First Presbyterian Church  
  106 North Bench Street, Galena, IL  61036   Phone:  (815) 777-0229 (voice & fax)

We did a PowerPoint presentation for the sermon on Sunday, March 16. For copyright reasons, I can't include the pictures here, but the text of the script follows:

Who do you say that I am?

Mark 8:31-38
March 16, 2003

  • PowerPoint Slide 1: Opening Slide - Who do you say that I am?
  • PowerPoint Slide 2: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • On the night before he was assassinated, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech in which he mentioned the threats that had been made against him and, in that context, offered a brief look backward over the meaning of his life. Because we now know that he would die the next day, his words sound almost prophetic. He said:

  • PowerPoint Slide 3: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. with text

  • "[...] I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind.

  • PowerPoint Slide 4: Washington Monument

  • Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will.

  • PowerPoint Slide 5: Reflecting Pool

  • And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you.

  • PowerPoint Slide 6: Marchers

  • But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

  • PowerPoint Slide 7: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. with black border

  • And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man.

  • PowerPoint Slide 8: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. with text

  • Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

  • PowerPoint Slide 9: Shadow of the Cross

  • In our gospel lesson this morning, Jesus has come to a similar point in his life. He has been preaching and teaching and healing for several years and it is becoming clear to him that his time in this life has become extremely limited.

  • PowerPoint Slide 10: Christ on the Cross

  • He needs to begin preparing the disciples for his inevitable arrest and execution, so that they will have a context in which to understand a suffering Messiah and so that they will have some hope in the face of his impending death.

  • PowerPoint Slide 11: Opening the Tomb

  • Without some sort of explanation and some time for the disciples to think things over, how could they possibly anticipate the redemptive power of Jesus' death for the world or the incredible joy that lay on the other side of his death? But to make that point, Jesus needed to take the disciples away from the crowds.

  • PowerPoint Slide 12: Map of Israel

  • So he led them north, out of the Galilee region and into the area around Caesarea Philippi.

  • PowerPoint Slide 13: Map of Caesarea Philippi

  • It was a site that was carefully chosen for its cultural and religious importance.

  • PowerPoint Slide 14: Source of the Jordan

  • Caesarea Philippi was home to one of the sources of the Jordan...

  • PowerPoint Slide 15: Joshua and Caleb

  • ...the river that the people of Israel had crossed to enter the Promised Land under Joshua.

  • PowerPoint Slide 16: John the Baptist and Jesus

  • The Jordan River was also the place where John the Baptist took his followers to have the people recommit themselves to following God - in effect, having them re-enter the Promised Land once again as devoted followers of the Messiah who was to come. This trip would be Jesus' chance to see if the disciples recognized him as that Messiah. But there was more to the setting than just that.

  • PowerPoint Slide 17: Ba'al

  • The region around Caesarea Philippi was, in essence, a microcosm of world religions. The city of Balinas near Caesarea Philippi was named that because it used to be a center for the worship of Ba'al...

  • PowerPoint Slide 18: Asherah

  • ...and his wife Asherah, the very gods whose worship was such a temptation for the people of the Old Testament.

  • PowerPoint Slide 19: Cave entrance

  • Next to the source of the Jordan was a cave that was said to be the entrance to Hades, the land of the dead.

  • PowerPoint Slide 20: Cave Niches

  • And carved into the rock wall next to that cave entrance were a series of niches that once held statues of Pan...

  • PowerPoint Slide 21: Pan

  • ...the god of nature, who was worshipped by the Greeks and Romans...

  • PowerPoint Slide 22: Pan Red

  • ...in ways that would remind modern Americans more of a wild college spring break party than a religious experience.

  • PowerPoint Slide 23: Temple

  • Further up the hillside was a temple built by Philip Herod to honor his protector, the Emperor Tiberias. This temple was designed for worship of the emperor as a god.

  • PowerPoint Slide 24: Tiberias

  • That was the politically expedient thing to do, in spite of the fact that Tiberias had a decidedly nasty habit of indulging in rape and murder. But, after all, he was the emperor.

  • PowerPoint Slide 25: Mall of America

  • It was as if Jesus had deliberately taken the disciples to a vast marketplace for religions of the ancient world - the ancient equivalent of the Mall of America for various faiths - to see what they believed about him.

  • PowerPoint Slide 26: Waterfall

  • And so, there in the quiet and beauty of nature...

  • PowerPoint Slide 27: Head of Jesus

  • Jesus asks the disciples a very pointed question:

  • PowerPoint Slide 28: Head of Jesus with text

  • "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers correctly, "You are the Christ," and then Jesus begins to teach the disciples that, as the Christ, he had to suffer and die.

  • PowerPoint Slide 29: Take up their cross daily...

  • Then Jesus added that to be a Christian means being willing to follow Jesus wherever he may go, even into the unpredictable and dangerous areas of life.

  • PowerPoint Slide 30: Baptism

  • In essence, during every baptism, we are faced with the same question Jesus posed to his disciples...

  • PowerPoint Slide 31: Baptism with text

  • "Who do you say that I am?" And the way we answer that question has vast implications for the way we live our lives.

  • PowerPoint Slide 32: Main Street Galena

  • Just as Jesus led his disciples into the heart of the world's culture and religions to pose his question to the first disciples, so he comes to us in the midst of everyday life and asks us also to think about the meaning of our faith.

  • PowerPoint Slide 33: Rubens' Divine Love painting

  • Gayle Bach-Watson writes, "There is nothing God will hold back if it will open up a relationship between God and us. There is no price too high for God to pay so that we can know God and love God.

  • PowerPoint Slide 34: Manger scene

  • "There is no place God won't go - to the manger of poverty,

  • PowerPoint Slide 35: The Temptation of Jesus

  • "to the wilderness of despair,

  • PowerPoint Slide 36: The Crucifixion

  • "to the cross of shame,

  • PowerPoint Slide 37: The Harrowing of Hell

  • "to the depths of hell - no place God won't go to save us from sin, death and evil. God becomes one of us to save you and me.

  • PowerPoint Slide 38: Blake's Ancient of Days painting

  • "The greatest lesson a soul has to learn is that God, and God alone, is enough for all its needs. This is the lesson that all God's dealings with us are meant to teach, and this is the crowning discovery of our entire Christian life. GOD IS ENOUGH!"

  • PowerPoint Slide 39: Come near to God...

  • Although we can do nothing to either earn or evade God's love, surely a love so completely without limits demands a response of love in return from us.

  • PowerPoint Slide 40: Fortress picture

  • But we tend to put up walls, focusing on ourselves and our own needs and protecting ourselves with a barrier of casual interest and mild faith. Yet, Jesus persistently calls us to a deeper level of faith:

  • PowerPoint Slide 41: Fortress picture with text

  • "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me."

  • PowerPoint Slide 42: John Calvin

  • Or, as John Calvin, the founder of the Presbyterian Church , put it:

  • PowerPoint Slide 43: John Calvin - "We are not our own"

  • We are not our own;
    therefore neither our reason nor our will should predominate
    in our deliberations and actions.

    We are not on our own;
    therefore let us not propose it as our end,
    to seek what may be expedient for us according to the flesh.

    We are not our own
    therefore let us, as far as possible, forget ourselves
    and all things that are ours.

  • PowerPoint Slide 44: John Calvin - "We are God's..."
  • On the contrary, we are God's;
    to him, therefore, let us live and die.

    We are God's;
    therefore let his wisdom and will preside in all our actions.

    We are God's;
    towards him, therefore, as our only legitimate end,
    let every part of our lives be directed.

  • PowerPoint Slide 45: Smoke of explosion

  • Therefore, we are called to have concern for those things that affect any of God's children, for we are called to create community throughout God's creation with all of God's beloved children. Is that an easy thing to do? No. Of course not. Without God's help it is impossible.

  • PowerPoint Slide 46: Ann Weems

  • And so, as we approach a seemingly unavoidable war halfway around the world, I'd like to share a poem with you by Ann Weems. It's called, "I No Longer Pray For Peace."

  • PowerPoint Slide 47: UN Convoy

  • On the edge of war, one foot already in,
    I no longer pray for peace:
    I pray for miracles.

  • PowerPoint Slide 48: UN Soldiers

  • I pray that stone hearts will turn
    to tenderheartedness,
    and evil intentions will turn
    to mercifulness,
    and all the soldiers already deployed
    will be snatched out of harm's way,
    and the whole world will be
    astounded onto its knees.

  • PowerPoint Slide 49: UN Inspector and dog

  • I pray that all the "God talk"
    will take bones,
    and stand up and shed
    its cloak of faithlessness,
    and walk again in its powerful truth.
    I pray that the whole world might
    sit down together and share
    its bread and its wine.

  • PowerPoint Slide 50: Albert Schweitzer

  • Some say there is no hope,
    but then I've always applauded the holy fools
    who never seem to give up on
    the scandalousness of our faith:
    that we are loved by God...
    that we can truly love one another.

  • PowerPoint Slide 51: Head of Jesus with text

  • I no longer pray for peace:
    I pray for miracles.

    by Rev. Jim McCrea


     


     

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