Psalm 138
Romans 12.1-8
Matthew 16.13-20
In the 1940’s a lion escaped from a circus in Brooklyn in New York City. The keepers located him next morning, but, strangely enough, he had only gone several blocks, stopping at an abandoned house with a thirty-foot strand of fence in front of it. There was the lion, pacing back and forth behind that fence, continuing the same monotonous yet comfortable habit of lateral movement into which he had been born in the circus cage, free and yet not entirely free after all. For whenever he would reach a corner, at one end of the fence, he would simply reverse his direction. He had a new freedom, but because he could not think in a new way, he was as encaged as ever. There is something in this story resonant with the discussion between Jesus and his friends recorded for us in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus had given over a lot time and employed various means to share with people the Good News. He had shared with them the importance of love, compassion, kindness, the secondary nature of rules and regulations over and against human needs. As we reflected last week, he had shared with them his own insight that the God of Israel was bigger than the people of Israel, and that his mission was for all people — the Jew as well as the foreigner. Jesus had offered them a vision of freedom as children of God which was in many ways new and refreshing. Yet when he asked his friends “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16.13), they responded, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16.14) The people were still thinking only in terms of the inherited tradition, the past. Something new had been offered, but no renewal of the mind had come about, therefore the new that had been offered could not be completely taken in. And lest we think this situation particular to the Jews of Jesus’ day, I would ask you to remember the many times in the Church’s own history when she has behaved in the very same way. New technology, medical advancements, as well as developments in the understanding of human nature have throughout history been met with hostility by the Church, simply because they were understood solely in light of the past, with only a very few of her members encountering them with a renewed mind and spirit. Think of Galileo, for example, who was made by the Church to either recant his “heresy” that the earth revolved around the sun or to face a fiery death at the stake. Like that escaped lion we have so often allowed ourselves to pace back and forth in a seeming cage, because we have been unwilling to think in new ways and simply turn the corner.
Today’s scriptures seem to beg the question, “Where and how am I renewed?’ At another level we can ask ourselves, “How do I personally encounter and assimilate new information?” Do we give ourselves time to think, read, reflect and contemplate the new possibilities which life and the world offer us; or do we, out of habit, simplistically reference the new with old and thereby rarely see the new for all that it may bring us? Do we take so little time to reflect on the new, and because it may appear similar to the old, simply treat it as the old, not unlike that escaped lion pacing back and forth in front of a fence, see it all the time as a cage? We live in a world which constantly is offering us new insights into human life and the human condition — much more so than ever in our history, a world which is constantly challenging “the way we have always done things”, and if we are to live in the world seriously we must take what the world gives us seriously. This doesn’t mean we have to uncritically accept all that comes our way, neither that our past should not inform our present, but it does mean that we must set time aside to think, read and reflect so that the decisions we make and the outlooks we adopt are informed and considered. That takes time, specific time; it takes pausing and not just carrying on with things as usual. Finding ourselves in the middle of August it is not a bad idea to think about taking time, making time to rest.
As we ask ourselves “where and how am I renewed?” we also begin to discern how, if ever, we set time aside to reflect. When do we allow ourselves rest in order to gather and reasonably consider new information which the world and our experiences offer us. If we do not set that kind of time apart, if we run from task to task without seriously engaging with the new things that come our way, if we do not give ourselves the opportunities to seek out information, to think and study, then our alternative is only ever to see the new within the construct of the old, or force it into our past experiences and knowledge. We all need the kind of rest which allows us to think in new ways, to think, as they say, outside the box, to use our gifts of creativity and imagination. It is the rest of consideration and reflection, the rest of renewal. It is the kind of rest which, because we are relaxed, allows us to make connections between the issues of our lives — connections which we would not see under the normal pressures of day to day existence. In our fast-paced world we have to make a lot of decisions and assimilate a lot of information, to do that well, to do that effectively and beneficially requires resting time to think and process. The rest of renewal keeps us from the glib answer, the knee-jerk response, the unconsidered and unimaginative reaction. It safeguards us from the rote resolution conditioned solely by old precedence, and opens us up to new possibilities, to the creative response engendered by a refreshed vision, even a renewed spirit.
In the letter to his fellow Christians at Rome Paul writes: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12.2) And I suppose that it could not have been said better. The renewing of our minds is the work of transformation, transformation of spirit, mind, body. We can be conformed to the this world (by this Paul means the accustomed and customary way of doing and seeing things, understanding even the Good News of Jesus along those lines) or we can use our minds restfully, carefully and imaginatively to discern the new things and possibilities offered to us in the day to day; we can use our minds to discern the new ways in which God may be working. How do we do this? Let’s start with reading. Not just reading what we have to read for work or material which only further reinforces a our already ascertained world view, but novels, poetry, unconventional biographies, anything which allows you to open up to different ways of understanding or making connections. Good cinema, theatre and art help us to do the same. Well considered they can lead us to catch a glimpse of how others have interpreted their encounter with the world and their lives within it. It is one of the reasons I am so proud of our film club, and wish it were more widely advertised. Time spent in nature or gardening, in any activity that calls for a quieting of soul or which gives to us a sense of perspective of the world and our genuine place in it, these too can be places of renewal and reminder. Regular prayer and meditation also are essential, enabling us to engage at a deep level with ourselves and God, and thereby less fearfully with the world. But, all this takes time and a specific commitment to making time. Yet, if we are serious about the spiritual journey, about the life journey, it is more than worthwhile.
I think it was Eckhart Tolle who wrote that 80% of our thinking is useless repition, our minds playing over and over what we already know, or think we know. It is for this reason we all need places and spaces of renewal to grow and develop, to live lives of balanced integrity, to see things from new perspectives. We need them in order to become more fully the people God is calling us to be. Our dignity as human beings, our dignity as a people made in the image of God, demands it, because if we do not make that kind of time to reflect and contemplate, to invite renewal we may just find ourselves like that lion pacing back and forth in front of a fence, trapped by a facile interpretation of reality, trapped by our simple knowledge of the past with no vision for the present or the future.
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