Word to the Wise
Thursday, March 7, 2019 - Thursday after Ash Wed.
[Deut 30:15-20 and Luke 9:22-25]"Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. If, however, you turn away hour hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, I tell you now that you will certainly perish.....[Deuteronomy] "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and yet lose or forfeit himself?" [Luke]
There is a popular expression used often to people who seem dissatisfied with their "life": "Get a life!" Lent is offering us that challenge: to get a life! The words of Moses in Deuteronomy in the first scripture for today were written at a time of renewal in the life of Israel. Under the leadership of a new king, Josiah, there was a movement to put aside pagan forms of worship that had crept into the life of the people. Everyone was challenged to "get a life!"
The words of Jesus from the gospel scripture for today tell us that the "life" of the disciple means the daily acceptance of a cross! That might seem an unattractive alternative to the "gods" we might have allowed to creep into our own lives. What we might popularly regard as "gain," Jesus is calling "loss." The first cross we are challenged to embrace is getting rid of the false gods and focusing on what is truly important. Many of those false gods are our pet prejudices and attitudes that are harmful to ourselves and others. Other false gods may be unhealthy lifestyle choices brought on by the false gods of consumerism and appetites and the internet. We have only to look around the temple of our own bodies and we'll find some idols.
Lent is one season, but it can be the season when we, like Israel, sweep the temple clean, worship God alone, and keep things that way even when the motivating season is past. The real motivation has to be the life that Jesus offers. It is worth more than all the world has to offer. AMEN