Follow the Leader

(Meditation for Lent 2)

Do you remember playing follow the leader?  The goal of the game is to do what the leader is doing.  Failure to do as the leader is means you lose and are out of the game.

The leader’s goal is to do increasingly more difficult actions quickly so that others are unable to keep up.  The winner is the last one (other than the leader) left in the game.

The readings for the Second Sunday of Lent remind me for many reasons of playing follow the leader. 

First we see Abraham who in spite of all outward appearances believes God’s covenant with him.  The covenant which lets him know he will be the father of many.  Here Abraham is 99 years old and Sarah is barren.  Against all odds, Abraham believes and follows God.

Next we have Peter who focuses on the human, the safe, the known.  He attempts to rebuke Jesus as Jesus shares what is to come.  Aside from the boldness, Peter makes me chuckle.  How much I am like him at times!  “Um, God, no…not so much.  It’s going to be like this…”

And then we have Jesus who reminds us of the need to follow him.  To follow him in this upside down journey to the cross.  This journey that makes no sense on the surface.  This journey that calls us to lose our lives to save them.  This journey that calls us to lead as servants.  This journey in which we follow an unseen God.

A person much wiser than me said, “Faith is obedience without reservation.”  May we follow THE leader without reservation.