Pentecost 3

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Pentecost 3
PROPER: 7 C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: June 18,1998

TEXT: Luke 9:18-24 - "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it."

ISSUE: The issue in this passage seems to be that of identity. Jesus is given and seeks his identity, the meaning of his ministry to the community. He is given some very honorable titles. At the same time he gives a deeper dimension to what it means to be the Messiah as a suffering servant. Christians in the world today also need to be aware of the meaning of their being "marked," i.e. taking up the cross being a people of faith in Christ and living true to their identity as suffering servants with Christ.
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The passage from the Gospel account of Luke appointed for today is concerned mostly with the issue of identity. Jesus has removed himself from the crowds for a time of quiet prayer with his disciples. He asks his disciples, and more specifically Peter, "Who do the crowds say that I am?"
Jesus' asking this question is not test. It is not a question that he asks to see if the people know who he is. It is more like Jesus is working out the understanding of his own identity and mission. In this time and in this culture, a person's identity was largely established by the community of which you were apart. Name, place, occupation, education, even who you married was assigned.
Another point to keep in mind was that this setting in Luke, this quiet time away from the crowds takes place in Luke's Gospel following the story of The Feeding of the Five Thousand.
When Jesus asks what the people are saying about him, who he is, Peter replies that they are claiming him to be John the Baptist and Elijah. He is one of the ancient prophets come back to life. These are extremely honorable titles that are being assigned to him by some of the people in the crowd. Obviously, Jesus was taking on a significant place of honor among many people. These are the opinions of the outsiders.
The next concern is with the "insider" group, the disciples, the inner family. Peter says that he sees Jesus as "The Messiah of God." Having just fed the multitude, Jesus has fulfilled a messianic expectation. He has provided, at least as far as Peter is concerned, the Messianic Banquet anticipated in the ancient prophets. (Isaiah 25:6f) Peter holds Jesus in highest esteem. In this culture certain things within a family were kept secret. Families did not reveal to much about themselves to protect their honor and status. Furthermore Jesus is not perceived as arrogant or presuming to snatch at the power of God. In this story, however, Jesus does begin to reveal to his inner group the meaning and direction of his messiahship. It is based on the image of the Suffering Servant imagery of Isaiah. The son of Man will undergo great suffering and be rejected, killed, and on the third day rise.
Jesus also identifies what it means to be a part of his family. His followers must take up their cross and follow him. To fail to accept the cross is to lose their family identity with the Lord of Life. In this period to separate from family was, of course, disaster. You abandoned your complete support system. To take up the cross for Luke, who wrote his Gospel sometime after the crucifixion we understand taking up the cross as entering into and a willingness to accept the suffering of Jesus. But to take up the cross, could also mean to accept the mark of Christ. Slaves in Jesus' time were sometimes branded with a mark. The "T" or "tau" in the Hebrew language was a mark that identified a person, and was sometimes a mark of protection. In Genesis (4:15) Cain was marked by God to protect him from injury and enemies. At the Passover in Exodus, the Jewish people mark the doors and lintels of their homes with an "X" of the blood of the lamb as a symbol of protection from the angel of death. In Ezekiel (9:4-6), there is a protective marking of the people of Jerusalem who were distressed by the sinfulness in the city. Thus, to take up the cross, the "T", the mark of Christ was an identification of unity with the Lord in his suffering servanthood. It was making oneself a member of the family of Christ, and a servant of God with Christ. Today the symbol is used in our baptisms. Each baptised person is marked with the sign of the cross on their forehead with the words: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism, and marked as Christ's own forever."
Luke and the early church saw in the life and ministry of Jesus a genuine ministry of servanthood that eventually succumbed to the cross. It was in that servanthood that they saw and realized the real power of God's love being revealed in Christ. To be a part of the family of Christ, to be a part of the early church, was to embrace the mark, the "T", the participation in the suffering servanthood way of Christ. This way of life was the way of real life, life with purpose and meaning. It was to be at one with Christ and therefore in union with God. Herein was the identity of a unique community of believers, those who would become known as Christians. They were marked as Christ's own forever, even if facing persecution themselves. History bears witness to the fact that many in the early formation of the church did suffer in their witness to Jesus as Lord. That identity of the church as being the suffering servant of God in the world was carried on. It was community of significant vitality.
The issue of identity carries on today. Who do the people say that we are today as the Body of Christ? What is our identity and image of the church in the world today? Is the mark of our baptism, "our immersion into the Christ," a visible expression of our being the servants of the Jesus the Christ we find in the Scriptures? Who do the people say that we are as a community of Christ?
We may be perceived by some to be that pretty little church in the country where people like to get married. We may be perceived by some as one of the historical 1692 Parishes. Some may see us as that cute little church in the country with the quaint cemetery around it with some unusual markers and burial vaults. Perhaps we are known as the church in that lovely exclusive rural affluent setting that is not always very welcoming, and that resists change. We may well be known as the parish church that has the annual presentation of the Passion of Jesus. Our reputation may be known for the festive bi-annual Flea Markets. These are not all bad things that people may think about us as a church. In fact we may well blend with all country churches similar to our own. But are these things the real identity of what it means to marked by Jesus Christ, as a servant slave with a truly purposeful mission. To put it another way, are we a missional church.
What's important to church communities today is that they have a real grasp, understanding and love of the counter cultural aspects of the Scriptures. Jesus surely did. Are we the church where people know one another, have time for and relate to one another in times of good and bad. I think that many of us in bad times withdraw from the community rather than turning to it for support. What's important to the church community today is that we are prayerful and constantly trying as a community and a vestry working to discern what we are truly called to be and do. Is our mission clear and focused, or just blended into the cultural understanding of the church as a moral entity of upright good people who are acceptable according to prescribed local standards. Are we marked as Christ's own forever embracing his life giving vitality and spiritual energy? What is our deeply profound spiritual significance and energy in our world and community? Who do they say that we are?
Each of us in our own lives need to wrestle with the issue of our identity in our very secular and individualistic world as to who we are and what is our mission and calling in life. We are all caught between immediate self-gratification in our affluence and the call to be the suffering servants with Christ and marked with his identity. The issues of Suffering servanthood and deep commitments are not the "in" thing of our time and culture. Far from it. But without these things we have to endure a spiritual emptiness, a spiritual zombie like existence that can be frightening. Before us as with Christ Jesus, who do they say we are? In Jesus Christ they saw an enormous vitality: Elijah . . . . John the Baptist. These were truly spirited characters and men of God. Peter saw in Jesus the Messianic hope, the initiator of the Kingdom of God. To live into that imagery is to take on the mark of Christ, the very image of the servanthood of Christ.
As something of an epilogue to my remarks today, on this Father's Day, I would also like to ask those who are Father's, Who do the people say that we are? I am concerned that our image is often not a very good one. So many of us fathers are caught up and trapped by the images of the world that call us to be macho, self-made, independent individualists, who do their own thing. We are often seens as distanced from our children and families, and walking out on our responsibilities. Ours is often a culture without shame. I would hope that men and fathers could reclaim their idendity as men marked as servants of Christ who have and can give to their children the christ-like spirituality that the world cannot give. We are growing up children who may be spiritual deprived as a result of the spiritual emptiness they have not seen or appreciated in their fathers. May we allow the spirit of God, of Christ, to endwell us all, making us feeling and compassionate, and having a fear and reverence for all that is good and holy. May our identities as the people of God reveal the glory of God and of his Christ.