Grindr anyone?

Mark 8:31-9:1

           Todays passage reminds me of the time when my Mother was very sick, she was trying to recover from having had a stroke. A small procedure was needed to help her and she was aware enough to say no, she did not want the procedure. When it was pointed out that the alternative would likely be death,  she confessed that she was quite ready to meet her maker. That to me was a stunning revelation and an admission that goes to the heart of today's passage.

          Perhaps it is a stream of consciousness about my Mom but it also brought me to a time in the 70's when it seemed a common practice in our area to indulge one's children with hot cars as graduation or even 16th birthday presents. Muscle cars were still all the rage so I suppose the mix of affluence and society in general made it logical jump for some. I am sure my own Dad could have indulged me so too but I think he had a good grasp on what is truly important and what lesson such extravagant gifts give.  I do know that I read in the paper many, many incidences where the "child" so gifted went out and almost immediately wrapped the car around a tree and died making the gift one with an extreme lesson. 

          It's not that I am against the finer things of life in any way. With the correct intent, with a proper and mature understanding, I am sure God would wish us all to have 'the finer things in life'. But those things are not guarantees of happiness by any means. Those things can become the misguided focus of one's life thereby missing what we are really called to do, what we are really called to be.

           If I was actually preaching this morning, I mean in an actual church I would have to ask the congregation right now to raise their hands. Who has used Grndr? Who uses Grindr? Is there anything wrong with it?  With limits I don't think there is anything wrong with seeking out love and companionship. This is what we are called to as human beings.  Right from the get go in Genesis we are called to companionship and the physical, emotional and spiritual benefits of such a union. Heck everyone knows I think Sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed and revelled in.

          But what does it have to do with surgical procedures, hot cars and telling Satan to get behind us? I am sure there are people that spend way too much time focused on Grindr or some other internet networking sex site. It's all well and good as a tool (no pun intended) but if it becomes more important than the actual people, than actual relationships, it becomes no different than racing around aimlessly and carelessly in a hot rod car. The end result is often tragedy and loss of life.  

         The stakes are too high for us in this life to place the importance of living all in material things or earthly physicalities.  Gifts from God, but ones that can be misused, misunderstood, vilified or become tortured desires. All of this can take our focus away from the happiness and goal of our life.

        We are not to focus so much on the sufferings of this life, they will come and go. We are not to focus so much on the material or the carnal, they too will come and go. What is not fleeting, what is eternal and fulfills our purpose is the love of God and the love we live.

         

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’