February 28, 2020 – Mark 8:31-88
Mark 8:31-38
God’s Ongoing Mission, Our Ongoing Participation:
Another Sermotion
2nd Sunday in Lent – February 28, 2021 – Devotion Moment #149
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
A couple of verses previous to this one, Jesus acknowledges that he is, indeed, the Messiah, that is, the long-awaited king like David who would restore the world. At the time, everyone was expecting a great warrior like David who would lead an army against the Romans and throw them out. But this is not the kind of king Jesus understands himself to be. Rather, he inaugurates the reign of God, which we have been discussing for the last couple of weeks. This reign will be opposed by those in power who have a vested interest in the status quo, namely the Romans and their lackeys, the Temple priests or Sadducees. And they will, Jesus correctly predicts in the story this morning, put him and his followers to death.
Peter does not yet understand what kind of king Jesus is and he rebukes Jesus for saying this. But Jesus, in turn, rebukes Peter, telling him very harshly, “Get behind me, Satan!” It turns out that Jesus is not only tempted by The Adversary in the desert; he is also tempted here – by his own disciple! – to leave the path that God has called him to. There are many ways in which we are tempted to sideline the things God has called us to.
I want to be clear, here, that Jesus’ mission is not to suffer and die. In Mark’s Gospel, anyway, the reason Jesus “must” die is not because there must be a “sacrifice” to atone for all humanity’s sins. Mark has this idea nowhere in view. Rather, Mark sees a great conflict between Jesus and the ruling authorities playing out that will end in Jesus’ death on a cross. Jesus will be executed as a subversive, that is, one who opposes the ways and means of the Roman Empire. He dies as a result of participating in the healing mission God entrusts to him, just like his followers will; the dying itself is not the mission.
Given all that, when Mark says Jesus “must” undergo great suffering and die, what he is saying, according to Ira Brent Driggers at WorkingPreacher.com this week, is:
That the Son of God will not dial down his ministry to spare his own life, or even to ease his suffering. His commitment to the healing of humanity literally knows no limits. And neither – Easter tells us – does God’s life-giving power.
I just love that. And then, Jesus goes on to say he expects the exact same thing of his followers – that is, you and me. “If any would be my follower, let them deny themselves and their up their cross, and follow me in God’s mission to love, bless, heal and set free this whole world and every person in it.” This passage has nothing to do with self-effacement or the supposed virtue of silently suffering. In fact, it is the opposite of that! Jesus here is telling us to be strong, to be strong in ourselves and in our commitment to easing suffering and opposing injustice wherever we see it – don’t let anything dial back your efforts in ministry and in being the person God has formed you and called you to be.
As Professor Driggers notes near the end of his commentary, this “is a difficult message for today’s preachers to appropriate.” Hahahah! Understatement! He continues:
So much of North American Christianity – especially white Christianity – has been reduced to a comfortable affiliation with Jesus [so that] there is little cost to discipleship. . . . [Preachers] will do well to bear in mind that, for Mark at least, discipleship amounts to participation in Jesus’ ministry. What makes the ministry of the Markan Jesus counter-cultural, and therefore the object of earthly hostility, is not that it is “Christian” per se but that it abides no impediment to the immediate restoration of the broken and the outcast.
Well that is pretty wonderfully said. At First Lutheran Church, for the past 20 years we have made the focus on God’s mission as expressed by Jesus fundamental to what we are all about, and I am very grateful for that. Today, February 28th, we have our annual general meeting, a day to set priorities for the coming year. God’s mission will set those priorities once again, I have no doubt. Yet we face our own challenges, for this is a very challenging time.
This will be the first year we will ever have had a virtual annual meeting, necessitated by ongoing restrictions due to COVID-19. I would say that for us, and for most congregations, the great temptation will be to ask “how can we continue to survive in light of the ongoing restrictions” rather than to ask “how can we continue to participate in God’s mission despite the ongoing restrictions.” But just here, let our attitude to worship restrictions and face-mask wearing and all the rest guide us. God’s mission is to restore life and to make life abundant for all, not just a privileged few. Our attitude throughout the past year has been to ensure the safety of all people by closely (and gladly) adhering to public health orders because those are consonant with God’s mission to bring and protect life. It has indeed meant giving up much that we love and hold dear: weekly worship gatherings, fellowship, and holy communion. But we have done it because we have perceived that doing it is, in fact, missional. God is indeed protecting many lives – many vulnerable lives, especially – through the public health orders and our participation in them. We have given up much for the sake of God’s larger mission.
I have no doubt we will continue to be guided by such a spirit. But there are other ways God is continuing to call us in mission. There are many hungry people to be fed in our neighbourhood – many more this past year, it turns out. There are refugees still needing assistance in finding their way to Canada and to safety. There are those who still need to be ministered to, and listened to, and advocated for in our midst. God, I believe, is still calling us to these things. These things are still the most important things. The pandemic is not and cannot be an excuse for sidelining the whole purpose of our being a congregation centred on the worship of Jesus Christ. We cannot be tempted away from these things by the pandemic. Otherwise, we lose our lives, our identities as followers of Jesus. Jesus speaks a timely word today, as always, it seems:
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 good news of God’s inbreaking reign, will save it.
Let us pray: God of restoration, you have formed us as a congregation and called us as a people to participate in your mission to love bless and heal this world and every person in it. Help us to always have that as our highest priority, especially on this day of our Annual General Meeting. Let us not be thwarted from our purpose by pandemic, but let us be renewed by your passion for the restoration of this world, for we ask it in the name of Jesus, the Messiah. Amen
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
