Take Up Your Cross
At my seminary, seniors get together in teams of 4 and each team has a week of daily chapel services to plan. My team's week is coming up in about a month (the week before Holy Week).
In hindsight, I wish we hadn't signed up for a week in Lent, and I wish we hadn't chosen as a theme one of my most formative Scriptures (Mark 8:24-25)...because it makes me really invested in what we do, and have strong, passionate feelings about what it should look like. But in a group of 4 seminarians, there are usually 3 other people that also have their own strong feelings about it. So, it becomes a navigation of compromises. And I don't mind compromising in general, but the danger in this kind of situation is that we'll have four competing visions, each of which will be expressed, and so none of them will really come across clearly or with any degree of power. It can seem like a jumbled mess.
One issue has become how that Scripture ("Let anyone who wants to be my follower deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For anyone who saves their life will lose it, but anyone who loses their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it.") has been used to oppress already oppressed peoples. After all, if someone is already being trampled on by others, and has no will of their own, this can be a tool to further that oppression, rather than a tool for empowerment. Of course, our seminary is mostly composed of people of great privilege (we're in Grad School after all), though I think all of us have some places where our self is already denied, through no choice of our own.
Anybody have any ideas on how this text applies to people who already have no voice or self or power in a culture? How can this be preached to people whose selves are already denied?
In hindsight, I wish we hadn't signed up for a week in Lent, and I wish we hadn't chosen as a theme one of my most formative Scriptures (Mark 8:24-25)...because it makes me really invested in what we do, and have strong, passionate feelings about what it should look like. But in a group of 4 seminarians, there are usually 3 other people that also have their own strong feelings about it. So, it becomes a navigation of compromises. And I don't mind compromising in general, but the danger in this kind of situation is that we'll have four competing visions, each of which will be expressed, and so none of them will really come across clearly or with any degree of power. It can seem like a jumbled mess.
One issue has become how that Scripture ("Let anyone who wants to be my follower deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For anyone who saves their life will lose it, but anyone who loses their life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it.") has been used to oppress already oppressed peoples. After all, if someone is already being trampled on by others, and has no will of their own, this can be a tool to further that oppression, rather than a tool for empowerment. Of course, our seminary is mostly composed of people of great privilege (we're in Grad School after all), though I think all of us have some places where our self is already denied, through no choice of our own.
Anybody have any ideas on how this text applies to people who already have no voice or self or power in a culture? How can this be preached to people whose selves are already denied?
posted by bethany at 12:58 PM
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