Sermon for Pentecost XII Year A 2017 Except For That One Thing... Don t you just hate it when everything is just like you would dream except for only one pesky detail, one flaw in the plan or fly in the ointment! one inconvenient, unforeseen, unwelcome thing. This was the topic of a podcast of one of my favorite National Public Radio programs This American Life. This episode told a series of stories about living with things that are, well, not absolutely perfect but really, nothing in this life is perfect, right? For example, listen to the story of Sara and Mike who were looking for an affordable dining room table and chairs for their new home. They finally gave up on barn auctions and discovered ebay (which is an online auction site for new and used items of all kinds). Now this story took place when ebay was really new back in the late 90 s. Sara got very excited and full of hope when she put in dining room table in the search box and, voila! she was able to search through hundreds of photos of items on auction. One day, a listing came up for a "round walnut table and two chairs." So Sara clicked on it, and the starting bid, was $10. And even the shipping was really low! Her husband Mike said, I remember seeing a picture of it. It was kind of fancier than something we might normally go for. And the chairs looked great. It looked like what grown-up people would put in their house. Like, if we could put that table in here, that's it! That's the beginning! You could kind of see our future children sitting around that table someday. 1
So you can imagine Sara s delight when her final bid of $20 was accepted. She was positively elated. She said she felt great and was thinking: Wow, I could furnish our whole house for $400! She thought, we've been looking in the wrong places. We've been going to these barn auctions, but people already know about that. But nobody knows about ebay yet. Sara was really fired up about it. A couple of days pass and Sara goes to her mailbox where she finds a box about the size of a toaster. She thought to herself, what s this? So she brought it inside and opened up the box in her kitchen. And there were her walnut table and two chairs. It was just as beautiful as it had been in the picture... but it was only about 3 inches high. Yes it had the little velvet cushions and a crocheted top on it but... it was from a man in Maryland who makes doll furniture. Sara and Mike were dumbfounded... They didn t know whether to laugh or cry. It was so perfect... except for that one thing that one, allimportant detail. Sara didn t notice that it was listed under the heading of doll furniture. Poor Peter! Just before this week s gospel story, he was just basking in the blessing and praise of giving the right answer to Jesus all-important question Who do you say that I am? He was probably thinking that things were just like he had dreamed they would be The Messiah the Messiah had come! 2
And, he, Simon so recently dubbed Peter, the Rock, had confessed it! Jesus had blessed him and had even told him he would give him the keys to kingdom of heaven! Can you imagine how excited and elated the newly named Peter must have been? It was all so perfect... well, except for that one thing Jesus begins showing his disciples what it means for him to be the Messiah that its not going to be all glory and honor and throwing over the Romans no, its actually going to mean following Jesus to the hellishness and ignominy of crucifixion in Jerusalem. Following Jesus of Nazareth means loosing is... winning? Yeah, discipleship! Unlike Sara and Mike, who when they discovered that their perfect scheme was not quite what they had originally planned or signed on for No, Peter opted to rebuke Jesus! Perhaps Peter sought to use his newfound sense of authority as Jesus right hand guy to actually try to bind Jesus. Peter steps in, pulls Jesus aside and says God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you! As if to say, Jesus, with my new found authority I will not let you or the promise of the coming kingdom be downsized away from the power of overthrowing the oppressive Romans nor will I let the glory of the kingdom be tainted by suffering and death of a looser on a cross. This was all going to be so great, Jesus... except for this one thing all this talk about sacrifice, Jerusalem, suffering and death! It s clear that Peter s response to Jesus reveals that he has not adequately understood or accepted the way of Jesus. 3
What comes next is Jesus rebuking Peter in no uncertain terms Peter has moved quickly from being a rock of faith and discipleship to being a rock who is a stumbling block. The tables have turned. I wonder, could it be that Peter was trying to protect himself by protecting Jesus? Peter s story is our story in many cases. Through years of faithful church involvement, or through a new sense of what the Gospel is all about, or through an experience of the living God, we recognize the presence of God in our lives. We are excited and elated and think we have made it or even earned it. This is it!... oh, yeah, except for that one thing Jesus keeps saying to 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 for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? Feeling inadequate, overwhelmed, not up to the task is one way we make ourselves into stumbling blocks and get in God s way. But like Peter in today s gospel lesson, we become stumbling blocks in another way, too when we think that our way, or the world s way is better than God s way. 4
When our own ideas of how things should be, how they are supposed to work, and what s right, keep us from trusting in God s way. Which is why Jesus warns his stumbling disciples that when we forsake servant-hood we are setting our minds not on divine things but on human things. Everyone who follows Jesus must take the same road, not one of human or worldly power and victory, but the Way of the Cross, the way of giving of one s self unselfishly. The apostle Paul gives the church a good view of what walking the way of the cross includes: Let love be genuine[says Paul]; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. But, then, even Paul follows up this lovely little treatise on the Christian life with the difficult ethic of loving or blessing our enemies that one thing that is like a stone in our shoes: Bless those who persecute you [says Paul]; bless and do not curse them... Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." No, if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, 5
give them something to drink... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Discipleship is not about you or me; it s about God, which is what Jesus means by the language of denying ourselves and what Paul s list of things that belong to the Christian way of life are all about Being in the world, but not of the world. Now, we are not to forget who we are, but rather to figure out who we are through Jesus and as people carrying the name Christ into the world, in our daily lives. Disciples are witnesses, speaking what they believe even when they don t feel that anybody is listening or even wants to listen. Disciples name evil for what it is; they move beyond thinking that everyone has to understand their authority and what they re saying. Disciples persevere, seeking to be faithful to the gospel even when it means we seem to be loosing the battle, and we re not measuring up in the Olympics of happiness and success. Jesus invites you and me to be disciples, to take him up on the offer of selfless or unselfish power. It s a risky invitation to accept because it means living in the tension of hearing ourselves make the great confession "Jesus, you re the Messiah!" one minute and hearing Jesus rebuke us with the words, "Get behind me, Satan!" the next when we don t quite get it right. Taking the way of the cross is a real, agonizing process, a task so overwhelming that eventually there is no choice anymore. We learn obedience and make the choice to follow. 6
The way of the cross is the way of faith of claiming life and truth in the face of everything that tells us not to. What Jesus teaches is that his servant-hood will not escape suffering, and his Messiah-ship will not escape death. Knowing that, we may be tempted to say I want to follow you Jesus and be your disciple... except for that one thing that suffering and cross thing. And yet... Jesus teaches also that his suffering and his death are illumined with God s grace in the resurrection. The path of the cross is never lived outside of God s love. That s the promise in which we live, and the promise that keeps us on the path... not despite that one thing but because of it. 7