March 8, 2009
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:23-31 Romans 4:13-25 Mark 8:31-38

God’s Covenant

  This weekend I’ve been watching the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament.  It gave me a chance to reflect...When I was in junior high school,  I knew I could be anything I wanted. I had two dreams:I would play trumpet in The Ohio State University Marching Band or I would play point guard for The Ohio State University’s women’s basketball team. I would do one or the other.  I knew I would.  I just had to dedicate myself.  If you want something badly enough, if you are willing to sacrifice, you can do whatever you want. So during the summer I would ride my bicycle into town to go to open gym.  I would go out in the barn (where we had a hoop and concrete floor) and practice every day – Making 100 shots a day..... the last five consecutively. Doing ball handling drills for an hour... Eventually I accepted that I wouldn’t be a star recruit, wouldn’t get a scholarship (at least not at first), but could be a walk-on. I had it pretty well mapped out.  I knew what I wanted.  I knew how to make it happen. A week before my senior year in high school started, I was in a serious car accident. All those dreams evaporated.... Lots of people have recently seen  dreams evaporate. The commercial:  “Help secure your future...with John Hancock”  I think most folks have come to recognize that John Hancock can’t secure your future, nor can Edward Jones, nor EF Hutton.But of course, these are all issues of our lives – not matters of how we live our faith.Faith life is different, right? Peter had a pretty good idea of what the future would look like for him, for Jesus.  He believed Jesus was the Messiah, the one sent by God, the one who would bring freedom and healing and new life. Peter knew great things lay ahead. When Jesus started talking this craziness about suffering and dying....Peter thought Jesus had lost his mind.  It doesn’t sound so crazy to us because we know the story.  We have a different vantage point.  Peter only knew that incredible things had been happening – God’s kingdom really was near.  He was going to have a front row seat. Jesus, meanwhile, saw Peter’s attempted intervention to be an act of the tempter. I believe  Jesus was tempted by Peter’s words. Facing suffering and death.... who would not be tempted by the possibility of avoiding the painful future, especially if the option was to  experience success, more big followings, great things...
Suffering and death  v.   Success.  Opportunity.  Security.
I’m sure Jesus came to the same conclusion any of us would choose. However, he was willing to trust himself to God’s will, and into God’s future.My “sacrifices” in middle school were choices that I believed would ultimately help me get to something better. Jesus instruction to take up one’s cross is not about making choices to improve our situation, or make more of ourselves. It is a call to put ourselves – our lives, our future -- before God, so that God’s way and will can come into the world – can be experienced and seen by people more and more. It is a call that affects all parts and all places of our lives. It is a call which reveals that how we live our faith is a matter of how we live our lives. It is a call which frees us from fear.  The grace of Jesus’ call is that  no matter how uncertain we are, how despairing we may be, we are freed for the future. The call to pick up our cross in this  Lenten season is about opening our selves to God’s will.  It is a call to participate God’s covenant.... and because it originates in God,   we can plunge in, and live.

Amen