Mark 8:27-38
“Identity”
September 12, 2021 Open Door Sunday
Surveys are critical to so much of our lives.
Corporate America is constantly conducting surveys by phone or mail or on-line or with in-person focus groups so that they can figure out everything from how much they can reasonably get away with charging for their product to which subsection of the population – be it dog lovers, runners, pregnant women, home cooks – they should be directing their advertising.
Surveys end up influencing election campaigns often making or breaking a candidate way before anyone casts a ballot.
We were all part of our nation’s largest survey last year. It’s called the Census and it’s been critical to figuring out funding and congressional seats and a whole lot more since 1790.
Some of us also – Roger and I included – are contacted multiple times a year by the census bureau for one of the 100 plus surveys they conduct in between the big one every decade. Our Census Bureau directs these surveys toward both households and businesses. They are constantly gathering data on everything from the Household Pulse Survey about COVID to the Manufactured Housing Survey to the National Crime Victimization Survey. A lot rides on our opinions.
Here in today’s Gospel lesson a lot rides on opinions also.
While walking with his disciples, Jesus attempts to put his finger on the pulse of the people by pressing them to share what exactly are people saying about his identity.
And we can almost hear those famous game show words, “Survey Says” and then these disciples on his team throw out a list that includes John the Baptist, Elijah, and one of the prophets. The bonus round comes next when Jesus gets personal, “But who do you say I am?” and when Peter blurts out what you or I might think was the right answer, “the Messiah” they all get shushed and then Jesus schools them on what his identity really means.
Let’s remember that Jesus was accustomed to having his teaching create a stir. Lots of times he faced hostile crowds and religious leaders who challenged both the content of his words and even his right to be teaching at all.
So, when Peter answered, “You are the Messiah” it was clear to Jesus that he had no idea what that meant. When Jesus lays out a picture of what’s to come, Peter cannot balance the greatness with the terrible pain that comes with it.
When we think of a Messiah it is a lot easier for us to imagine perfection which would not involve any suffering.
Instead, Jesus is saying that there is no possible life devoted to him and the ideals of God that will be pain-free.
The radical truth of Jesus’ message is that we are to love every neighbor as much as we love ourselves and that our attachment to earthly stuff and all the things and issues that we humans misguidedly prioritize are sending us in the wrong direction.
If we are truly followers, it means that just like Jesus we are going to bump up against those in power and it may not be pretty.
Jesus is warning the disciples and we modern-day followers that when we put human dignity and justice and mercy ahead of getting more and more and looking out for number one, we will be met with resistance.
Some of you probably have family or friends who question your commitment to an organization like the church which asks you to think deeply about how financial decisions might impact on the poor or children or the elderly or the call to feed people that can’t afford food or even having an open Communion table where everyone is welcome.
The kind of resistance we can face often comes from a culture that places greater value on having more over caring more.
Relationships are at the heart of following Jesus and with that means that we are not immune to the pain of the world.
If we, like Jesus, truly value human dignity and stand with and speak out on behalf of those who are suffering or being treated as less than, there may be risks to our identity in the eyes of others.
If we take our lead from Jesus with an eye to the cross, we may find ourselves needing to lean into the strength that comes from knowing Jesus when others question or mock or ignore us for standing up for those who need us.
We may not always face hostility as Christ followers. We may, like Peter and the disciples, be trying to use the logic of this world to make sense of the countercultural message of Jesus.
Mark’s Gospel is especially filled with numerous acts of bumbling and confusion and missteps on the part of the disciples and so we should be prepared for the same when we attempt, using our culture’s logic to understand such hard to grasp concepts as someone who was dead coming back to life.
On this day when we share the joy of being in this dear space after so long outside of it because of a global pandemic which still is not under control, we may need to let go of our very human tendency to have all things explained and wrapped up neat and tidy with a bow.
We’ve learned, hopefully, over this past year and a half of COVID that we must look out for one another. The divine things that Jesus points to are those that speak of a life lived on behalf of others.
We will continue to seek out ways that together we might live such lives and that may not always win us popularity points and it may cost us some measure of security.
The answer Jesus is looking for is not found in the right words but rather in actions. Jesus didn’t want them spouting about what a great guy he was. Instead, he called for a level of selflessness that speaks for itself.
When the questions about who people said Jesus was or who they the disciples themselves thought he was, no one could yet give the answer “Cross bearer” and yet that is how Jesus sees himself. Messiah with all its connotations of victory and winning and the assurance that a messiah would naturally fix everything and take away all pain was not the vision Jesus was intent on leaving.
Jesus was not getting rid of the pain but rather being accompanying his followers through the pain.
Sorry, no magic wand. Just love. Just love. Let us then lift up this prayer from Unfolding Light:
God, you know how beguiling my comfort is,
how I protect myself from hurt or loss,
uncertainty or struggle.
I don’t want to enter that pit.
But if your Beloved are there,
will I not go there?
If I go there for love, is it not love that lifts me
from suffering and despair?
Give me courage, God,
knowing it is you who bear the cross;
I only come along.
When I open myself to the pain of love
it falls light upon me.
Because it is love, because it is yours
it is the cross that bears me. Amen.