August 29, 1999
22nd of Ordinary Time
Year A
I want to begin today with a question. Have you ever been talking with
someone, someone that you care about, someone whom you have a
deep love and respect for, and, all of a sudden, because of a change in
topic, you find yourself on the opposite sides of a conflict? In an instant,
you are strongly disagreeing with each other and you find yourselves
worlds apart from each other—all of sudden, there is a cavern between
you that seems uncrossable. I know that I have been in that kind of
situation—I’ve been with friends whom I love and respect, and because
of some profound disagreement, we find ourselves immersed in tension
that wasn’t there literally seconds ago.
Well, the passage from Mathew today finds Christ in one of those
moments, in one of those moments of painful conflicts between people
who care about each other tremendously, but who cannot—who will not—
meet each other on an issue. But out of that tension, we are going to
see Jesus challenge Peter and the disciples to move away from a purely
human view of success, to move away from a human understanding of
triumph, of victory, to what it REALLY means for God to enter into the
world and what it REALLY means for God to save the world. Jesus, in
this tense moment, is asking them to change their human understanding
about it what it means to win and what it means to lose, about what it
means to be a Savior, and what it means to be a disciple of this Savior.
What makes this moment so poignant, so dramatic is what has just
happened literally minutes earlier. Jesus had asked his disciples who
they thought he was and Peter had replied with the passion of someone
who has discovered the truth, with the fervor of someone who has just
had an “ah-hah!” moment. “You are the Messiah, the Child of living
God,” he says in reply to Jesus’ question. And then Jesus praises him,
and says to Peter, “You are Peter, the Rock, and on this rock I will build
my church, and the powers of death shall never conquer it.” Jesus says
to Peter, “I will build my community, my church, on the faith you shown
me here, Peter—you are solid, you will not be moved, and even the most
the most feared of human experiences, the one experience that speaks
most to humans of finality, of ending, of no more, even that will never
take away what I am building in the church.”
So this powerful moment has happened where Christ has looked and
seen the future of his presence here on earth, which is us, the church, in
this man Peter who recognizes the truth of who of he is. But then
something happens—one of those moments I spoke of a few seconds
ago…Jesus begins to explain to his disciples that he has to go to
Jerusalem and that he must suffer there, and that he will die there, and
that he will be raised again. He’s giving them a preview of what the days
ahead will bring—this is a gift he is offering them, a chance to know
where the days and hours will lead them. But Peter cannot stomach
this—this is NOT what it means to be a Messiah, a Savior—a Savior is
victorious, a Messiah puts the enemies of Israel to flight, and triumphs
over all that he faces. A Savior does not suffer at the hands of Israel’s
own leaders—a Savior does not sweat tears of blood in gardens outside
Jerusalem, anguishing about the coming pain—a Savior does not
scream from the cross, “My God, My God, why have abandoned me!!!
Why have you left me alone!!!!” Peter confronts Jesus, Peter wants to
correct Jesus’ obvious mistake! “Surely, God would never let this
happen to you,“ Peter says Jesus, “Saviors don’t die, saviors don’t
bleed, saviors don’t suffer—this will never happen to you, Jesus,” Peter
argues with Jesus. And then you can see this painful, powerful moment
happen—Jesus literally turns around and says to Peter, to the one whom
moments ago he said was going to build his church upon, he says to
Peter, “Out of my sight, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me. You
think as humans think, not as God thinks.” I can’t imagine how painful
this moment must have been—but, of course, I think most of us have
some idea, some hint in our own lives, when one second we are deeply
connected to someone, and then the next moment, there seems to be an
uncrossable cavern between us. This is what is happening here, at this
moment. Peter wants to live in his old world, where Saviors conquer
through the sword, through violence, and Jesus confronts him in such a
forceful manner that it must have sent chills up Peter’s spine, and I think
probably broke his heart.
But the reason why Jesus will not allow Peter to remain in his old ways of
thinking, in his thinking that the world God is creating is about violence
and war, is that he wants the disciples to realize that this God whom they
meet in this Christ is a God who is vulnerable, a God who is not only
present in joy and laughter, but a God who has shares with us our fear
and our pain. Peter doesn’t want to believe that suffering and pain are
part of what it means to be Savior—no, in his world, Savior’s win—they
do not die painful, tortuous, deaths. But Christ is not interested in some
false view of reality—to get to Easter, to experience resurrection, you
must experience the cross—to save the world, you must experience the
world, ALL OF THE WORLD, with all of its joy and its pain, with all of its
laughter, with all of its tears. And then Jesus turns to all of the disciples
and offers them the cross—can you imagine! “You want to be my
follower? Then choose against the desires you have for a world
conquered by the sword, a world of easy triumphs, a world created by
your desire to avoid the cross, and choose, instead, to pick up the cross
that you are running from and come with me to Golgotha …and on the
other side of moment, on the other side of crucifixion, you will know
resurrection, you will find a self, you will discover your life.”
How ironic, that moments earlier, Peter has been chosen out of all the
disciples to be the cornerstone of the future—he must have felt a
tremendous sense of victory, he probably believed that he had truly
arrived, that he was successful, and then, here, Christ offers him his own
cross, he is offered the cross in his greatest moment. How incredible!
And yet I think that is what is also happening to us, here at Emmanuel.
We are on the cusp of something powerful and new in our life together—
we are going to begin truly living into the vision that God has for us—we
have much to be excited about in the past year, and we have much more
to be excited about in our future, especially in the next few months…and
what we are being offered at this moment of our success is the cross.
Jesus says, “Anyone who wishes to be a follower of mine must renounce
self; they must take up their cross and follow me. Whoever wants to
save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake will find
it.” …….
This past week, someone who is thinking of running for Church Council
said to me that he realizes that if he should be elected for this position,
he knows God would be asking him to make this church the most
important priority in his life, more than the other commitments he has in
life right now. On the cusp of great things, he is being asked to take up
the cross. On the cusp of great things, we—all of us—are being asked
to take up the cross. But you know and I know, that resurrection greets
us on the other side of the cross. We are being called to really live into
that truth in the next few months, more than we have had to live into that
truth for a long time—we are being asked to lose our lives so that we can
find our lives. What a incredible moment this is, don’t you think? On the
edge of great things, we are being asked to pick up our crosses and go
with our Christ to Golgotha, to the place of crucifixion, so that we can find
our souls, so that we know resurrection, so that we can find our lives.
What a wonder this is, what a wonder! Amen
