Report from The Field

Text:  Mark 8:13-38

Theme:  “Report from the Field”

2^nd Sunday in Lent

March 1, 2015

FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Denton, Texas

Rev. Paul R. Dunklau

+In the Name of Jesus+

31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the 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 concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save their life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? 37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their 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 them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

We bump into our friend the blessed apostle St. Peter again today right here in the gospel reading; it won’t be the last time.  He always makes an appearance in Holy Week and Easter.   He is a classic, “Type A” personality – outspoken, gregarious, risky, the whole nine yards.   In Lent, we get what our Roman Catholic friends call the “first pope” in all his unvarnished glory.  We also get a handful of not so good moments.  Peter could get things so very right.  On the other hand, when he got it wrong he got it really wrong. 

But there is more to life – then and now – than matters of right and wrong.  Christianity in general seems so breathlessly concerned about right and wrong these days.  Perhaps it’s just the Bible belt effect; I don’t know.   Moral pronouncements are having a considerable run.  When the statistics start showing a generational shortfall in church involvement (and they do), then the church, it seems, doubles down on the moral pronouncements.  But again, there is more to life – then and now – than matters of right and wrong. There is always – and we can be grateful for this – Jesus! 

Certainly, one of the neat things about Jesus is that He had an uncanny knack for holding the attention of people.  The folks would sit spellbound at the yarns He would spin and the stories He could tell.  It was as if time stood still.  All the babies stopped crying.   It is said that He “spoke as one who had authority and not as the teachers of the law.”  With Rabbi Jesus they didn’t get the standard, religious boilerplate regurgitated for the umpteenth time. 

Yet, raconteur Jesus wasn’t always telling stories.  There were those occasions, as in today’s gospel, where he “spoke plainly”.  Raconteur Jesus becomes the Joe Friday “Dragnet” Jesus:  “Just the facts, please”; or as Aaron Neville so beautifully sings it:  “Tell it like it is!”

The fact is:  “31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this… .”

Guess who didn’t like the plain talk?  That’s right; it’s Peter.  He took Jesus aside and gave him the proverbial “what for”! “Jesus, listen up!  I’m going to tell you how the cow ate the cabbage.”   It says he “began to rebuke” Jesus.  All of this plain talk about suffering, rejection, death, and some tomfool notion about resurrection obviously didn’t fit Peter’s ideas of what the Messiah should be and what the Christ, the Son of the living God, ought to be doing. 

On the word “rebuke” in the Greek language, I checked my Kittel.  Kittel is the name of the editor for the gold standard in Bible dictionaries:  The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament.  All twelve hardbound volumes, put together, weighs, I think, about thirty pounds.

According to Kittel, Peter was on dicey ground with his rebuke.  A “rebuke” was something that was basically God’s to do.  The only time a human, a child of God, could do a legitimate rebuke was in the case of brotherly correction.   Perhaps Simon Peter was trying to correct Jesus with all this nasty talk of going off and getting Himself killed.  Maybe Jesus was having a bad day; we’ve all had them.  We say things we really don’t mean. 

It’s either that or the rebuke was a threat, a threat to pull off a palace coup.  In short, “Jesus, if you keep talking like this, we’re giving you the boot and we’re going to take over your job.”  That certainly sounds more devilish.

Either way, right or wrong, there is always Jesus.  He turns to the apostolic band and, as God in the flesh, does a “rebuke” the right way.  He rebukes Peter with this statement:  “Get behind me, Satan.  You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” 

I conclude this morning by giving you a very short report from the field.  Jesus was often “out in the field” and away from Jerusalem and the synagogue.  Today’s reading likely took place in Caesarea Philippi. I mention the place because it was the farthest point away from Jerusalem that Jesus ever got – according to the gospels.  So He was out there in the field, so to speak.

I believe, to the extent possible, that His ministers should be too.  So, with that said, I file a brief report from the field.

Four and a half years ago, I was told this congregation wanted a ministry and minister more involved in the community.  With God’s help, this ministry has attempted to do that.  Currently, I’m serving on three boards:  Denton Christian Preschool, Denton Morning Rotary, and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.  Not only that, I get to mix and mingle in our community through the many ways my wonderful wife has chosen to exercise her faith.  There’s Denton Benefit League, the Ariel Club, the “You are Beautiful” luncheon which raises money for cancer research, and I could go on and on. 

I’ve met all kinds of people.  I bump heads with many of the younger generation when I train.  In all of my experience, one thought emerges:  there is a spiritual hunger out there.  And I say that, more specifically, about the generation which comes after me:  the 20somethings, the 30somethings, the young millennials.  Too bad if it makes me feel old!

Look at the world they’re growing up in.  They wake up to uncertainty.  Although they may not say it plainly, they’re worried sick about what the future will hold.  They want desperately to connect.  Have you ever seen them work an iPhone?  A significant number of them have walked away from the church.  And we, in the church, sometimes scratch our collective heads about that. 

But we really shouldn’t.  They’ve just grown weary of the standard, religious boilerplate – like so many of the folks in Jesus’ day.   Yet now, more recently, they’re starting to question a few other things – things such as their own indifference to spiritual matters, and, in some cases their own atheism and agnosticism.  They’ve had those views for awhile now, and they seen those views and wonder if they’re going to hold up. 

Can we, as a church, leave the boilerplate in the boiler room?  In other words, can we give them a place where they feel safe to explore, anew, what we cherish as the good news of Jesus Christ? Can we celebrate the good things they bring to the table and not let it get clouded over by what we are tempted to think as bad things?   Can we portray for them, as we see in the life of Peter, that we are not these paragons of virtue trying to straighten them out.  We are people like Peter, people like them, people who sometimes get it very right and, at other times, get it very wrong.  We are on a journey through this life together, and we simply want to value what Jesus did:  the soul.

“What would it profit a person,” asks Jesus in today’s text, “if he/she gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul?”  What about the younger crowd?  They’re tempted each day to forfeit their own soul; it’s like a slow death by a thousand little, spiritual cuts out there.

Even though the devil got the better of Peter that day and Jesus rebuked him, that doesn’t mean that Jesus didn’t love him and VALUE his soul.  My soul, your soul, the souls of the millennials, the souls of every human being that has ever lived – all of them were worth Him giving His body and blood for. 

My report is that people are hungry; they’re looking for the straight-up, plain-spoken Jesus.  And we who have known that plain-spoken Jesus must trust that the Holy Spirit will work in them as the Spirit sees fit. 

Amen.