Loving God, you call us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, and you place your Spirit within us.  Help us to be renewed both in our thinking and in our hearts as we gather together today, and keep us in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    This summer I had the opportunity to visit my cousin Adam, who was part of Canada’s Olympic team in Beijing.  He was a member of the men’s 8 rowing team that won gold at the 2008 Olympics.  At the time, Adam wrote about the value of positive thinking in striving for gold.  When all of his muscles would be screaming for him to stop, Adam would tell himself, “I am strong.  I have energy.  I am powerful.”  Telling himself these things enabled him to dig down deeper and to push his limits to the max.  Because he was thinking, “I am strong,” his body followed suit.  Essentially, his body obeyed his mind.  If Adam had been thinking, “I’m so tired.  I can’t do this anymore.  This is too hard,” his body would have believed him then, too, and he would not have reached the same level.

    Since the Olympics, Adam has been doing a lot of public speaking and has now branched out into motivational speaking.  He shared with me some of the materials that he uses, and a tremendous amount of it focuses on how we think and how we speak.  What we tell ourselves, either consciously or unconsciously, and what we say both to ourselves and to others has tremendous power.  What we choose to focus on has a huge impact on the quality of life that we experience.

    I recently heard the story of a man who accidentally locked himself into a refrigerator car in a railway yard.  It was at the end of the day, and all of his co-workers had left.  No matter how hard he pounded on the door, there was nobody there to hear him.  The man started to get colder and colder and soon was shivering uncontrollably.  He kept thinking to himself, “Nobody’s going to find me in here, and I’ll freeze to death by morning.”  He even wrote a note to his family, since he knew he wouldn’t survive the night.

    The next day, they found his frozen body in the railway car, but they couldn’t understand how he had frozen to death.  The refrigeration in the car wasn’t working, and the temperature hadn’t gone below 15°C overnight.  Yet, the man had frozen to death.  He had convinced himself so thoroughly that he would freeze to death that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy.  What we tell ourselves does matter!

    Take, for example, the picture that is presented in the reading from Isaiah this morning, which describes God’s servant.  He stands firm, as he is struck on the back and insulted.  He stands firm as they pull out the hairs of his beard and spit in his face.  Did you notice, though, what he was telling himself?  He is saying, “God helps me, and God will vindicate me.  The Lord is near.  I have not been disgraced.  I will not be put to shame.  My adversaries are nothing compared to the Lord my God.  God will help me.  Who will declare me guilty?” (cf. Isa. 50:7-9).  This is not simply the power of positive thinking.  This is focussing on things that are true – the power of God.

    The servant knows that God is his help.  He knows that ultimately God will give him the victory.  He knows that God will show him to be innocent and undeserving of all this abuse that is being heaped upon him.  This is what enables him to be at peace and not take revenge.  This is what enables him to leave the judgment in God’s hands and to continue to focus on God’s power and God’s help, even in the midst of such humiliation.

    Surely Jesus had similar focus when he was enduring all manner of abuse from his own people and from the Roman soldiers.  Jesus was absolutely focussed on his mission.  He knew what it would take to break the power of sin and death and redeem all of humanity.  He knew that God’s love was constant in spite of the ugly fury directed at him by human beings.  He knew that his suffering and his rejection and his crucifixion would serve a greater purpose, and his focus was on his love for humanity rather than his own personal safety and comfort (cf. Mk. 8:31-33).  It was Jesus’ love for you and for me that kept him on the path of suffering that he knew he needed to walk in order to achieve our salvation.

    And so, for us, what are we focussed on?  Do we focus on the goodness and the love of God and claim God’s healing power in our lives?  Do we focus on God’s adoption of us through baptism as his own children and inheritors of eternal life?  Do we focus on the promises of the Scriptures?  Do we tell ourselves, the Lord is my Shepherd and he restores my soul (Ps. 23)?  Do we tell ourselves, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13)?  Do we set our minds on divine things or human things (Mk. 8:33)?

    For whatever reason, it seems to be so much easier for us to focus on everything that’s wrong.  The messages that I most often hear from people are words of defeat.  “Oh - I could never do that.”  “That will never work.”  “People will never go for that.”  “Why don’t people get their priorities straight?”  “It’s terrible to grow old.”  “I’ve got to hang on to what I’ve got, because you never know what might happen.”  “Why won’t people just do things my way!”

    Some of these things may be true, but why would we focus on all of the things that are terrible or aggravating or negative when we have a God who is more powerful than all of them?  Just like the man who froze to death in 15 degree temperatures, constant negativity is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If I’m constantly worried that I’m going to get sick, I’ll quite likely end up sick.  If I keep telling myself that I can’t do something, I likely won’t be able to do it.  Our thoughts, and our words, are powerful things.

    There’s a reason that Jesus immediately turns to the disciples and says, “Get behind me, Satan!” in today’s gospel (Mk. 8:33).  It must have been oh, so tempting, for Jesus to abandon his mission and simply focus on life in this world.  He doesn’t even want to entertain those thoughts, for he knows that unless he stays focussed on the love of God and the salvation of humanity, he cannot fulfill his purpose.  It is to our benefit that Jesus kept his focus.

    At the same time, today’s gospel reminds us that those who follow Jesus will not have lives that are free from pain or suffering.  However, even in the midst of painful situations, there can be victory.  It is the apostle Paul who wrote to the Philippians and said, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”  He had learned this in spite of being hungry and cold and imprisoned and shipwrecked and beaten.  He had learned that he could do all things whether he had little or a lot.  He had learned to be content in all situations, because he knew the power of God.

    Jesus came that we might have life, and have it abundantly (Jn. 10:10)!  Let us then turn our focus to those things that are life-giving, putting our faith in Jesus Christ and trusting in the power and the promises of God.  We really can do all things through him who strengthens us!  The one who holds our life in his hands tells us so.  Amen.

Lectionary 24(B)                                Mark 8:27-38
September 13, 2009                            Isaiah 50:4-9a
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved