22nd Sunday in (A)
What began as a brief news story before the election of 1972, gradually escalated with news stories from Woodward and Bernstein. As the incident escalated, people began to ask themselves if President Nixon knew about the break-in. I remember reading one of the famous lines from the Watergate Scandal of the 70s. It was from Senator Howard Baker who asked that infamous question, "What did he know and when did he know it?"
Our gospel reading from last week and this week present us with two equally intriguing set of questions that cause us to stop and think.
Last week, Jesus asked his disciples, "Who do men say the Son of Man is?" and "Who do you say that I am?"
This week he asks them, “Do you wish to save your life” or “do you wish to lose it?”
But the problem is, there is not one Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Each gospel paints a different picture of Jesus, and some of these differences are profound. Matthew presents Jesus as the Son of David; Mark most often calls him Son of Man; Luke refers to Jesus as Savior of the world; while John presents him as the Word made flesh. It seems that even the four gospels cannot completely agree on who Jesus is, except from the realization that they sense he comes from a higher power.
But perhaps we are asking the wrong questions here? What if we were to turn the question around and asked; “Who do people say that you are? “And “Where is your life heading?”
It is easy to say that Jesus is the Lord… but that does not mean much until others are able to see him at work in your own life.
One of my professors at the seminary would constantly remind us: "If we were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict us?" Is the way we think and act, decidedly different from the world around us?
Here is one example: I had a friend who taught at an elementary school in North Dakota where I was stationed during the Sixties. One morning there was a minor altercation on the playground – a second-grader pushed one of his classmates off the slide, and, while she was not hurt, it could have been dangerous. The teacher sent for the principal.
She talked with the children in the hallway outside their classroom. She listened to both sides of the story and then explained to each of them, the seriousness of playground safety and how important it was to be nice to each other. When she was finished, the little boy apologized, and that was that.
A couple of days later, she happened to see the little girl with her mother in the checkout line at the grocery store. She smiled and they waved discreetly to each other. She then stepped into the next checkout line, but was close enough to hear the mother of the little girl ask her daughter, "Who was that lady who just waved to you?"
The little girl said, "She's works at our school." "What does she do?" the mother asked. The little girl replied, "She helps people apologize." My friend admitted to me that hearing this, "Helped her to think much more clearly about what she did in her position at school… beyond the titles and status, and how her actions reflected how Christ worked in her life.
When you think about it, the world knows us mostly by who we are related to and what we do for a living. In reality, there is so much more to life than that. Real life is not defined by what you do for a living, but more by what you do with your life; and by what your life has to do with helping others in the name of Jesus', because how we live our lives, will help others to come to know us as one of his disciples.
Jimmy spinner, was a young man who used to be a band director. I had met him when we were playing together in a country band while I was in the air force. One day he told me about a time when he had returned to a community where he had once taught. How he enjoyed getting re-acquainted with parents and friends he had not seen for years. He said, “One day as I was walking on a sidewalk in downtown St Paul, a young man came up and asked, do you remember me?" He didn't have a clue, but then, he had taught a lot of students, and they had long-since grown up. He said to the young man, "You're going to have to help me out here." The young man told him his name and said, "You're the one who introduced me to the world of music, and I just wanted to say thank you."
Today’s gospel question now becomes even more profound. Who do others say that you are? To confess Jesus as the Christ is to know him in your heart and walk in his footsteps, serving others to the glory of his name.
But can a church, in todays self-centered, self-help culture, ask its people to sacrifice for the sake of the kingdom? Jesus’ challenge to all would-be disciples requires more than just a “feel-good” or self-hug spirituality. True discipleship begs the question, “Are you willing to sacrifice something for the kingdom”? Too many people today think they can have Christianity without the cross. They are the curious by-standers who stand at a distance from the foot of the cross. They become casual followers of Jesus. They take their Christianity like they take cream in their coffee – just a little something added to make life interesting. Sometimes I am afraid that most of us have not yet heard the call to discipleship. We do not yet understand the real meaning of the cross. Oh sure, we talk about it amongst our inner circle of friends… we display it proudly in our homes… but secretly, we pray that no one asks us about it.
There is a sign on the road of our culture that says, “Get more, be more, build it bigger, be more successful”.
And then there is a sign on the road to Christ that says,
“Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.”
Have faith in your relationship with Jesus, and the more complete and content your life will become.
Faith is, first and foremost, a gift of the Holy Spirit – not something you can conjure up on your own. If you have faith, praise the Lord. And if you do not, pray that the Lord will give you faith, according to his will. Don't think too highly of yourself if you feel you have a lot of faith, and certainly don’t, put yourself down if you only have a little. Faith is a gift of the Spirit. Be thankful for what you have and trust that God will give you what you need in order to accomplish his will for your life.
I would like to leave you with these words from a poem by Robert Frost.
Titled “Two Roads Diverged in the Wood”. It concludes with,
I shall tell you this with a sigh. Somewhere ages and ages hence, two roads diverged in a wood, and I…took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
God Bless.
