A Meditation for Tuesday after the Third Sunday in Lent
By The Rev. Scott Leannah
“Hello, my name is Tom and I am a grateful recovering alcoholic.” It was my first-ever AA meeting, and that is how one of the participants introduced himself. I could not conceive of anyone ever describing himself as a “grateful” alcoholic. I was a university sophomore. My life was falling apart. My undergrad GPA was 1.2. I started the school year flush with cash I had earned over the summer, and by early November, I was broke from the addiction I was living to support. The leadership of the college seminary program in which I was enrolled suggested that I consider whether I was in any condition to discern a call to the priesthood (I was not).
On November 12, 1985, in a moment of mixed desperation and prayer, I found, not too far from the seminary, an AA meeting that night at 8:00 p.m. I had not had anything to drink for four days at that point, and I was a mess. The aforementioned Tom met me at the door. He greeted me, assured me I was at the right place, and as soon as the meeting began with “a moment of silence followed by the Serenity Prayer,” I knew he was right. I had found my tribe. I was home. I grabbed onto that fellowship, and the Twelve Steps, and AA spirituality with all I had. It enriched my alread nascent faith and helped me to grow . . . and to grow up. It saved my life.
It has been 38 years since that first meeting. I am blessed more profoundly than I could ever deserve or dream. I have found that my alcoholism and its causes and conditions have been a wellspring not only for my own growth but also as a powerful tool for ministry and mission. As I sit here writing, I can think of several folks who have entered this new life after they have come to me and let me share what we in recovery call the witness of our “experience, strength, and hope.”
It is not lost on me that my recovery is a fragile gift. In the words of the so-called “Big Book,” Alcoholics Anonymous, “We do not recover. Rather, we are given a daily reprieve contingent on our spiritual condition.” Indeed, one of the most heart-breaking things some of us experience is the seeming inability of a loved one to address their need to take an honest look at the way an addiction is ravaging their life. It is powerlessness like no other to love someone who refuses to get the help they need and walk through the door that leads to new life. Sometimes people believe it is too good to be true. There are also those who simply cannot grasp another way of living. As miserable as they may be, in its own dysfunctional way, it’s comfortable and familiar. The prospect of life on life’s terms can be frightening, especially when one has been trying desperately to escape facing what must be faced, feeling what is real, and taking the first steps into a completely new life. “Recovery is no big deal,” someone told me when I was first getting sober. “It’s easy. You just go to meetings, stop drinking, and change your entire life!” My first AA sponsor, Otis, told me that. He thought it was funny. I thought it was terrifying. After some time had passed, I thought it was funny, too.
In today’s gospel reading, Mark tells us that Jesus “could do no deed of power . . . ” because of the inability of folks to see or comprehend the new life he was offering. Perhaps their own reliance on what was comfortable and familiar prevented them from seeing God’s gift in Jesus, offered freely for them. The idea of a new life can be intimidating and will call us to make changes as we seek more and more to conform our lives and will to that of Christ. It is no easy journey. We may think of the wealthy young man who just could not let go of his many possessions and so he walked away from Jesus, sad. While many followed Christ, we also know that many, upon hearing him, or his followers, rejected his message and him.
Jesus told his followers that they need not pack extensively for this mission and ministry to which he was inviting them. In fact, what they really needed to have with them, and to share, was their own experience of Jesus, the strength they received to live in a new way, and the hope that in the reign of God that Jesus proclaimed so freely and often.
Jesus tells his hearers in today’s reading from Mark, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." We are responsible for carrying the message of Jesus to a world very much in need of the good news it brings. We are not responsible for what people do with the message we seek to carry and embody. There are times, to be sure, when we need to lovingly place a person, situation, or dynamic into God’s loving hands and make an act of surrender.
As our spiritual journey of Lent continues, let us reflect on those times in our life when we have found a new beginning, hope, and perhaps even a glimpse of redemption through the loving grace of God. Take a moment, reflect on that gift, and offer a prayer of thanksgiving. Also, let us pray for those we know and love who may be struggling and in need of the love, freedom, and hope that come from a new beginning and new life in Christ.
The Rev. Scott Leannah is Canon to the Ordinary in the Diocese of Milwaukee. He is involved in a wide variety of ministries. He especially enjoys offering encouragement to fellow clergy, lay leaders, and diocesan staff. He seeks to draw close to congregations that are in times of transition, development, or struggle and tries to provide insight and resources. A real gift of his role as Canon is celebrating Eucharist and preaching at a different parish in the diocese just about every Sunday morning. Prior to entering diocesan ministry, he served as a full-time parish priest for 27 years. He is married to Gina and they have a daughter, Mia. When Scott is not engaged in ministry, he loves to spend time with Gina, read, and spend as much time as possible outside. He is grateful to have lived in Wisconsin all his life.The readings for the preceding devotional may be located here from Forward Movement.
