Truth, Life

For the first few years of my childhood, I thought of baseball as a simple game. When you’re batting, you hit the ball and run the bases. When you’re in the field, you field the ball and throw it to firstbase, or possibly second, or which ever base the coach reminded you to throw it to. It wasn’t until I was in sixth grade, when I was moved up to the “older kids’” league that I started to relize that baseball was much more complicated than I initially thought. I remember my coach repeatedly say, “baseball is a thinking man’s game.” Since I was playing secondbase, I was usually the receiving end of that comment. I soon found that for my position, constant thinking was a requirement. Not only did I have to know when I was to cover second base, but I also had to think about where I’d be throwing the ball in different senerios, from where the ball might be thrown to me, when to back-up who, and a host of other contingencies. Batting was no different. It seems that in that year, I had to learn how to bat all over again. Oh, I had the mechanics down well enough. Now I had to learn the stratagy. I had to know when to take a strike and when to swing away. Gone were the days where I could swing at just about anything. I had to know when to bunt, when to pull the ball to left or when to hit to the oposite field. Base running became more complicated as well. I had to know when would be a good time to stretch that double into a triple, when to steal, when to dive back to my base, when to run full out, and when to stand on my bag. Sure, some of the simplicity of the game was lost when I moved to that “older” league, but I found that I enjoyed the game more. My approach to playing was now deeper… even more meaningful. Now I was truly playing the game and not just playing around.

My walk with Christ has been that way as well. Oh, for most of my life, I knew God loved me and Jesus died for my sin. I knew I could always call on God when I needed him. I enjoyed being a Christian… but when I got right down to it, I wasn’t really “playing the game.” I knew the basics and I followed the basics, but I really didn’t think about what God wanted to do in my life. I didn’t see Christianity as a life style, as the totality of my life. I didn’t let Christ illuminate my deepest self, because I wouldn’t take a good long look at myself… after all I asked Jesus into my heart, what more is there?

Over the past few years, I have been challenged by my brothers and sisters in Christ to really think about what it means to be worthy of the life that God is calling us to live. It takes a lot of thought… actually, that’s a real understatement. God is infinite… never ending… everlasting. And the life we’re called to live is one that is constantly striving to know God better. If God is neverending, there’s always something new about God to learn. Let’s face it, being Christian is a thinking person’s calling. The beauty of this, is that we all have the capability to think, it’s a gift and grace of God.

In our Gospel reading, we find the disciples being challenged to think. Jesus first ask the twelve “Who do people say I am?” The disciples didn’t really have to think about this. They just had to repeat what they heard on the street. Then Jesus asked them to think. “But who do you say that I am?” Now the disciples have to think. They have to compile all that they’ve seen and heard about Jesus. Peter rightly responds, “You are the Messiah.” Well, Peter’s right on the surface, but as we see later in this passage, Peter’s understanding of who the Messiah is, is a little off.

Peter envisioned the Messiah as a warrior-king. As someone who will defeat earthly powers with worldly means. The Messiah will lead a powerful army against Rome and physically kill and destroy Israel’s enemies. The Messiah was not supposed to be weak by the worldly standards… the Messiah would not be simply executed without a fight by the Romans after being handed over by the Jews! But Peter didn’t see the truth… Peter didn’t see all of God’s plan… Peter didn’t see the reality of God’s Kingdom. So, when Peter started to hear Jesus proclaim the truth, he rebuked Jesus. Jesus then corrected Peter and said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” If this isn’t a call to think, I don’t know what else is.

What does it mean to take up one’s cross? In first century Palistine, any who took up their cross were going to die. The one who was to be executed carried the cross beam of their cross to the execution site. They were stripped of all clothing – the paintings of Christ on the cross wearing that little cloth… well, the artists were being very generous. To be crucified was to be entirely exposed. Your crime was proclaimed, your were publically exposed. There was no hiding your situation.

To take up one’s cross is to open oneself entirely to Christ. To hide nothing from Christ and nothing from ones own self. Christ not only told us to take up our cross, but also to deny ourselves. We must know who we’re denying in order to truly deny ourselves. To know oneself is a lifetime vocation. We are constantly changing with each new expereince. Who we are today will be different from who we will be tomorrow. The question that needs to be asked is how am I being changed; for the glory of God or for worldly reasons? Am I allowing God to sanctify me, to make me more Christ like? Am I remembering God in each decision I make? Or maybe the question to ponder is, how is Christ real to me? Or even is Christ real to me? What does it truly mean to live for Christ? How does my faith effect even the basic decisions in my life? Our epistle reading from James reminds us of the importance of thinking before we speak. Are our words blessings or curses? We speak everyday, but do we often think about how our words glorify God?

For centuries, there has been an understanding that there are two main types of faith: simple faith and deep faith. These catagories have very little to do with having more faith than the other. Instead they have to do with simply believing and believing while actively trying to understand. The faith of a Christian should be one of faith seeking understanding… that is, solid belief in the unseen God that constantly attempts to grow closer to God through attempting to understand that which is unseen. Christians are a thinking people who are constanly thinking about where God is in this world and how God is calling us to live. Our reading from Proverbs cries out for us to move beyond simple faith, “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?”

You know, I was initially confused about baseball once I started practice in my sixth grade year. But I soon found more enjoyment in the game. I started to feel more filled with joy when playing because I had put effort into playing that I never had before. I started to see how the different aspects of the game fit together and just how beautiful it was as a whole. Faith in Jesus Christ is much the same. The more effort and time one spends in thought and practicing the means of grace, the more fulfilling our life becomes. This doesn’t always make sense in the world’s terms, but then what Jesus said about the Messiah didn’t make sense for Peter’s worldly understanding of the Messiah. Only when we start to think outside of the world will we start to see the truth… and with the truth, there’s real life.

SDG