Pursuing an Abundant Life
In the first movie in the Harry Potter series, Harry, Hermione, and Ron narrowly escape injury and death from one of their many midnight adventures. As they are going to their respective dormitories, Hermione and Ron exchange an oft-quoted (at least by Harry Potter nerds) section of dialogue.
As a young, rule-obsessed, curly-haired girl, Hermione was all I hoped for in a heroine. She was clever, kind, highly intelligent, and kept her friends in line. Half of Harry Potter wouldn’t be possible without her character. Yet at this moment, Ron has the right idea: it would indeed be worse to be killed than expelled. Hermione’s obsession with staying at Hogwarts had left some obvious blind-spots, including ones that would risk her life before her inclusion in the magical school. (Now, all true Hermione fans know that she softens and becomes incredibly brave as the series goes on. But, I digress.)
I thought about this silly line of dialogue as I read our Scripture passage for Sunday. “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?” Mark 8:31-38 contains some of Jesus’s strongest words about his passion and sacrifice, which stun the disciples and have the power to stun us, too, if we listen closely enough.
Jesus’ words remind us that we can have everything that we need in this life- cars, money, clothes, a perfect family- but still not have our souls tended to. In this, we lose the opportunity to pursue a true, abundant life in the freedom that Christ offers to us.
This Sunday in worship we will explore what it means to have abundant life, and the way to get it. The hardest part of this word is that the path to this abundant life is through sacrificing ourselves, our interests, and the material things we trust. Jesus models this to us through his life, death, and resurrection on a cross. And while we do not carry a literal cross, the cross is a reminder that we have to get our priorities in order and make some sacrifices of our own to see God during our life’s challenges.
So, for the disciples and us, Jesus is saying: you need to get your priorities in order. Where do you put your trust? Is it in the belonging of the world, rules, the newest car, or the prettiest house? Where do you have the contents of your soul, your being? Do you put them in Jesus’ hands? The way to true hope and true life is through the cross, and in trusting in Jesus.
We hope to answer those questions together this Sunday and to find our life by sacrificing it, just as Jesus did.
See you then,
Pastor Allee