Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Annual Worship by the River, Picnic, and Fun Fair
September 16, 2018
Reading #1: Mark8:27-30
Reflection #1
Let me set the scene
for you. Our readings today come from
about the mid-point of Mark’s gospel, and they are really a pivot-point in the
whole story that Mark is telling us. Up
until this point, Jesus has been traveling in the region that surrounds the Sea
of Galilee, which is actually a large fresh-water lake. Sometimes he has ventured a bit further
north, and he spent a bit of time on the east side of the lake, but for the
most part he has stuck pretty close to home.
But after our reading
today and continuing through the rest of Mark’s gospel, Jesus begins his
journey south, heading towards Jerusalem.
When he gets to Jerusalem, we have the events that we remember every
year in Holy Week and Easter – Jesus’s triumphal Palm Sunday entry into the
city, his arrest, his torture, his execution, and then his resurrection.
So today’s reading
really marks a turning point, if you will forgive the pun, in Mark’s
gospel. Jesus’ disciples – including the
inner circle of twelve, but also likely including a larger band of women and
men who had traveled with him – Jesus’ disciples had witnessed lots of things
in their time with Jesus. They had seen
Jesus heal people; they had seen Jesus feed large crowds with only a few loaves
of bread and a few fish; they had seen Jesus perform miracles that defied the
natural world like walking on water; they had heard Jesus preach powerful
sermons about how the captives were going to be released and the poor were
going to be empowered.
And then we get to
this moment. Jesus asks his disciples,
the ones who had been following him and who had witnessed all the things that
he had done; Jesus asks them, “Who do people, who do the crowds, who do the villages
say that I am?” And the disciples answer
with some of the things that they have heard.
Some people say that you are John the Baptist, even though we know that
Herod has killed him. Other people say
that you are Elijah, since he didn’t die but was taken up to heaven in a
whirlwind and promised to return. And
other people don’t give you a name, but just say that you are a prophet,
someone who sees the world through God’s eyes, and speaks truth to power.
Now Jesus, he listens
to their answers, but then he asks them another question. “Who do you say that I am?” And this stumps the disciples. You can almost hear an awkward pause. They were willing to pass on the things that
they had heard, but weren’t quite ready to offer an opinion. But then finally Peter speaks up. “You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are the anointed one.”
Now Jesus’ question,
even more than Peter’s answer, is a question that is still relevant to us
today. Who do we say that Jesus
is? Why is this person who lived 2000
years ago on the other side of the world still so important to us today?
I want to invite you
to turn to your neighbour, and in groups of 2 or 3 or 4, take a minute or so to
try and answer this question. If Jesus
asked you, “Who do you say that I am?” how would you answer him?
(break)
Is anyone willing to
share your answer?
There are so many
different ways that we can answer Jesus’ question. Both the bible and the teachings of the
church are so full of images or metaphors to try and describe Jesus. And this is both challenging and powerful.
The thing about trying
to talk about God is that we are human and we are not God. We are limited by human language to try and
describe something that is so holy, and so beyond, and so much more. And so we tend to resort to images or
metaphors. Metaphors that can describe a
similarity, but then reach a point where they no longer work. Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Great Physician. Jesus is the Light of the World. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus is.
And it is only when we
take all of these images and metaphors together that we can get a better image,
or a better answer to Jesus’ question.
Who do you say that I am?
Reading #2: Mark 8:31-33
Reflection #2
So we talked about
Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
Let’s take a look at Peter’s answer.
Peter answered Jesus, “You are the Christ, you are the Messiah, you are
God’s Anointed One.”
Now for his answer to
make sense, we have to know that Christ isn’t Jesus’ last name. It’s a title.
It literally means the Anointed one, the one who is anointed like kings
of the Ancient Israelite people were anointed.
Christ is the Greek form of the word, and Messiah is the Hebrew form of
the same word.
But in the time when
Jesus was asking his question and Peter was providing an answer, the title of
Messiah had come to take on a different meaning. The people, who had been living under the
oppression of the Roman Empire, had come to expect a powerful military leader
or king who would lead them to freedom and self-rule.
So when Jesus starts
saying that as the Christ, he was going to suffer and die, Peter protests. “No – that can’t be right! Stop saying this! You are the Messiah – if you are going to
die, how will you lead us to freedom?”
Jesus means one thing
when he says Messiah; but Peter means something quite different. It’s a bit like that moment in one of my
favourite movies, The Princess Bride. “You keep using that word – I do not think it
means what you think it means.”
And today. How often do we misunderstand the things that
Jesus says. It’s sometimes easier to
point our finger at other people and groups.
We can see places and times when scripture has been interpreted and used
to exclude certain groups of people; we can see places and times where
scripture has been interpreted to justify wars and violence and abuse.
And yet sometimes it’s
harder to look at ourselves. Are there
any ways that we as the United Church, we as Two Rivers Pastoral Charge, we as
individuals are mis-understanding what Jesus says? I think that this is always an important
question to keep in our minds and ask ourselves.
Reflection #3
So if Jesus didn’t intend to be some sort of
military leader like Peter expected the Messiah to be, what did he mean?
There are hints in
here that Jesus is referring to the end of his life, to that week that we
remember every year from Palm Sunday through to Easter. Jesus talks about suffering and rejection; he
talks about the cross; he talks about rising again on the third day.
Now I don’t think that
Jesus wanted to die. I don’t think that
God sent God’s “only begotten Son” for the sole purpose of dying. I don’t think that Jesus saw his death as his
only purpose in life. But I do think
that at this point in his ministry, he saw it as the likely outcome. He realized that his message of peace and
justice threatened too many of the powerful people. He realized that by heading to Jerusalem, he
was going to be heading right in to the middle of a hornets’ nest of
tension. He realized that if he was
perceived as a traitor, then he would likely end up on a cross.
And he warns his
followers that they might face the same situation.
That phrase, “take up
your cross” has been used so often to hurt people or keep people in unsafe
situations. A woman might be told to
stay in an abusive relationship because “that’s her cross to bear.” A child being bullied might be denied
help. Families might be left in poverty
because “we all have a cross to bear.”
This is all harmful theology, and not true to what Jesus is saying here.
In this reading, Jesus
is telling us that if we choose to stay true to his message of love and peace
and justice, then we might face danger from the world around us that doesn’t want
to hear this message. But Jesus is
encouraging us to stay true to him and to his message despite these
dangers. The world is not going to be
all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns all the time for us just because we are
followers of Jesus, because we are living in a broken world.
But the good news is
that God is with us. God became human in
Jesus Christ. God knows what it is like
to be human – to live and love and laugh and suffer and cry. God knows what it’s like to be human through
Jesus Christ. And by the Holy Spirit, we
are being drawn in to the body of Christ; and through Christ, we are drawn into
the life of God, the eternal dance of the Three-in-One.
God is with us. We are with God. This is the good news that we can cling to,
even when we face challenges and difficulties.
This is the good news that we can share with others.
I want to invite you
to take another couple of minutes to share with your neighbours how you have
seen God’s goodness in your life. How
have you experienced God’s presence, God’s love, God’s peace. What is this good news of God, that keeps you
going?
(break)
Let us pray:
God of love,
we thank you for you!
We thank you that you
are always with us,
and we are never alone.
We thank you for Jesus
Christ,
your Word made flesh,
who joins our humanity with you.
We thank you for this
community of faith
who travel with us
as companions on the
journey.
We thank you.
Amen.
The view from the back of the congregation
Thank you to Shirley Myles for the picture!
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