LENT 2B 2009

Text: “For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things….  What will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”  Mark 8: 33…36

Last week I talked about having the attitude of the writer of Psalm 25 when he prays to God:  teach me,  show me,  guide me.. lead me O Lord.  I want to continue emphasizing this attitude as we look at our gospel story for today. 

Just before what we read this morning, Jesus has asked his friends who people are saying that he is. This is what they say:

Mark 8:28-29 ( NRSV ) 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”

Jesus then asks them:   “But who do you say that I am?”   and Peter answers “You are the Messiah.”

While Mark does not record it,  Matthew tells us that Jesus tells Peter how blessed he is by giving this answer.  So Peter is probably pretty puffed up.  He is the A student. But then,  after Jesus tells them that he must undergo great suffering and be killed,  Peter takes Jesus aside and gives him a little lecture. “You can’t allow this to happen. You are the Messiah. Lets think about this.  Why not lets just take over and throw the Romans out.”

Listen again to what Jesus does and says:

Mark 8:33 ( NRSV ) 33But 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.” 

This is quite a rebuke.. calling Peter Satan.. Why does he do this?  Most likely because he hears the same voice that he heard in the wilderness coming through Peter. You are the Messiah.. you don’t need to suffer… You can simply take over and rule without all this bleeding and dying stuff. So Jesus tells us why he rebukes this voice:  Peter is setting his mind not on the things of God, but on human things… Simply, he is thinking like a man without taking into consideration the teachings and the ways of God.

So again referring back to my last Sunday’s message,  not every voice that we hear is good. There are voices that totally go against the teachings and the ways of God. But there is the voice that we can hear that will lead us and guide us in the way that leads us to true peace and fulfillment and finally eternal joy.

So, trying to practice hearing the voice of Jesus,  we simply pause for a few moments this morning and consider his words about following him. These words about denying ourselves and taking up our cross to follow Jesus are tough and difficult. I have been struggling with them for over 35 years. We used to sing a little song in the commune that went:

If any man will come after me,  let him deny himself.. Jesus said..

What does it mean to deny ourselves.. to take up our cross… to lose our lives for Jesus sake and that of the gospel?  For each of us,  these words of Jesus,  if we try and live them out, will be lived out in different ways. For those who stood there hearing Jesus on that day,  these words had very real and literal meaning. These men,  if they continued on to follow Jesus, would face the same persecution and death that Jesus did. Tradition says that all of the apostles except John suffered a martyrs death. Tradition says that Peter,  the central figure in this story,  was crucified upside down outside of Rome.  So, in his case,  he did, literally, lose his life for Jesus sake. 

I thought it was interesting, in light of our current economic woes,  to think about how Jesus uses economic concepts in this passage..  profit, gain,, lose, or forfeit,, and give in return. 

Here is what he says:

Mark 8:36-37 ( NRSV ) 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 

Here clearly Jesus is talking about a different type of profit and loss and gain than that which we get in the stock market or through the regular course of business. He seems to be saying that there are riches to be had that have nothing to do what we commonly think of as success and wealth. So often people like me go away to a third world country and then come back and talk about how blessed we are because of all the material wealth that we have. And of course there is a truth in this. But is it also not true that our material wealth and comforts often rise up and control us.  In this country we are facing some great economic challenges. But we are largely because all of us,--- me, you, us, and they, or them… have bought into a way of life that is not sustainable. We have more and more,  and yet we cannot pay for it and we are still unhappy and worried. If material comforts could bring happiness,  We would be the happiest and most content people on the face of the earth!  Liz sent me a you tube clip of a comedian talking about how crazy we are – we get mad when our I phone or internet connection is slow… we are miserable when we are one hour late flying from New York to Sacramento… totally unaware of the incredible miracle it is to fly or the amazig miracle of the internet – and now on a phone!   We live in nice homes and go to sleep in warm beds with running water and still we are stressed and worried and sometimes even miserable in life.

So Jesus is trying to teach us,  to lead us, to guide us into another way,  the way of God. He is telling us that there is a different type of profit and gain, and we get this through following Him.

What does it mean, then for you or me to deny ourselves,  or to lose our life, and to follow God’s ways?  How do we do this?

Well, the first and most obvious,  and yet sometimes difficult thing to do is to learn to discern between the voice of God and the voices of this world that go against the things of God. This takes some effort on our part.  My wife Kathy and I forced our son and daughter to attend a class I taught on an introduction to the Old Testament. After the class Ashley said:  this was just like school.. And I said, of course it was.. there are things in the Christian faith that we have to learn, and we learn them pretty much in the same way that we learn anything.   We don’t know that ways of God through osmosis. Just because we live in a so called Christian country and attend church does not mean that we are hearing the voice of God.  It takes some effort and intentionality.

In a real sense, it can be more difficult to see our need of listening to Jesus and following him because we have so much. This is why Jesus said it is hard for those who are rich to enter the Kingdom of God.  When we are comfortable and healthy we feel in control and don’t see any real need to change what we are doing. The world seems pretty good to us!  But then cancer or death or loss of work or our marriage fails or our children act out…and then we become afraid and fearful. It is often then that we are ready to listen and to follow!

Jesus rebuked Peter for “setting” his mind on the things of this world… I like the word “setting..’  he means that Peter was focused,  or concentrated on the ways and voices of this world,  and was not hearing the voice of God.  Thus, the only way to turn this around is to set our minds on the things of God,  to try and hear the voice of  God in the midst of all the voices that are around us.  It is not easy,  but if we are intentional it begins to happen.

For instance, in the area of finances and things.. what is enough?  How do we know when money is really our God?  Don’t you love the stories about the rich divorces where one spouse gets $30,000 or $50,000 or more a month!  Well of course they need that much to keep up their life style. And don’t you love it when  the baseball player or Kurt Warner leaves a team because they only offer 10 or 20 million dollars  a year instead of more?  What does it mean for us to deny our selves financially for the sake of the kingdom of God and the poor and the needy around us? If we are open to the challenge,  and we seek and struggle and learn and ask,  God will lead us by His Spirit.  If we have things, we will always be challenged and led to share and to give. We will read parables like the one about the rich man who had a lot, and then built bigger barns, and then a bigger barn,  to keep his wealth… and then when he is ready to retire and enjoy life… he dies.  As we hear stories like these, and listen .. and hear.. and hear deeper.. we begin to discern God’s voice in the midst of all the voices, and we slowly are changed..  As this happens,  we will be denying ourselves for the sake of the gospel.

As we read the Bible,  we learn that to be a follower of Jesus we will care about those who have less than we do. The Bible probably says more about God’s concern for the poor than anything else. And so,  as we learn and hear and grow,  so does our concern for others in the world around us. Both through deed and giving we begin to deny ourselves as we reach out to others.

As we hear and think about and ponder the 10 commandments that we read this morning, and as they speak to us in different areas of our lives,  and if we obey them,  we then are denying ourselves and following Jesus. Maybe we are tempted to have an affair and leave our spouse because we aren’t totally happy, but we stay and try to love and care.. and maybe it doesn’t even work out… but we really tried… we are denying ourselves… maybe we are tempted to steal,  or lie for our own gain.. and we don’t… or we come to worship on a regular basis to honor the command to keep a Sabbath,  even though we could be doing something else.… in doing so we are following Jesus.  Or maybe we finally learn to forgive someone who has hurt us.. even though it is hard… we are taking up our cross and following Jesus.

Though it might seem like we are really not doing much to deny ourselves and follow Jesus,  if we keep at it and let God guide us and lead us, day by day,  when it is all said and done,  we will find that we have been a follower of Jesus.

In closing,  the vision that I have been getting during this Lenten seasons is that of open hearts,  or hearts lifted up to the Lord. For us to get anything out of this Christian life,  the windows of our souls have to be open to the light of the Spirit of God. Imagine a little door in the middle of your chest.. and one in your head… and now see the Spirit of God through the Word, through the Sacraments, through prayer, through your Christian friends, through art and literature and the beauty of nature and all that is beautiful and good, streaming into your open heart and mind. This is the attitude that I envision for all of us  Open heart and minds to the things of God.  Then we will know and experience the true riches of this life.  AMEN!