It’s all my parents’ fault. Maybe aided and abetted by an Elementary teacher, I was told early on that I “Could Be Whatever I Wanted to Be”. In High School, my guidance counselor tried to dissuade me; but it was too late. The twig had already been bent. Most of us own the human myth of thinking that we’re God-like: that we can grasp, overcome and manipulate the world around us to achieve power & fame & glory. Readings for this Second weekend in Lent remind us that God is God–and we’re not!
Abram & Sarai were old. God came to them again (Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16) with a covenant: no ifs, ands or buts, “I will”. Yet it was God’s expectation that these human archetypes would pursue a path of being right with God, i.e., allowing God to BE God. How will things turn out? They still didn’t know the ending–but it didn’t matter, since a Higher Power was in charge! Their new names indicated a deepening of their trust and their renewed walk with God. Who are we becoming, this Lent?
Paul writes, “For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” (Romans 4:13) In the ensuing 21st verse we read that he was fully convinced that God was able to do what [God] had promised. Even the improbable can be handled! Kierkegaard tells of the deer, who realizing he was confined, took a mighty leap of faith into “the free world”. Lent calls us, just as Abraham was called long ago, to take such a leap trusting that who we’re becoming will be according to this ancient covenant spoken by God. Question: did the deer leap OUT OF or INTO?
We glibly speak of self-denial and give up peanut butter for 40 days. This keeps us from looking too hard at Mark 8:311-38, where Jesus countered the temptation offered by Peter. This disciple, you remember, just recently affirmed that Jesus was the Messiah–but what he saw as messiah-hood was the powerful restoration of David’s crown. Certainly not suffering and a cross! The passage challenges our human point of view, and causes us to be punched hard with the earthly horribleness of Life With God. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themSELVES (ego) and take up their [own] cross and follow me.” This is JESUS’ agenda, not Peter’s. W. Hulitt Gloer writes in FEASTING on the WORD, “All our efforts to make another way are a denial of the one who showed us the way, the way of the cross….As long as self reigns, we will forever be seeking painless shortcuts to the kingdom..” (B 2:73)
So who am I, this Lent? I invite you to join me in a demanding quest: first, to identify who we really are (ego); and then, to stop doing those things which seem to be a glorification of the Self and a denial of the Godly. Is this self-flagellation or some other form of masochism? I trust and expect that this habit will lead me closer to the God-head…
In the process of unfolding, Horace Brown King
You’re invited to join me every Tuesday as scripture for the upcoming weekend peels back my pride on this spot in Facebook; or at horacebrownking.com
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