Second Sunday in Lent

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
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1When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless.2And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.”3Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him,

4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations.5No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.6I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.
7I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.

15God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name.16I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

Mark 8:27 – 9:1
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27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.”29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

31Then 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.32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.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.”

34He 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.35For 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.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?38Those 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.” 1And he said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.”

Loss and Gain

It’s a wonder there is a church today and that people still want to become members of it. Jesus tells his disciples, “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… will save it.” Imagine if we put that on the sign out front. Come and join us – as we deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and lose our lives for the gospel. Good news! I’m thinking not too many would decide to worship here this morning…or any morning. Yes, it’s a wonder to me that any of Jesus’ disciples continued on the journey with him.

In fact, that almost didn’t happen. Peter, spokesman for the rest of the disciples, has a Spirit-given revelation: “Jesus, you are the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one. You are the one Israel has been waiting for.” And it’s true. For hundreds of years, Israel has been waiting for the Messiah who will drive out the Romans and return the land back to the people of God. The Messiah is a hero, a conqueror, a king. That’s what was in the disciples’ minds, and how fortunate they are to be part of Jesus’ entourage. After all, some of the spoils of victory have to fall their way.

“Then [Jesus] 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.” Huh!? No way, Jesus! I doubt the disciples even heard that last bit about rising again. Their minds probably went blank after hearing the suffering and death part. Can you picture Peter putting his arm around Jesus shoulder to have a heart-to-heart talk? “C’mon, let’s turn this show around and head back to Capernaum. You could heal hundreds, feed thousands, and teach us some more of those riddles you call parables. Let’s go back home.”

The disciples didn’t sign on for this. The only thing Jesus mentioned when he called them was about fishing for people. I’m sure they had grown to admire, even love, the man they were following. How hard to hear what was ahead for him. How hard to hear that the one you care about is going to suffer and die. And there was probably a little bit of self-worry in the mix. If Jesus is going to be killed, what will it mean for all of the disciples who have been following him? How tempting to avoid the tough road ahead.

There lie the two questions Christians have struggled with from the beginning. Who is Jesus Christ, the person at the center of our faith? And what does the answer mean for those who follow Jesus? That is, who is a disciple of Jesus Christ?

According to Mark, it’s not about labels or descriptions. Yes, Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one. But you can’t understand what a Messiah is unless you see what he does, where he’s headed. It’s about actions, and Jesus actions, his teaching, his healing, his feeding, his questioning and defying the status quo, will lead to the cross. The challenge to Jesus’ followers today is that we have watered down what it means to be his disciples. Bearing crosses and losing our lives sounds a lot tougher than what we expect. It’s not what we signed up for. Maybe it’s more than we’re willing to do.

But we must also be careful not to misunderstand what Jesus is saying, either. Cross-bearing is not to be confused with patient suffering or perseverance in the face of adversity. This is not a call to playing the victim, to putting up with abuse, to suffering because it’s good for the soul. The key to understanding what Jesus is saying here is "for the sake of the gospel," and Jesus is the exemplary model. Cross-bearing is what happens when you risk suffering and shame while continuing Jesus’ ministry for the sake of others.

One can certainly think of role models in history like those who hid Jews from the Nazis during World War 2, or who worked for civil rights in 50’s and 60’s in this country. But one can look to events just last week at Chardon High School in Ohio where one student brought a gun to school and opened fire killing three other students. Hearing gunshots, assistant football coach Frank Hall located and chased the gunman from the school probably saving student lives. These are obviously extreme and more literal expressions of Jesus’ call to his disciples.

Most of us will not face giving our own precious life for the sake of another, but we do have opportunities every day to choose between putting ourselves first in acts of self-preservation, and choosing life-giving acts for others. Cross-bearing is also what happens when you love another and are willing to put their needs ahead of your own, to make sacrifices for the sake of the other, for the sake of the Gospel.

When the Hector youth meet in fellowship hall, Nancy & I sometimes put a few questions on poster paper for them to think about and respond. Last Sunday, one of the questions was, “Do you believe there is more contentment in making money or giving it away? Why?” And every one of them answered, “Giving it away.” Sometimes I think our youth are smarted than us adults – we could learn much from them.

Jesus tells his disciples, us, quite openly and boldly. The going is going to be rough. The way includes pain and suffering and leads to death. But we know the ending. Jesus life openly and boldly reveals God’s love for us, a radical love of healing and feeding, of forgiveness and reconciliation that goes to through the cross to resurrection and new life. That’s God’s promise to us. It’s not unlike the promise God made to Abraham and Sarah: new life. And we don’t have to wait until we die. New life begins the moment we choose to let our old way of thinking and living die, when we choose to follow Jesus. “The way to gain lies through loss, and the way to life lies through death. The demand for sacrifice is the invitation to blessing.” Good news.