The Second Touch

I often walk away from sermons wondering what might resonate in people's hearts from the lesson.  Different things stick with different people.  For myself, it is the phrase "deny self".  What does it mean for me to "deny self" this week?

There are some things I need to do this week that I don't particularly want to do.  They involve people and my participation might help in some tangible ways.  Is sacrificing my own desires and doing what is best for others an example of denying self? 

I can serve others for the purpose of self-interest or self-advancement.  It's tempting for me to think, at times, that when I do some small act of kindness that God is fortunate to have me on his side.  It's easy for me to glory in my self-sacrificial service! 

Tomorrow I will participate once again in the weekly reading of the Gospel of Mark.  I will watch Jesus as he again demonstrates unbelievable power and demonstrates that he is indeed the Son of God.  I will then watch again as he lays that aside and is abused, rejected and brutally murdered.  He willingly gave himself for others.  How can I claim to be his follower if I am unwilling to do the same? 

Resurrection is the final note of triumph in the Gospel of Mark; but the emphasis of the book lies in the cross.  Resurrection is when God takes our self-emptying, self-denying lives and ushers in the kingdom of God.  We don't make it happen, we are simply the empty vessels God chooses to use.  This week, I want to continue to ask myself, "what does it mean for me to deny self"?

Worried About Bread or Watching For Leaven

After the sermon someone commented that they thought it was good that I had left the interpretation of leaven open so that each person could discover what what happening within their own heart.  Indeed, the success of any sermon is not what happens on Sunday, necessarily, but what happens in the days that follow.  I love it when people tell me, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about . . . . that was mentioned (or read) in the sermon."  When preparing a sermon I wrestle with a text and it's meaning which often causes me to wrestle with my own heart and soul as well.  Sundays it sometimes feels like I hand off my discoveries to the church so that they can let it roll around in their hearts for awhile.

The text I preached this past Sunday (Mark 8:1-21) is actually the end of the first section of the book.  Mark is bringing a conclusion to his teaching on the identity of Jesus and the failure of the Twelve to really understand. This story is built on the previous stories, especially the preceding ones where Jesus challenges the disciples to learn the difference between internals and externals; what truly makes a person clean or unclean.  The list he gave on that occasion would so well for someone searching their heart for leaven to clean out:

"For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly." (Mark 7:21-22)

When Jesus warned against the leaven of the Pharisees and that of Herod he at least had these in mind.  It would do us all well to pay particularly close attention to these things and clean them out of our hearts before they take root and spread their venomous evil.  After all, bread is no problem for Jesus - he can make as much as is needed.  Leaven, on the other hand, causes him all kinds of problems.  Let's prove the genuineness of our faith but keeping the leaven out of lives.