| "And Jesus said, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34) We've reached the Second Sunday in Lent, and all around the world the question is being asked, "What have you given up for Lent? What have you denied yourself?" A pastor in Australia was this week taking his abstemious Lenten lunch break with six ounces of low-fat yogurt, a slice of rye bread, and a bottle of tap water. It consoled him that he could eat these while sitting on a park bench and taking in the late-summer sunshine that those living Down Under now enjoy. Nearby two people were discussing, amidst giggles of laughter, what each of them had given up for Lent. "Well," the pastor mused, "the Ash Wednesday gospel lesson from Matthew does speak of rejoicing when you fast, rather than looking dismal (Matthew 6:16-17), but somehow the lightheartedness of these two seems a bit excessive." Becoming curious, he tuned in to listen more closely to their conversation. The woman was saying she had given up Lust for Lent, and the man, Gluttony. So at first the pastor thought, "That's actually good. Each is willing to give up something truly consequential, one of the seven deadly sins." But in short order he came to realize what they were really saying. For you see, the international conglomerate and food-giant Unilever has just introduced in Australia its new family of ice-cream bars offered in seven deadly flavors named: Vanity, Jealousy, Gluttony, Lust, Revenge, Greed, and Sloth. So the Lust the woman was giving up for Lent was the vanilla ice-cream bar coated with pink strawberry chocolate. And the Gluttony the man was surrendering was the rich chocolate ice-cream bar wrapped in a white chocolate coating. Not weighty things at all, but really quite trivial! What's given up for Lent by most Christians everywhere, including me, is usually far from transformative! For instance, my initial surrender this Lent has been second-helpings and snacks, which, while working on this sermon, I've come to see is not exactly all that Jesus had in mind when he enjoined the assembled crowd to "deny themselves, take up the cross and follow me." Of course, I'm still going to pass up second-helpings and snacks. There's nothing bad about that, but it certainly isn't enough for me to be working on. For Jesus was calling for the surrender of something quite weighty, and truly transformative: the surrender of sin. Each Wednesday noon throughout Lent, we have a lectionary Bible study class (and to put in a shameless plug, let me say: childcare is provided!). Now the ostensible purpose of this class is to help the laity prepare for the next sermon by studying the scripture texts. But the secret purpose of this class is to provide the preacher with the laity's helpful suggestions for that sermon. And at last Wednesday's class, the people did a good job. I threw out for their reflection my belief that most people give up trivial things for Lent whereas Jesus was asking for weighty things, and Elder John Gingrich, who comes to us from our neighboring Presbyterian church, Good Shepherd-Faith, responded by sharing this provocative thought. John suggested that people should give up things that we don't want back after Lent-like pride and impatience and simmering anger- rather than things that we do want back-like second-helpings and snacks. Yes, Lent is a good time to work on giving things up permanently. I found John's thought quite a helpful one. Were we to work at giving up not just those ice-cream bars but also our basic propensity to such sins as Lust, Gluttony, Jealousy, Vanity, Revenge, Greed, and Sloth, and were we this Lent to actually succeed in giving up even one of these, who would want it back? Any one of these would be a weighty thing well rid of! Now, without doubt the matter that is uppermost in the minds of most Americans on this Second Sunday in Lent is the prospect of imminent war against Iraq, a war that could well be launched sometime between now and the Third Sunday in Lent. It is a temptation for churches and preachers to stay on the sidelines during the national and world-wide debates over the war that are swirling around us. But the church is a body that has been called to give witness in the world to the ethic of Christ. And we, therefore, have much to say on such subjects as peace and war. Indeed, I believe we are being called by our Sovereign God to speak out bravely on this subject, taking risks for the sake of the gospel in the same way that Jesus did, fully cognizant of the fact that Jesus's opposition to the religious and political power structures of his day led to his being publicly executed by the Roman procurator-executed on a cross, which was the electric chair of that time and place. I firmly believe that for us American Christians, at this particular moment in world history, what "taking up the cross" means is speaking and acting out against the deadly sins that lie at the root of this nation's drive toward war- the sins of Vanity and Gluttony and Revenge. Were our nation in general and the Bush Administration in particular to give up these sins for Lent, there would be no war! Now, our President has, you will recall, used language that suggests that "taking up the cross" means launching a crusade. Check your dictionary. The word "crusade" is related to the Old French verb croiser and to the Spanish verb cruzar, both of which have the meaning "to bear the cross," for when the Crusaders of Europe went off to fight the infidels, they bore with them the emblem of Christ's cross: "Onward, Christian soldiers, marching into war with the cross of Jesus going on before." The cross as a symbol for the sanctioning of military conquest-a blasphemy, indeed. Jesus struggled mightily against evil, make no mistake about that! But he did so without ever taking up the sword. So "taking up the cross" is never "marching into battle," but is always "struggling for the good without resorting to violence." Praise God that the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, and Pope John Paul II have all spoken out strongly in favor of struggling against the evil rule of Saddam Hussein through the non-violent means of containment and inspections rather than through war. Praise God that the Stated Clerk of our own Presbyterian denomination, the Reverend Clifton Kirkpatrick, was part of the delegation of American religious leaders who met with Prime Minister Tony Blair and other European leaders. For the Christian ethic teaches that warfare itself is a hideous evil that may be used only as an absolutely final resort, when all else has failed. To follow Jesus is to deny the sinful self that lies at the root of human behavior and to be transformed into a living image of Christ-joining him in struggling mightily against evil, but always doing so by non-violent means alone. This is something, as Jesus himself stated, that calls for us, as sheep sent into the midst of wolves, to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16) But our President and his administration seem to me to be pursuing a course that is leading to the inevitable use of violent means-a course that is neither as "wise as serpents" nor as "innocent as doves." It is not a wise course, for it is likely to create and unleash far more suffering, death, and destruction than it will ever prevent. The atrocity of 9/11 took 3,000 innocent lives. According to eventhe conservative estimate of this administration itself, our war against Iraq is likely to take 10,000 innocent lives, half of them children, as the first wave of 3,000 bombs and missiles falls on Iraq, an arsenal that includes our largest non-nuclear bomb, the 21,000-pound monster given the biblical name MOAB-an acronym for "Massive Ordnance Air Blast," or as it is "affectionately" nicknamed in the military, "Mother of All Bombs." Other sources suggest that the death toll of innocent lives will more likely approach 30,000. Is war against Iraq any less an atrocity than 9/11? Consider also some other forms of suffering that our war will inflict. Two out of every three Iraqis are presently kept from starvation only by the rations they receive from their government, through the international oil-for-food exchange that is currently operated. When the Iraqi government collapses, food distribution will also collapse. UN officials have warned the U.S.A. that our military's plans for supplying emergency food are inadequate and that millions of Iraqis will begin starving only a few weeks after the ration-system falls. Further, water-borne disease will become a severe problem even sooner than starvation, for Iraq, a desert nation, is heavily dependent for clean water on special treatment plants that are highly vulnerable to bomb damage. And the disappearance of food and clean water are just two of the hundreds of horrors that our war will unleash on the Iraqi people, half of whom are under the age of 18-and all of this to be carried out against a country whose capacity and present will for inflicting harm on other nations has not been proven. War against Iraq would also be unwise because it will create and unleash rampant anti-Americanism not only in Muslim nations but around the world. Isn't it the height of folly for this administration to be pursuing policies that are rapidly converting the nearly universal good-will the world felt for our nation following 9/11 into a nearly universal distrust and dislike of us- rooted in our go-it-alone, imperial insistence on prosecuting a war deemed unnecessary by most other nations? So this administration's steady march toward an inevitable violence is not "wise as serpents," and it is certainly not "innocent as doves." For it is a course of action that is rooted in the deadly sins of Vanity, Gluttony, and Revenge. Vanity, together with its synonyms pride and arrogance, is a sin, ironically enough, that the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah attributed in his day to a nation named Moab! Moab had "lorded it" over other nations. And said Jeremiah on behalf of God: "We have heard of the pride of Moab- he is very proud- of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. I myself know his insolence, says the Lord;… Therefore I wail for Moab; … for the people … I mourn." (Jeremiah 48:29, 30a, 31a,c) Vanity, pride, and arrogance-these are the sins by which we as #1 in the world, both economically and militarily, are daily tempted-just as was the #1 of Jesus's day, the Roman Empire. And these are temptations that the Bush administration shows no inclination to banish. Instead, it seems intent on demonstrating to the world that the U.S.A. needs no allies. And what of us? Is there any vanity or arrogance in our lives? Well, Christ calls us this Lent to repent of vanity. Next, Gluttony. Does anyone really doubt that the administration's focus on Iraq, rather than on the far-more-dangerous North Korea, is driven in large part by our nation's insatiable gluttony for oil, by our insatiable gluttony for a lifestyle built on the consumption of a grossly disproportionate share of the planet's non-renewable natural resources? Does anyone really doubt that? And what of us? Is there gluttony anywhere in our lives? Well, Christ calls us this Lent to repent of gluttony. Finally, Revenge-I took President Bush seriously when he said he wanted to get the one who tried to get his father! It was an honest moment affording us a window into the mind and heart of this man. But, to quote the Bible, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19)-which is to say, retribution is God's prerogative not ours, for unlike us, God will exact it only justly. In us humans, revenge is a sinful drive, one that each and every one of us is asked to surrender. And what of us? Have we recently indulged in revenge? Well, Christ calls us this Lent to repent of revenge. So this Lent Christ is calling American Christians, from the President right on down to us, to "deny ourselves" by acting transformatively to "give up" truly weighty sins, sins that once given up we will never want back-sins like Vanity, and Gluttony, and Revenge, the sins that seem to be driving our nation to war. And this Lent Christ is calling us to go even further than that, by "taking up the cross," by transformatively imitating Christ's own mighty struggle against evil, in which he employed only non-violent means. One way to take up the cross is to join tonight with the millions of Americans who will be participaing at 7:00 pm in the global candlelight vigil for peace called by the National Council of Churches, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and countless other religious leaders and organizations throughout the world-a vigil to say "Yes" to peace, and "No" to war against Iraq. Some 5500 vigils have been scheduled in 126 countries. Here on the Upper West Side, vigils are scheduled for Lincoln Center, Strawberry Fields, the Fireman's Memorial at Riverside Drive and 100th Street, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, and the Great Hill at 106th and Central Park West. 7:00 pm tonight. Bring your own candle, or the one that we'll make available to you at the Coffee Hour. This Lent, let us take up the cross! Let us pray: Amen |
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