“Sex & Chocolate: Consequence of Faith?"

March 18 2009

The Second Sunday in Lent

Preached at Kingston Road United Church by the Rev. Richard C. Choe

* * *

27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. --
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

* * *

Sex and chocolate.

Giving up sex or chocolate, for some folks, is synonymous with Lent. Some of you told me that giving up chocolate has been part of your Lent tradition since you were children. Some of my friends told me – and I am not sure whether they were joking or not – that they would be giving up sex for Lent. The Saturday edition of the Globe and Mail reported that some of the leaders of the Catholic Church are advising the members to give up Facebook for Lent.[i]

It is not just Christian faith that emphasizes “giving up” or “letting go” as part of faith journey. “Emptying oneself” or “surrendering oneself” to a greater being or for a greater cause is an integral part of the spiritual traditions around the global communities. That human beings are in need of liberation from self-absorption seems to be the wisdom found and expressed in faith traditions.

I remember a fast for three days over a weekend retreat during Lent when I was a teenager. I remember the hunger towards the end of the first day. A sense of euphoria enveloped me on the second day. I thought about Jesus and his disciples on the way to Jerusalem as I refrained from food for three days. Refraining from eating helped me to understand a bit about those living in hunger. By the end of the third day, on the way back home, I experienced stillness within me.

As I got older, I began to question fasting as a way of identifying myself with the suffering of Jesus. “What does fasting really accomplish other than feeling a sense of piety?” I asked myself. “How does my fasting really make a difference for those who are starving?” was the question I heard within myself.

What does giving up chocolate, sex or Facebook during Lent mean for us? Does our momentary refrain from our comforts and pleasures accomplish anything meaningful to those who are experiencing crucifixion each and every day? What does our faith require us to do?

“If any of you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me. For those of you who want to save life will lose it, and those of you who lose life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Those words of Jesus seem so harsh. Was Jesus “promoting” suffering? Joanna Dewey, a Christian theologian, posed that very question in her article, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world.”

“Christians today, especially Christian women, often interpret Mark 8:34 as a call to sacrifice self – to be subservient and to endure suffering that could be alleviated – as a demand of Christian discipleship. … The invitation can be understood as a glorification of suffering and an encouragement to become a victim: one is to deny oneself, sacrifice oneself, wipe out any sense of self, and to embrace the cross, that is, suffering in general. On the basis of this verse, discipleship is portrayed as "suffer now," presumably for reward later in the age to come. Many a woman has failed to develop her own identity and strengths and has embraced or endured suffering that could be alleviated because she has come to believe that such a way of life is pleasing to God and an imitation of Christ.”[ii]

Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign – a vision of a world where justice is facilitated through compassion for all – in a place where “economic downturn” was not a euphemism but a death sentence by starvation for many. Jesus lived and proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign in a time when the Roman military, an occupying force in Palestine and the rest of the Mediterranean region, had absolute power over life and death for those living under their empire.

Jesus proclaimed his vision of God’s Reign knowing that the consequences of his vision would be met with brutality by the Romans and the religious leaders who preferred the status quo. For those in power, their kingdom was already in effect. A proclamation of any other version of the kingdom was seen as an insurgence against them. People in Jesus’ time understood that power was something to be taken from the less powerful or to be taken away by the more powerful.

Suffering continues to be part of human realities. Warrant Officer Dennis Brown, Corporal Dany-Olivier Fortin and Corporal Kenneth Chad O’Quinn died last Tuesday when a bomb exploded near their armoured vehicle in Afghanistan. Two other soldiers were also injured in the explosion. More than 100 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan in 2001 – a war that is now described as “unwinnable” by our Prime Minister.

Current economic crisis continues to impact us and people around the globe. Companies are closing. Wages are being cut. Jobs are being lost. We read that “unemployment in the United States has reached a 26-year high and the recession is claiming jobs at a pace not seen since 1945, with no end in sight.”[iii]

The crosses in our society seem much closer and more apparent to us in this Lent. What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us as we experience so many crises that seem so enormous and too complicated for us to comprehend?

Joanna Dewey writes that Mark 8:34 is not an exhortation of suffering in general when read in the first-century cultural contexts and the larger narrative of Mark. She concludes her article by saying that “to renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group and join the followers of Jesus. It is an exhortation to remain faithful to Jesus and the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”[iv]

“To renounce self is to renounce one’s kinship group … and remain faithful to the rule of God in the face of persecution by political authorities.”

Joanna Dewey’s remark reminded me of the keynote address by Susan Sontag, a Jewish American writer, on the occasion of the presentation of the Rothko Chapel Oscar Romero Award to Ishai Menuchin, chairman of Yesh Gvul (meaning “There Is a Limit” in Hebrew) in 2003.

Yesh Gvul is the Israeli soldiers’ movement that refuses to serve beyond the 1967 borders. The soldiers who are part of Yesh Gvul believe that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from the Occupied Territories. The soldiers in the movement, who are Jews, take seriously the principle put forward at the Nuremberg trials in 1945-46: namely, “that a soldier is not obliged to obey unjust orders, orders that contravene the laws of war.”[v] When Nazi German officers stated that they were just obeying orders as soldiers in massacring Jews and other groups during the war the court ruled that each soldier has an obligation to disobey unjust orders.

Sontag emphasized that “the Israeli soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories are not refusing a particular order. They are refusing to enter the space where illegitimate orders are bound to be given – that is, where it is more than probable that they will be ordered to perform actions that continue the oppression and humiliation of Palestinian civilians. Houses are demolished, groves are uprooted, the stalls of a village market are bulldozed, a cultural center is looted; and now, nearly every day, civilians of all ages are fired on and killed. … These soldiers believe, as I do, that there should be an unconditional withdrawal from Occupied Territories. They have declared collectively that they will not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders ‘in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.’”[vi]

More than one thousand soldiers were part of Yesh Gvul in 2003. More than 250 of them have gone to prison at the time. Yesh Gvul, Sontag believed, provided a model of resistance. Of disobedience. For which there will always be penalties.[vii] There are consequences for one’s belief.

For those in power, for whom their kingdom is already in effect, any other version than the status quo is treason. For those in power, there cannot be any other possibility than what they already have established as the reality they have instituted as the norm for the rest.

Sontag shared that her “admiration for the soldiers who are resisting service in the Occupied Territories is as fierce as her belief that it will be a long time before their view prevails.” And she concluded her speech by saying that “All struggle, all resistance is – must be – concrete. And all struggle has a global resonance. If not here, then there. If not now, then soon, Elsewhere as well as here.”[viii]

Sontag’s conviction in justice required of her to speak against the powers and the principalities at the height of the Bush-ism after 9/11, knowing that she would be accused and criticized by many as un-American and anti-Israel. Each conviction lived in action has consequences.
What does our faith require of us? What does our faith require of us to do as we face the realities of economic crisis and as death tolls rise in our war in Afghanistan?

One of the things we could do is to reflect Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem in and through our life. There were many spiritual leaders envisioning and proclaiming radical changes in Jesus’ time in Palestine. What set Jesus apart from others was that he was a “radical” who sought and proclaimed revolutionary transformation of inner self as well as outer self. In a world dominated by ethics of “eye-for-an-eye” Jesus preached forgiveness. In a world dominated by “entitlement” based on inherited or a violently acquired socio-political power Jesus proclaimed that all are God’s children. In a world full of false prophets promising “suffer now and heaven later” Jesus declared that God’s Reign was already present in each person.
What does our faith require of us?

Taking a risk by letting go of the so-called “conventional truth or wisdom” by looking at things from the “minority” perspective could be a start. Taking a chance in seeing through the eyes of the poor and the disadvantaged could be another. Risking seeing through the eyes of the “enemies” when reading or hearing about the war in Afghanistan and anywhere else could be another. Moving beyond our comfort zone to seek and understand our faith could be another.

Is it possible for us as Canadians to shed tears for those faceless and countless civilians suffering and dying in Afghanistan as we mourn the death of our soldiers? Is it possible for us as Christians to shed tears for those faceless and countless Taliban fighters as we mourn the death of our soldiers?

Is it mutually exclusive to mourn the death of our soldiers and mourn the death of our “enemies”? What does our faith require of us? What are consequences of our faith that are beyond giving up chocolate, sex and Facebook?

Seventeen of us women and men from KRU worked with the Habitat for Humanity in our neighbourhood yesterday. At one point in the day, about 9 to 10 of us formed a line to move bricks from one area to another. The image of us working together, moving bricks and debris was an image of being church for me.

We, who are part of a society where everything is governed by the market economy based on supply and demand, were participating in building houses that are contrary to our current market economy. In our small way we were saying that there is a limit for us as followers of Jesus in participating in the current market economy. In our small way we were resisting the current market economy that rewards the rich and abandons the poor. In our small way we were practicing our faith that God loves all as God’s children and that we are inextricably linked as sisters and brothers.

Yes, there is a limit.

Women around the globe began as an organized global community to speak for their rights in the early 1900s.

Yes, there is a limit.

Israeli soldiers organized to refuse to follow unjust orders that would inevitably cause harm and demean Palestinians.

Yes, there is a limit.

Jesus’ faith in God required him to dream of a world where the true interest of human community is justice and compassion for all.

The season of Lent is a time of reflecting on the consequences of our faith. It is a time of refraining ourselves from the values that demean us and our neighbours. It is a time of finding ways to empty ourselves of the ideologies, beliefs and practices that separate us from our neighbours and God. It is a time of acknowledging and experiencing that there is a limit in human-centeredness and that God continues to invite us to open to possibilities that may lead us from our comfort zones.

May we seek God’s accompaniment in our Lenten journey.

Amen.

--
[i] Erin Anderssen, Lent’s most controversial sacrifice: Facebook, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, F3.
[ii] Joanna Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross: a feminist reading of Mark 8:34 in Mark's social and narrative world,” Biblical Theology Bulletin, Fall, 2004, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[iii] Paul Waldie, U.S. posts worst rate of job loss since 1945, The Globe and Mail, Saturday, March 7, 2009, A1&12.
[iv] Dewey, “Let them renounce themselves and take up their cross,” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0LAL/is_3_34/ai_n6260526.
[v] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches, eds., Paolo Dilonardo and Anne Jump, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 2007), 185.
[vi] Sontag, On Courage and Resistance,” 185.
[vii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance, 186.
[viii] Susan Sontag, “On Courage and Resistance,” 187-191.