(Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9a; James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38)
The importance of our personal identity has become one of the pressing issues of our day. Protecting our identity – our social security number, our credit information – from those who would impersonate us to commit theft – has required increasing levels of vigilance. We’re a long way from the days when we did most of our commerce on a local, face-to-face basis, in which we shopped on Main Street and we knew the shop owner and the shop owner knew us. In a world where we can buy from and sell to people across the country and across the globe, the folks we deal with don’t know us as living, breathing human beings, but only as a credit card number and a shipping address, and perhaps a profile of shopping habits compiled from past transactions. Given the recent passage of Pennsylvania’s voter-ID law, requiring photo ID in order to vote – widely seen as a partisan attempt to disenfranchise elderly and minority voters who may not have reason to carry a driver’s license or other photo ID – inability to prove one’s identity may become a barrier to voting for as many as 800,000 Pennsylvanians, many right here in Philadelphia. And, in the eleven years since 9-11, we have read of increasing government surveillance of political activity, our emails and even our phone calls. All of which is to say, lots of people want to know who we are, and with a variety of motives.
Today’s Gospel reading – which asks a number of questions about who Jesus is - marks a turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Mark begins his Gospel with the words, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ the Son of God” – but from that point, his presentation of Jesus is almost like that of a detective novel, giving us clues and asking us to draw our own conclusions. Up until this point, we’ve seen Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist, his temptation in the wilderness, and his call of his disciples. We’ve observed Jesus casting out demons, feeding the multitudes, teaching and healing. We’ve watched Jesus deal with rejection from the religious authorities, questions from John’s disciples, and even misunderstanding from his own family. All of which brings us to today’s reading, in which Jesus asks his followers to put together all that they’ve seen so far, and draw their own conclusions. We’re told that they’re traveling toward Caesarea Philippi, which had been made a regional center of government by Philip the Tetrarch. First he asks, “Who do the crowds say I am?”. The crowds know Jesus only superficially, and their answers are superficial – John the Baptist come back to life, or Elijah, or one of the prophets. Of course, the disciples would have much more personal day-to-day experience of Jesus, and so Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter blurts you, “You are the Messiah.”
Great answer – so far as it went. Unfortunately, the term “Messiah” came with a lot of baggage. While different groups of Jews attached different types of baggage to the word “Messiah”, many expected that the Messiah would be a righteous political leader who would rescue Israel from all its enemies and restore independence. Deuteronomy 18:15 quotes Moses as saying that God would raise up another prophet like Moses. The book of Malachi ends with the words that before the great and terrible day of the Lord, God would send the prophet Elijah. The crowd’s guesses as to Jesus’ identity didn’t come out of no-where - the word “Messiah” was weighed down with many expectations.
Perhaps the bottom line is that Peter expected that if Jesus is the Messiah, the road they travel with him would be a road to glory – especially since Jesus waited to start the conversation until the shining governmental buildings of Caesarea Philippi were nearby. Sort of like our politics – if you’re a crony of the winning presidential or gubernatorial or mayoral candidate, you can expect to get a plum position in the winner’s administration. Indeed, next week’s reading from Mark includes the argument among the disciples among who was the greatest, so it would appear that they were already lobbying for positions in Jesus’ cabinet.
Jesus responds by throwing a huge bucket of cold water on all their aspirations to glory. Mark tells us, “ 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.” Hey, Jesus, you’re going way off message with all this talk of suffering and death. You’re probably just tired. Maybe you should lay down and take a nap, and you’ll feel better when you wake up. But Jesus responds sharply: “‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
And Jesus keeps tossing bucket after bucket of cold water on their hopes. Indeed, what the disciples had once hoped would be a victory lap was suddenly looking like a very hard slog indeed. “‘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.’
These words of Jesus are an embarrassment to much of what goes on in many churches. The question frequently comes up, “Why are the churches so empty.” It’s a great question to consider - a question that may cut deeper than we realize. When we ask the question, we’re asking why the churches are empty of worshippers, why so few come to fill the pews – but perhaps the reason they’re empty of people is they may be empty in other ways – empty of faith, empty of discipleship, empty of sacrifice, empty of cost. Our society has turned church membership into just another consumer item. There was once a time when the neighborhood church within walking distance of home was the only game in town, but that hasn’t been the case for a long time. Church shoppers now have options. They want a church with a large and expanding Sunday school program, a classically-trained choir – or maybe a praise band – or maybe multiple services with various musical options. They want a pastor whose sermons meet them where they are every week – despite the reality of a congregation where various people are in all kinds of emotional spaces at any given time. They want the church to offer professionally-trained counselors to get us through life’s rough spots. And they’d certainly like a large, well-maintained building to impress our neighbors. The more items a church can offer on its religious smorgasbord, the better – especially if the church has a large enough financial endowment that the members don’t have to kick in much. (As a member of a prosperous church in the suburbs once told me, “Our dead members give more to the church than our living members.”) If the church doesn’t cater to them sufficiently – or as they sometimes put it, “if we’re not being fed spiritually” – and especially if the pastor says something to ruffle feathers – church shoppers will pick up and move on to the next church. Or they’ll stay home and turn on feel-good religious programming on the radio or the TV, where they’ll hear messages that comfort those who are entirely too comfortable with the status quo, and that afflict those who are already much afflicted at the hands of the powers that be.
Christian discipleship is not a spectator sport. Going to church and praising God isn’t like going down to Citizens Bank park and cheering on the Phillies. Hear again these words of Jesus: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Christian discipleship is not about shopping around for fulfillment, but for laying down our lives to follow God’s call to fulfill the needs of others; not about what we can get, but about what we give; not about what we keep, but about what we sacrifice – not only money, but time and talent as well. Not for nothing did God in the Old Testament call for a tithe – 10% off the top, not from leftovers - to be offered to the Lord – a tithe, not a tip. The prophet Malachi accused those who failed to tithe of robbing God. In the book of Acts, we’re told that early Christians sold their lands and houses and laid the proceeds at the feet of the apostles, to be shared by the church. Certainly we have no millionaires here at Emanuel Church….but I think we all – myself very much included - can look at our discipleship – not only our giving, but our living, how we live our lives, how we use our time and talent as well as our treasure, in the light of the cross. I’ll adapt the words of one of our former presidents, which some of you will remember: “Ask not what your church can do for you, but what you can do for your church.”
If all Jesus has to offer is an unending series of demands, why even listen to him, let alone follow him? Why not look for an easier path through life? As St. Augustine put it, “God, thou hast made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in thee.” There is a God-shaped void in each of us. The paradox of Jesus’ words is that as long as we are wrapped up in ourselves – our wants, our needs, our comforts, or perhaps our egos, our need for recognition, our need to see our own name in print and hear the sound of our own voice – we will always have a vague sense that something is missing, will always find ourselves wanting something more. Part of the process of forming a strong connection with other human beings is letting down our defenses and becoming vulnerable to them, being willing at times to let our wishes and our convenience take second place so that the other person’s needs are met. Certainly those who are raising or have raised children know that with children come with endless demands on time and energy, and yet also comes a sense of fulfillment in bringing new life into the world and nurturing that life to adulthood.. In the same way, those who we find are on fire for God are those who have let down their defenses and opened up their hearts so that following God’s call is primary. It’s about getting one’s self out of the way so that Christ can live in us.
The German pastor and 20th century martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book “The Cost of Discipleship”, offers this reflection on costly grace.
“Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
And, finally, I’ll close with the familiar but life-changing words of the prayer of St. Francis, which show us how to respond to this costly grace:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment