It’s Not You!

Have you ever heard someone say to you? “There’s only one savior of the world and it’s not you!” I have. Words of wisdom spoken by a Lutheran bishop to a class of wide-eyed seminarians about to be sent out to serve congregations across the United States. Advice meant to drive home the fact that although we may be called into ministry, none of us was the world’s savior.

Following Peter’s confession of faith, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16), the gospel narrative continues by revealing what that exactly means for Jesus. When, after sternly ordering the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah, Jesus tells the disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer persecution at the hands of religious leaders, be killed, and on the third day be raised. Only Jesus’ confused followers cannot yet understand what he is “showing” them. Especially Peter, who declares, “God forbid it, Lord! This [death] must never happen to you!”

Though Peter is trying to prevent Jesus’ suffering and death, Jesus rebukes him for being a stumbling block to Jesus’ divine mission; one that Peter (and no doubt others) cannot yet perceive. Peter, it appears, is only able to see things from a human point of view, of the ways things are supposed to work in the world. As a result, he cannot yet grasp the truth of what Jesus was trying to show him, for he had not yet acquired the wisdom or the experience to view the world through a cruciform lens.

Even though we live on the other side of Easter morning, we, too, struggle to understand and to make sense of these things too. Don’t we?

Worldly idols and pressing concerns demand our attention and sap our energy. So much so that it is hard not be confused by the conflicting and competing messages. Jesus’ invitation, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me”, gets drowned out in the flood of worldly messages that tempt us into believing that money, possessions, and power matter most in life. Tantalizing and seductive messages that prey upon our insecurities and shortcomings; deceiving us into believing that we can somehow save ourselves. False promises that Matthew’s gospel warn will not lead anywhere. “For those who want to save their life will lose it,’ declares Jesus, “and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (Matthew 16:25).

All of which raises an important question: How is Jesus inviting you into discipleship? Calling out, Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me … to the cross!

It is an invitation echoing across the ages calling upon would-be disciples to move forward in the face of great hardship, suffering, and uncertainty. A calling lived out in the lives of courageous martyrs, mystics, reformers, and everyday saints like Dorothy Day, Oscar Romero, Desmond Tutu, Rachel Held Evans, and ordinary faithful followers like you and me too.

The good news is that the powers of sin, death, and evil have been defeated. Not on account of anything that the exemplars of the faith have done. Or as a result of anything that we have done, are doing, or will do. Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement said it best: “True action in the world acknowledges that all our efforts rest in the hands of God.”

The beauty of discipleship is that Jesus invites us – flawed, imperfect, and doubt-ridden though we may be, to participate in God’s saving mission for the world with the gifts entrusted to our care. At its core, the call to discipleship meets us where we are and asks us to examine where our deepest loyalties lie. In God? Or in the false and empty promises of worldly idols?

So let go of whatever is holding you back – fear, insecurity, grief, doubt – and live into the reality of gospel freedom. For in the cross we encounter and experience the triumph of God’s love over the consequences of sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection frees us from the worry of having to be good enough to earn God’s love. In return, we have the privilege of sharing God’s love with others as we welcome outcasts, stand in the gap with the marginalized and oppressed, and love one another as God loves us.

The way of Jesus may be filled with detours and unexpected off-ramps from time to time, but it always makes its way back to the cross. And along the way, we encounter the living Christ in the needs of our neighbors.

Relax, it’s not that complicated. Remember, “There’s only one savior of the world, and it’s not you!”

God, Is That You?

Truth be told, sometimes the change process feels more like a tomb than a womb. After all, change, especially unwanted or unwelcome change, often entails loss or perceived loss – the loss of place, the loss of status, the loss of relationships, the loss of stability, you name it.  As a result, a community experiencing change and transition may find itself challenged to see and experience God’s presence in the uncertainty that change often brings. We ask ourselves: “Where is God in all of this? How do we know where God is leading us?”

The answer is prayer.

At the core of the biblical witness is the promise that God is with us.  Although we want to trust the promise, events beyond our control sometimes make it hard for us to see and experience God’s presence in our lives. The darkness of grief and loss clouds our view, and a hopeful future may seem like nothing more than a pie-in-the-sky pipedream beyond our reach.

One way to counter this pull toward apathy is by prayerfully cultivating an awareness of God’s activity in your life; of being more mindful of God amid the routine of everyday life. Begin by ending each day with a simple prayer that includes the following five steps as outlined by James Martin, S.J. in Give Us This Day (September 2023).

First, presence. We remind ourselves that we are in God’s presence. Second, gratitude. We call to mind a few things that we are thankful for, savor them, and thank God for them. Third, review. We review the day to see where we felt God’s presence and where we responded to God’s invitation. Consider, too, where we may have missed out on “God moments” during the day. Fourth, sorrow. We acknowledge the ways that we have fallen short during the past 24 hours, and we ask God to help us to do better tomorrow. Fifth, grace. We close our prayer by asking for God’s help as we live into the baptismal promise of dying to sin and being raised to new life in Christ.

Prayer is vital to our spiritual well-being. It sustains and nurtures our relationship with God. The power of the daily examen lies in its simplicity and structure. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, and enthusiastic practitioner of the daily examen, writes, “The prayer is effective because it helps us see where God has been in the past. And this, in turn, helps us to notice where God is in the present.”

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