(Meditation for Gayton Road Christian Church's Worship on March 6, 2019, Ash Wednesday)
Either Way, We Will Lose
According to Jesus, the question is not, “Will we
lose?” Either way, he says, we
will lose.
Many of us will try to win. We join a gym to stay healthy. We save money to secure our
future. We snap pictures to
capture a moment and make it last forever. But try as we might to save our lives, Jesus says, we will
lose them.
In fact, it almost sounds like
Jesus is saying that the more we try
to save them, the more we will lose
them. Which would make sense. In the very act of preserving something
for the future, we sacrifice the present.
In working the extra hour for the extra buck, we miss out on an hour of
relationship with someone.
In exercising without pause and dieting to no end, we miss out on the
simple pleasure of a lovingly made meal.
In taking picture after picture of a breathtaking sunset, we miss out on
the mystical moment when the earth and perhaps our soul too catch fire with
heaven.
Try as we might to save our lives, Jesus says, we will lose
them. Nothing lasts forever. To try to make it so, only makes it
worse.
The Cross
For Jesus, the question is not,
“Will we lose?”
It is, “How will we lose?”
Because there is another way of
losing.
A way that does not grasp,
Does not clench,
Does not cling onto life with a
death grip.
Jesus calls this way “the
cross.”
For Jesus, the cross means love
And it also means letting go
And somehow it also means that
the resulting loss
Is in fact not loss but life.
The very life you thought you
lost in letting go,
You gained.
It’s not a thing to be explained
But a thing to be experienced,
With prayer and tears and hope
And whatever comes next.
Not Loss but Life
On our foreheads is the tale of two losses.
One loss is plain and simple.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust:
Nothing lasts forever.
The other loss is in the shape of the cross,
Which means love,
Which counts loss not loss
But life.
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