Enduring

Psalm 80

12Why have you broken down its wall, *

 so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?

13The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, *

 and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.

I had to include this because I feel so vulnerable living in the U.S. right now, with the walls of sanity and integrity in rubble, and the ravagers having their way with the unprotected fruits of American democracy. I will just leave it as a lament and a wailing……

Deuteronomy 8:1-10

2Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness,

The “long way the Lord has led you….” I don’t know why this phrase grabbed me, but it did. It seems important to me that the verb in that sentence is “led.” God went first into the wilderness, and the Israelites went into it because they were following God….not because they were banking on getting paid off on the other side with an easy and pleasant life in a hospitable land. They followed God because…..God.

Even if there is a promise, that doesn’t matter. It’s not about the promise, it’s about God. I think I’ve had this same insight before: God is ‘God-with-us’ and so wherever he leads us, into suffering or not, he is ahead of us; he shows us the way. God is also behind us as well, because we are in God and God is in us. If there is suffering, God suffers it first and last, and we only suffer it because we are following God. If God is the One in whom “we live and move and have our being,” and “the Kingdom of Heaven is within (us),” then there is no way that anyone can live without God. We can’t bring God into being by means of our belief, and we can’t banish God by means of our unbelief. The worst we can do is disregard, overlook, and ignore God. We can be heedless, ignorant, and oblivious, but we cannot erase the reality of God.

James 1:1-15

12 Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. 13No one, when tempted, should say, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. 14But one is tempted by one’s own desire, being lured and enticed by it; 15then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death.

What jumped out at me here was “for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one.” God does not tempt! It’s our own desire that tempts us, and of course that is exactly what Buddha said, that the cause of suffering (read “sin”) is desire. I think there is a great deal of insight to be gained if we read the word “sin” as meaning “suffering” or “samsara.” Look at the basic tenets: Buddhism says suffering is caused by ignorance and desire, and following the Way of Buddha leads to freedom from desire and ignorance, which in turn leads to Awakening, and freedom from the cycle of birth and death. Christianity says sin is born of desire and death is born of sin, and following the Way of Christ leads to freedom from sin, which in turn leads to Eternal Life and freedom from death.

I don’t think much more needs to be said. (Well, maybe a little semantic note….the text does not say, “resists” temptation, it says “endures.” If we think of patiently enduring our desires/temptations, instead of flinching from them and reprimanding ourselves for even having them, we find ourselves better-off.)

Luke 9:18-27

23 Then he said to them all, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. 25What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?

Back to Buddha again, in particular Zen. Death and Life; Loss and Salvation. Self-Denial and Happiness. Losing life to gain it. Wait, or is it gaining life to lose it? Which came first the chicken or the egg? It’s a puzzle for sure! Sounds to me like this is more-or-less what Jesus is saying: “You better quit worrying about whether you are going to live or die, and just carry on following me. Deny your busy brains that are worrying about the future, and pick up your cross daily and follow me. Just follow me, you dimwits! You can’t follow me if you are worried about things you want, like saving your life. You can’t follow me if you are thinking about how to trick yourself into losing your life, while pretending all along that you didn’t intend to try and save it! Forget about all that, and carry on. If you are thinking about profit, you will miss the whole point. You can’t hold on to this! If you try, it will evaporate into nothing, and you will be left looking sad and silly. There is nothing but Now in which to live. Oh, and by the way, Now is eternal, inexorable, perfect, inevitable, and immutable. If you want some more adjectives, I have them. I offer you the amazing Now, and you lean around to look behind me for the real pay-off! I am the gate, and I am the one who goes in and out of the gate, and I’m standing right here waving my arms and shouting to get your attention. There is no trick, there are no hoops to jump through, and you don’t get any medals. Do you have ears to hear with? Get with it, knuckleheads!”