NRSV
[7]
Romans 14:22-25 NRSV
[8]
Cf Matthew 16:13-20
[9]
Cf Matthew 16:21-28
[10]
Mark 8:34-35
[11]
Romans 13:14
