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“A Discipleship Checkup”
Mark
A Sermon preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley
From time to time, we need to go to have a check-up. We go to a physician or a therapist or a chiropractor just to make sure that all our bells and whistles are functioning properly. And if they’re not, then we had better get a prescription for a new remedy so that we can function on all cylinders. But where do we go to get our souls checked-up? Do we read books? Do we study scripture? Do we attend support or study groups? Do we attend worship? Sure, we do all of that. One of the main functions of the church ought to be that we give ourselves and eachother discipleship check-ups, so we can face the day with a healthy spiritual life—a life focused on being a true disciple of Jesus. Easier said than done? You had better believe it. Even the original disciples had trouble when Jesus gave them their discipleship check-up in today’s story from the Gospel of Mark.
The original disciples really liked being disciples, at least at first. They got to hang around Jesus. They got to get a glimpse of his transforming power and his amazing words. All of the disciples were ordinary folk, people who were pretty nondescript. None of them were leaders in their communities. But all of them were captivated by the word of God among them—this person Jesus. He had a kind of peace about him and guts, man did he have guts. He put down the scribes, the Pharisees, the priests, the followers of Herod, even the military complex of his day. He healed the sick, broke bread, feeding 5,000 one time and 4,000 another time. He even sent out the 12 or so that he called and told them to cast out demons and heal the sick. This was heady stuff.
It was exciting. The disciples were thrilled and profoundly moved by the man and the message. But Jesus kept pushing them. He didn’t want them to stagnate. So in today’s scripture, he gave them a pop quiz. It’s time to see if you are really up for this. It’s time to expose your blinders. It’s time for a discipleship checkup.
We have now reached the halfway point of Mark's Gospel. The book reads like and episode of "Law & Order". The first half is the detective work: "who is this Jesus, anyway?" The second half is the trial and conviction of Jesus. For the first eight chapters, we have seen who Jesus is by what he does. Jesus never said, "I am the Messiah. I am the Christ. Believe in me." At least he didn't say that in the first three Gospels. Instead, he his disciples to get a sense of the crowd. It was like he was taking a poll. "Who do people say that I am?"
They answered, "Some say Elijah, some say John the Baptist, still others say one of the prophets." The disciples left out the other words, often spouted by his enemies, many of whom had religious or political authority: “Blasphemer”, “Beelzebub, the prince of demons”, “false prophet”, “trouble-maker”, “fool”, “madman”, or even the racist, “Galilean.
Then Jesus got serious and said, "okay, forget the polls. Forget what other people are saying. Forget all of the presuppositions about who I am. Who do you say that I am?"
That's when Peter answered,
"You are the Messiah".
Previously only the demons knew who Jesus was, but now Peter declares
that he sees as clearly as the demons, as clearly as the outcasts who took
Jesus for what he was and recognized not only Jesus’ holiness, but also his
revolutionary posture. Peter got it
about Jesus and his conviction lasted all of two verses.
What did Peter mean when he said,
“You are the Messiah”? Messiah was a
pretty loaded term back then, just like it is now. Most people thought the Messiah would be a
military ruler who would become the new King David. The Messiah would restore the fortunes of
ancient
Peter knew from reading his
scripture that the Messiah was supposed to take up a sword and lead people in
battle. Jesus calls people to fight, but
a different enemy, by a different method.
This Messiah calls people to fight, but the enemy is not
The Gospel of Mark does a fantastic job of upping the ante as the disciples try to live up to their names. But the disciples didn’t want to pay such a high price. They didn’t want Jesus to pay such a high price. I can imagine them thinking, “if you are just a prophet, then we don’t have to follow you all the way to death. If you are Elijah, then you can do works of wonder and will not be liked by the powers that be. If you are John the Baptist, we can follow you, but we might get our heads cut off. But if you this kind of Messiah, then you might have to suffer all of the above.”
Jesus has changed the script of the play. The warrior Messiah script is on the cutting room floor and the prophetic Messiah script replaces it. Ched Myers says that the thesis of Mark’s Gospel is that discipleship is not about theological orthodoxy. Discipleship is about the cross (Say to this Mountain, 1997:99).
Hear this, the Messiah Jesus would be would lead a nonviolent revolution of inclusion and justice. And any followers of this kind of Messiah would be going up against the systems of violence, and facing them head on. Jesus taught that the Messiah would suffer, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes—all of the religious powers that be and be killed. That is what happens when you oppose the system of violence. The system uses violence to stop you. And they think that will be the end of it. Jesus was publicly executed like common criminals and revolutionaries were, on a cross, high on a hill so others could see and be intimidated by the utter power of the state when it gets in bed with religion.
Now, we all know that this is not the end of the story. For after three days the Messiah will rise again, says Jesus, showing everyone that the system of violence is a dead end street. Not succumbing to that system, not being defined by that system, actively opposing that system will bring you eternal life.
Peter, Petros, Rock, the most hard-headed of the disciples did not like this one bit. He said “say it ain’t so, son of Joe.” But Jesus rebuked him back: “Get behind me Satan, for your mind is on yourself and not on God.”
And then just to see if people are truly ready for this journey he said, “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 lives will lose them and those who lose their lives for my sake and the sake of the Gospel will save it.” Peter will later save himself by denying Jesus. Judas will later sell Jesus out for chump change and in the process lose his very soul. We are called to be better than that.
These are hard words. This is a discipleship checkup if I ever saw one.
We need these check-ups from time to time. They keep us honest. It is important for us to do this work because most of Christendom rejects this understanding of Messiahship, just like Peter. Most of Christendom rejects this kind of discipleship. The so-called Christian community needs a discipleship check-up.
Earlier this week, lunch-counter
sit-in veteran and now Georgia congressman John Lewis
was named as the recipient of the Edwin T Dahlberg
Peace award to be presented at this summer’s American Baptist Biennial
convention meeting in
In his memoir, “Walking with the Wind”, John Lewis tells of how he was part of the Freedom Rides in the early sixties and was literally beaten almost to death as he tried to ride a bus through Alabama and Mississippi. At one point he spent weeks in Parchman Prison along with hundred of other freedom riders—a most brutal and horrible place. The purveyors of segregation used this kind of violence and intimidation to stop the movement. Beting them and throwing them in Parchman was designed to humiliate them, to show them how little power they had. But the freedom riders took discipleship seriously. Their eyes were on the prize. Yes, they got themselves beaten, but the beatings exposed the injustice, the brutality, the dead-end street of violence. It ultimately integrated the south. That’s resurrection. It happened because these disciples were not afraid of the cross. They knew it served to redeem the world and expose the desperation of the systems of domination.
John Lewis tells of how people, Martin Luther King included, tried to get them to stop their freedom rides—calling it too dangerous. Lewis then criticized King for being too pragmatic, too beholden to the establishment, too worried about rocking the boat. Of course they do the freedom rides. It showed how SNCC was different from the NAACP and even SCLC. All of them wanted to be disciples, but they kept giving each other discipleship checkups.
Our
so-called Christian nation gets a discipleship check-up every year when activists
go to
Do you need a discipleship checkup?
Discipleship is something we take seriously here at UBC. Church is not simply some place you just show up to get your God fix. Church is the place we come together to celebrate our unity as followers of Jesus and get filled up again so that we can continue to do the work of the reign of God. It’s the place where we reaffirm our faith, confess our wrongs, remind ourselves that we cannot do this work alone. Church is where we are reminded about discipleship. At this Thanksgiving, I plan to give thanks for this brave and authentic church family.
Seeing clearly is a metaphor for true discipleship throughout Mark’s gospel. Right before today’s Scripture reading, Jesus restored sight to someone who is blind. Being a true disciple means having our eyes open. Jesus sought to open people’s eyes and set people free.
When our eyes are opened, we cannot help but see the suffering of the world. When our eyes are opened, we cannot help but have our hearts opened as well.
When our eyes are opened, we might just be able to see a new way to live in the world.
With our eyes opened, we are free to embrace a new way of living.
With our eyes opened we are free to see a new way to live.
With our eyes opened we are free to confess our shortcomings and embrace the freedom that comes when we join God in bringing in the reign of the divine—when we embrace a world of justice and of peace.
It’s not always a pretty road, this discipleship road, but as long as we are on it, we are walking with God by our side. And God will guide us through every thorny and mire-filled hill and valley on our road to freedom.
And sometimes, if we are honest, we wish our eyes hadn’t been opened.
But when they are opened we can see outside the box.
We can see the way to resurrection.
We can see a world made new, a people renewed and a land flowing with milk and honey.
We’ll see a place where justice rolls down like a mighty water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
We’ll see a new opportunity for relationships were there is no violence, where all are recognized for their own unique gifts.
We can see a vision of a new kind of community.
We’ll be free from the bonds of all of the systems that try to hold us down and call us deranged and demon-possessed.
All because we take seriously the question of “Who do you say that I am.” For the real question is not who you say Jesus is, but who you say that you are.
So who do you say that you are?
That’s the discipleship checkup from Jesus to me and you.
Our job is to envision it and answer it.
Who do others say we are?
Who do you say we are?
Who are we?
Our answer is our diagnosis, and the first step in our world’s cure. Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?”, and by implication, “Who do you say you are?” Peter answered. May we have the courage and the insight to answer as well. Amen.