Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The Lord be with you.
We continue with our celebration of Lutheran Schools Week and
that's been highlighted on Monday Doctor Jergonson, such a wonderful job and that
today we have the dean of the School of Education Doctor Michael Uden so
he's going to be our speaker this morning.
We’ll begin with the invocation and the reading, we stand in God's presence.
In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit.
God’s word the gospel reading Mark the eight chapter.
“And Jesus 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?’
They told him,
‘John the Baptist;
and other say Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.’
And he ask them,
‘But who do you say that I am?’
Peter answered him, ‘You are the Christ.’
And he strictly charge them to tell no one about him.
And he began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and
the chief priests and the scribes
and be killed,
and after three days rise again.
And he said this plainly.
And peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter
and said, ‘Get behind me Satan!
For you are not setting your mind on the things of God,
but on things of man.’
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them,
‘If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
my sake and the gospel’s will save it.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and
forfeit his life?
For what can a man give in return for his life?
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful
generation,
of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed
when he comes
in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’”
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
It was in June 1976,
some of your colleagues were changing the world as a high school graduate
or a college graduate,
perhaps in a career that would alter the course of human history.
I was finishing second grade at Immanuel Lutheran School
on Hampton road in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
But it should be noted
that I was the absolute tallest kid, boy or girl,
in my class.
It was the last day of school and we had just finished a class field trip
a walk to the local century
where we each got
and ice cream sandwich.
Clearly the bar for “end of the year field trips” was not nearly as high then
as it is today.
In the last few minutes of our second-grade career art teacher, Miss Pam
Walter,
ask us some questions about what we have learned that year,
what we will be doing over the summer,
and then
the fateful question.
It was something to the effect of,
“And when in the future will be all be together and see each other again?”
It’s important to interject
that I was a very serious students,
even at age seven.
Teacher’s questions remain to be answered
correctly
and it was rare that I was not volunteering my best effort.
I was thinking
logically,
carefully,
utilizing my context clues.
Last day of second grade,
question focuses on we will see each other again,
survey says
“We will all see each other again
when we are in third grade next year.”
I proclaimed.
Proudly,
soundly,
confidently.
Clearly
this is what Miss Walter had been seeking,
one last solid effort from the Uden boy.
So image my feeling of chagrin
when she did that teacher maneuver,
where the educator acts like
maybe she did not hear the response at all
and continues to look for someone who might be able
to displays some writer sense of comprehension and brilliance.
You see the point she was trying to make
was about how we would all be together
in eternity someday,
and I was focused on a higher
level of enrollment retention
hoping in assuming we'd all be back for third grade.
Not a wrong hope,
but it was a human framed hope,
not God framed.
And in a nutshell
that is the synthesis
of the purpose for a Lutheran school.
Preparing people for a God framed life
and purpose
and eternity.
It is a very focus of this year's theme for National Lutheran Schools Week.
Securing it's child's future
equipped,
and it resonates in our text from Mark chapter eight as well.
When I read scripture I’d like to know the context in which the story in words
are occurring.
I then like to reflect on my life and
when I might have lived through a similar experience.
Finally I meditate on his word
to seek with the Holy Spirit would help me understand.
The text gave me a lot of material with which to work.
Verse twenty seven says
“Jesus in his disciples headed out for the villages
around Caesarea Philippi.
As they walked he ask them,
‘Who do the people say I am?’”
The distinction is important
Christ starts not with the disciples
direct thoughts on his identity,
but with the broader inquiry and the public sentiment.
It reminds me of the constant polling being done right now with,
Super Tuesday and caucuses in primaries.
Who is this man Romney,
or Santorum or Gingrich?
and who is this man
Jesus?
The disciples indicate he's doing fairly well in the polls.
The man in the street holds them in high regard
in sharp contrast perhaps to his
bidder detractors
who would associate him with the devil,
or his fellow Nazarenes who know him simply as Joseph’s son
or his kinsman
who perceive him as missing a few screws.
In fact some people in the places Jesus visited thought he was John the Baptist who
had already been be beheaded by King Herod
now raised from the dead.
Like Michael in second grade,
the disciples are reporting the obvious. Reiterating what is already known
and they're really missing the point.
Jesus continues the oral examination in verse twenty nine,
then he asked them, “But
who do you say I am?”
Jesus knew that his disciples knew
what the world was saying about him,
but he wanted to know
what they thought.
“But who do you say I am?”
The little conjunction, but,
reveals the force of this question.
It is important for us to understand
that what the world says about Jesus
should not shape our thining about him.
Years ago say in 1976,
it was easier.
A Judeo- Christian tone in society was more presents, more recognized, that it is
today.
In 2012,
when the name of Jesus is mentioned,
people's minds are clouded with conflicting images.
Which Jesus?
Which human variation of the Christ?
The Jesus of PTL and the theology of glory?
The Jesus of liberation theology?
Perhaps you mean the mean spirited Jesus proclaimed by the militants?
Yet Peter nails it, sort of.
He replies that the end of verse twenty nine, “You are the messiah.”
At this point it was no means obvious
that Jesus was the messiah.
There’d been some healings,
lots of feedings, but Israel was not yet free.
In the first century most Jews believe that the messiah
would be a royal figure whom God would empower
to deliver israel from her foes.
So Peter’s replying seems to be
a major breakthrough.
Perhaps to the disciples are
finally shaking off their second grade
Uden like stupor.
In studying the context of the passage and
reviewing a parallel account in the book of Matthew,
one notes a difference.
In Matthew sixteen at this point in the story
upon hearing Peter’s spirit inspired proclamation
our Lord Jesus commends Peter in verses seventeen through nineteen,
calling him blessed.
Yet in our Mark passage that portion is not included.
Mark the author, not one of the twelve disciples,
came to Christ after the resurrection of Jesus,
and became one of peter's traveling companions.
Much of the inspired words of the gospel reflect peters account of the life of
Jesus.
Perhaps at commendation of peter found in Matthew did not reconciled with
Peter’s own awareness and
recollection of his fallibility.
He remembered how he denied Christ just before the crucifixion
and while Peter was certainly impulsive
he appears humble.
The commentator, Ivard Powell, concludes
if Simon Peter could enter the cathedral bearing his name in the Vatican City
today
he would probably have a heart attack.
To see many thousands of people sincerely
kissing his big toe would nauseate him.
In similar ways
I treasure my second grade wrong answer and the thousands which I a bartered
since then because I’m reminded how fallible I am
and how desperately
I need a savior.
Jesus knew how much we would need him as well and in our text he begins to
explain to his disciples all he would go through
even death.
Yet he also foretold of his resurrection from death
in three days.
The message translation of verse thirty two emphasizes
that Christ said this simply
and clearly
so they couldn't miss it.
Reminding each of us
how we can be taken from second grade
but the second grader inside can't be taken from us so easily.
At this point in the scriptural account is where Peter takes matters,
takes Christ into his own hands and tries to set things straight.
I’d be lying if
at that classroom moment in 1976
I hadn't felt likewise toward Miss Walter.
Trying to help her understand the death contrast between a literal
and in inferential question.
Each of which can be answered correctly albeit differently.
Peter rebuke Jesus for being so mistaken
as to think that the messiah would never have to suffer.
In the process,
revealing his own ignorance about the nature
of messiahship.
In first Corinthians chapter one, Paul said that the cross was foolishness to
the Greeks
and a stumbling block to the Jews,
and Peter is the first one to take a tumble.
He is looking at this savior through human framed perspective
and liked us,
Peter’s preconceived notion of messiah
blurs his vision and understanding.
He things that the Christ will establish a reign of peace
by overthrowing the powers
of those who oppress God's people.
He has lived with Jesus,
he has experienced Jesus,
and he has seen Jesus silenced the sea and healed the sick.
How could such a messiah be rejected
and become a victim of violence?
In verse thirty-three Christ sets the record straight,
but we Jesus turned and saw the disciples he corrected Peter.
he said to him, “Satan
get away from me!”
You are thinking like everyone else
and not God.
Thankfully in Miss Walters class,
she employed the “I’d just didn't hear you” tact in stopped short of calling me
Satan. Yet
this admonition was crucial for Christ lesson
that day to be complete.
Christ had to make this point
and while it was the stark rebuke,
it underscores the deadly consequences of man's sin,
and the importance of Jesus death on the cross.
Christian discipleship
cannot bypass the cross of Christ.
Doctor Jay David Hope writes,
“A crossless Christ
has no power to save.”
Jesus was trying to reveal the essential truth of the sacrificial death
the gospel cannot simply be,
“the divine Son of God living out his life on this earth as a really good
example.”
The power of the gospel
is the sinless Son of God
dying as the Lamb of God
on the cross.
And the confessed Christ as our Savior and Lord
means we recognize through faith, what he did for us on the cross at Calvary
as our only hope of eternal life.
It is the essential
for our salvation.
Christ finishes by letting the crowd
and the disciples know
exactly how discipleship needs to be done.
Starting in verse thirty four he says,
“If any of you want to be my followers
you must forget about yourself.
You must take up your cross and follow me.
If you want to save your life you will destroy it,
but if you give up your life for me and for the good news
you will save it.
What would you gain if you own the whole world but destroying yourself,
what could you give back
to get your soul.”
“Forget about yourself,”
other translations read, “deny yourself.”
Christ is telling us it is not about you.
This is a telling command from Christ,
particularly now in the Lenten season where many of us give up something in
order to reflect on all that Christ has sacrifice for us.
Imagine the hallway conversation inspired by Mark eight?
“Did you give up anything from Lent?” “Yeah, I gave up chocolate.”
“Well I gave up
myself!”
Yet that's what were called to do.
We are to quit making ourselves number one.
Discipleship is not a part time endeavor
that you can join like an extracurricular activity
the cross is not only a destination for Jesus but a principle in the life of his
followers.
“If anyone would come after me,
let him deny himself and take up this cross and follow me”
The irony
is that the cross is not something
anyone would want to pick up,
it is distasteful and disgusting.
The cross,
which to Mark's original readers would have meant a lot more culturally than it
does for us today,
is a way of life that puts the selfs primary desires
and motivations aside.
When Jesus says, “follow me”
he's not advising us to simply walked behind him
like a second-grade class after their teacher following the leader in trying
not to get lost.
HE is admonishing us
to become like him.
A quote from Doctor Hope reads
“The cost of discipleship is paradoxical
in that it is not the way the world thinks.
Yet to those who have been trained in Christian education
the beauty of its logic
is apparent.”
The world teaches us
that we only go around once
and we need the grab all we can like a one-time passed through the old
country buffet.
The real truth is
we can have everything this life has to offer,
but when we die
it'll all be worthless.
As human beings we often makes futile attempts to safeguard our lives by 0:16:50.600,0:16:53.570. storing up goods in bigger barns
But nothing one acquires in this life
can ransom ones soul.
So how may we be equipped,
as this year's theme for National Lutheran Schools Week would suggest?
We in Lutheran schools don't need a bigger backpack to hold the necessary
supplies.
That which is necessary
we can hold in our hearts and so forth in our lives.
Whether we are in second grade,
or only a second from leaving this earth.
Confessing Christ cannot be separated from living for Christ.
We are not called to secret service.
We are to be Christ ambassadors.
We must proclaim boldly our connection to Christ.
We must answer the question which Christ posed to his disciples, “who do you say
that I am?”
and then we must share the reality of who he is and what he has done in our
lives.
The message translation of Mark eight thirty-eight says
“If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get
around your fickle and unfocused friends,
know you'll be in even greater embarrassment to the son of man when he
arrives and all the splendor of God
his Father with an army of the holy angels.”
Once again
in the commentary of Mark,
Doctor Hope writes, “Many claim to be Christian,
but they're really only possess a sentimental fondness for sweet
encounters
with the blessings of our Lord.
When it comes to following Jesus, denying self, and laying down their lives they
come up short.”
This is what the world sees
and this contributes to a lot of cynicism
about those Christians.
What we need to be
and what we need to show the world is people who, redeemed by the blood of
Jesus
and equipped by the Holy Spirit, love Jesus passionately
and follow him completely.
Our human frame perspective on what a good life looks like
cannot be trusted.
We need to be equipped
with a God framed kind of living.
Truly a higher education
based upon following God
and living for others as Christ did.
So I stand before you today
to celebrate Lutheran schools.
To reflect the wistfully up on our wrong answer and second grade
which helped me understand Peter’s mistake
more than a third of a century later.
To encourage you, empowered by the Holy Spirit,
to pick up your cross
and lay down your life
for a world who needs to see Jesus in you
and to pray
that you will be equipped through your time at this Lutheran school
to both say and show
who Jesus is.
In the name of Jesus, our Savior and our friend. Amen.