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| SERMON 20th Sunday of Pentecost October 18, 2009 The Rev. Charles W. Messer |
| 667 Mount Road, Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 |
| Small Parish - Big Heart The little church you've been looking for! All are welcome! |
| Our Mission: To worship the Lord To serve the community To grow the church |
Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 104:1-9, 25, 37b or Isaiah 53:4-12 Psalm 91:9-16 Hebrews 5:1-10 Mark 10:35-45 |
To contact us: Calvary Episcopal Church 667 Mount Road Aston, PA 19014 610-459-2013 OFFICE The Rev. Charles Messer, Rector Fr. Chuck: frmesser@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org Website: mail@calvaryepiscopalrockdale.org Office: calvaryoffice1@verizon.net |
with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”
There’s a billboard I saw once on the side of the interstate that read, “Looking for
peace in life? Worried about the future?” Underneath these questions was, “Jesus
is the answer.” This is called "evangelism," the attempt to draw people toward the
gospel, the effort to win people to Christ, by putting forth all the benefits of
following Jesus. Looking for meaning in life? Jesus has got it for you. Need a
sense of serenity and hope? Jesus has got you covered.
The gospel of Mark is also an attempt to draw people to the gospel. Mark's gospel
begins with "Here is the good news of Jesus Christ." Here in the gospel of Mark is
the good news about Jesus. Remarkably, when compared with the way we talk
about Jesus like on that billboard, Mark has little to say about our feelings, or our
struggles. Mark mainly talks just about Jesus. And when he talks about Jesus, it's
not Jesus as the answer to our problems but, rather, Jesus as strange and
demanding Lord.
As the disciples walk along with Jesus, James and John say, "Lord, grant us to sit
at your right and your left when you come into your kingdom." FYI: those who sit
next to the chief are those who share power with the chief. In other words, "Lord,
when we get you elected as Messiah, give us a seat on your Cabinet!" It is an
understandable request for the disciples to make of Jesus.
You can’t really blame James and John; it hadn’t been easy tramping around the
countryside with Jesus. I think it’s perfectly understandable to ask, “Jesus, once
you get the kingdom going, we want a management position. Lord, when you bring
peace on earth make sure it begins with me and my family first. When you end
poverty and make all things right, don’t forget me. Throw some love my way;
remember, we left everything to follow you.”
Jesus answers this perfectly understandable question with, “you have no idea
what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you able to be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" We know what the disciples
don't know. The road that Jesus is walking is a road that leads to torture and death
on a cross. The "cup" that Jesus is to drink is the cup of his horrible death. The
"baptism" that will drown him is the baptism of his death as he suffocates on a
cross. The disciples show that they are clueless when they respond, "Sure! We
can do that! No problem!"
There was a hymn I used to sing growing up, "'Are you able,' said the master, 'to be
crucified with me?' Yea the sturdy dreamers answered, 'to the death we'll follow
thee! Lord we are able!'" Are you able to receive the peace, the benefits, the joy, the
sense of deeper meaning, the reassurance, a toaster or whatever it is that Jesus is
giving out this week? "Oh, sure! We are able!" we answer. "Are you able to be
crucified like me; to suffer, to be rejected and disappointed like me?" Jesus asks.
And we pious disciples say, ‘Sure, we’re able.”
And you expect Jesus to say, "You idiots! Here it is, deep in the Gospel of Mark
and you are still clueless? You show by your response that you don't have the
foggiest idea of what I've been talking about all along the road, do you?" And
maybe Jesus was thinking that. But what Jesus actually said was, "You will drink
the cup that I drink, you will be baptized with my baptism." Jesus promises his
disciples not that they shall be in glory with him, rewarded and happy. He
promises that if they will follow him they shall share with him in his sufferings and
challenges.
James and John ask to sit next to Jesus in his glory, one on his right, one on his
left. When Jesus came into his "glory," it wasn’t on a throne. It was on a cross,
with two thieves, one on his right and one on his left.
This is the message that today’s followers of Jesus have been reluctant to proclaim
to the world, perhaps because we're reluctant to hear this message ourselves!
Jesus isn’t a technique for getting what we want out of God; Jesus is God's way of
getting what God wants out of us. God wants a world, a world redeemed,
reconciled to God. And the way God gets that is with ordinary people like us who
are willing to walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, yes, and even if need be to suffer like
Jesus.
I've always thought it would have been enough of a challenge if Jesus had only
said, "Even though I am the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior of the world, I am
going to be nailed to a cross." Unfortunately for lots of our ideas about religion,
Jesus said, "There's a cross for you too. Come, take up your cross and follow."
We have it easy. Most of us have no clue how dangerous it is to be a Christian in
other places in the world. In recent weeks, several Christians in Somalia have been
killed because of their faith in Christ. On Sept. 28 an Islamic extremist shot and
killed Mariam Hussein, an underground church leader, after discovering six Bibles
in her possession. The day before the shooting, a leader of an Islamic extremist
group reportedly sent his wife to visit Hussein's home. The woman pretended she
was interested in learning about Christianity. The following day, several men came
to her house and requested a Bible. When Hussein gave one to them, a member of
the group said that he was looking for "Christians who have defiled the Islamic
religion" and ordered her to show him the other Bibles that she owned. When she
handed them over, she was executed.
Then Jesus said to them, “The Cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism
with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”
The cross Jesus calls us to carry is, most likely, very difficult. There is a cost to
discipleship, a price more expensive than you think.
There’s a billboard I saw once on the side of the interstate that read, “Looking for
peace in life? Worried about the future?” Underneath these questions was, “Jesus
is the answer.” This is called "evangelism," the attempt to draw people toward the
gospel, the effort to win people to Christ, by putting forth all the benefits of
following Jesus. Looking for meaning in life? Jesus has got it for you. Need a
sense of serenity and hope? Jesus has got you covered.
The gospel of Mark is also an attempt to draw people to the gospel. Mark's gospel
begins with "Here is the good news of Jesus Christ." Here in the gospel of Mark is
the good news about Jesus. Remarkably, when compared with the way we talk
about Jesus like on that billboard, Mark has little to say about our feelings, or our
struggles. Mark mainly talks just about Jesus. And when he talks about Jesus, it's
not Jesus as the answer to our problems but, rather, Jesus as strange and
demanding Lord.
As the disciples walk along with Jesus, James and John say, "Lord, grant us to sit
at your right and your left when you come into your kingdom." FYI: those who sit
next to the chief are those who share power with the chief. In other words, "Lord,
when we get you elected as Messiah, give us a seat on your Cabinet!" It is an
understandable request for the disciples to make of Jesus.
You can’t really blame James and John; it hadn’t been easy tramping around the
countryside with Jesus. I think it’s perfectly understandable to ask, “Jesus, once
you get the kingdom going, we want a management position. Lord, when you bring
peace on earth make sure it begins with me and my family first. When you end
poverty and make all things right, don’t forget me. Throw some love my way;
remember, we left everything to follow you.”
Jesus answers this perfectly understandable question with, “you have no idea
what you’re asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink? Are you able to be
baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" We know what the disciples
don't know. The road that Jesus is walking is a road that leads to torture and death
on a cross. The "cup" that Jesus is to drink is the cup of his horrible death. The
"baptism" that will drown him is the baptism of his death as he suffocates on a
cross. The disciples show that they are clueless when they respond, "Sure! We
can do that! No problem!"
There was a hymn I used to sing growing up, "'Are you able,' said the master, 'to be
crucified with me?' Yea the sturdy dreamers answered, 'to the death we'll follow
thee! Lord we are able!'" Are you able to receive the peace, the benefits, the joy, the
sense of deeper meaning, the reassurance, a toaster or whatever it is that Jesus is
giving out this week? "Oh, sure! We are able!" we answer. "Are you able to be
crucified like me; to suffer, to be rejected and disappointed like me?" Jesus asks.
And we pious disciples say, ‘Sure, we’re able.”
And you expect Jesus to say, "You idiots! Here it is, deep in the Gospel of Mark
and you are still clueless? You show by your response that you don't have the
foggiest idea of what I've been talking about all along the road, do you?" And
maybe Jesus was thinking that. But what Jesus actually said was, "You will drink
the cup that I drink, you will be baptized with my baptism." Jesus promises his
disciples not that they shall be in glory with him, rewarded and happy. He
promises that if they will follow him they shall share with him in his sufferings and
challenges.
James and John ask to sit next to Jesus in his glory, one on his right, one on his
left. When Jesus came into his "glory," it wasn’t on a throne. It was on a cross,
with two thieves, one on his right and one on his left.
This is the message that today’s followers of Jesus have been reluctant to proclaim
to the world, perhaps because we're reluctant to hear this message ourselves!
Jesus isn’t a technique for getting what we want out of God; Jesus is God's way of
getting what God wants out of us. God wants a world, a world redeemed,
reconciled to God. And the way God gets that is with ordinary people like us who
are willing to walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, yes, and even if need be to suffer like
Jesus.
I've always thought it would have been enough of a challenge if Jesus had only
said, "Even though I am the Messiah, the Son of God, Savior of the world, I am
going to be nailed to a cross." Unfortunately for lots of our ideas about religion,
Jesus said, "There's a cross for you too. Come, take up your cross and follow."
We have it easy. Most of us have no clue how dangerous it is to be a Christian in
other places in the world. In recent weeks, several Christians in Somalia have been
killed because of their faith in Christ. On Sept. 28 an Islamic extremist shot and
killed Mariam Hussein, an underground church leader, after discovering six Bibles
in her possession. The day before the shooting, a leader of an Islamic extremist
group reportedly sent his wife to visit Hussein's home. The woman pretended she
was interested in learning about Christianity. The following day, several men came
to her house and requested a Bible. When Hussein gave one to them, a member of
the group said that he was looking for "Christians who have defiled the Islamic
religion" and ordered her to show him the other Bibles that she owned. When she
handed them over, she was executed.
Then Jesus said to them, “The Cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism
with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.”
The cross Jesus calls us to carry is, most likely, very difficult. There is a cost to
discipleship, a price more expensive than you think.
