Second Sunday in Lent ~ March 8, 2009

SERMON: Rejected?

FIRST READING Mark 8:27-30
27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."
29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "You are the Christ. "
30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

SECOND READING Mark 8:31-38
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

COMMUNION MEDITATION
To follow Jesus we are called to give ourselves whole-heartedly and unashamedly to the spreading of a particular message: God’s love is revealed in Jesus Christ. But Jesus makes it clear that there is danger in following him—rejection and suffering. On the night he was betrayed, knowing that suffering and rejection lay ahead of him in the next few hours, Jesus took bread from the common meal—blessed it—broke it and said, “This is my body given for you.” Those words must have echoed in the minds of his disciples when they saw Jesus on the cross. After the meal Jesus took the cup, saying, “This is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” As we receive this bread and this cup let us remember the life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

SERMON: Rejected?

INTRODUCTION
SING: Open Our Eyes Lord…

What does it mean to be a faithful disciple or follower of Jesus? Some of the “Health & Wealth” preachers tell us that following Jesus will make us wealthy and healthy. They take a few scriptures out of context and say that following Jesus will be a life of ease and prosperity. But Jesus says otherwise!
"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself [put God first] & take up his cross [be willing to die] & follow me. Mark 8:34b Jesus also talked about loosing your life for his sake.
HEART
Sometimes a different translation of scripture will give us insight into a passage. The Message reads this way: Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You are not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. Mark 8:34-35 TM
Have you decided to follow Jesus? He is an honest salesman—he tells you what to expect. Let’s declare our faith with the words of this song.

SING: I have decided to follow Jesus… …no turning back, no turning back.

Jesus says: “Don’t run from suffering [because of me; but rather] embrace it.
I will show you how. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Mark 8:34
Do you still want to follow Jesus? Will you turn your back on the world and follow Jesus, regardless of the consequences?

SING: v. 2 The world behind me, the cross before me… no turning back…

Then Jesus says, “I will be rejected.” Mark 8:38 NIV
If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, [I] will be ashamed of him when [I] come in [my] Father's glory with the holy angels.

SING: v3 Tho none go with me still will I follow… …not turning back…

Every one of us at one time or another has been rejected for one reason or another. And we all know how painful it is to be rejected. I remember in middle school that awful feeling when I was always the last one to be chosen to on a team. But that rejection was not because I followed Jesus—it was because I wasn’t a good athlete!

And an even more painful memory of rejection was back when I was about 15 or 16 years old—I had just started dating and my mother’s best friend had a nephew visiting from Louisiana. So the two of them arranged for the nephew, Johnny, to call me for a date. I was elated because he was very handsome and he had his driver’s license.

Johnny took me to a movie during Thanksgiving while he was visiting family in central Texas. Then he and I exchanged addresses and wrote letters between Thanksgiving and Christmas—when he would be back to TX to visit his grandparents again. He and I had an enjoyable time together on our date and the letter exchanges were very positive. [This is before emails or texting—and it took a week for snail mail to be delivered from one place to another.] But we exchanged several letters between Thanksgiving and Christmas. All of this made me expect another date with him during the Christmas holidays. So Johnny came into town as scheduled, but he never called me! I waited and waited—but nothing. I was disappointed and confused and wondered what happened.

Later I learned from his Aunt Mary that he had met another girl in town and had dated her during his Christmas visit. At that point I was devastated and cried for days. That rejection made me feel terrible but he didn’t reject me because of my faith.

What I felt in the core of my being was that I was not good enough for Johnny. The reality of the situation, I realize now, is that his rejection of me didn’t have anything to do with me as a person. Johnny’s choices showed that he was a fickle guy who valued relationship with the influential in the community. I was a country girl, the daughter of a black land farmer, who lived several miles out of town. The girl he chose for that Christmas fling came from a family who held a more important position in our town. Her home was in the nicer section of town. She moved in a different social set than I did. I was rejected, but not because of my faith.

Jesus was rejected—because he was a threat to the people in power. Rejection says more about the people who reject than it does about the person who is rejected. Why was Jesus rejected? Read through the gospel of Mark and sort out the motives of the elders, the chief priests and the scribes. Jesus came determined to reveal God’s love to the people of God—set apart and empowered for that purpose. And it was the common folk who wanted to better understand Jesus. They were amazed at his teachings and his boldness. The men of power and influence were threatened. Early on in his ministry Jesus ignored the traditions of the elders and began to redefine what was acceptable and unacceptable to God.

I could have told Jesus that you don’t mess with tradition! “We’ve always done it that way.” That sentence means this is a tradition. And it is heard in all the churches even to this day! But Jesus would come into any congregations in this town today—ours included—and not hesitate to break our traditions. And when Jesus violated one of our traditions, we would, in all likelihood, reject him—or at least he would be rejected by those who held the particular tradition dear to their hearts.[1]

The temple authorities—the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law—began to question the authority of Jesus. What right did he have to change tradition? After all he was only a carpenter from Galilee—a self-proclaimed teacher—a man of questionable reputation because he touched lepers and ate with sinners.[2] Who is he to challenge our traditions?

Another time Jesus saw the corruption in the Temple in Jerusalem and took steps to get rid of it. Jesus upset the status quo when he upset the tables of the greedy merchants who had set up shop in the temple courts and were taking advantage of the worshippers who bought their sacrifices from them. Jesus would confront the status quo today—on Wall Street—in Washington DC—and here in El Dorado Springs. He would stand up for the weak and the powerless and he would confront those in power and call them to account for their actions—just as he did when he walked this earth. (And if I’m reading the scriptures correctly, his followers are supposed to be doing that today!)

When the chief priests heard that Jesus was chasing the merchants out of the temple they began to make plans to stop Jesus—to crush his influence—and to put an end to this troublemaker.[3]
Jesus knew his faithfulness to the Father would continue to bring him into conflict with the powerful and the influential—but Jesus was determined to demonstrate the Father’s priorities and to be faithful to the leading of the Holy Spirit—regardless of the consequences. …no turning back.

Jesus also knew that this dynamic of conflict between light and darkness would not be his battle alone. He knew his followers would also need that faithful determination to be willing to die for the sake of demonstrating God’s love. To follow Jesus we are called to give ourselves whole-hearted and unashamed to a particular message regardless of the consequences. That message is this: God’s love is revealed in Jesus Christ.

I pray that our actions and our priorities as a congregation continue to reveal God’s love to this community. I pray that even in the middle of these difficult times that our country is experiencing, our relationship with the Lord continues to become dearer to us, regardless of the consequences.

[1] Mark 7:3-5
[2] Mark 11:27
[3] Mark 11:18