The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Proper 19 (B)

September 17, 2000

A Sermon by the Rev. Joe Parrish

The Gospel: Mark 8: 27-38

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."

Lord, to you alone can we turn. Hear the prayers of our hearts and minds, and come save us. Amen.

Few times do we hear Jesus ask a question. He asks the disciples, 'How will we feed these people?' He asks the Pharisees, 'Whose likeness is on this coin?' And today we hear him ask Peter, 'Who do you say that I am?'

Clearly these are 'loaded' questions. Jesus asks a question to see if there is anyone with faith, anyone who will stop and think to whom they are talking. And no one does. It is the old story that familiarity breeds contempt. Another version of that thought says that a prophet is not recognized in their own hometown or by their own relatives.

Jesus was hardly recognized by his own disciples. They still had the cultural identity of 'messiah' in their heads. In the general public the belief was that the messiah was going to overthrow the Roman invaders and establish a new Messianic Age in which the Jews would again be in charge of their own destiny. So it was during the century of the Maccabees from about 165 BC to around 40 BC. That reign of the Maccabees had come to a screeching halt some sixty or so years earlier at the invasion of Israel by the strong Roman legions.

I've reflected on how Jesus would be received today if he paid us a visit. Perhaps he would find a similar reception to the Archbishop of Canterbury who was in the New York area this past week. A few people rabidly sought him out, perhaps to get an autograph on their Prayer Book (or Bible). Several came to hear what he had to say. But in general, no one paid much notice. I don't think the Dioceses of New Jersey or Newark or Long Island even announced his presence near their dioceses even though he was probably less than six miles away from each of them. Several would boycott his presence because of muttered rumors that he had voted against the ordination of gays and lesbians at the Lambeth Conference in 1998. Others would see him as 'evangelical' whereas they saw themselves as 'anglo-catholics' who perhaps look askance on those not of their liturgical persuasion. And so on it would go. It would be interpreted as a 'political visit' by many, as Jesus again tried to persuade some that he was indeed the Messiah of God, healing many and casting out demons. And in the end, I think, we would inevitably find some way to crucify him if we could not ignore him and he was becoming too popular. The first century is not so different from now, I suspect. We cannot have some religious 'nut' upsetting the balance of power on the earth. He would be expendable. Again 'it would be better for one to die than for the whole nation.' A few possibly would seek his reprieve. But in the end the electric chair, the so called 'favorite furniture for the poor', or whatever means of execution, would be used, and dead he would be, again.

But 'been there, done that'--Jesus is not going to let us have at him a second time, at least not from a position of human vulnerability. We have shown our human 'colors' already, we have already shown the ultimate depth of our true hatred for the divine, and we have come up short.

So, who do we say Jesus is?

And, more importantly, what are we going to do about it?

A mother talks to her little daughter in her darkened bedroom as the little girl calls out again and again to her mother. The mother says, 'Don't worry, God is with you.' To which her little daughter replies, "Yes, but I need God with a skin on him."

Jesus was God with a skin on him.

Darley Allen, said, "Jesus is the best photograph ever taken of God" (from "Signs of the Times," 1930).

Walter Lowrie said that by rebuking Jesus Peter tempted him with human ideas of glory much as satan had tempted him in the wilderness. And Jesus saw the satan working through his chief disciple.

Jesus calls his disciples to take up their cross and follow him. It was a note of self-denial and self-abasement he rang out. Take up our cross and follow him. The cross is not some involuntary disability we may have, but the cross is what we do voluntarily to further the work of Jesus in our place and time.

Several have noted the growing domestication of the cross in the present. The cross is one of the most popular forms of jewelry today. Every wise jeweler puts dozens of different types of crosses on display to catch the fancy of the trend setters. The cross in no longer seen as an instrument of torture, that is unless it is worn as a tongue piercing agent and the like! Instead the cross is some shining geometrical amulet worn by those who have no concept of what it represents, sacrifice. We shy far, far away from even thinking about sacrifice. A soldier in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War was interviewed. He said, "Everyone here wants to be a hero, but no one wants to die" (per Joon Sik Park in "SermonMall"). We worship heroes, but very few of us would want to go so far as sacrificing our lives if required to actually be a hero.

Imagine Jesus the carpenter felling a giant tree and shaping it into a rough hewn beam (from Bruce Barton in "The Man Nobody Knows," 1949, Pages 44-45). Then imagine two such rough hewn beams being tied together, one as a crossbar over the other. And then imagine nailing someone on those two beams as the wood was hauled upright and set firmly in place in the ground. Our airily suspended crucifixes, our decoratively displayed cross-like adornments on vestments and the like, and our sleek cross-shaped pedestals on a table seem to be evidence of the unreality of what we think the cross actually is. The cross was a weapon of mass destruction, one person at a time. Thousands were put to death on crosses during Jesus' time.

One writer in Birmingham, Alabama, James Douglass, reflected on his experience living in the inner city ghetto there. Within a hundred yards of his home in Birmingham was a set of railroad tracks, over which parts of Trident intercontinental ballistic missiles were being shipped. The degradation of his neighborhood was symbolized in the destruction of the world should such missiles be used. And the poverty of his neighborhood was part of the economic consequences resulting from the huge budgets required to build those missiles. The cross is also such a weapon of destruction. It destroyed the Messiah of the whole world. But of course its power was only fleeting as God raised His Son up on the third day after his crucifixion.

A small boy went to Sunday School the first time. He came home and told his parents that it was a little like a circus. When he was asked to explain, he said, "We all sang about 'Gladly, the cross-eyed bear.'

In the European Passion Play at Oberammergau the actor playing the part of Jesus always used a heavy wooden cross in his crucifixion scene. When asked why he did not substitute balsa or some other light wood, he replied, "I could not play the part of Christ without feeling the weight of the cross."

Some have questioned whether we have a tendency to make Jesus over in our own image. At times it seems we want Jesus to be as our personal flight attendant who checks us every once in a while to see if we need a drink or a pillow or maybe some more pretzels. This image of Jesus imagines him as nothing more than one who sees that we have a comfortable and pleasant journey through life (per C. Edward Bowen in "SermonMall").

My wife and I saw "Jesus Christ, Superstar," recently on Broadway. At the end of the play as the actors are taking their bows, the man who played Jesus warmly embraces the man who played Judas Iscariot. It is such a casual approach to the story that is popularized. It almost seems like crucifixion is only a momentary game after which all will be forgiven. But indeed the crucifixion of Christ shut the doors on all who seek entrance to heaven by any other way than through faith in Jesus Christ. His death on the cross is the only passage through which humanity must travel in order to find eternal life. Being a good person, doing good deeds, even loving others will not be adequate for passage into the almighty arms of God at the end of our lives. It is only by putting our faith in the one who went the limit by putting his life forever on the line as a sacrifice for our sins, it is only then that we will be able to find eternal joy and blessedness.

May today we trust him and put our hope in Jesus, the Son of the living God.

A parishioner kept telling the minister, "I aim to be in church every Sunday. I aim to read the Bible one of these days. I aim to start praying more often." Finally, one day the minister interrupted and said, "My dear friend, you have been aiming long enough. It is time to pull the trigger!"

Where have we placed our sights? Where are we aiming? What direction are we headed?

Jesus had a sense of "must". He said, that he "must undergo great suffering, and be rejected..., and be killed." But that would not be the end because he would in [quote] "three days rise again" [end quote].

Perhaps we, like Peter, also do not want to hear such talk.

We may be into the current rage of self-promotion and self-enhancement. The many popular books seem to underscore our interests: "I'm OK, You're OK"; "Looking Out for Number One"; "Pulling Your Own Strings"; "How to Be Your Own Best Friend." But we are unable to walk the fine line between care for self and deification of self.

In a Charles Adams cartoon in the New Yorker magazine two women are looking at an enormous blob sitting in an armchair. The only signs of life of the blob are its beady eyes. One woman turns to the other and says, "We are still waiting for Stanley to jell."

Maybe we too are waiting to jell. But now is the time to pick up our cross and follow our Lord. We can delay no longer. It is not easy to be on God's side. During the Civil War some paid others to go into the Army in their place. We cannot do that with Christ. Our commitment is a personal one that only we can fulfill. We must choose God's side, the side of his beloved Son.

If you are gripped by the certainty you are on God's side, that is exactly where God wants you! If you are not yet sure, speak to me after the church service, and together we will try to discern how you can cross the threshold into the kingdom of heaven.

The way to ultimate safety and salvation lies though faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master. May we walk in his ways and delight in his will for our lives until he comes again. Alleluia!

Amen.