Welcome to the Knox Talks blog. Here you can find recent and past sermons relating scripture to a wide variety of topics. I would like to thank Shelley Rose for transcribing my notes into text for the blog.

To Gain the World and Forfeit Life

Mark 8:34-37 New Revised Standard Version updated edition (NRSVUE)

He called the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?

It’s important that in our reading, the word “life” in Greek is ψυχὴ which gives us the word “Psyche” and can also be translated “soul”. It’s hard to translate the full meaning of this idea into English, but to forfeit one’s “life” here does not mean to die, at least, not physically.

Professor Laurie Santos teaches the most popular course in Yale University’s history. She is an evolutionary anthropologist who hosts the podcast “The Happiness Lab” and the Coursera course “The Science of Well-Being”. Her course “Psychology and the Good Life” at Yale was instituted because of the overwhelming number of stress related mental health issues among the students: Yale students are high-achievers; people who want perfect grades; want to get high-paying jobs; be socially successful.

Apart from the academic requirements to pass the course (the typical mid-term paper and a final exam about the psychology itself) the special homework assigned is the big draw. It is called “Hack Yo’Self”, intended to re-wire the brains of participants by actually practising the things that make people happy:

1. Spend time and energy in the right way

Overscheduled, distracted and glued to our screens, we’re missing out on things that do make us happy: real-life, face-to-face social connections with people you can see blush, smile and wink; and “time affluence” — just having free time, with nothing on the calendar to get in the way of your leisure;

2. Take time to express gratitude

Pausing for 10 minutes a day to think about five things you’re grateful for;

3. Do something nice for somebody else and talk with others

People who engage in random acts of kindness boost their well-being.

A simple act of connecting with a stranger — talking to somebody on a train or a plane, for example — can boost your mood;

4. Find some time to be mindful

Meditate for five or 10 minutes a day. Santos likes to do a loving kindness meditation. She thinks about the people in her life she cares about and silently sends them wishes such as, “I want you to be happy, I want you to live well;

5. Get plenty of exercise and sleep

6. Practice these happiness behaviours every day

It’s like exercise: Just doing a couple of squats here and there won’t work. You have to keep working out to see results.

It really struck me how much of this was stuff Christianity has been saying for centuries. We encourage people to get together, not to focus on selfish goals, but to think about others, do things for others, to give thanks every day, to pray, meditate, take time to be mindful, to focus on what is important. Christianity is not always great at the sleep and exercise part, but we’ve covered all the other bases exceptionally well.

These are all old-fashioned religious practices that we’ve neglected and suddenly, scientific studies show that they are good for us.

It is very counter-intuitive to look at religion for what we get out of it – it seems way too self-serving to be a valid approach to religion – but maybe we should pause and consider that this tradition of ours has always had benefits that we’ve never really understood but that have enriched our lives.

This Professor has studies to demonstrate that it’s not the good grades, high-paying jobs or winning the lottery that make people happy, even though we often convince ourselves that they will. She joked on-line that she might try to underline that point by giving everyone in the class an automatic D but she started getting calls from angry parents, which just underscores the point that they’re not really getting it. It’s fine to say that these things don’t make us happy but we won’t give up the high grades and I end up wondering how much the students can really internalize over a semester or two; how much they can make it part of their lives

Jesus put it well:

“For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?”

This is the 2000 year old wisdom of our founder and it cuts to the core of what it means to be human, what is actually means to have a life:

Connection to something bigger than ourselves, a way to turn from being self-centred;
Connection to others, and learning to care for them and help them, including complete strangers, even enemies;
Taking time to nurture our spirits, to meditate and pray to learn to value the things in life you can’t put a price on; and
To be thankful.

This is what we have to offer the world. This is why it matters that we create and sustain a community of faith. This is the very human reason the world needs us and why we need to share what we have, and what we know.

It’s nice of science to remind us.

Amen.