But who do you say that I am?
September 13, 2015
Proper 19B – RCL
Track 1
Jesus went on with his disciples to
the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the
Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He
asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him,
"You are the Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone
about him.Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, 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? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
But who do you say that I
am?
To put this reading into
context Jesus and his hearty band of followers are in a very Roman City. They are surrounded by reminders of the Roman
gods and the imperial proclamation that the Emperor is also god. It is in this
setting – with all that is Empire surrounding them that Jesus finally asks the
question that everyone else has been asking in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus asks “Who do people say that I am?” and
then asks the disciples “Who do you say that I am?” The names that “the people” say Jesus is are
quite reasonable considering Jesus ministry thus far. He has preached and healed the sick. He was acting very much like the prophet and
perhaps even his curmudgeonly cousin John the Baptist. But it is Peter who blurts out “You are the
Christ!” The one who is come to restore
the fortunes of Israel. The one who will
throw out the empire. The one that
Israel has been looking forward to coming and setting them free.
I have to admit that I almost
always identify with Peter. Peter – the
Rock – who at one-moment “Get’s it” and with the very next breath falls back
into a societal expectations. I like
Peter because I can identify with him – sometimes I feel I “get it” and other
times I don’t.
And what does Jesus do. He says that this messiah is going to suffer
and die. This messiah is going to approach the salvation of Israel and the
redemption of the world in a way that the world does not expect. He is not going to physically throw out the
romans and restore the people of Israel to prominence with power. Jesus says he will show us how to bring God’s
dream of a loving creation to this world.
And it is not by violence.
No wonder Peter is
upset. Like the good Jew he is Peter
dreams of a day when the occupation is over.
He dreams of a day when God will smite down the oppressors just as God
did for his ancestors when they fled from Egypt through the Red Sea. Instead Jesus says that God’s victory will
come looking for all purposes as a failure.
Death is going to happen but it won’t be the occupational forces who die
but the messiah. And Jesus is having
none of Peter’s and societies expectations of God forcing his dream of Love on
the world through force this time.
Peter wants the power to
suffer and the messiah, the Christ to rule - in an earthly way not God’s way. Jesus
tells Peter – Get behind me Satan! It is
not only important to know who Jesus it - the title of Jesus - but it is
important for us to see how do our expectations align with our actions. And I
think Peter - dear dear Peter - gets the Messiah title and with the title comes
all of the hope, the expectation, that Jesus will - at some point - come to his
senses and throw off empire – That is why Peter does not want Jesus to suffer. He sees Messiah in an earthly way and not in
the way Jesus has been trying to show him.
Not the messiah that does the opposite of what society thinks will
happen.
And then Jesus does more – He
tells his disciples then and now “"If any want to become my followers, 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?"
Wow! No wonder we heard in Jon’s Gospel a few
weeks ago - during the several weeks of the discourse on “the Bread of Life” - the
people say that Jesus’ teaching is hard.
And we read then that many leave Jesus.
His teaching is hard.
So what does it look like
today to take up our cross and follow Jesus?
It is not an easy thing to think about and it is a phrase that is
overused in our society. Most people
trivialize this phrase. We are not
taking up our cross when we can’t have our own way. We are not taking up our cross when our egos
are being challenged.
So what does it mean in 2015
to take up our crosses and follow Jesus? More and more I find it is recognizing
the thin places where love breaks in - in spite of the powers that would ignore
it. In spite of the powers that would
deny the love. It is calling out the
need for humane treatment of all people.
It is holding the opposite view than the shrill protectionism that we
hear all too often in our political discourse.
It is looking and trying to hear where God is calling us to put our energy. It is in proclaiming that following Christ
means doing things that are surprising to our society. It is working to heal
the outcasts...to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength
and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It
is proclaiming the countercultural love of God
And sometimes following Jesus means we also
need to say no – not right now. How do
we say no we can’t do this right now when our hearts are there? When we see the good work that is being done? Sometimes we need to step back to see what
God is asking us to do right now.
Sometimes putting a ministry that has been doing amazing things with a
few people on hold is the right thing to do.
It has not been easy for the leaders here to put the social outreach
ministries on hold. But it had to
happen.
You see we can’t love our
neighbor as ourselves if we are not loving ourselves. And loving ourselves includes taking time for
Sabbath. Time away to recharge. Time to
step back and envision how ministry and love of Neighbor can be sustained. Time to stop and ask the hard questions. It
is time to look and see what God is calling the people of St. Matthew’s and its
supporters to do. The old way of
providing service to our community may need to change. And it really is not
practical to redesign a plane when you are flying it!
In our Old Testament Lesson
we heard that Wisdom is crying in the streets.
She is crying and yearning to be heard.
The Wisdom of God – created before the cosmos is still crying out in the
streets yearning to be heard. But we are
frequently so busy that we can’t hear her through the noise of every day
life.
Seeing the Wisdom of God
working through the world is hard. Seeing Love is hard work. We seem to so easily go to death - to
destruction. It is easy to see a pause
in the social ministry as a failure. But
Jesus does not call us to work that way.
Jesus calls us to see the thin places where love breaks in. It is the thin places where we see
resurrection... see change. But it is so
easy to look past the love, the change and go to the negative. Perhaps this is one definition of the “fall” –
that we no longer look for the love we look for the bad in all the situations.
Jesus is calling the good
people of St. Matthew’s to stop. To stop
and listen and discern where and how God is calling us to serve. Andrea McMillan – the diocesan Cannon to the
Ordinary (the Bishop’s assistant) last week reminded St. Matthew’s leaders that
for resurrection to happen there has to be death. That is what Jesus reminded Peter and the
disciples and it is what Jesus reminds us today. What may look like failure and death in our
eyes will be turned to love and resurrection through God. While it is so easy to look at the suspension
of the social service work that St. Matthew’s does as a failure. It is so easy to beat ourselves up and lead
with the “what if” self-criticisms. But God’s economy is different.
We are being called to
stop. To take a pause. To allow the voice of Wisdom to enter into
our hearts and souls. Our society does
not like to take a pause. We like to
pride ourselves that we are super productive.
But when we are too busy we risk not letting the voice of God break into
lives. When we are busy we risk not
letting the voice of Wisdom into our conversations. Now is a time of rest for St. Matthews. Now is a time to listen for and to hear where
and how God is calling you to show his love.
I invite you to pause. To listen
for the voice of Wisdom. To find those
thin places in our lives where God’s love is daring to break in.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment