Readings for Proper 16C:
Luke 13:22-30
August 26, 2007
The Rev. Karen Faye Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino, CA
Someone asked Jesus: “Lord, will only a few be saved?” He answered: “ Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many will try to enter and will not be able ... Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.” [Luke 13] Today, I would like to talk about the narrow door: What is it? Who gets in? What is the good news? I will use the gospel story as my text.
Life is full of surprises. Just when we think we have everything figured out and our routines have become settled, life comes crashing in, bringing us new opportunities to grow and to change. I don’t know about you, but I do not particularly like surprises especially when they bring bad news or when they unsettle my life. So, if you are going to tell me some bad news, the best way to do it is to warn me in advance. For instance, you could clear your throat and then suggest that I sit down. Or, you could tilt your head, frown your eyebrows, and exhale a deep sigh. These kinds of warnings allow me a moment to brace myself and to reach into that deeper place where true strength lies.
In first century Palestine, people did not particularly like surprises. Life was prescribed, predictable and orderly. Those in power and those who thought they had life all figured out, especially did not like surprises. They became deeply disturbed when Jesus would surprise them by challenging their conventional wisdom. Imagine hearing the promise: “The powerful will be brought down and the lowly lifted up.” ... Well, those are fighting words for some!
The 13th chapter of Luke is full of surprises; unexpected reversals brought on by the Kingdom of God. A crippled woman is healed on the Sabbath. The tiny mustard seed is able to produce a large, bushy plant. Small beginnings have big endings. And in God’s kingdom, the last will be first and the first will be last. Luke’s gospel paints us a vivid picture as to what the kingdom of God is like. The kingdom of God, is a religious term for “life as God intends it to be.” And what kind of life does God intend? God intends for all creation to experience life abundantly; immersed in love, joy, peace, generosity, justice, harmony, and authenticity. In short, the kingdom of God is life with God at the center. This abundant life is available to all who live and act consciously from a place of love. Those who choose to remain in darkness, ignorance, and fear simply cannot experience the kingdom of God because they have chosen to do otherwise.
The image of the narrow door is powerful one and can offer much hope to a broken world. What does it mean to strive to enter the narrow door? This term has been interpreted in a variety of ways by Jews and Christians throughout the centuries. For instance, in first century Palestine, the teachers of the Jewish law believed that the narrow door separated out the gentiles from the Jews as well as excluded the lame, the lost, the loser, the left behind, tax collectors, and a whole lot of other folks who were deemed impure. Jesus debunks this interpretation in today’s gospel and warns the people to think differently.
In the 21st century, fundamentalist Christians have continued with this exclusionary interpretation of the narrow door. They believe that only those who meet certain criteria will be admitted. For them, the narrow door will keep out free thinkers as well as those who support abortion rights, civil rights for gays, and the separation of church and state in public schools. Since Jesus never spoke about any of these issues (at least as recorded in Scripture), I doubt he saw the narrow door in this way.
Liberal Christians tend to have a more open door policy when it comes to interpreting the narrow door. For them, life with God simply means striving for social justice and being productive. However, they tend to forget Jesus’ teachings on prayer, personal sacrifice, and placing God at the center of their lives. So the narrow door must mean something more.
There is another interpretation of the narrow door that is not exclusionary, includes striving for social justice, but also requires thoughtfulness, action, and keeping one’s eye on God no matter what circumstances we may find ourselves in. It is called conscious living. A faithful Christian life is not life as usual. Rather it is conscious, deliberate, and requires adherence to gospel principles. Let me give you an example of deliberate and conscious action. When I moved into the rectory, I wanted my desk to be placed in my bedroom. Unfortunately, when the movers tried to make a right angle from the hallway into the bedroom, they realized that the desk was too wide to enter through the narrow door. After much effort with turning the desk upside-down, the movers realized that they had to bring the desk back down the hallway and come up with a different plan. After much thought and consideration, we consciously came up with a plan. The desk was carried out through the living room sliding glass door, around the patio, to the back of the house, and then back through the sliding glass door of my bedroom. It wasn’t easy, it took some thought and consideration, but with careful planning and execution, the goal was achieved. In this example, no furniture was excluded. But we had to think differently. It took conscious planning, constructive action, and persistence to get it through the narrow door.
Whether or not the human race is going to survive the next century has a lot to do with whether or not we engage in conscious thinking and constructive living. The environment in which we are now living is toxic and difficult, more difficult than a lot of people seem willing to admit. There is a collective sense of anxiety and depression that is glossed over and suppressed. On the level of everyday conversation, we conspire with one another to pretend that things are going basically okay, not because we really believe it but because we have no way of talking together about these deeper layers of experience. So we talk mainly about other things, superficial things, and hope that watching the latest Hollywood movie or buying an SUV, will distract us enough so that we do not have to deal with the more painful issues facing this planet. Of course we want to avoid the pain. But by doing so, we inevitably cause more of it, thus removing ourselves from a life with God; a life outside the narrow door.
The narrow door is a call for transformation. It is a challenge to grow. “The times in which we live call for fundamental change, not merely incremental change. Millions of people feel called in their souls to the task of global transformation, wanting to be its agents in a monumental shift from a world of fear to a world of love. We can feel the time is now, and we know we’re the ones to do it. The only problem is, we don’t exactly know how. How can we best participate in a task so huge and idealistic? We sense new energy rising up everywhere, calling us toward more enlightened ways of seeing, living, thinking, and being. We’re doing what we can to change the world in our own small way, but new ideas and more compassionate forces seem overwhelmed by their opposites.”* When we look at the world today, acts of fear seem to be triumphing over acts of love. What are we to do?
The most important thing to remember during times of great change is to fix our eyes on that which does not change. The immovable foundation for us is God as revealed in Christ. God has a plan for creation and will not leave us powerless against the forces of darkness. God intends for all creation to experience life abundantly; immersed in love, joy, peace, generosity, justice, harmony, and authenticity. How can we participate in bringing about a world that is based on God’s intention? By striving to enter through the narrow door which means following in the steps of Jesus.
We must remember that we are all children of God first and foremost, committed to resisting evil, repenting when we fall short, loving our neighbor, and striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human being. Today’s gospel calls us to wake up, engage in conscious living, re-think conventional wisdom, and struggle with difficult question such as:
Because we will be changing over to the Revised Common Lectionary this Advent, this particular passage from Luke will no longer be read as a Sunday gospel reading. So I leave you with this final thought:
Three people are standing at the narrow door. One is Muslim from the Middle East who faithfully practices the five pillars of her faith. The second is a pious rabbi who follows the torah and the precepts of the Jewish faith. The third person is you; a baptized Christian and citizen of the United States. Which one of you will get through the narrow door? It is not for you to judge or decide! That is God’s decision. Your decision is whether you will continue to strive to enter through narrow door by conscious living and by following in the steps of Jesus. I pray that you will decide to do just that.
* The Gift of Change; Marianne Williamson; 2004. Harper, San Francisco.
| Updated August 28, 2007 |
|