Romans 12:9–21
Saint Matthew 16:21–28
In the year 1952 a book was published called The Power of Positive Thinking. It was written by Norman Vincent Peale who was then the pastor of Marble-Collegiate Church in New York, City. Even to this day we are not sure whether the book set the tone for its time or simply reflected the sentiments of the age.
My personal opinions about Peale and Marble-Collegiate are conflicted. On the one hand my preaching professor in seminary, Dr. Ernest T. Campbell, who was then the pastor at Riverside Church in New York, couldn’t stand the guy. One the other hand, under the last three senior pastors since Peale’s death, if I lived in New York it would probably be the church I attended.
The book’s teachings are straightforward, organized around 10 key principles, like the laws of Moses. The author ... recommends visualizing success, drowning out negative thinking, and minimizing obstacles—pretty much a Tony Robbins seminar or a Sunday morning with Joel Osteen. Certain Bible verses (“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”; “If God be for us, who can be against us?”) stripped of context, interpretation, and theology, are to be repeated 10 times per day to ward off the evil spirit of negative thought. The purpose of these psychological and spiritual practices is to free individuals from self‑doubt and feelings of inferiority and help them to become the people God truly intends them to be: happy, wealthy, popular, and professionally successful.
Peale was exceptional for cutting the flock some spiritual slack, encouraging them to look for the sunny side and conquer their inferiority complexes. In his world, you can have the economic gains minus the guilt, which seems perfectly suited to the American sensibility. The Power of Positive Thinking must have been a like a tonic, or perhaps a gin and tonic, something to soothe the wired, weary, worried soul.1
Unfortunately the “positive thinking” of Peale and the
“possibility thinking of his protege Robert Schuller doesn’t leave much room
for the cross.
In fact I once heard Robert Schuller suggest that the
letters in the word, Lent should stand for “let’s, eliminate, negative,
thinking.” Theology like this certainly
turns the idea of Lent as following Jesus on the way to the cross on its head.
It also can cause a severe disconnect with how the way things are as enumerated by conservative columnist Charlie Sykes in last Thursday’s Bullwork:
So we wake up to this: Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Louisiana; a 17‑year‑old is charged with murdering two people in Kenosha during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake; NBA and MLB games are postponed after players declare a boycott, wildfires continue in California; the death toll from the coronavirus neared 180,000; an asteroid is speeding toward earth; and Vice President Mike Pence warned us all how awful things would be if Joe Biden was elected president.2
No matter how rosy a picture some paint the events of almost every day tell us that there is a cross in there somewhere.
We can’t wish it away, we can’t hope it away, we can’t even push it away with all of our might. We know this when even the long standing counterclaim that “Everyday in every way things are getting better and better” doesn’t seem to ring true anymore.
In light of all the evidence to the contrary we still are slow to embrace the cross as central symbol of our faith. But don’t feel bad. Even the great Saint Peter wasn’t so excited by the prospect when it finally dawned on him that Jesus was serious.
In last week’s gospel Peter was being praised for confessing Christ. “Who do you say I am?” Jesus asked. Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,[and on this rock I will build my church...”3
That is pretty high praise for Peter. He gets an “A” on his confirmation class quiz! But just as he is marching up to take his seat at the head of the class he discovers that the central sign for this church that Jesus is building was going to be a cross, with a man on it, and that man would be Jesus himself.
Scholars tell us that his “Never Lord” could have been a prayer. Literally, Peter could be offering a prayer, "May God be merciful to you, Lord; this will not happen to you." Being merciful would imply that God prevents bad things from happening, thus the translation, "God forbid it" in NRSV. The CEV has: "God would never let this happen to you." Peter presumes to know God's will. Jesus makes it clear that Peter is mistaken.4
Peter is trying to correct Jesus’ negative thinking. He is trying to make Jesus’ message into a simple “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, and don’t mess with mister in between.” That’s the stuff of song lyrics and not a messages of salvation.
Peter’s reaction to Jesus’ passion prediction has made him an adversary (satanas) and stumbling block (skanalon) to Jesus. Peter reacts to Jesus’ prediction as if the prediction were scandalous. Jesus response to Peter shows Peter’s words to be the real scandal.5
Giving into the ways of the world has been a cause for concern since Peter’s first confession. Jesus is calling “his disciples to ‘deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow’ – to lose their lives in order to save them – coupled with the warning that one can gain the whole world and lose one’s own life.”6
In his commentary on the book of Matthew, Dr. Thomas G. Long tells us what this means:
Cross bearers forfeit the game of power before the first inning: they are never selected “Most Likely to Succeed.” Cross bearers are drop outs in the school of self-promotion. They do not pick up their crosses as means for personal fulfilment, career advancement, or self-expression: rather, they ‘deny themselves” and pick up their crosses, like their Lord, because of the needs of other people.”7
Saint Paul calls this genuine love. Like Peale and Schuller he has made a list only his list is much more difficult than anything those two came up with. Paul is much more demanding than Peale’s advice to, when you are stuggling, “Just give it a quarter turn on the mental carburetor” or Schuller’s hopeful, “The me I see is the me I’ll be.”
Saint Paul’s response to the “call of God at any given moment: genuine love, tenacious goodness, mutual affection, competition not to gain honor but to give it.The list goes on and on, prominently featuring such practices as suffering patiently, blessing those who persecute, refusing to repay evil in kind, and renouncing retribution – all clearly counterintuitive to a project of self-advancement.8
The one thing you can never accuse Jesus of is false advertizing. He is calling his followers to follow the way of the cross which means we cannot just deny realities and keep moving but have to face evil head on. We are not going to be able to conquer the challenges of our day by blinding ourselves to them we have to face them.
What we are talking about is giving up, dying to, crucifying, our old ways and building a radically inclusive community where ... Jesus followers defy customary social divides between classes and ethnic groups reaching out to even to one’s declared adversary.
This means we have to reverse the parlance of the wild west and to ask questions first and shoot much, much, much later. It is to realize that no matter how angry one may be destruction is not the answer and may end up hurting your cause.
Taking up ones cross means working together in genuine love so that Saint Paul’s dream that we live peaceably with all might be fulfilled.
Jacob Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said it best when she called for peace and healing. “Let’s use our hearts, our love, and our intelligence to work together to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other.”9
This is going to take work but it is our cross to bear for our time. And can be fulfilled when we realized that if one life, any life, doesn’t matter then no life will matter.
May we bear the cross that has been given us this day with resilience, strength of character, and the courage that we can be “Living Auguements” for the truth of the Gospel that has come from the one who bore the cross for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1. Brent
Orrell, “The Power of Positive Thinking: Too Much and Never Enough,” The
Bulwark, August 26, 2020, https://thebulwark.com/the‑power‑of‑positive‑thinking‑too‑much‑and‑never‑enough/?utm_source=afternoon‑newsletter.
2. Charles Sykes, “America's Dark Moment,” The Bulwark, August 27, 2020, https://thebulwark.com/newsletter‑issue/americas‑dark‑moment/.
3. St. Matthew 16:16–17. (NRSV) [NRSV=The New Revised Standard Version]
4. Brian Stoffregen, “Matthew 16.21‑28 Proper 17 ‑ Year A,” Matthew 16.21‑28, accessed August 29, 2020, http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt16x21.htm.
5. Raquel St. Clair Lettsom, “St. Matthew 16:21-28. Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with the World.” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister| John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 278‑280.
6. David J. Schlafer, “St. Matthew 16:21‑28. Commentary 1: Connecting the Reading with Scripture,” Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Teaching 3 (Louisville, KY: Westminister| John Knox Press, 2020): pp. 278‑280.
7. Thomas G. Long, Matthew (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 190.
8. Schlafer, loc. cit.
9. Blase J. Cupich, “Statement of Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, Archbishop of Chicago, on Jacob Blake Shooting,” Archdiocese of Chicago, August 28, 2020, https://www.archchicago.org/en/statement/‑/article/2020/08/28/statement‑of‑cardinal‑blase‑j‑cupich‑archbishop‑of‑chicago‑on‑jacob‑blake‑shooting?fbclid=IwAR1qZ5LXJ8XXWR2_VtIkUHVDQgNArX85ike0GWGAO95w4ntjHI2kkKdOKUw.
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