Sunday, September 13, 2015

Sermon - Pentecost 16

Mark 8:27-38

But Who Do You Say That I Am?

It isn’t real clear whether Jesus set out to ask two questions of his disciples.  Did he intend to find out what the crowds were saying about him, and then find out what the disciples thought?  Or does he ask the second question when he realizes that the first question didn’t generate the response he was hoping for?  He wanted to know what these twelve people thought of him.  They seemed to what to disguise their answers by attempting to blend into the crowd.

Of course, as readers of Mark’s Gospel, we are already aware of the tension between what they ought to know and what they seem prepared to acknowledge.  We are in the 8th chapter of Mark’s Gospel, and Jesus is getting them to fill in the blanks with information we have known from the beginning.   Someone read for us the very first verse from Mark.  ……. Mark 1:1 reads:  The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  When Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” you and I are not going to gain any new information – what we will learn is whether Jesus’ identity has been accepted by his disciples.

There is something more we are to learn from this exchange.  As we read this ancient account, we have the opportunity to discern our response.  Will we/do we treat this piece of information as merely that – as a piece of information?  Maybe it is a creed we acknowledge, perhaps even confess.  What might be learned, this morning, by re-reading this ancient story is whether we are prepared to understand what these words mean.

Let’s make sure you didn’t get distracted with the children’s sermon, or begin to think other thoughts as we sang the hymn.  Jesus is “on his way back” from the region of Caesarea Philippi and he starts to talk to his disciples.

Jesus first asks them, “Who do people say that I am?”  The answers which come are good answers – answers which are still very fitting and frightfully close to the way many, many “Christians” interact with Jesus.  While some align readily with Jesus as Messiah, there are a lot of folks who turn his message back into John the Baptist’s call to repentance; or to Elijah’s insistence that the rulers of the nation capitulate to the customs and traditions of religious teachings; or even those who want Jesus to be “one of the prophets” who exposes how far we have drifted from the way of God and how God is therefore prepared to smite us.

“Who do people say that I am?”  Many still want to say he was John the Baptist or Elijah or one of the prophets.  These are really good answers.

But not answer which Jesus hopes for.  Finally, it is Peter who confesses, “You are the Messiah.”
Whew!!!  They finally get it.  We have been wondering ever since the first verse of Mark’s Gospel when those in the closest relationship with Jesus will realize what has been so obvious all along.

 That moment seems to have arrived.  Or has it?

Jesus becomes direct, and hides nothing from them.  He continues to insist that others not be “told”, perhaps to allow them time to come to where the disciples (seem) to have so slowly arrived.  But he tells them what this piece of information will mean; what it will mean for him, and for those who follow him.

There is not a third question asked, it is implied.  This final and most significant of all questions is whether they are willing and prepared to apply this new-found piece of information to the way they will live their lives.  It seems they re not.

Peter didn’t want to hear anything which would disrupt his lovely picture of what it would be like, once Messiah came.  Peter wanted more of everything he liked the best.  He is totally unprepared to accept that Messiah might call us into a way of service and sacrifice and death.

But Jesus does.  Jesus still does.  Jesus always does.

I am about to get on my high horse again.  (Did you think that whole thing about the bridle was merely for the children?)  And those of you who were around in June will remember I got a pretty high horse back then and started slinging some pretty stinky stuff around.  I have looked for a way to publicly apologize for the offense taken by that sermon, and it is a sincere apology.  I never want me or my person to become the flash point.  And I definitely don’t want to offend or insult or belittle.
I don’t want to.  But the same cannot be said for the Gospel.  It continually irritates and unsettles and disrupts.  Today’s appointed text is a prime example.  “Who do you say that I am?” is not a request for a piece of information.  It is a plumb line set in our midst.

Maybe it is true for some, but it has never been true for me.  As I read my Bible I am continually coming up against the goodness of God and the enormity of God’s grace and then seeing my weak response.  I get frustrated, at myself, and I lash out and try to follow.  And just when I start to think I am integrating those pieces of information into my life, I turn the page and there is yet another story in my bible which exposes how much more there is for me to learn and apply and do.

We will never know whether Jesus intended from the start to ask two questions of the disciples, or if he only asked the second when he realized they didn’t know what he was asking.  What we can be pretty sure of, is that neither of these questions are the one for which he really sought an answer.  The question which he wanted answered is more along the lines of “Who is prepared to follow where this Messiah will lead?”

We cannot pick and choose the parts of Jesus we like.  And, the claim Jesus makes on our lives is one which brings unimaginable grace.  Do you remember the memory verse from four weeks ago?  See if you can still repeat it with me, “Lord, to whom can we go?  You have the words of eternal life.”  There is nowhere else we can turn, or should turn, or would even consider turning.  But turning to Jesus, and following Jesus means turning to Jesus and following Jesus.  And we know the place to which Jesus is headed.

Okay.  This week’s memory verse.  And it might surprise you a bit.  It isn’t the confession of Peter nor the rebuke by Jesus.  It is more of a question.  And ask you repeat the verse during the week, I hope it will lead to your searching for your answer.  I want you to remember and repeat the middle phrase of Verse 34.  Got a pencil to circle it?  “If any want to become my followers….”   That’s it.  Will you remember it?  Repeat it with me - ‘If any want to become my followers.....”  That is enough.  The question for us isn’t do we know who Jesus is, the question is whether we will accept what that identity means.

Say it one more time - “If any want to become my followers….”

After you say it, you can meditate on what following means for you.  We can all pray for the strength to follow more closely.

Amen.

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