Meant to Live
Transfiguration
Sunday – February 23, 2020
“Transfiguration”
Band Switchfoot song: Meant to Live
chorus: we were meant to live for so much more – have we lost ourselves
chorus: we were meant to live for so much more – have we lost ourselves
· Always took
that as a question of looking back – have “we” lost the people we used to be?
Did we get distracted or lost along the way, gone down a different path than
the one we envisioned? How to get back to that true self?
· Thought differently
about it when reading this gospel, about what it means to lose ourselves
Jesus calls together crowd and disciples after this interaction with
Peter
· Asks the
disciples who people say that he is (John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the
prophets – saw that a few weeks ago when we learned of John the Baptist’s
beheading)
· Central
question of Mark’s gospel: who is Jesus? Who do you say that I am
· Peter gets
it right: “You are the Messiah” – but “I do not think that word means what you
think it means!”
· Jesus isn’t the kind of Messiah they are
expecting
o Looking for
a conquering king – Jesus tells them he is a suffering servant
§ Must
undergo great suffering and must be rejected and must be killed
§ Turning
point in Mark’s gospel, halfway through 16 chapters, turn from teaching and
preaching and healing and feeding and miracles to the journey to the cross
o Which is
too much for Peter to take in – he argues with Jesus, rebukes him
· And Jesus
calls the crowd together with his disciples and says, “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.
· “We were
meant to live for so much more – have we lost ourselves?”
o In this
song, we hear an echo of this gospel challenge: to deny ourselves and take up our
crosses and follow Jesus
o Jesus, who
is now at the turning point of his ministry – who has just told his closest
followers that the path forward leads to his suffering and rejection and death
o And then
calls them – and us – to follow on the same path!
· And our
hearts recoil – no one wants to die, no one wants to go to the cross, no one
wants to lose their lives…
What we hear as challenge really is invitation
· Because the
world tries to tell us every day that the good life is to be found in what
someone is selling
o Technology
o Decadent
food
o Lots of
money, a big house, the new car, the gym membership or equipment that promise a
better body or strength or peace of mind
· But what
Jesus knows is that that is not where life is to be found
· We were
meant to live for so much more
· And the
life and death that Jesus models for us reveals that life is found not in
selfishness, not in clinging to life at all costs(not just physical life but
our rights to our selves as the be-all and end-all)
· Rather life
comes in losing ourselves in the service of something greater than our selves
· True life,
abundant life comes when we loosen our grip on ourselves and giving to others
·
When
Jesus talks about us denying ourselves and taking up our cross and following,
it’s about following him into a life of service for the other
· And though self-sacrifice
is always so dramatic and romantic in the movies: war dramas, superhero action
movies, tragic romances – where people are caught up in a cause for the greater
good and willing to die for the sake of others (or in the romances, for the
sake of saving the one they love)
o In real
life, it’s usually much more boring and mundane and annoying, right?
o Choosing to
seek the good of the other before your own (not in a co-dependent kind of way
or self-erasing – but in the way that honors self and others too) is often hard
in the day to day choices
§ Getting up
with the baby in the middle of the night for the umpteenth time
§ Walking
with aging parents or cousins or neighbors and caring for them in the
challenges that come (medical, financial, living situations)
§ Sticking
with the spouse or friend who wrestles with anxiety or depressions
§ wider
world: solidarity with the poor, caring for widowed, orphan, stranger,
immigrant, working for change in the wider system through advocacy, etc
· All of the
ordinary, ongoing ways that we help others, even when it’s frustrating or
thankless
· (thankfully
not all of the moments are like that!)
· Jesus
reminds us that we were meant to live for so much more than just for ourselves
o We are
called to do the work of the kingdom, in ways big and small
o And when we
lose ourselves in him and in the work of the gospel – we find ourselves; we
find meaning; we find purpose, we find life in the life of Jesus, who suffered
and died and rose again, that we may have true, abundant life.
o We were meant
to live for so much more… let’s lose ourselves.
· Thanks be
to God. Amen.
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