Our
Vision Statement here at Shepherd of the Valley, raise your hand if you know
it….
“Extending
God’s welcome to all we meet along the way.” (Feb. 2009)
Our
gospel lesson is a conversation that happened “along the way.” Jesus and the disciples have been all over
the place. Among Jews, among Gentiles,
among women, among children, among Samaritans, among the sick, the possessed,
among the Pharisees. AMONG. Along the way. In the thick of it, Jesus stops and asks a
critical question, that gets them re-centered.
We’re
well “along the way” too. In the thick
of it, among all sorts of ministry. I
know that’s true for your personal lives.
From the moment we’re born to the moment we breathe our last breath,
we’re on a journey. But we’re also well
on our way as a congregation. We’ve been
doing ministry in and around this church for a long time.
Some
have served on church council, some have been faithfully visiting the sick and
homebound for years, some have labored on the grounds in the buildings of this
place for many more years than I’ve been a pastor.
Even
here in September, the season of the new school year, a message about starting
out, blasting off as if nothing’s happened yet, embarking on a new journey,
wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense because most of us have already been on the
journey for a long time. Many of us have
been on road with Jesus for so long.
We’re already following, trying our best to be faithful.
We’re
deep into the thick of it…like the disciples were, deep in the midst and the
life of all this good ministry—Worship, Education, Inreach, Outreach, Confirmation,
Sunday School, financing—and Jesus stops us, “along the way,” breaks in
mid-ministry, and says hey! Who do you
say that I am? And sometimes we too can
loose focus, loose the center, sometimes we can get fearful and fall back on
triumphalism. That’s what Peter
did. “You are Greatest, you’re the
Messiah, your ‘the man’!” he wants to shout from the rooftops, “and we get to
be your disciples, unlike all those other slackers out there.” Is he wrong?
But Jesus tells him first to be quiet about that, and then he even
rebukes him.
This
is why: Jesus
is all about emptying himself in courageous service and compassion for
others. Say with me. --^ And as a strong and decisive leader, that’s
where he’s calling his disciples to be too:
all about emptying ourselves in courageous service and compassion for
others. But Peter’s tone is that of
bragging. “Ha, ha, na, na—we get it
Jesus, even if others don’t, we win, you’re the Messiah, you’re on our
side.” Might sound childish, but it’s
easy to get like Peter. We Lutherans
love our theology – grace apart from works.
I’m proud of this. Honestly it’s
not something you find readily in other religions and frankly even in other
parts of Christianity. Or maybe some of
us have the tendency to get a little triumphant about not just Lutheranism, but
Christianity all together. “We’re the
best, the chosen of God, na, na, we know that we’re really God’s
favorites.” Triumphalism. “You are the Messiah. Na, na!”
These are traps that we can fall into with Peter.
But
thank God, Jesus calls us on our pride!
Thank God, Jesus pulls us too out of our self-centeredness and
arrogance! Thank God Jesus breaks in
while we’re “in the thick of it,” while we’re mid-ministry, along the way and
brings us back to emptying ourselves in courageous self-giving love and service
to the others. JESUS brings us there, to
self-giving love and service. WE can’t
get there on our own. Thank God, Jesus
brings us there! All we can do is trust,
open ourselves, open our hands and our hearts and Christ takes it from
there! Jesus will take us to new places,
sisters and brothers of the cross! This
week, Jesus is that abrupt, even harsh voice that interrupts us mid-ministry,
and clarifies the vision—the vision is that we empty ourselves, even in the
face of death! I’m not sure why all the
disciples didn’t just abandon Jesus right there. He’s yelling at us today friends, and then
he’s telling us to give up everything and follow.
And
I say, thank you God! This is what it
means to lose our lives. This is a bold
message from Jesus today, and thank God for it.
Jesus asks us to take up our cross and follow.
(Google Translator: Wanted to learn how to say in German “I am a Lutheran Pastor”, but I got “I am a loser and a pastor.” In baptism, we all become "losers"[losing our lives] and "pastors" [caring for one another and the world God made.)
I
want to say something, again (I know I’ve said this before), about the cross we
bear: Some have been told that the
“cross we bear,” the cross that Jesus tells us to pick up are all those
struggles in our lives. For example,
some have even been told by ministers and priests that enduring the blows of
their violent husbands is simply one of many crosses for women to bear. This is bad theology. This is wrong! Whether it’s abuse at home, chronic illness
in the family, a bad turn of events—these are not crosses to bear. Sometimes terrible things happen, for no
reason at all, sometimes terrible things happen on account of human sinfulness
and brokenness, on account of destructive and violent behaviors that have been
passed down for generations—and God grieves right along with us when they
do. God cries. Jesus wept, remember?
The
cross that we bear…is the cross that was imprinted on our foreheads when we
were baptized…when we were “sealed and marked with the cross of Christ forever.” Remember that? And in that covenant of baptism we are joined
to Christ and therefore are merged onto the road, grafted along the watery way
of the baptismal people –
Living among God’s faithful people
Hearing the Word and sharing the Holy Meal
Proclaiming the good news of Christ through word and deed
Serving all people following the example of Jesus
Striving for justice and peace in all the earth
Bearing
that cross is both an absolute gift and a burdensome responsibility. Bearing this cross, we step out in peace and
in faith and in compassion and justice
(Cornell West, ethics at Princeton: “Justice is what love looks like in public”
i.e. all are clothed, housed, fed, cared for.
You could say, it’s what love looks like “along the way”). The resurrection is real, and it’s happening
all around us, even when we lose sight of it, get distracted, lured by power
and possibility of triumph or dominance.
Even in the thick of our ministry here at SVLC – Christ is our compass,
guiding us to make bold decisions, sacrificial, joy-filled, bold decisions with
our money, with our time, with our whole lives.
Christ centers us on emptying ourselves today. And in
the emptying paradoxically, unexpectedly, wonderfully…in the loosing of our
lives, we FIND, we GAIN, we are
REDEEMED, and we are FREE!
THANKS BE TO
GOD! AMEN.
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