Advent Lutheran Church

"Who do People Say that WE Are?"

 Grace and peace to you from God, the Creator, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

 

            Questions, questions, questions – from how to reform healthcare, to the President addressing school kids via television, to whether or not it is appropriate to shout out in the midst of a joint session of Congress – we are surrounded by questions.  It has been said that the value of democracy is that it allows us to struggle with questions.  The good thing about questions is that they often lead to answers, and then, to understanding.  However, the bad thing about questions is that they are sometimes “covers” for what we really want to know, what’s underneath.  For example:  (from the little kid about to rocket out of his seat,) “Teacher, teacher, I have a question!”  Underneath, that child is simply crying out “Notice me!  PLEASE notice me!”  Or, consider “the #1 question asked of pastors,” (according to what Pastor Roger once told an interviewer at the Kansas City Star,) “Got a minute?”  The real question there is, “Can you please take some time and help me unravel something that is troubling my life?”  Or finally, my favorite:  “Does this dress make me look fat?” Which, of course all husbands should know, covers up the REAL question of, “Am I still attractive to you?”

            Folks haven’t changed much in the last 2,000 years.  We are still playing the Questions and Answers Game pretty much the same way they played it in Jesus’ time.  Today we enter our story as Jesus and the disciples are well into it.  Jesus has just asked a simple question, “Who do people say that I am?”  In other words, “What are people saying about me?  What’s the buzz in the crowd?”  Now, the normal response to that kind of question would be to give information.  The answer to “Who is that guy?” might go something like this, “Why, that’s Jesus of Nazareth.  His Daddy’s a carpenter, but he’s not going into wood-working, I heard he’s going into the ministry.  Personally, I think he’s another John the Baptist, or Elijah, or a prophet…” 

            But Jesus is not asking for the crowd’s identity report, so he focuses the question a little more pointedly.  “And you?  Who do you think I am?”  Peter’s immediate answer, “You are the Messiah.”  That caused a hush to fall over the crowd.  Now, Jesus knew that there were expectations with that title that he had no intention of fulfilling, and so he responded with some of the strongest words in Mark’s gospel, and “sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.”  How odd!  WHY would Jesus tell them NOT to go into all the world, NOT to bring the light, or be the salt?  Perhaps the students were just not ready, so the teacher had to begin to answer the unspoken questions.  And in his teaching, Jesus spoke of how his identity would lie in what he was going to do in obedience to God.  And his teaching was definitely not what they had expected.

            “Who do you say that I am?” is the classic question for Christians.  This past week, as we began the second round of discussions on the popular novel, The Shack, I recalled my favorite quote, which takes place just as God is having an initial conversation with Mack, the main character.  “Mack, I am NOT who you think I am…”  It makes me think, “Well, then, who ARE YOU, God, and how are people supposed to know?” 

            How do you find out about people you don’t know?  You could read their resume.  Or you could ask someone who knows them well to tell you about them.  Or, you could enter into a relationship with them yourself, and find out everything you’d like to know.  It’s the same with God.  You can read God’s resume, the Holy Bible.  You can ask someone who knows God well, we’re called “believers.”  Or, you could enter into a relationship with God through prayer and worship.  However, as Christians, we have an even better way to know God, to get an extremely clear picture.  We have God in human form, the man called Jesus of Nazareth.  Beyond our prayers, beyond our conversations, and even beyond the witness of the Holy Scriptures, is the person of Jesus the Messiah, to whom these all point.

            We Christians know who God is, and “What Jesus Would Do,” so the question for us is not:  “Who is Jesus?” The question for us is, “Who are we?”  If the world was asked, “Who do people say we Christians are?” I fear that folks would point to us and cry, “Hypocrites!”  Not because of what we believe, but because of how we live.

            We live as if the Bible is our God, and we don’t allow it to be, as Luther described it, (holding Bible open) “the Cradle of Christ.”  We say it is “the inspired Word of God,” and that is most certainly and absolutely true.  But we forget that the inspiration continues today as we bring our life experience into an ongoing interaction with the printed page.  This book is not God, it is the Word of God.

            We live in the midst of a cultural Christian witness with which most of us do not agree - either because we do not know what we believe, or because we are too “nice” to stand up for the faith that is in us.

            We live as if judgment is more important than justice and we let legalism overshadow the goodness of God’s Law.

            We say we believe and yet we resist God’s transforming work in our lives and continue to work on our own agenda.

            In a world that is full of social and economic turmoil many might say to us Christians, “If your God is so great and powerful, what doesn’t he do something about all of this?”  But as Jesus told his disciples, we will be misunderstood, and persecuted and suffer.  But God will strengthen us to hold our ground, to keep the faith.*  And there are Christians all over the world who are working faithfully every day, to make our witness fit the picture of God in Christ.  “God’s Work.  Our Hands.” is not just a cute tag line from the ELCA, it is a statement of identity for those of us who want to give our lives to serve others rather than ourselves. 

            And we are doing it.  Through our work with MLM.  Through the Lutheran Malaria Initiative and HIV/AIDs work, we intend to raise $10 million over the next years to assist in confronting, healing and eradicating diseases of poverty in our lifetime.  We work in partnership with other denominations to listen and learn about each other and to share answers to common questions.  And Advent’s Mission Team is making a difference in places we’d never heard of ten years ago:  Agua Prieta, Atongo, Osawatomie, Burkina Faso, and little towns along the Gulf coast. Soon you will hear stories of little children in the Dominican Republic who we’ll be helping through Children International, in neighborhoods you’ve never heard of, and faces you have never seen – but faces on children that Advent will love, simply because God loves them.

            We are Jesus’ followers, people of God!  We exist on this earth not to fulfill ourselves, but to bring New Life to those who have no hope.  Look around you.  Look around you this week at your neighbors and your friends and your co-workers.  Look into the faces asking questions that cover up their deepest needs.  Then pour yourself out to fill them up with love. 

            Be God’s people.  Today.  Step up and take responsibility for your faith, for the gift of your life, and for your witness – a witness that looks a lot like Jesus of Nazareth.  AMEN.

 

 

 

*idea from a daily devotional by Henri Nouwen 9/12/09