“We don't always know everything we think we know…”

Sermon 2Lent-March 4, 2012
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Mark 8:31-38Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But 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."He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Ok, I’ve told you this one before, but…
“Baxter Black, a veterinarian of large animals and a commentator on National Public Radio, told of an experience that occurred to his cousin Hank. Hank is a farmer who lives in a rural, central Minnesota village. One of his city relatives invited him to come for a visit in St. Paul the weekend of Thanksgiving, so Hank decided to ride the commuter train that passed by his community. At the first stop, the conductor announced that everyone would be able to get off at the station for a short stop. Hank wandered into the station and found the vending machines where he purchased a carton of milk and six-pack of Oreo cookies. He then sat down at a small table in the waiting room next to a gentleman who was obviously not from the country--nice suit, overcoat, some of those half-glasses to read with, and he was reading The Wall Street Journal. Hank thought to himself, "This fellow looks like Ward Cleaver." Hank opened the Oreos and took a cookie. As he put it into his mouth, he noticed that Ward Cleaver reached over and took an Oreo for himself and continued reading! Now Hank knew that no one in his little town would just reach over and take an Oreo without saying anything. This was different from the country! After a moment, Hank took a swig of milk to wash his cookie down, and Ward reached over for a second Oreo! Hank took his second cookie, and not knowing what the stranger would do, he took a third Oreo at the same time and began to eat them quickly. Lo and behold, Ward Cleaver grabbed the last cookie, got up and folded his paper in a huff and walked off! City folks, thought Hank, were strange indeed. He finished his milk and got up to get back on the train. As he did, he reached into his pocket for his ticket, and he found his pack of Oreos.
We don't always know everything we think we know about what's going on. We can be so wrong when we think we're so right!”
Today’s gospel story is about Jesus trying to teach his followers who he is and why he has come. And Peter doesn’t understand. In fact, Peter starts yelling at Jesus to knock it off. So Jesus yells at Peter that he is taking the wrong oreos. “We don't always know everything we think we know about what's going on. We can be so wrong when we think we're so right!”
Jesus “ is not saying Peter is evil. “Satan” in the “original Greek was a term common in the legal court system referring to the prosecuting attorney. ...Peter was putting Jesus on trial and accusing him of being wrong.” A better word than Satan for the translation would have been “adversary”.
Three times in the Gospel of Mark Jesus will tell his followers that he must suffer and die. Three times they don’t get it. They want so badly for Jesus to be king, to be successful, that the idea that he will fail-that he will be humiliated-is more than they can grasp. Jesus keeps using these paradoxes to describe what it means to be a follower of his: ,”Deny yourself” , “For those who want to save their life will lose it” “those who lose their life for my sake… will save it”. It’s like saying up is down, night is day. They don’t understand what Jesus is saying-but they know that they don’t like it.
Marilyn Salmon writes: “According to human values, one's own life comes first. We might be kind and generous and thoughtful toward others, yet cultural norms dictate the priority of our own safety or privilege or physical comfort. Jesus advocates risking your life for the sake of another. In other words be willing to lose your life for the sake of the gospel in order to save it. According to Mark's gospel, the disciples represent human values.2 They aspire to power and greatness and assume that Jesus shares these values. Jesus represents God's values, best summed up by the willingness to risk one's own life for the sake of others. Jesus does not encourage suffering for its own sake, nor does he recommend acceptance of forced servitude. 3 The key to meaning here is "for the sake of the gospel" and Jesus is the … model. Jesus invites his disciples to follow his example, to be willing to risk our lives for the sake of others.”
We listen our whole lives in church to this teaching of putting others first, of denying ourselves, of making sure other people feel important-before we do. He is telling his followers-and us-that if we follow him, it will cost us. If we put him first-it will cost us. If we choose Jesus’ values, God’s values-it will cost us. But never does Jesus say, feel terrible about yourself, believe you are worthless, and THEN follow me.
Listen to Presbyterian pastor, Rev. William Carter:
Jesus says, "Deny yourselves." You know, it's difficult for some people to even hear that word when they've had so much taken away. How can people who have lost so much believe it is a virtue to give up what little dignity they bear? How can the downtrodden ever hear this obligation of the gospel? Sometimes we need to claim the love and dignity of God and then see what happens. Like the woman who made an appointment to talk about troubles at home. At one point in the conversation she said, "When my opinion of myself improved, my marriage got worse."
For those who struggle to feel empowered, for those who believe for the first time in their lives they are worthy of love and appreciation, it can be harsh to hear Jesus say, "Deny yourself." It's particularly true if you have recently discovered that you have a self….Mark tells us how Jesus comes to give worth and value, not take it away….The point is, Jesus never says, "Go out into the world and get yourself beaten up!" But he does say, "Follow me." … We are invited to follow Jesus. We are called for and called upon to follow him. As one New Testament scholar reminds us, the members of Mark's community are not called to suffer. They are called to preach the Gospel. Because of the confrontational nature of that calling, the world they confront will persecute them in order to stop them. Suffering is the result of the call, not the call itself. What happened to Jesus, for the same reason it happened to him, will happen to those acting and preaching in his name. Friends, we don't wake up every morning and say, "How am I going to let the world beat me up today?" But we are called upon to get out of bed to ask, "How can I let the whole world know the life of Jesus is the hope of the world?"
It’s tempting to hear this morning’s gospel and get it mixed up. It’s easy to not even really hear it, we’ve heard it so often. We are called to this challenging paradox-the world’s values are not God’s values. Realize that we are valued and loved, and then value and love others-and be willing to sacrifice ourselves-put ourselves in God’s place, for others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote: “To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us.”
We don't always know everything we think we know about what's going on. We can be so wrong when we think we're so right!”
Let’s forfeit the world and gain our lives. Amen.