“Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it."
Matthew 7:13-14 (NRSVue)
On my first youth ministry job after college, I worked for Rev. Ken Tobler at New Haven UMC. He used to say in a pressure situation, "Just remember what Jesus used to tell the disciples." When you would look expectantly for the answer, Ken would say with a wry smile, "Don't screw up!"
It was ridiculous enough to ease the pressure.
But as I think about today's verses, it could be this silly phrase captures more of what Jesus indicated for his disciples than we might think!
I think about my reactions to life's difficulties and sometimes I get it right. I respond in a way that is centered in love rather than fear or anxiety. I create more peace, hope and joy instead of adding to the world more conflict, despair and gloom.
But not every time.
Sometimes I am afraid. Sometimes I'm angry. Sometimes I'm grieving a loss.
And during these times, someone else may come along as a catalyst for taking the easy road to destruction.
When I'm already at a low, what happens when someone antagonizes me? The easy thing to do is to turn it up a notch.
At these moments, when someone cuts me off in traffic, hitting the horn a little longer than necessary is a wide gate.
And when someone actually harms me in some fashion, do I offer grace or do I mull over revenge? Or maybe the easiest of all - I just cut off the relationship.
If we read the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, it appears that much of the way by which Jesus would have us live seems counterintuitive or counterproductive. This could be why he calls it narrow. But in the frustrating instances of life, if I can reach beyond my own capacity, could it be that I might pause and take a breath and find a better way? This is what it means to be "in Christ."
I'm reminded of the end of the poem, "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost when he writes,
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
May you be one of the few who finds it today.
Prayer for the day: God of grace and God of mercy, we must confess that we are often in need of both. We move through life, often without thinking, following the people in front of us. Where they go, we go and what they do, we do. Help us to look further down the path. Give us the wisdom that will overcome our immediate reactions. And heal us from those places that might cause us to bite first a hand that is really reaching out to help. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Photo by Simon Hayhurst via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment