LOSERS - KEEPERS JMB
Mark 8:31-36 BSPC
June 10, 1979 Columbus, Ohio

I was told by a very articulate psychologist at
Purdue University never to apologig€ at the beginning
of a sermon. T Baew the truth“of that advice. I also

know that confession DBre9 for the soul. And so, without

apologizing, I confes#that B ch of what I have to say

this morning grows out of a Commen®ement Address I
delivered thie week. My only real apology is that a very
few of yg may be hearing some material twice. "~0 the

other“hand it was so hot and crowded in here on Thur ste

ye Wee yD het ee = Eh oe -F4 St — $Me = aund

A Jouraster i ae

TERREE? isp lece ¢
When I was a erd and one of my friends VORRTaa <
@rr) Glut ID Neppad ty Sin

something, a book, a dime, a baseball — there was a poetic

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couplet which served well. I could say, and always did,
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"Finders - Keepers: Losers ~ Weepers".) Nothing extraordinary

ere. \ Even though the finder wasn't ordinarily a keeper,

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unless the loser wasn tin the vicinity, the little couplet

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described a small piece.of human reality in rather precise
terms \ You may keep what you find;\and to lose something is

a sad situation Sometimes it makes you weep.

How curious — how radically backwards of Jesus,
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therefore to suggest, on one occasion, that in one very
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important respect, the reverse is the truth. Finders are

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the weepers:|and the losers are the real keepers.
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The text this morning constitutes what the scholars
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call the first passion announcement .\ Peter had just
\alized
V eene his deepest intuitions about the real identity

of Jesus of Nazareth: (‘vou are the christ") Jesus seized

the occasion to spell out what that meant \ to be precise,

he was going to suffer and die. \Peter wag horrified: \there

were heated words. | And then Jesus -("If any man would come
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after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and
follow ne. \ For whoever would save his life will lose it.

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And whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospel's

will save it.” )

Jesus said that, or something very similar to it
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several times. \ae other places in the narrative the words

"for my sake and the Gospel's" are omitted so that it

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becomes a kind of proverb - save life and you will lose it:

lose life and you _ will save it, or find it, or have it.

It is important to remember that at the time Mark wrote
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his account these words described a ghastly literal situation.

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People were @pbag for their aitn| And some, we must assume,

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were choosing to save their own lives by denying their

faith. { ew Testament s¢holars feel that the(" take up his

eross and follow] comes from the actual Roman custom under

Nero, of forcing known Christians to parade through the

streets carrying the cross beam of the instrument upon

which they would be nailed shortly for the Emperor's

entertainment. \ Tey are, in that context,powerful, almost

unspeakably poignant wards.

They are not, I have always felt, applicable to the

little inconveniences and annoyances which we sometimes
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describe as our cross to bear\ That is almost blasphemous.

They point to a Lord who died because he believed it was

the way to Live.| They testify to thousands, millions of

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people who have chosen-some Wav ‘dramatically, most quietly,

simply,*to die rather than save themselves by some compromise

of faith or integrity. They point foeday, I would submit, to

rothers and sisters who feel so deeply about issues of

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political, economic or social controversy that We are

willing to risk a great deal for their intesrit They

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Rylan & point to John Paul II, who is finally putting some of that
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oe? ha monolithic, encrusted, incredibly wealth radition on the
rust¢ SN Sao an rennin chil
, i ob line for the sake of Jesus Christ, and on behalf of oppressed
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\een people everywhere. | He just may get his church in a lot of

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Sa trouble ~ the kind of trouble that will give it new life
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and power and authenticity.

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W\br ee We're not talking about toothaches, or a particularly
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difficult assignment in math, or an, annoying aunt who comes
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to dinner too frequently.{ We're talking about a way of
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l¢dving life which, frankly, sees the greatest good, and
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therefore the greatest happiness in terms of letting go,
giving, serving, risking, rather than saying, clutching,

protecting, preserving.

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almost diametrically opposite to the cultic theology of

That remains @ radical suggestion: {it is a position

traditional middle class values. \ vou will not find in the
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pages of Esquire, New Yorker, Fortune, Time, Playboy, or
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the Columbus Monthly the idea that real life wili result
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when ye! learn to sacrifice.| Quite the reverse is the

content of our dearest fantasy: [tne chief end of men and

women in this culture is to buy, own and accumulate, and to
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reflect on the ecstacy of it all while meditating in a
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hot tub.

The purpose of education within this cultural theology
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is to provide a marketable skill which results in a good
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job and good salary with which to buy tnines.\ when IT meet

with young couples prior to their wedding one of the

Cz, things we talk about is the future. \ IT ask_them how they
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yn want it to be in five years or ten years.\ With_few exceptions
’ \we ot , their initial response is to tell me Weebuthey-hepe “ttt
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A ' They simply reflect a culture that has been defining real
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ae jee Life. for them, since the day they were born, as owning
pei things.
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Historian Daniel Boorstin believes we have been
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ce —

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totally misled by the philosophy of rising expectation.

He writes:¢"We expect too much of the world. {We expect
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our house not only to shelter us, to keep us warm in the
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winter, and cool in the summer, but to relax us, to dignify

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us, to encompass us with soft music and interesting hobbies,

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to be a playground, theater and bar. | We expect anything
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and everyth We expect the contradictory and the

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impossible -— far more than the world can deliver." )

The philosophy of rising expectations and the
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Simple reality of built~-in-obsolescence means that there

is, and always will be, something more to on. \ our_sense

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of fullness, of real life, of happiness therefore is destined

to last about as long as the paper —¢ddhi\iinish on 4& new

automobile, which in Columbus, Ohio, is about eighteen
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months.

sesus' suggestion is radically different from the

cult of accumulation. | It is also fundamentally different

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which characterizes the

from the basic self-centeredness.

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latest moral imperative of pop culture.| That pesition that

you will find your life when. you discover yourself, and

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you will discover yourself when you do two things - toon CD
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long and lovingly at yourself, get in touch with yourself;
and give yourself permission to do whatever yourself

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wishes to =\ It is called the "New Narcissism" | It is

st putea | a/ wid die 6 fla bm i.

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why we are called the "dew ee Young people seem

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to believe it religiously middie age people have followed

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suit.
Time Magazine in its weekly essay called it "The
Weakness that Starts at Home™¢June 4), and quoted Alexis

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de Tocquervillé who fell in love with America early in our
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life and saw us sometimes, more clearly than we have ever

been able to see ourselves. \ wrote in 1835,( "No power

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on earth can prevent the increasing equality of conditions
from leading every member of the community to be wrapped
up in himself.|..And no one can @mr foretell into what

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disgrace and wretchedness they would plunge themselves lest
they should have to sacrifice something of their own well-

being to the prosperity of their fellow creatures.") The

Californian who leapt out of his car and beat up the

pregnant woman who cut in front of him at a service station
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two weeks ago gave us an uncomfortable look at what selfish-

ness and self-assertiveness can become.
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Life is not gained in exercising one's selfhood so
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aggressively that self becomes God any more that it is

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gained by purchasing every new product or gadget to come
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down the road.

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Jesus suggested that if you want to gain life you

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must learn to give it away. \If you want to enjoy something

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even your own being - you must learn to loosen your grip
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a bit.

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We know the truth of that paychotogicatty \ vitor

Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist, who surwived Auschwitz

———————-
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and knows a bit about life, there fore, writes|, /"The

more one forgets oneself - giving oneself to a cause or
another person - the more human he is... .@@—pdiOSGesisGiend he

S Jee L feed Qehomineeer ea ee Se fer eNO CCN TET CO =O F9
ecyiebewes. Once one has served a cause or is involved in
loving another human being, happiness occurs by itself...

pleasure and happiness are by-products... appenees=ares t
Chsiiewr=—r>h=earrsyt be pursued." (The Unconscious God,p.79, 84,85).

Parents learn that along the way. | The greatest joy
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is to love unselfishly, without thought fox personal gain.

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Some of usvare_fortunate to have been taught that the

profoundest pleasure of all is to give someone else pleasure.

will be really happy are those who have sought and found ~~
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(River Schweitzer/wrote one time, (ne only ones among you who
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how to serve." (p.85)..

Jesus said,( "re you lose your life, you will find it."

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If you find something important enough to live for, some

cause, some project, some person — to which, or to whom -
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you can give yourself ~- you will be truly and fully alive.

you a ywnlf - Your awa Qwyse st

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That's the secret of Christian tain. |r is what

Jesus wanted to teach his friends. \ And it is what, in

his service, following him in obedient discipleship, they
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learned.\ It is the call of Jesus Christ to you and me -

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today - to find our lives by losing them fox’ his sake.

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It is: aay business, to be sure. \ Govert Louis’

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“tesveneon 7 somewhere about a man so obsessed with
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“protecting his own health that he made his raincoat and

rubbers his main concern, and thus missed the whole
pageant of nature.

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To care deeply about someone or something is to risk

getting hurt.|\To sit in a meeting and speak to a concern
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about which you have some deep convictions is to risk

sounding foolish \ To hug a friend. or weep for joy or clap

in church or sing the waEtonal anthem when everyone else

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\ie standing in aay silence is to risk appearing foolish.

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To run a race is to risk - not just poy but tinzehing
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dead last. To love_totally - is not simply to take a chance

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on ecstacy. | It is to risk rejection.
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Life is so very pepttons.\ 1h mpnents that we should
be prudent: |that we should protect what we have and take

no unnecessary chances. | And the moment we begin to think
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like that, we begin tollose the very preciousness we want.

————

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In Jesus! idiom, we lose life-which means dying.jC.S.Lewis
=n. ed

Said it beautifully:[ "Love anything and your heart will

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certainly be wrung and possibly broken. | If you want to
be sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to
no one, not even an animal. The only place outside heaven
where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers of

love is hell."

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Jesus Christ calls to life - life fully and joyfully
Danial
lived. | ssanio8s of men and women before us have discovered
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themselves in his service} Some of them have died.| MOre of them

have lived fully - because they learned, from him, to give,
_— a aphepEeerrn—
to sacrifice, to serve.

=———

May we learn from him too ~ "losers are the real

=_—__ee

keepers!"
"Whoever will save his life will lose it; and whoever
loses his life for my sake will save it."

Amen.

God our Father, give us the courage to let go: to
risk everything for you. And teach us again, the joy of
emptying curselves in the service of others. Through

Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.