The Spirituality Trap

My mom tells me that when we were little she could dress my sister and me up for church in starched white petticoats and send us out to play in the yard until time to leave for church and be absolutely certain that we wouldn’t have a spot on us. We LOVED to dress up. There was no way we were going to spoil the effect. What are your kids like? Will they carefully preserve an expensive new outfit or immediately jumble it in with their everyday clothes? Some people are so careful of pretty new things that they don’t even wear them for ages; they want to keep them as perfect as they were when they got them. Do you have two sets of dishes, one for everyday and one for special occasions? Or do you use your sterling and crystal every day because it’s such a waste to hide them away? What are you like?

For a lot of us, the instinct to keep things exactly the same is very strong, especially if it’s something special. And that’s a good thing, in many ways. It’s one way we have of not taking life for granted, a way of setting a special value on precious items or moments. But we can take it too far, can’t we. Almost everything of any value needs to be used in order for us to appreciate it properly... pearls and opals lose their luster if they’re not worn, and violins grow mellower the more they’re played.

And some things simply don’t keep. Sunsets and laughter and your baby’s first step can’t be preserved, like a pre-historic beetle caught in a chunk of amber. If we’re wise, we stop and breathe in the moment. In Japan, I understand, people stop work on the day the cherry blossoms bloom, because it’s such a precious and fleeting time.

Has there ever been a time in your life that was so perfect that you just wanted to hang on to it, just stop right there and bask? How many of you have had a spiritual experience like that? Perhaps at summer camp, or on retreat, or a walk in the woods when you felt the presence of God so clearly and strongly that it seemed as if the whole world was holding its breath... Those are called mountaintop experiences. And though I can’t confirm it, I'm pretty sure that the name comes from the mountaintop experience Peter and James and John had with Jesus on that long ago day before they went up to Jerusalem that last, fateful time.

Just a few days before this Jesus had challenged his disciples to think about a question that people had been asking. “Who do the crowds say that I am?” he asked. Well, they came up with all sorts of answers: John the Baptist, and Elijah and another one of the ancient prophets like Jeremiah. But then Jesus went on to the real question. “Who do you say I am?”’ he asked them. And Peter the mouth, my favorite disciple, came right out with it. He was the one who blurted out what they had been thinking and wondering and hoping for all this time. Peter said, “You are the Messiah of God.” [Lk 9:18-20]

Immediately after that Jesus tells them that this trip to Jerusalem is going to be different. The disciples had been wandering around the countryside of Galilee and Judea with Jesus for three years, watching him draw crowds for his teaching and healing, and later on being sent out themselves to practice what they’d learned from Jesus. But now things were going to change. It’s not that things had been a bed of roses all that time, they had left their homes and families and often missed a meal or slept rough or been called names by the religious authorities. But by and large things had gone pretty well.

But now things are going to change. Now things are going to get really tough. And Jesus starts to prepare them for what lies ahead. “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering,” he told them, “and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” But did they get it? Of course not. In fact, Peter rejects the whole idea. “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” At which point Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” [Mt 16:22-23] And then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” [Lk 9:22-23]