Get Behind Me – 13 September 2015 – Lectionary 24/ Proper 19

When the church talks about people being “transformed” by the gospel, the change envisioned is one that, I wager, has to do with this business of carrying a cross. Faith as given by the one who was crucified, died, buried, risen, and ascended is not a safe and comfortable sofa but a bed of turmoil over how best to live.

One’s cross might be the very questions that compel us to a life of steadfast and difficult love for our neighbors. One’s cross might be physical pain and suffering. It could be an insurmountable family relationship. Whatever the crosses we bear or might “take up,” we can be assured that Jesus calls us to take them seriously, to see them as sacred and honorable, and to know we are not alone in this world.

Mark’s Gospel gives us that poignant scene of mutual rebuking between Jesus and Peter that sets the stage for the command to lose our lives to save them. We might see ourselves in Peter’s shoes.

Mark 8:27-38

This passage is both dramatically and structurally the center of Mark's gospel; we are halfway through the story and we are at the story's climax, too. When Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” traditional exegesis suggests that this is a rhetorical question—he knows the answer and is checking up on his students. Since we have just seen Jesus learn from the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7, I'm not sure that he's not trying to keep learning here. Peter's answer is surely the best answer, but it may not be the full answer. (God has told Jesus that he's Son of God and will say so again in chapter 9.)

. . . Here [Peter] seems to get it but then as soon as Jesus predicts his own passion Peter quickly backs off.

In part Peter is no doubt appropriately concerned for Jesus. But in part we suspect that Peter is concerned for Peter. He knows full well what the consequence of Jesus' martyrdom will be for him, and Jesus picks it up immediately: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”(8:34).

I know why the NRSV places this in the plural, to avoid any sense that it's a word for males only, but this is one of those places where the singular does make a difference. Each of us chooses individually for or against the cross; nobody else can do it for us. In a day where churches seem to be increasingly enthralled by the prosperity gospel, we are taken aback by the “austerity” gospel, the sacrifice gospel. Oh, yes, we remember now—the cross. – David Bartlett

Isaiah 50:4-9a

The Revised Common Lectionary gives us as complementary to the Gospel story, the prophet’s song of the suffering servant, showing us that throughout the centuries, the one who hears the word of God does not avoid hardship.

Some have thought that the prophet referred to Israel as God's servant in these songs; some have thought that the prophet refers to himself. Christian exegesis from very early on has seen . . . a foreshadowing of Jesus' own ministry and passion. What is clear in our passage is that the servant does great good and suffers great wrong, and that the doing and the suffering are inextricably intertwined.

The whole passage reminds us that sometimes good news simply raises opposition. It seems odd that words that sustain the weary can annoy the powerful—yet we all can bear testimony that it is true. The servant's ability to keep on learning, teaching, and comforting, rests on one assurance—that God is his helper. – David Bartlett

James 3:1-12

. . .  James uses a number of analogies from nature to give us a warning about human nature. The horse's small bit yet rules the horse, a ship's rudder the ship. . . .

There is a particularly sharp—and more theological—reminder in 3:9. “With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.” . . . For James those who bless God with their tongue and curse their brothers and sisters with the same tongue are hypocrites. – David Bartlett

For this Sunday, as we approach All Saints Day and the celebration of the Reign of Christ, we contemplate our gratitude for all the saints who have led the way and given us a faith to share with them and gratitude for the one who reigns over all creation.

David Bartlett, an ordained American Baptist minister, is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and Lantz Professor Emeritus of Christian Communication at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut.

Homily Service 39, no.10 (2006): 24-34.

Jesus began to teach – 1 March 2015 – Second Sunday in Lent

The message of the cross is very difficult to convey. We can understand Peter’s rejection of Jesus’ announcement of his death and resurrection. Peter focused on the death.

How many ways might we look at the cross of Jesus? at the crosses borne by people in all parts of our world who are suffering now? at the crosses we carry? at the crosses we fail to carry for others? at the joy of the cross? 

The preacher’s task on this Second Sunday in Lent is to talk about losing one’s life in order to save it without telling people how to live and thus imposing a law on them. We cannot bear the burden without also having received God’s promises. Setting the story of God’s incredible gifts to Abraham and Sarah next to the story of Jesus’ hard teaching about losing life to save it, we see that the struggle to live gratefully has everything to do with hope for what must be impossible.

Mark 8:31-38

Among the many different claims about the Messiah in Jesus’ time, none of them would have called for the Messiah to suffer and be rejected the way Jesus describes in this passage. It should be no surprise then that Peter would question Jesus’ statements and likely he would have been shocked at the sternness of Jesus’ rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” . . .

Some commentators have suggested that this passage is intended to encourage Jesus’ followers when they experience similar rejection, so that they can identify with Jesus in his reward as well as his suffering. Thus those who identify with Jesus and his gospel will save their lives, even if they lose them, but those who focus on earthly things, as Peter was doing, will lose everything. – Jonathan D. Lawrence

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

With Abraham, we walk in hope and faith, not knowing how the promises of God will be manifest in our lives or whether we will recognize them when they come.

One of last week’s readings described God’s covenant with Noah and all living things. This text focuses on God’s covenant with Abraham and through him with all of his descendants, promising land, descendants, and a blessing in return for Abraham’s willingness to be circumcised and to “walk before me, and be blameless.”  . . .

Abraham and Sarah were too old to even imagine having a child. Yet as often happens in the Bible, God’s promise of a son is fulfilled, as proof that with God all things are possible.  – Jonathan  D. Lawrence

Romans 4:13-25

In Romans, Paul contrasts faith and law, although his view of law differs from the views of many Jewish writers from his time to our own. Paul suggests that the promises to Abraham were fulfilled not through the law but through “the righteousness of faith.”

. . .  He speaks of Abraham’s unwavering faith that God would fulfill those promises, which could refer indirectly to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command. This deep faith is presented as a model for Christians who put similar trust in Jesus and his death and resurrection. – Jonathan D. Lawrence

And then it comes down to our own situations. The challenges for the preacher and pastor are many, especially in a time when some worship leaders want to avoid mentioning sin or emphasizing the importance of baptism which is all about dying to rise. Perhaps this is a good time–this Lenten time–to point to the transfiguration of all people who enter the baptismal waters and how necessary it is in order to receive fully the feast that God has given us in Christ Jesus.

Much of the current literature on how to make a church grow and attract members emphasizes helping people discover their individual gifts and then allowing them to use those gifts. The writers make it all sound so upbeat and pleasant.

When do we tell our seekers that we are called to follow a LORD who gave his life rather than deny the good news of God’s grace that he came to proclaim? When do we make the case that it is that serious a thing and not just a way to make friends and have a “church home” and feel more spiritual? When do we tell them that joining the church means taking up a cross?

We would drive people away if we did not also tell them that there is priceless joy in serving God in this way.  . . .  You can have all the world’s goods and pleasures and it means nothing compared to the value of being in partnership with God. To live as a cross bearer is to be on God’s side. – Judith E. Simonson

Jonathan D. Lawrence, an American Baptist Church ordained minister, teaches Religious Studies and Theology at Canisius College, Buffalo, New York.

Judith Simonson is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Homily Service 39, no. 4 (2006): 22-32.