“Life-Savers”
Romans 12: 9-21
Matthew 16: 21-26
What is saving your life right now?
I’m going to say that again, more slowly this time:
What is saving your life . . . right now?
Take a moment to think about it. Actually, don’t think about it too much. Just notice the first thing is that comes to your mind. And hold onto that while we reflect on the question, because I think it’s an important one—especially given the backdrop of Jesus’s remarks about saving our lives and losing them.
Jesus lived in a time and place where saving—that is, protecting—one’s life was the ultimate objective. People would do or not do all manner of things for the sake of preserving their physical life, and it wasn’t always easy.
So central was this concept that when Jesus told his disciples that his ministry of revolutionary love would eventually get him killed, Peter gave him a stern talking-to. “No way, Lord!” he insisted.
This is Peter, remember. The same Peter who got a gold star last week for being bold and brave enough to see Jesus for who he was. Now we see more clearly the misunderstanding behind Peter’s answer. Peter thought that, as the messiah, Jesus would be the triumphant ruler who restored Israel to independence and power.
Jesus’s response to Peter this time tells us he is both tempted by the more traditional view of a savior and clear that he will not go there. “Get away from me!” he says to Peter.
Jesus goes on to say that it’s not only his ministry that will be different from what Peter and others expect. They also need to reorient their entire perspective on life—what it’s about, who it’s for, and how to find the security, meaning, support, and survival they—and we—want and need.
If our primary objective in life is to protect ourselves and what’s ours, we will lose everything. We will discover true life, Jesus says, when we can let go of our need for independence, power, control, and wealth, and let ourselves be shaped by the giving, compassionate, healing, and loving ways of Jesus.
This is not to say, however, that we don’t need “saving.” What Jesus is saying is that we can’t save ourselves. The so-called life we’re meant to lose is the ego-self that not only thinks everything is about us, but also that everything is up to us. If we live that way—more concerned about getting than giving, more intent upon going our own way than going with others, more determined to prove ourselves than lose ourselves for the sake of the greater good—we may “succeed” on paper, but we will lose on all the metrics that matter most.
Central to the gospel of Jesus is the saving truth that we don’t have to make it in this life on our own. That we’re not meant to make it on our own.
The apostle Paul spells this out in his letter to the Romans. Be part of a caring community, he says. Take care of others and let them take care of you. Be present to others, whatever their needs and circumstances. If they’re going through a hard time, be there for them. If they’re on top of the world, celebrate with them. Pay special attention to the folks the system has cast out. Do good not only to others in your community but also to your enemies. Overcome evil with good.
This model of community is also the gospel. Because we need help to make it through this life. We need support. We need the love of God lived out through our friends, families, and community. We need community and all manner of things that feed us, heart, body, and soul. It is not personal weakness but Spirit strength to ask for help, and to recognize all the different things that save us each and every day by bringing us life, love, hope, strength, and the capacity to keep going.
So, I’ll ask the question again:
What is saving your life right now?
I first heard this question from the priest and writer Barbara Brown Taylor, who first heard it when someone asked it of her while she was on a stage, preparing to address an audience. She was taken aback at first, but she later realized the question’s potential to help us get to better know ourselves and one another and to help us recognize the people and things and practices that move us toward life.
What is saving your life right now?
I first heard the question during our early, ever-stressful, over-the-top days as a sanctuary church. None of us had ever provided sanctuary before, none of us knew how to provide sanctuary, none of us knew how to organize and train people we didn’t even know to do everything from being a watchful, protective and friendly presence in the building 24/7 to providing meals, transporting children from Springfield to Amherst and back a few times a week, offering spiritual and practical support, working with lawyers, continuing other ministries, and coordinating with activist organizations.
It was overwhelming. For a while, every day seemed to throw us a new curve ball, which made it hard to stay grounded.
So when I heard the “what is saving your life right now?” question, my first thought was not prayer or church or some other purely spiritual practice, it was . . . wait for it . . . rowing.
No matter what else was happening in the world, in our sanctuary ministry, or in my life, I could count on getting up in the deep dark of night three days a week, getting myself in a sweep rowing shell with other rowers, being astounded by the beauty of the sunrise, the majesty of a bald eagle or the grace of great blue heron, the ethereal beauty of autumn fog, challenging my body, and, best of all: not being in charge. Not having to make any decisions except the one to be there.
All of that,coming at that extremely chaotic and exhausting period of time, saved my life.
The poet Mary Oliver said, "I got saved by poetry, and I got saved by the beauty of the world.”
Same!
In other seasons of my life, I would answer the question differently—because just as our needs change over time, so do the people and things that meet those needs. The loving support of friends, spiritual practices, the loving companionship of a dog, the loving wisdom of a spiritual director, prayers lifted for me, random acts of kindness, renewing time away from the demands of work, and, yes, even the gift of work itself have also brought me through difficult times and made all times more fulfilling, hopeful, joyful, and God-filled.
This is why the question asks “what is saving your life right now.” And this is another reason it’s worth considering the question: to realize that there is something in us or about our circumstances that will always need support, structure, love, grace, growth, saving.
My guess is that whatever your specific answer to the “what is saving your life right now” question has something do with things and people that ground you, people and things that feed your soul, practices and communities and people that give you hope, people and practices and communities and faith that connect you to someone or something beyond yourself.
My sense is that God is in all those things and people—loving you, healing you, transforming you and, yes, saving you whether you realize it or not. We can resist that life-giving love by insisting on doing everything by ourselves and for ourselves—and thus forfeit our life. Or, we can give up our pride, self-centeredness, and self-sufficiency and realize that we need God’s mercy and grace, we need the love and support of others, we need the heart-stretching, soul-feeding, patience-challenging aspects of community.
Then, will we find life that is real and solid and meaningful. Then, we will have been both made and saved by love.
So I will leave you with an even more important question: How will you let yourself be saved right now? How will you ask for and receive the companionship, the support, the inspiration, the encouragement, the healing, and the help you need?
Think on these things, and open your heart to all the love and support that awaits you.
