Second Sunday in Lent, Year B
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Mark 8:31-38
Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Faith from the Margins to the Web Co-Authors: Lisa and Raven
Lisa and Raven are both first year college students, even though they are several decades apart from each other in age. The joy between them was palpable, as was their commitment to the lives of faith that has accompanied them on the twists and turns of life’s journey. They read the scripture out loud, together, before turning to the bible study questions. Listening them reminded me that it isn’t our age or race or social position in life that matters: it is the focus on the truly divine. In Lisa and Raven, we can hear more about finding God in the midst of what seems like the world turned upside down. As they both point out, it’s all a matter of perspective: our own, or God’s.
Lisa opened with the bible study question of what stood out the most to each of them. Raven responded, “For me what stands out is ‘get thee behind me Satan’ because it seems like he’s trying to assert his presence in that place, and Jesus just won’t allow it. It’s like no matter how much Satan wants to get the upper hand, it isn’t going to happen.”
Lisa agreed, “I think that’s true because, well you know, Satan tries to get us to do the wrong thing all the time, which is why he needs to get behind me! [they both chuckled]. To me, the whole thing has a great meaning, but the line that just stands out the most is the one about setting your mind on divine things, telling the rest to move behind.”
Raven thought some more, “I would say also that “those who will lose their lives for my sake” seems to stand out to me, not just here, but in the whole Bible. The world can seem so topsy-turvey when we’re only looking at our human perspective on things but then God…Jesus…seems to be flipping everything around, but really they are not flipped at all. Jesus is resetting it like it should be.”
“Yes,” agreed Lisa, “and to us, it seems like the world is being flipped upside down because we have a way we think that we should be, and when it doesn’t happen that way we get upset and turned around. We think, “Oh my gosh, things aren’t going right!” But things actually ARE going right, they are going in a way that may make sense to God even if they feel up in the air to us. I think: ‘this is messed up, I’m disombobulated’…but that’s my own thinking!
Raven reflected on this, “Yeah, I was just talking about that with the kids in my youth group last night. Just because there is a way that you think it is supposed to happen, that doesn’t always mean that is how it should happen. God will give what has been promised, but it may not look exactly like you think it would. That’s a hard lesson for us.
“Right,” said Lisa, “we just don’t realize it at the time!”
Lisa continued: “Maybe you thought your goal was one thing, but they you start walking the path and other things open up in ways you couldn’t have imagined. And you realize, the path that you’re walking is the right one even if it wasn’t the one you thought it would be. It’s just amazing how that works. One minute you’re over here, and the next minute you’re over there. And you wonder…how did this happen? And then, I’ll sit and think about it later and I realize that it’s gotten me to a place where I needed to be all along. It’s like now, and the process that has led for me to be back in school. It felt like it took so long, but I learned about perseverance that I never knew I had. I needed the lessons I’ve learned and now I’m in it, I’m ready, and it’s going really well!”
This resonated with Raven: “It just makes me think, how many times has a door closed and I’ve been so upset. And then, things work out in a way you’d never expect. I was so sure about wanting to go to school somewhere else; I was sure I wanted to be in Princeton or at UVA. But then, things just kept happening. The doors just weren’t opening. I didn’t get good financial aid, I thought about taking loans. And then I looked again at VCU and I got great support, it was closer to home, and it was a decision that God allowed me to see as an opportunity. And now, I cannot imagine myself happier at any school. This is exactly where I need to be, even though I didn’t know that at first.”
“It’s my first year at school, too” said Lisa, who is now in a human services program at Reynolds Community College. “I’m working to be a substance abuse counselor and once I finish my Associate’s Degree, one of the places that I can transfer when I finish is VCU!” she added. “It’s something to think about, and it’s new to me. I’m starting out slow and I have choices which is something I didn’t even think I had before.”
Raven said, “It makes all the difference to have choices!”
The two began to discuss where they could see God in this Gospel lesson. Lisa began: “Well, right now I’m going through a lot with my family. I just lost my mother on New Year’s Day. She had a stroke, and it was really hard for her. I miss her, but I know that she would be proud of me. I feel that. I see God in those places, where we are taking up our cross.”
Raven said, “I remember when my Grandmother passed away, and I was only 14. She had Alzheimer’s but it happened quicker than we thought. It’s so hard, and it’s always a grief for us. I think for me, I also see God in this Gospel right now in the part where it says, “Take up your cross and follow me” but in another way. I have a very headstrong family: they see something, they believe in something, and they are just going to go for it. But, you know, this scripture reminds us that our goals have to line up with God’s goals. I have to pause and look at all the things I’m doing and ask and pray, “is this what God has in mind for me?”
Lisa said, “Yeah, a lot of people have this question of whether something is my way, or God’s way. But, I think we need the time to actually see and feel God in our lives. I like how you talk about having those goals, though, because some people seem too quick to give up. It’s about your goals but bringing them to God.”
Raven shared next, “This year, my biggest challenge is the verse I’ve picked for myself: Be Still. I’m always busy, always on the run. But, I have to remember that “be still” because it isn’t just physical stillness, but mental stillness. I need to be sure that my mind is still, that I can hear and listen.”
Raven and Lisa closed by sharing about what it means to set your mind on divine things.
Raven began the sharing, “I think for me, I used to think it was more like: ‘don’t think about bad things, only think about good things’ but that isn’t really it. Now I think of it as searching for the Godly, even in the bad things. Remembering that in the midst of that, to reorient my focus to the fact that even when there is something bad going on, there is something greater still and that is where God is.”
“Right,” said Lisa, “there are a lot of people who ask, ‘Why do bad things have to happen to me?’ But bad things happen to all of us sometimes. If we got everything we wanted, every day of our lives then we really wouldn’t appreciate anything. We get stuck in ‘why me?’ but then, down the road, I realize that in every bad thing that has happened, there has been something good to have come from that.”
Raven said, “God never promises a trouble-free life; the difference is that even in the midst of our troubles in life when we think on divine things, we are never alone.”
“Like He says” quoted Lisa, “I will never forsake you.”
Raven and Lisa continued to talk together about their studies and the lessons that had unfolded for each of them. God never does love us, or forsake us. Sometimes, God comes in the form of people who once were strangers, who once seemed so different. But really, when God is with us we have far more that unites us than could ever divide us.
Faith from the Margins to the Web 