The Glorious Impossible

Scripture lesson: Mark 8.31-38

“For 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.”

Mark 8.35 New Revised Standard Version

Samuel Miller, former dean of Harvard Divinity School, once wrote that “one does not stretch the truth to say that God does do the most unexpected things.”

Throughout the Bible we see the actions of God who draws forth the possibilities of love against impossible odds: frail Abraham becomes a pioneer of faith; an infant Jesus threatens the powers that be; and a crucified Messiah becomes the hope of the world. Miller is right: God does do the most unexpected things.

But that truth is lost on us unless we open our lives to what the writer, Madeline L’Engle, has called the ‘glorious impossible.’ For if we are willing to die to the familiar and secure, we may not experience the beauty and energy of God. “Those who want to save their life will lose it,” said Jesus, “and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Living towards abundant life will inevitably involve many deaths. By dying to judgment of others we live into greater understanding. By dying to a destructive pace of life we live into the healing touch of God. In these ways and countless others we open ourselves to the Lord of life and love, whose will for us is life in all its fullness.

 

Prayer: O God of transformations and transitions, help us to embrace your call to die in complete trust that you will always lead us to joyous and fulfilling life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~ by Rev. Dr. Edward Horstmann on April 15, 2007.