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"STRAIGHT PATHWAYS AND CROOKED JOURNEYS" | Mark 9.1-13 | January 12, 2003 |
There are straight pathways and crooked journeys. Crooked journeys define our physical and emotional life...coping with handicaps, living with loss, going one step forward and two steps backward. Straight pathways, on the other hand, define our life as lived by faith, a life that transcends the crooked journey while at the same time is defined by it.
Jesus walked a crooked journey. In one moment he is at the top of the world as he gives himself over to the repentance of his cousin John’s baptism, the heavens open and the Spirit of Peace comes down upon him, and the next moment he’s in hell, having to fend off the temptation to succumb to all the flat tires that take us human beings off course.
Those who sail tell me that going from one bank to the other is a course that is straight only in one’s mind. The actual sailing there is a matter of catching the wind which sometimes blows in the opposite direction. So it takes a lot of tacking back and forth in a crooked, zig zag manner to reach the other side. In this story, Jesus zigs to heaven one minute and zags down to hell in the next, tempted to give in to an easier way.
It is our lot as humans to be tempted to take short cuts, tempted to feel sorry for ourselves that we are worse off than someone else. Our temptations are enlightening, are they not. They expose our vulnerability, they show us our deepest desires, they expose our innermost self, they betray our selfish needs. But they can guide us to a healthier life if we but let them be signposts and guardrails along the pathway. The straight pathway of faith is not always recognizable at the time; it’s difficult to catch the wind in our sails. It’s easy to feel sorry for ourselves; it’s easy to get discouraged; it’s easy to become lethargic and give in to apathy.
Our temptations are the dark side of our best intentions. When we are tempted, we are tempted to cut corners, to bypass the arduous journey, to take the short route at the expense of going in the right direction. We are tempted to take the express lanes when we need to take the local lanes in order to get off at the right exit. We are tempted to take the tollway to get there faster rather than the scenic route. A temptation to steal is the dark side of wanting to provide for ourselves and live the good life. Nothing wrong with living the good life, but to take advantage of someone else’s good fortune, to take someone else’s money or good name for ourselves in order to avoid the time it takes to pursue these for ourselves is the dark side of temptation. It is natural to want to avoid the long process, especially in today’s world where the quick fix and the get-there-as-soon-as-you-can mentality pervades our very bones. Jesus shows us a better way. A more difficult way, to be sure, but a better way. The way is through the dark valley of the shadow of death, through the sometimes arduous process of living in hell, through the frustrations of catching the wind which sometimes takes us off the course we’ve charted for ourselves. But the long route is full of life, full of blood, sweat, and tears which are redemptive. Jesus shows us that hell is not punitive but retributive, not a punishment but a tutor to help us discover our deepest selves and our innermost strengths.
“Nothing focuses the mind,” the great Doctor Samuel Johnson once said, “like being sentenced to hanging...”(Context, 1/15/03) Albert Camus said that “in the depth of winter I finally learned there was in me invincible summer.”
All in all, the straight pathway comes from within amid the crooked journey by means of faith. “To acquire the heart of Christ means I must strive to be content with the life he has given me.” says Kathleen Norris. “That doesn’t mean becoming complacent or defeatist and it also doesn’t mean not acknowledging disappointments. But to believe that my disappointments are greater because I am [handicapped, or older, or] single, [or poorer,] is a grave error.” She comments that only when I give thanks for what IS given to me, then can I find faith to live well. Only when the mind and spirit and attitude transcend the daily routine do we find the straight pathway amid the crooked journey.
Paul reminds us in Romans that whether we judge one day to be better than another or judge all days to be alike the crucial thing is to live as if each day belongs to someone other than ourselves: to God, to our family, to society, to those in need. The psalmist reminds us that for God the night is the same as the day, the crooked is the same as the straight, that God can draw straight lines with crooked lives.
The old blind man who changed the tire in the rain had obviously traveled well on a difficult journey, much in contrast to the man who sat sulking with his crutch inside the car. But Hal Manwaring says that that incident was redemptive for him, and he is trying to carve out a straighter pathway amid his own crooked journey.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is. This is called embodying the light. It is the great secret to straight pathways and crooked journeys. Amen.
–Gary L. McCann
Tao Te Ching 27
(translated by Stephen Mitchell)
A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn’t waste anything.
This is called embodying the light.
What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher?
What is a bad man but a good man’s job?
If you don’t understand this, you will get lost,
however intelligent you are.
It is the great secret
| Copyright © 2003 by Gary L. McCann. All rights reserved. |