Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 19 Year B (RCL) 2009
Isaiah 50: 4 – 9a; Psalm 116: 1 – 8; James 3: 1 – 12; Mark 8: 27 – 38
St. Stephen’s Episcopal Parish, Portland, OR
Sunday, September 13, 2009

WHO IS IT ALL ABOUT?

Let us pray: God of the burning bush, the thunder rolling across the mountains and the still small voice, we long to know who you really are. Throughout the history of our relationship with you we have struggled to know you ….the name that cannot be named; the peace that cannot be comprehended – the force and spirit that moves like the wind and can never be captured. Help us to be content in our limited knowledge. Remind us that we can compare you to things which we comprehend and probably will never fully comprehend you until we meet face to face. In the Messiah, the Anointed One you made your fullest revelation to us and it is that revelation we wish to embrace in community with you and each other. Reveal to us in your Holy One the mystery and majesty of the working out of your plan for salvation and the perfection of our lives with you. Amen.

(SUNG) JOY AT THE START, FEAR IN THE JOURNEY
JOY AT THE COMING HOME
A PART OF THE HEART GETS LOST IN THE LEARNING
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE ROAD

ALONG THE ROAD YOUR PATH MAY WANDER
YOUR PILGRIM’S FAITH MAY FAIL
ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER
DARKNESS OBSCURES THE TRAIL

The author of Mark’s telling of the Gospel continues the narrative of the ever moving and wandering itinerant rabbi from Nazareth. The Jesus revealed in this Gospel account is clearly on the move. Since the beginning of this telling Jesus has traveled from Nazareth to the banks of the Jordan, to Galilee and Capernaum, to the country of the Gerasenes, to Genesaret, to Tyre and Sidon, to Bethsaida, and now to Cesarea Philippi. The twelve have followed their teacher up and down mountains, and across the sea and back again. All along the way Jesus has been teaching and revealing more about his ministry though often through the vieled approach of parables and stories. Healings and exorcisims have marked the days of these journeys; feeding and preaching to ever growing crowds of the desperate and downtrodden of the society; Jesus moves ever forward to the destiny of events which will culminate at the cross in Jerusalem when the journey will come to rest. We can imagine conversations between them as they travel and, in fact, we are let in on some of those conversations. Jesus spends time with the twelve revealing meanings behind the metaphors of the parables, and telling them how they are to act and behave when they approach a new village to spread the good news. The conversation on this day in the journey however takes a different turn. This conversation which they have on the way toward the villages of Cesarea Phillipi will be like no other – this will be a conversation about identity; not what Jesus does or says – rather who Jesus is and what that means for them and consequently for us.

This encounter between Jesus and the inner circle of followers goes to the root of what Jesus needs to impart about his ministry and the consequences of that ministry for them in the continuation of the journey toward Calvary. In the context of our modern day understanding this would be a conversation that turns to “all about me.” We all know examples of the self absorbed neighbor or friend who turns at one point in the conversation and says, “well that’s enough about me. Let’s talk about you – what do you think of me?” It is not exactly in that exaggerated of a style, but yes Jesus does draw the conversation in and turn it to find how much of the lessons and parables, the healings and miracles his followers have been able to understand in terms of what they reveal about the true nature of his ministry. “Who do people say that I am?” How do you suppose your friends would answer that question? I imagine the responses going something like, “oh, he’s that short irish looking balding guy whose the priest over at that church by the 405.” We can gain a great deal of perspective on who we are - or more probably who we project ourselves to be by asking those closest to us what their impressions of us are. I find it rather interesting in my work that when I meet someone for the first time, someone who has come into my office to talk about questions on their spiritual journey – and I ask them to tell me something about themselves, 99% of the time the initial response will be what they do to earn a paycheck, or explain why they can’t or don’t earn a paycheck anymore. Our society has so ingrained in us the Protestant work ethic that our identity becomes firmly entrenched in our work. How refreshing it might be to have someone reply, “I’m a child of God who is struggling to figure out where that God wants me to go.”

(SUNG) CURSING THE QUEST, COURTING DISASTER
MEASURELESS NIGHT FORBODE.
MOMENTS OF REST, GLIMPSES OF LAUGHTER
ARE TREASURED ALONG THE ROAD

ALONG THE ROAD, YOUR STEPS MAY STUMBLE
YOUR THOUGHTS MAY START TO STRAY
BUT THROUGH IT ALL A HEART HELD HUMBLE
LEVELS AND LIGHTS YOUR WAY.

So Jesus enters this “all about me” territory to discover how much the followers have gained in insight and understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus represents. The disciples share with him what they have heard. They are the ones who keep their ears open for the moods of the crowds and for the ordering of those whom they will allow to get closest to the teacher. “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” Reflecting the influence that the baptizer John had on the crowds of this time and the close link between John’s ministry and Jesus’ – many in the crowds identify Jesus with his cousin. Next Jesus is identified with the Hebrew prophets – note that the disciples reflect that the crowds do not think that Jesus is “a” prophet – rather that Jesus is one of “the” prophets. Expectation for the return of Elijah who had ascended to God without first dying was great in the lore and myth of the Jewish people. These are the stories and whisperings of the masses about Jesus since he first started moving among them. Jesus, however, wants to go deeper into this identity conversation and so the second part of the question is asked; “But who do you say that I am?” Here is where the “rubber will meet the road” to use a metaphor well beyond the context of the disciples time. Jesus wishes to know how much this band of rag tag fisherfolk have assimilated of what they have been taught. The readers know, we’ve read the author of Mark’s prologue; but the disciples have not. All the disciples have to go on are the signs and wonders which have been occurring wherever Jesus goes. Some hints have dropped for them – back in Chapter 2, the tenth verse Jesus says, “but so that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and again in verse 28, “so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” In chapter 4, they are told by Jesus that they have been “given the secret of the Kingdom of God”. Again those hints are veiled and the secret obscure for uneducated common laborers like the disciples. So Peter, who we can assume is answering for all of them says “you are the Messiah”. That word, with all its baggage for the Jewish people now becomes associated for the first time in this Gospel telling with Jesus and his ministry.

Now Jesus begins to “unpack” the meaning of that word as it is used to reflect his ministry on earth. Jesus will not be the “Messiah” which the great majority of the Jewish people expect. Messiah means “annointed one” and comes from the tradition of the kings and priests who were set aside by God for the service of God and sealed by ritual annointing with oils and in that annointing are empowered for their ministry. What was expected then around the messiah was perhaps a return of a great King – or the fulfillment of the visions and promises of the great prophets wherein the people of Israel would become a great nation and the ruler of nations. Rather, Jesus reveals for them the suffering servant image from Isaiah’s prophesies and explains that he will fulfill that promise – that he will be scorned and rejected and killed and three days after rise again. This is far beyond any of their ability to comprehend, so once more Peter acts on their behalves and takes Jesus aside to rebuke him we’re told. Peter, ever Peter I can just hear him – “now teacher you don’t want to go and get everybody upset like that….we have no intention of letting you get into the hands of the chief priests and the scribes and getting yourself killed; and, by the way dead is dead, people don’t come back three days after their dead”. But the question of Jesus’ identity is too important for Jesus to ignore any longer. The twelve, at least, must be made to understand what is going to happen in the days ahead. The rebuke switches sides and Jesus now rebukes Peter and his attempt to avoid the reality of the sacrifices which must be made to bring about the promised Kindom of God. So, Jesus calls the crowd in addition to the disciples and begins to teach the reality of the Cross – not only the Cross that Jesus must bear but also the cross that each of those who want to call themselves followers must bear for the sake of the Gospel.

(SUNG) JOY AT THE START, FEAR IN THE JOURNEY
JOY IN THE COMING HOME
A PART OF THE HEART, GETS LOST IN THE LEARNING
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE ROAD
SOMEWHERE ALONG THE ROAD

I share with you the story of Georgene Johnson. Georgene was living in Cleveland OH when she turned 42 years old. She decided that if she had to be 42 years old she was at least going to be a solid and healthy 42 years old. So Georgene decided to exercise and focus on maintaining a good healthy life – as part of her exercise routine she began to run. Every day she would run and slowly she began to get better and better at her running. Georgene thought that a little competition might help to motivate her running and so she entered a 10K run. For those of you, like me, who have no idea what that distance is, its about 6 miles. Not too challenging, but challenging enough for a beginning runner. Nervous about her first race, she arrived early and much to her surprise there were already a lot of people milling around, stretching their limbs and warming up for the race. All of a sudden a voice on the microphone said “move to the starting line”. This is it, she thought, a gun sounded and they were off like a huge wave, hundreds of runners, sweeping her up, Georgene was in the race. After about four miles it occurred to her that they ought to be turning around and heading back to the finish line. She stopped and asked an official “how come the course isn’t turning around?” Then came the reply from the race official, “Ma’am this is the Cleveland Marathon, you have about 24 miles to go.” Georgene’s event, the 10K was to start a half hour after the start of the marathon. Some of us would have stopped right there and said that’s it, I’m going home. To Georgene’s credit she kept right on going, and finished the race. She said this, “this is not the race I trained for. This is not the race I entered. But for better or worse, this is the race that I’m in.”

This was not the journey which the disciples had set out on, this was not the journey which they had visioned. This was not what Peter had bargained for when he dropped everything to follow this teacher. It was however, the journey that the teacher was asking them to continue. It was the journey that would change their lives and the lives of hundreds of millions who would follow after them. It is the journey that you and I are asked to take up and continue. It is the journey which we are blessed and privlidged to share with each other and with Jesus. It is not the destination, it is the journey.

Amen.