September 13, 2009 Psalm 116:1-9
Mark 8:27-38
Communion Meditation
Let’s talk about denial.
When we hear unexpected news, how do we react?
We react by saying things like:
“You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Are you out of your mind?”
“Do you realize what you are saying?”
“I don’t believe it. She would never do such a thing!”
“That couldn’t be! I just saw him yesterday and he was fine!”
Our systems do not like surprises, so the first defense is denial.
All the time, people go in for what they think will be routine physicals only to hear that something has “shown up” in their blood work, an xray, a cat scan, or some other test. The call comes from the doctor’s office or a card comes in the mail asking the patient to call the office.
“The Doctor wants to run some more tests to figure out what is going on.”
“What’s going on? What do you mean?”
“You blood sugar levels are a little high.”
“”My blood sugar levels? There has to be a mistake. I’ve never had any problems with my blood sugar!”
We don’t like bad news. Our first way of dealing with it is to deny what we are hearing. After all, these things happen to other people but not to us!
Peter was a devoted follower of Jesus, but when he started hearing that things were not going to happen as Peter envisioned, Peter reacted with denial. “This couldn’t be Jesus. I don’t think you understand. A messiah is supposed to be a great warrior and have thousands and thousands of soldiers ready to risk death in battle at his command. A messiah is not supposed to die like a common criminal. No, this is not right! Tell me this is just a test and that you will become a conquering hero.”
You see, Peter was convinced that Jesus was going to follow the messiahship rules! He was not interested in following a man who would be condemned to death by the authorities.
“And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders…And Peter took him and began to rebuke him.”
“Tell me this is not so.”
Denial.
Denial is a natural and common reaction to news. It is a mechanism we use all the time for small things and big things, for basically anything that rattles us or catches us off guard:
-the 45 year-old male who is astounded to hear that he has a bald spot in the back of his head. “ No way, my Dad had a full head of hair until he was 70!”
-the 35 year-old female executive who refuses to believe that the Board of Directors has just sold the company she works for and that if she wants to stay with them, she will have to leave Massachusetts and move to Oregon. “You’ve must be kidding! I can’t move across the country.”
-the 68 year-old who finds out just a few weeks after retiring, that he or she has stage three pancreatic cancer. “No way am I going to believe this. I will get a second opinion. You see, cancer is just not in the retirement plans. I am entitled to good health in retirement. I haven’t worked this hard and for this long to be denied some quality retirement time.
-an entire nation, half of which is having breakfast and watching the morning news when images depicting planes crashing into buildings suddenly appear. “What is this? This can’t be real?”
Just like the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger when TV viewers despite the massive clouds of smoke and flames, still expected to see the Challenger reappear in tact, the viewers of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers 8 years and two days ago, reacted in pure disbelief!
“This cannot be what I think it is.”
“This is not possible.”
When the first tower collapsed, most of us went into shock. We were frozen, paralyzed by disbelief. Our minds could not process the images. We went numb.
To this very day, the news still does not compute. This is unbelievable and yet the evidence is irrefutably clear. The heat from the burning thousands of gallons of fuel weakened the steel to the point of collapse. Once one floor went an unstoppable progression began. Lower floors were defenseless against the massive weights which slammed into them from above and two buildings entirely with so many people still trying to exit, became a apocalyptic pile of rubble and dust.
“This is not possible.”
“I’m looking at this, but I don’t believe it.”
Denial is a defense like no other.
Even for the great apostle Peter, whom the Catholic Church has elevated to top-level sainthood, Peter, whom we tend to think of as hanging around the gate into heaven, big book in hand, looking through his data base to see whether or not the new arrivals will get in, one with that much authority within the tradition of the church was caught disbelieving what Jesus was saying! Peter would not accept what Jesus was telling him because Peter expected to hear a much different story. “Yes, yes, you are going to suffer. But, you are going to end up the hero – I know that – you’re just saying this stuff now. I get it. “
As a matter of fact, Peter didn’t get it and sometimes we don’t. We love to think about Jesus sacrificing his life for us, we love to hear that he’s made all things right for us with God and that in the end all will be good, but we tend to ignore the rest of the formula. We are at times, in fact, in denial of the responsibility side of the faith which is why what Jesus next says to Peter is pretty hard to accept: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
We gather each week as a community not just of faith, but a community founded in Jesus Christ. Together we can discern what God is calling us to do. Amidst all our human imperfections including our tendency to deny the responsibilities in accepting God’s gift of Jesus Christ, we come together to pray, to listen and to discover ways of spreading the Good News of the Gospel both in word and deed.
As we begin a new year, we affirm our call to be disciples of Jesus. When the temptation arises to stand in denial of the sacrifices we ourselves are expected to make, may God’s light and truth break through our defenses and give us the courage to pursue discipleship boldly in these days of great challenge. Amen.
