This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
Vital Signs of a Healthy Spirituality
The Serving Heart
DATE: April 16, 2000
TEXT: Matthew 16:24-26

In a recent survey of high school students, the question was posed, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" They were provided a list of various professions and vocations (as you can imagine, teacher, accountant, nurse, engineer.). The list was quite comprehensive and included some very exotic occupations like being an animal trainer or a pastor (that's a joke-we like to think of ourselves as bold adventurers!). The great majority of students in answering that question, "What do you want to do..?" responded, "My dream is to be a servant." Believe me? (Don't!)
In the United States our values and even our political system is founded on what.life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It focuses on the value and rights of every individual. And that is something we celebrate! But there's something about who we are as a culture of individual based people that makes the notion of servanthood not come easily to us. In fact, I don' t think there is such a job anymore as "servant." As you look in the job classifieds in the paper there may be jobs that seem like servant jobs but we give them names with more dignity (and a lot of them make union wages). But when you think of what a servant really means, (a servant is one whose identity and preoccupation is to meet the needs and give care for the one being served), to be honest, in our culture, people don't really like the sound of it. We don't like the limitation that "servant" implies. And while we're being honest this morning, there's something else I thank I can admit for all us, and that is: What is there to life about the cross?
Today is Passion Sunday. It is the first day of the most precious of all the weeks of the church year for the Christian. It is the day that marks the beginning of Jesus' march to the cross. We who purport to call ourselves developing disciples of Jesus are being invited today by Jesus to take up our cross and follow him. But you and I both know there is something that's very difficult about that invitation to the cross.
I'd like to look at the background or context that sets up when and why Jesus invites his followers to take up the cross. Matthew 16:21, "From then on Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, "I must go to Jerusalem. There the nation's leaders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make me suffer terribly. I will be killed. But three days later I will rise to life." Verse 22, "Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. He said, "God would never let that happen to you, Lord."
Peter, in case you don't know too much about him, is the kind of guy who lets you know his mind. Not only here, but frequently throughout the story of Jesus and his disciples, Peter just impulsively speaks up. There is something about that that I admire.
Let's imagine why it is that Peter spoke up so abruptly. He had just been confronted with Jesus predicting his own death in the most horrible fashion-a death on the cross. And as Peter began to process what Jesus had said, his first reflex response to Jesus was, "That can't be right. God isn 't like that." Peter's conviction that he shared with Jesus is that God would surely protect the best person who has ever lived from the worst possible fate. Understand Peter's logic? And I'd like to ask Peter if I could, "Peter, you say this about Jesus and what God owes to Jesus his son. Peter, what do you thing about people whose lives are on the line because of their faith?" Peter, what do you expect from God in relation to innocent children? Children who might suffer?" Or, "Peter, what's your view of those who are afflicted with cancer or those who are innocent victims of violence?" I want to open up some tough questions with you here this morning.
Peter speaks for many of us when he says, "This should never happen to you!" Peter protests the cross. It does not sound right. I believe Peter objected to everything that the cross stood for. Peter, like us, knew that tragedies do happen to innocent people. Our media and our communities have been recently reminded of the intentional killings of the children of Audrey Iacona. I didn't realize until just recently that she lived just a couple of miles from me and that all of this happened not that far away.
Sometimes it seems like death rules in our world. For many people, sometimes it seems like death has its way in our world. And when life seems like that, this question can't help but surface. Some of us don't dare even speak it, but the question is "Where is God? Where is God to prevent it? Couldn't God have stopped this? Couldn't God have made the world in another way? And Peter, too, out of this kind of a heart and concern, is why he is so insistent to Jesus when Jesus begins to lift before his view the cross. Peter corrects his teacher, "Lord Jesus, don't go there; it's not right."
What is the belief that is at the core of Peter's words to Jesus? What shapes his view of the cross? Why does he scold Jesus? I think all of us can hear it--there is a fear that is operating here. And if you follow the story of Peter from this point on we see that hear is pressing itself repeatedly. Peter, after he has scolded Jesus about predicting the cross, later when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, was the first to draw his sword and take the situation into his own hands and cut off the ear of the soldier. And Peter, after Jesus had been arrested, was publicly questioned, "Do you know this Jesus?" And Peter's response repeatedly was to lie--to deny that he knew Jesus at all. Peter, gripped by a growing fear in this crisis (Jesus being arrested and put to death), in fear and out of the need to preserve his own life left the scene. He left Jesus to die alone.
As we look at the story of Jesus, he predicted and then he walked right into it. Sure enough, it happened. Isn't this what Peter was afraid of all along?
Peter was afraid of a situation like this that would get out of control. Peter saw in the cross a terrible fate to be avoided. Peter saw in the cross something so forbidding and hopeless and dark that he could not imagine anything good coming from it. That why he scolded Jesus. Peter was convinced that Jesus was utterly wrong in predicting his cross. Peter heard that Jesus was aiming to give his life away. Is that what it means to be God's servant.
Chapter 16:12 "Jesus turned to Peter and said, 'Satan, get away from me. You're in my way because you think like everyone else and not like God.'" Jesus was speaking to a dear friend. Jesus with these sharp and confrontational words responded to Peter. Jesus exposes what's inside of Peter.
I have a question to ask you and you can talk back to me if you want, "In that moment, according to Jesus, who is Peter representing?" And in that moment, according to Jesus, whom is Peter thinking like? Everybody else, but God.
Then Jesus issues this invitation to his followers, followers which include us, "If you would find life forget about yourself, take up your cross, follow me."
Take up your cross. Is that something that you think about and celebrate on a daily basis--take up you cross? Does that sound good to you? What is Jesus getting at? What in the world has God offered us through the invitation to take up our cross? I think this is often misunderstood. Does God intend for our cross to hurt and punish us? Is this invitation to the cross some kind of severe discipline that you need? As we consider the cross (don't run ahead to the end of the story--we know the end of the story!) do you see anything good or life giving or hopeful in that? Frankly, I don't!
Historically, the cross used by the Roman Empire was a brutal instrument of torture and death. In fact, it if weren't for Jesus, everybody (not only Peter) but everybody is bound to believe in the cross and not God.
The cross is the worst case scenario. Jesus predicted the future and he couldn't have announced anything worse. The cross is a tool in the power of the dominant empire. If it has you in its grip there is no escape. The cross is what you ultimately fear. It is fear to you. It is something that you are convinced you cannot change--and right! The cross is that thing on the horizon that is so big it seems bigger than even what God can do to help you. Jesus in what he said, where he went and what he did, did not deny that the cross is real and powerful. In fact, for our sakes, Jesus shows after he is raised from the dead scars on his hands and feet. And those scars attest to us that life is hard. Suffering is real. Life does not always make sense.
Jesus with his cross confirms what all of us feels--life doesn't seem fair. Peter was expressing what he thought God should do--what God's obligation was. "God would never let this happen (the cross) to you, Jesus!" And it did. Tragedy happens tot he innocent. And let's face it, life is not fair.
Jesus Christ who is risen from the dead, God's son, with gentle arms outstretched bears scars and grieves and understands that life is not fair. In fact, there is away in which our invitation to the cross helps us come to terms with what Peter is wrestling with that is: in our life, and in the things that can happen to us in life, it doesn't seem that God is fair, either.
It just doesn't seem right! The cross does not seem right! Terminal illness does not seem right! But in this invitation, in this invitation of Jesus Christ that we follow his as he had led the way, and as we take up our cross (that is as we face the things in this world and our lives that frighten us, that are bigger than us, thing that we cannot solve or control) Jesus Christ the Son of God has something to give to us. Peter discovered it even after he had blown it and denied Jesus. He was drawn to be among the first who came that resurrection morning and he discovered the tomb was empty. There was something from that empty tomb that dawned on Peter that changed his heart and view of life and his view of God.
Peter had lived a life of self-sufficiency. Peter was a "Man's man." He took situations into his own hands. But living that way he encountered his limit. He could only go so far following Jesus and then he bolted. The empty tomb said to Peter that God is bigger than the cross. God is bigger that the Roman Empire. God is bigger and more reliable than death. There was something about Peter who eventually was pursued again by the risen Jesus.
Some of you are familiar with the story, where Jesus extends the hand of friendship to Peter and assures Peter that he is forgiven and that he's loved and befriended by God. This is the love of God that is bigger than all of Peter's failures.bigger than the cross. This is the significance of Jesus Christ, who took up his cross for us, broke through death, lives forever, and now invites us to call him "Trusting God"--fear in God instead of fear in the cross.
In closing, as we follow Peter's story and learn from him and what God does for us, I think it is really neat that the first time the news of Jesus who died and rose for the world, the first time that he was publicly announced, was announced to thousands of people (a crowd in Jerusalem) by Peter. Peter was the spokesperson for that glorious news. A few weeks after Jesus died, rose, and ascended into heaven, Peter (who went through the full spectrum and thoroughly blew it) was empowered and given a great gift of speaking about the victory and the power of God which does not depend on Peter's courage, knowledge or goodness--but upon a God who had sent his son to die and rise for you.
I hope you hear in this invitation to the cross that God calls us to be freed of our fears--freed of the things that hold us down and hold us back. God wants us to know that God is bigger than any obstacle or trouble in life. God wants to empower our hearts so that we know that God is always more than enough. God is always with us no matter what. It is that awareness that sets us free to be serving people.
Peter, in the latter part of a significant part of his life, was no longer self-controlled and self-reliant and fearful. Peter was free to share love that comes from his savior. And that's the key to find a servant's heart--being free by God from our fears and our personal limitations to know that God is bigger than the world. God is bigger and higher and greater than we are. And God through Jesus Christ is on your side.
AMEN