Ordinary 24

The Twenty-Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Isaiah 50:4c-9a; Psalm 116; James 2:14-18; Mark 8:27-35

People talk about others. They talk about you and me. People make presumptions and judgements based on…on what. They don’t’ really care about people or the truth. They just like to talk. The dark side of such talk is called gossip. Likewise, we talk about other people, don’t we?

Have you ever wanted to know what people were saying about you?

Jesus did. “Who do people say that I am?”

The Gospels record that people thought Jesus was a drunkard and a glutton. They judged and complained about him because of the unsavory people he hung out with.

Some people thought he was the executed John the Baptist. Odd since the lifestyle and message of both men was so different. John was anti-social, queerly dressed. He could come off as angry and self-righteous.

Other people thought Jesus was another dead man, the ancient prophet Elijah. Elijah stood by himself against the nation of Israel. Was he eccentric, faithful to God, unreasonable, or just obnoxious? He prayed that God take his life. Elijah was tired of shouldering God’s demands.

Peter affirms, “You are the Christ – the Messiah!” Seemingly the correct answer. So why does Jesus order all of his disciples not to tell anyone he is the Christ and rebuke Peter? It doesn’t make sense, does it?

The answer? “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.”

Well, how does God think?

If Scripture reveals God’s way of thinking to us, then God thinks in ways that are reversed of ours. To die is to live, to save your life you must lose it, deny yourself. This is in opposition to our psychologically grounded society.

We repeatedly tell our children they are ‘special’. People go off to ‘find’ themselves. Commercials persistently tells us we ‘deserve’ whatever they are selling. We claim ‘rights’ for ourselves but acknowledge no ‘responsibilities’ to others. The image of Christ crucified is at the center of our faith, yet we do not think we should suffer.

In this light, today’s Gospel raises many uncomfortable questions.

Why do people who are devoted to God have to suffer?

Does God take pleasure in human suffering? Many people throughout history have stopped believing in God over the issue of a supposedly good God and evil coexisting in this world. Suffering in and of itself has no value. Yet suffering is part and parcel of the human experience.

The servant of Isaiah: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” Jesus reveals today that “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected…and be killed…”

God’s people suffer. God is experienced as silent. Yet how much of the world’s suffering is inflicted by humans beings on other human beings?

The crucified Christ reveals a God who suffers and dies with and for us.

What does it mean to lose your life?

Consider as I have the whirling dervishes of Sufi Islam gently spinning and spinning into the mystery or simply getting lost in a daydream.

The crucified Christ reveals a God who conceals and loses God’s self in humanity.

What does it mean to deny yourself?

The passage does not mean to deny something to yourself like we do in Lent or when fasting but rather to remove yourself from consideration; from the spotlight.

The crucified Christ reveals the humility of God.

So many of these paradoxes of Jesus go against the thinking of our contemporary society. But Jesus didn’t come among us as a counselor, psychologist or therapist. The way of the Spirit is therefore counter to the thinking of the world.

In a recent conversation about September 11, it was said we had to respond to such horrific violence. I agree. But my thought has been, how could we have responded differently? You may argue that nations aren’t Christian. You would be correct. But violence has always bred violence. The abuse of power always deals out death. And where has it gotten us human beings over the ages? Isn’t the point of Christianity that we bring another vision for humanity, a divine way of thinking to the table?

In his treatise, “What’s Wrong with the World” G. K. Chesterton wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

Peter is rebuked because he did not want to hear about suffering, rejection, and death; losing and denying ourselves. If we are honest, neither do we. Thus Chesterton’s ‘difficulty’ is what it means to be “Christ.”

Do we want to be the Christ we were baptized into?