Second Sunday of Lent

Genesis 17.1-7,15-16; Mark 8.31-38

As we make our way through our Lent readings, it's a good idea to, as it were, accompany Jesus on his journey and reflect upon the things he says and does to see if they can inform our journey through this special time as we prepare for Easter. Last week we were with Jesus in the wilderness and thinking about what it meant for him to have that time on his own to reflect upon what lay before him. We catch up with him today, a bit later on in his teaching and preaching work and St. Mark tells us that he's preparing his disciples for what lies ahead, for him at least. Jesus has got a mission to fulfil. He's been put on earth for a purpose and he's going to see that purpose through.

I was asking last week, in the first week of Lent, based on what we were reading, if we could think about what's most important to us in our lives, what we value most. And this week it seems, our readings, when we think about them, are leading us to think about what we are put on this earth to be and do, what our own personal mission might be. Nowadays it's in the normal run of things for every organisation and business to have a 'mission statement'; a sentence or paragraph about what it's there to do. St. Andrew's has it's own mission statement as does St. Andrew's school for instance. If I asked you where you might find St. Andrew's mission statement I wonder if you would know where to find it? Actually it's on one of the notice boards in the porch and it reads 'The purpose of St. Andrew's church is to worship and serve God and to support the spiritual and physical life of individuals and families'. It was worked out 10 years ago so maybe we need to think about it again and renew our commitment to it. But at least it's there and it's a focus for all we are and do here at St. Andrew's in God's name.

I do some work with clergy helping them to think about their work and how to put the best they've got into it. Sometimes, to do that we have to really go back to basics and ask, what have you been put on earth to be and to do? I ask them to think about their own personal mission statement might be. It's a good exercise because it focusses the mind and heart to ask yourself, again, what's important to you and what benefit are you bringing for yourself and the world? And then we can go on to ask how we can do that and what does it mean in terms of the sort of person we are, what sort of work we do and what our relationships will be like with other people and God. And those are good questions for all of us, because it seems to me that what Jesus is saying to us out of this gospel reading today is that we need to focus on those things, what is important to us, what's most of value and what we are here to be and do; and not to waste our time and energy on all sorts of things that aren't of value to us and to others. That's what he meant when he said 'what will it profit (you) to gain the whole world and lose your life'? You can spend so much time in your life on doing all sorts of stuff that is getting you nowhere fast as a person and getting nobody else anywhere either. We can fritter away our time in all sorts of meaningless and useless pursuits that give us only fleeting pleasure, when our deepest needs are going unfulfilled and we are neglecting what's of real value to us. And when that happens, we can't really be effective as people for ourselves or for others. Our purpose, the reason for being stays either unfulfilled or isn't half of what it might be.

Jesus dedicated himself to his purpose in the world and he asked others to dedicate themselves to the same sort of purpose by following him. That's what he meant when he said 'if any want to be followers of mine let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.' If it's part or all of your purpose in life to be a follower of Christ, then you have to be focussed on the task. That focus is taking up your cross. Then you've got to let go of all that doesn't really matter in your life, all that's not of real value so that you can focus properly. That's denying yourself; that's losing your life for Jesus' sake. And having that proper focus is what Jesus meant by saving your life. You are living the life meant for you according to your purpose, according to all that's important and of value. And that doesn't just apply to being a follower of Jesus, it applies to anything we do in life that is good, that contributes positively to our own and to other peoples lives. And when that happens we are becoming all we were ever meant to be.

In the Old Testament we read today of Abraham and Sarah, given a very special task by God to be obedient to him and to be the beginning of His people. And God agreed that if they did that they would be blessed and so would their offspring. This was their purpose, to be obedient to God and to receive his blessing. And he changed their names as mark of that agreement, a mark of that new purpose for their lives. Notice the names are very similar, but nevertheless they are different, and at that time probably had a subtly different meaning. But the new names reflected this purpose, this mission that they were put on earth to pursue.

God has a purpose for all of us. It isn't just about us, it's about others as well and what we can contribute to the world and it's about our working with God, our relationship with him. As we journey through Lent maybe we can give our minds to working out a bit more completely what this purpose is so that when we get to Easter we might be able to live our purpose with new vigour and new life and make a real difference to the world.