"Who do you say that I am?"
The Holy Gospel comes to us this morning from Mark the 8th chapter, beginning at the 27th verse.
8:27 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?” 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 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. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 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.” 34 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. 35 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. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 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.”
Almighty God, who called your Church to bear witness that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself: help us to proclaim the good news of your love, that all who hear it may be drawn to you; through him who was lifted up on the cross, and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A representative of "Teach America" visited Duke University, one of those rich Ivy League kind of universities.
She stood up in front of the large group and said to them," I can tell by looking at you that I have probably come to the wrong place. Somebody told me this was a BMW campus and I can believe it looking at you. Just looking at you, I can tell you are a success. Why would you be on this campus if you were not successful and heading for successful jobs.
"And yet here I stand, hoping to talk one of you into giving away your life in the toughest job you will ever have. I am looking for people to go into the hollows of West Virginia, into the ghettos of South Los Angeles and teach in some of the most difficult schools in the world. Last year two of our teachers were killed on the job.
"I can tell, just by looking at you, that none of you are interested in that. So go on to law school, or whatever successful thing you are planning on doing.
"But if by chance, some of you just happen to be interested, I’ve got some brochures here. Meeting over."
With that, the whole group stood up, pushed up the aisles and ran to the front a fought over the brochures.
People want to be a part of something important, something bigger than themselves.
Jesus, who has kept the people breathless trying to keep up to him, asks the disciples, "Who do people say that I am? Here they were at Ceasarea Philippi, the very center of Roman power and all that is wise and they answer, "Oh that’s easy -- John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets.
Then Jesus gets personal -- "who do you say that I am?" Peter, always near the front of the crowd blurts out, "You are the Messiah!"
Jesus has been marching the disciples and all those who would follow all over the country side. In Mark, especially, Jesus is always on his way somewhere else. Mark’s favorite word must be ’immediately’ because no sooner has one thing happened that Jesus is ’immediately’ off some where else.
You have to think the disciples must have been breathless. They want to follow Jesus but they are always a step behind. No sooner than they think they have Jesus figured out and he takes them to new places, asks them to consider new thoughts, new ways of living, shows them another side of who he is .
This may be why the early Christian Church was called "The Way". They were part of a journey -- following Jesus, not knowing where they were going, or what lay ahead but that Jesus was leading and that was enough.
So Jesus asks the disciples, as he asks us, "Who do you say that I am?" And a breathless Peter says, "You are the Messiah!", knowing that this Jesus is the leader they want to follow. Here is the one who is about something important; one who heals, gives hope, shatters preconceived notions. This is the leader that keeps pulling them out of what is comfortable and throwing them into something new.
Jesus begins to tell what the journey will look like. There will be rejection and death for him as he heads for Jerusalem and crucifixion.
Peter, revealing that he is still one step behind, blurts out, "No it will never happen, you are too good a person for that!"
And so Jesus rebukes Peter telling him that he isn’t thinking like a person on the Way. The Way which must first journey through death. There is no time or place on this journey to seek out the comfortable.
Faith is a journey, faith is not knowing certain things, memorizing facts.
Jesus says, "Get behind me Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things" Faith is relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Faith is committing ourselves to the journey and hanging on for the ride not knowing where the journey will lead us, but we do know who the leader is.
A gift to the Christian faith is the articulation of the Theology of the Cross. Life as a Christian will have pain and suffering but in the midst of that pain we will find Jesus suffering with us and walking with us through our pain to resurrection on the other side. It is the midst of pain that we experience Jesus most acutely-- where our faith grows stronger.
Being a Christian does not mean an absence of pain. We read in Psalm 23 "Even though I walk through the shadow of death. . ."
The "human things" want to hold on to us, we want to hang on to something because the journey can be unsettling. Like Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration wanting to build tents for Jesus and the prophets. We try to make faith into a set of fundamental beliefs that we must adhere to, we try to force our church to remain static in a time of rapid change. Change has always been a fact of life even if now it is so very rapid.
Jesus lumps all these attempts into "human things not divine things". Imagine wanting a child to remain 3-years-old forever. To a time when they think parents can do no wrong, when they are cute and easy to manage. But it is wrong, even impossible, if we want that child to grow into what he is meant to be.
There is a disturbing trend in the Christian community that denies pain. There is a pastor in a very large church that maintains he has never had a bad day. This would have to include those days when his wife died of insulin complications, when members of his board charging him and other leaders of fraud. It doesn’t ring true. Some would say, "be saved" and all your problems will go away".
No, hardship will come. We will, in fact seek out pain. As we seek to live out our baptism as disciples of Jesus, we will seek to lose ourselves in the needs and pains of others. Our pain will likely increase as we seek to be faithful. There is a trend in the post-modern world of persecution of the Christian church. There seems to be a tolerance for other groups but a growing intolerance for Christians.
But then, If Jesus was to suffer and die, why should we his followers expect anything less? It is part of the journey. We are following a leader whom we trust and know is worth following because he leads to life.
In the midst of hardship, we are not alone. We seek to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow. When those in need cry out, we answer.
This requires discipline, from the root of the word disciple. Some of the worldly thinking would have us believe that being on the journey is easy and requires no effort. And so firmly convinced that God loves and accepts us, we seek to prepare ourselves to be fit for the journey.
Imagine deciding to go on a camping trip and rushing out to the lake without packing the camping equipment, the axe, the utensils, the tent. Imagine Tiger Woods deciding one day that he was going to be the best golfer in the world and then going out and doing it without any work. Impossible. It is discipline that finds him the last golfer off of the practice tee as the sun is going down after shooting a 7-under par that day and leading the field.
"The way", the journey, requires discipline of us as well. We seek to no be no longer "setting our minds on worldly things" rather the divine.
- Psalm 19, "learning the law of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord, the commandments."
- James, learning to control our tongues which so often get us in trouble.
- Proverbs: wisdom that seeks knowledge, that refuses to be content with simple, simplistic thinking.
Being a disciple is daring to have our hearts set on fire by the words and actions of this Jesus who has the people in Mark breathless trying to keep up.
Daring to lose ourselves in the service of others rather than counting the cost to ourselves before we get involved.
The way of the cross is not easy, it requires discipline and choices. But then if you don’t know where you are going any place will do. The way of the cross, discipleship contradicts the easy way of the world. The easy notion that our faith will be strong without exercise; that our children will have faith without us practicing our faith so that they can see us and model after us. The way of the cross means not being ashamed of the one who leads, we simply follow.
The way of the cross may earn us the scorn and ridicule of those around us. It is about being the kind of witness to the faith who strives to forget his or her opinion of who is bad and who is good, and instead strives to treat all people with love. It is about being the kind of witness that refuses to be pulled into gossip but seeks to put the best construction on the actions of others. It is about being willing to follow Jesus, knowing that we will have to change, that we will have to forget taking the easy way out and instead remembering what is good and true and loving.
Life as we want to live it is being willing to say with Peter that "You are the Messiah!" not knowing fully what that means, what the confession will bring, not knowing what tomorrow will bring but knowing such a confession will lead to life because it is Jesus that leads us on the journey.
Who do you say that I am?
You are the Messiah!!
Now we set out on the journey, the way. We don’t know what the future will hold. We don’t know what exercise we will need to keep us in shape. We do know who leads us and it is enough. The Messiah -- the Lord.
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The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission. Sermon written by Roger Haugen.
Faith is a journey, faith is not knowing certain things, memorizing facts.
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