From Broken and Beloved - Lent 2019. This series ran throughout the season of Lent.
No Escape
STEP ONE: BREATHE
Take a deep, cleansing breath. Allow the air to fill your lungs and expand your body. Exhale and empty yourself into the room. Repeat three times - once for the one who Created you, once for the Incarnate One who walks beside you, and once for the Spirit whose life fills your being.
STEP TWO: DWELL IN WORD
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.”
— Proverbs 3:5
For a time, it seemed like everyone I knew was trying out an Escape Room experience. Perhaps you have done it? You pay someone to lock you in a room with a group of people that you may or may not know. There are clues in the room that will eventually lead you to a key that allows you to unlock the exit door. Time is ticking. Can you escape in time?
I've not tried it myself. I'm hesitant to put myself in that situation with a group of people I don't know as I'm afraid that it would play to my worst attributes. Under pressure, if no one else steps up, I will take control. Because I can usually see multiple options and solutions when faced with a problem, I would spring into action and try to do it myself or direct others. Or, if someone else jumped in, I would allow them to take over. I would hold back making too many suggestions. Either way, I'd not be at my best nor would I be of much help to the group. It wouldn't be much fun, and in the end, I'd be frustrated that we couldn't escape.
So that's why I haven't yet tried an Escape Room. With the right group of people, however, I think it would be fun. If I could pick all those in the room, I'd give it a try. Knowing each other, we'd be able to play off our strengths. With the group that I have in mind, I'm confident that we could solve any puzzle presented. We could escape with time to spare.
During this Holy Week, we are focusing on the paradox that has served as our overall theme throughout the whole Lenten season: Broken & Beloved.
Between these poles, we live out our lives in a variety of relationships. From our spiritual relationship with our Creator to the intimate relationships with close family, from acquaintances with friends and coworkers to sacred communion with others in our faith community - we exist in the tension of being broken and beloved. There is no escape.
No matter how hard we try to get out of this paradox, we are unable. There is no magic key or code hidden in an unusual place. Neither is there any amount of brilliance or smarts that can figure it out. We can't put together a dream team that will prevail against time and incredible odds either. Try as we might, we are stuck with being human. We can't escape our created nature.
It doesn't mean that we won't try. Each generation comes up with its solutions and experiments. We search for magical elixirs and fountains, attempt unified theories, and accumulate miles of data. We cling to political ideologies as ultimate solutions, craft ointments to sooth, and develop toxic concoctions to turn back aging processes. We buy into the myth that humanity is progressing and improving at a constant rate toward enlightenment. We may not escape, but eventually, a more-perfect human will make it. Maybe our brilliant kids will figure it out.
Throughout this Lenten series, I have suggested a different path. Instead of trying to figure out a problem that can't be solved and wasting time in an endless search for unattainable perfection, we need to embrace reality. Lean into our imperfection. We do this not with dejection and resignation but in the sure and certain hope that God meets us in tension and failure.
Jesus sought engagement with messy, imperfect, and vulnerable. In so doing, he blessed the poor, meek, and broken-hearted with the presence of God. The cross stands not as a solution, as some might suggest, to all life's problems. It is not a code or key that opens heavenly victory to the ones that know how to wield its power correctly. It doesn't offer magical protection against all evil and ensure its wearer superpowers of salvific import. To think along these lines is to imagine faith merely as an escape plan that allows us to jettison from this world to the next. Such thinking is inconsistent with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus that we find in the gospel stories.
The cross stands to remind us that instead of escaping human frailty and imperfection, God moves in the opposite direction. It is an ultimate symbol that the Creator of heaven and earth has chosen to get real with us. God comes to us not with an escape pod but with love and mercy. It meets us where we are and transforms our very souls in real time.
STEP THREE: RESPOND IN PRAYER
Gracious and Loving God, direct my attention away from elusive and unattainable perfection. Instead of escaping reality, let me be real. Meet me amid my brokenness with your forgiveness, grace, and love. Through Jesus, amen.