Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
September 13, 2009
James 3:1-12; Mark 8:27-38

James 3:1-12 · Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue–a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

Mark 8:27-38 · 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?” And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “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, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

I. THE TEXT

The story we just heard read from the Gospel of Mark is one of my favorites. It is placed at the dramatic center of Mark’s gospel, coming right between the first half–the Ministry in Galilee–and the second–the journey to Jerusalem, the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus asks the disciples who is it that people claim he is? John the Baptist, they say. Or Elijah. Or one of the prophets. Then Jesus says, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter answers: “You are the Messiah.” Well done, Peter. You get an ‘A’.

And Jesus tells them not to tell anyone.

He then goes on to describe how the Son of Man must be betrayed and suffer and die and rise again. Peter takes Jesus aside and corrects him: you must be mistaken, Jesus. That’s not the way things are supposed to go.

Jesus responds somewhat forcefully: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your minds not on divine things but on human things.” Well done, Peter. You get an ‘F’. Jesus then goes on to preach to the crowd about the necessity of taking up one’s cross and following him. About the necessity of rejecting the power of this world for the submission to the ways of the world to come.

It is a stunning and sudden reversal for Peter–who seemingly had it right and then all of a sudden had it very wrong.

In the corresponding passage in Matthew’s gospel, after Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah, and Jesus declares him the “Rock” (the Petros ) on which he will build his church. One commentator notes that in this scene in Mark, Peter goes quickly from being “the rock” to a “stumbling block”. He was poised to be the foundation for the Christian movement and now is suddenly an obstacle in people’s paths to understanding the faith Jesus proclaims.

II. STUMBLING BLOCKS

How often do we do that? I suspect quite a bit. We are a people called to share our faith and yet so often the world does not want to hear what we have to say. My feeling is that it is not the quality of the message that we bring–for that message is from Christ himself–but the manner in which we bring it. Or the personal attitudes about it that we have that we try to impose upon it.

In his letter, James warns of the power of the tongue to stain the whole body. He is talking about the power that speaking rashly, or slandering, or all manner of poisonous speech can have on us spiritually. The tongue is a fire–and see how great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! How much damage our speech can do to us spiritually. And not just to us, but to those we would share our faith with.

For we might wish to share our faith with a word, and then find ourselves contradicted by other words we speak. And the Rock that we would proclaim is undone by the stumbling block that we have become.

So many people who object to religion, and to Christianity in particular, will often cite our “narrowmindedness”. They will talk about some Christian preacher or other that they heard condemning various people to hell that they do not like. Threatening fire and brimstone to those with whom they disagree. I suspect that speech like that does a great deal to keep people away from Christian faith. That the fire set by that tongue of fire leaves a trail of scorched earth behind it in which very few seeds of faith will grow.

And then there are those who provide all the simple answers to difficult questions. Why do good people die tragic or untimely deaths? Why can I not feel the presence of God? I submit that answers like “Well, that person probably had done something wrong that you don’t know about” or “God wanted that person to die to test your faith” or “You’re just not trying hard enough–you don’t have enough faith” likewise burn fertile ground where Christian faith might have taken root.

Or perhaps there are those who insist that the faith they proclaim should trump some other knowledge that you possess. We talked about that attitude last week in our faith and science service.

Or there are the sermons of moralizing and judgment that always seem to be followed by getting caught in some sort of sex scandal. Those words come back with a bitter taste that sours any appreciation for faith and religion.

And of course, it is not just in our religious pronouncements, but in our everyday lives. How often do we speak or act in ways that undermine whatever claims we might make about God? Just the other day, while biking home from work late at night, a car full of knuckleheads drove past me headed the other direction. One of them leaned out the window and for no reason I could discern, hurled an obscenity at me. Being the creative, thoughtful, and clever individual that I am, I hurled the same one back at him. Not exactly the Christian response I should have had. Perhaps that’s an instance of the New Yorker in me winning out.

But I know that roadside epithet contests notwithstanding, there are countless times in the course of a day when my tongue gets the better of me and I do not stand as a rock of faith, but become perhaps a stumbling block to anyone who would be inclined to see Christ’s faith in me.

Perhaps part of the reason I like that story in Mark so much is that I empathize with Peter. I know how he feels. I feel like I get it wrong a lot.

And so, it seems that the faith we would share with the world often comes up lacking. But lacking what?

III. AUTHENTICITY

Yesterday, while I was sitting in my neighborhood Così, attempting to write this sermon in the face of really annoying writer’s block, I was chatting online with Lara, a former student here and president of the UMSA, who was telling me about a new camera lens she’d purchased for her camera: an image stabilizing lens. I was intrigued by this: how does it work? Is it mechanical or software driven? She replied that it was mechanical as far as she could tell–she could hear things whirring inside of it as you used it.

Thereupon began an IM conversation as to how much more satisfying mechanical things are than virtual things. She pointed out that that’s why pocket digital cameras have a shutter “click” sound–to appeal to the aesthetic appreciation for substance. I reflected that it was that reason that I had an old fashioned telephone ring for my ringtone on my cell phone and perhaps the reason I’d started shaving using a shaving brush instead of shaving cream. Perhaps out of a longing for something simpler, purer. I pointed out that in the same way, I was enjoying my new digital SLR camera because while the film was digital, I know there’s a real shutter inside, a real single lens reflex snapping back and forth. There is substance inside. She said, “There’s a sermon in there somewhere.”

And she was right.

What people crave the most in their communities of faith is authenticity. I get approached all the time by people who want to talk to me about reaching out to young adults. And they assume it’s all done the same way: slap together a praise and worship service, hire a band, and the young people will show up. I keep telling them, only if it’s authentic. In my experience young people will participate in a community of faith that has authentic worship, and that can be traditional, that can be contemporary, that can be emergent, or blended. It has to come from somewhere real. Unlike the digital shutter clicks on pocket cameras, the outer expression has to be grounded in something real within.

And it is no less so with our faith and the way we share it.

So much is often made of bringing people to Christ. Of going out and bringing people in. Saving souls. The stereotype is that to evangelize you go out and ask people if they have a relationship with Jesus Christ, or the blunter version: “Have you been saved?” If they respond “no” then you tell them about the gospel message and hope to get them to come along. You’ve got what they need.

What about bringing Christ to people? What about instead of trying to record ever higher numbers of “souls saved” (as if we were the ones saving souls anyway) we actually lived our lives in ways that showed that Christ were present in our souls? If we lived a faith that was authentic? That when you heard the sounds of religion on the outside, you could be assured that there were the mechanisms of faith deep within as well?

IV. END

We are about to begin Methodist Heritage Week here on campus. It’s a week during which we will set up tents and tables on the quad. We’ll have all kinds of information about the AU United Methodist community and United Methodism in general. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to tell people about our faith and our community. But more importantly, we’ll have plenty of opportunity toshow people that our faith is authentic.

For when we extend hospitality and welcome, we will embody the spirit of Christ within and without, we live out an authentic faith that will be a rock for people in need of a place to feel welcome.

When we give people a free meal, demonstrating a concern for their physical wellbeing and nourishment, then we live out an authentic faith that is a Rock for those to whom kindness is a stranger.

When we advocate for justice, we demonstrate a solidarity with those who have the least, with the marginalized, the disenfranchised, then we life out an authentic faith that is a rock for those who are locked out of the halls of power and privilege.

When we create open communities where the word of God can be studied and discussed with openness and respect for all views, then we live out an authentic faith that is a Rock for those who have felt oppressed by those who equate thinking one way as thinking God’s way.

When we create communities where real and meaningful relationships are nurtured, where members genuinely care for one another and seek to be in fellowship with one another, then we live out an authentic faith that is a rock for those in need of a community, a place to belong.

When we worship God in ways that come from the heart, with our old hymns and our new songs of praise, with prayers crafted out of our experience and the word proclaimed to our situation, then we live out an authentic faith that is a rock for those who seek to know and worship God.

We will have a lot of opportunities this week to engage in authentic Christian faith for our campus. And we have many opportunities throughout our whole lives to do. As we seek to share our faith with our campus, with our community, and with our world, will we, in so doing, be rocks or stumbling blocks?