St Albans Uniting Parish

Readings

Genesis 17: 1-7, 15-16

In Genesis 9 the covenant is expressed in terms of permanent stability of the world but now it guarantees the succeeding generations of a people.  This covenant links the promise of land with people through a special relationship with God. 

Interestingly, although Abraham is regarded as the father of a nation, the mother of the nation is also specified in Sarah and just as Abraham was renamed so was she.  Abraham’s firstborn son was Ishmael but that was Hagar’s son not Sarah’s so was not part of the covenant of people and land.  However Islam understands Ishmael, the firstborn of Abraham as the significant firstborn.

Mark 8:31-38

Today’s reading follows on from the incident on the road from where Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah.  The road from Caesarea Philippi is a turning point in Mark’s Gospel.  Up to this point we have been introduced to who Jesus is and from now on the focus is on the road to Jerusalem and the cross which fits our Lenten journey to Easter.

Bill Loader writes that this reading is about choosing to be faithful followers of Jesus and not to renege on all that he stands for.

Being true to him, to God and to ourselves will sometimes mean hardship, unpopularity, even death. There is no great value in being killed because of one’s obsession with religion or with an image of Jesus like Peter seemed to have. But there are times when love, will expose us to grave danger.  But when we fail, in the interests of our survival, we fail everybody.

To live in a compromised state where our will and focus is divided is the more common malady for us and we all too often find ways in which we can make ourselves comfortable with it.[1]

Sermon

A long time ago as I was taking my first tentative steps into ordained ministry I was talking to someone who worshiped at the parish Raewyn and I first worshiped at.  In the course of the conversation I said that as I was studying I was also working at Parklands Cooperating Parish.  He replied that was a union parish and he didn’t like union parishes because all union parishes were failing and the only true parish was a growing parish. 

On reflection that was probably the Holy Spirit preparing me for ministry at St Albans Uniting, which we all know is a successful parish.  Furthermore we are part of the Uniting Congregations of Aotearoa New Zealand and when I attended the latest forum of that organisation last year I got the impression that Union and Cooperating parishes have a significant role to play in the reforming of the wider church in New Zealand.  Such a reform of course will not be organised, strategized and debated by conferences assemblies, synods or even the Uniting Congregations of Aotearoa New Zealand.  Nevertheless I sincerely believe the Holy Spirit has a plan and when it evolves we will have been a part of it.

The other thing that is apparent to me is that my past acquaintance had not read today’s gospel reading, or more likely he had not come to grips with the challenge it presents. 

The idea of numerical growth as a measure of success is seductive and was probably inferred in Satan’s temptations in the wilderness.  However we are reflecting on the world of Mark’s Gospel so we have not been told about any specific temptations. 

But we have read Jesus’ rebuke to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan!  For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ (Mark 8:33) 

So Mark brings this numerical success temptation out of the wilderness and places the personified tempter where we so often find our temptations coming from, our acquaintances, often from those closest to us.  Peer pressure is what such temptation is referred to when we are teenagers and it can grow into a mob mentality if we don’t bring it under control in our youth. 

From this discussion between Jesus and his disciples we can suspect that Peter’s view of a Messiah involved inspired leadership that drew an ever increasing crowd of followers.  In fact, Mark tells us about the crowds that Jesus drew round him, and the miracles required to feed such numbers.  Mark also tells us about Jesus slipping away from such crowds and keeping with the small band of close followers he called disciples, or students.  Today’s reading was probably one of the disciples’ toughest lectures and it took Jesus’ death to get them to fully understand it.

To apply Jesus’ teaching to the church would almost justify reversing my acquaintance’s suggestion that the only true church is a growing church and say that the only true church is a contracting church.  That is a bit extreme. 

However one of the features of discipleship in Mark’s Gospel is that they failed.  The disciples failed to understand Jesus’ mission, they deserted him at his time of most need but they were forgiven by the risen Christ and sent out on mission. 

That is the ongoing history of the church as it continually becomes seduced by the world’s values and seeks powerful support and popularity over Jesus’ mission.  Then a small group seeks reform, the church is forgiven and sent out on mission.

A true church is neither a failed church nor a successful church in the world’s values.  A true church is a mission church.  A mission church is a church that is prepared to risk failure because it is not inward focussed but engaged in mission to the world around it. 

The idea that success is measured by numerical growth belongs to the world of unbridled capitalism and imperial expansion both of which are the opposite of the gospel image of Jesus’ kingdom of God.  That was the point that Jesus was making to his disciples. Jesus’ vision of a more fulfilling way of being human was totally different to the world that worshiped their emperor as a god who expected to be served.  As the inspiration of a divine way of ordering human society Jesus expected to serve others, to heal the sick and include the excluded.  Jesus’ way of ordering human society was a challenge to the existing order and as such was dangerous. 

Furthermore, his world was dangerous, the Romans were the imperial power, but they were resented by Israel whose Temple based theocracy had been seriously compromised by the now collapsed Greek Empire.  We only need to look at our own world to see how dangerous life is when stable governments are threatened by rebellion and foreign powers form alliances to fight their own struggles for trade dominance by proxy.  Simply to talk about the kingdom of God was dangerous because the use of the word kingdom inferred that someone was challenging the existing authority and that is treason which, for most of history, has been a capital offence.

Apart from the clash with the money changers and merchants in the temple we don’t know how politically challenging Jesus’ ministry was although biblical scholars like Ched Myers distil challenges to the Roman Empire and feudalism out of the gospel text.

What is more important is to look at how so much of today’s church works in the exact opposite way to the servant leadership that Jesus stresses in today’s gospel reading. 

At a course on direct mail advertising I attended once I was told that a good advertising letter must offer the reader ‘health, wealth and happiness but only if the reader responds now.’ Ever since then I have checked every piece of direct mail that comes into our house. Not only do these mailings follow that format but the same message bursts out of our television screen promoting dubious products with the price nicely hidden behind the cost of a not quite free trial. 

What upsets me most however is that large growing churches often use the same formula.  What is known as the prosperity gospel not only expects congregations to grow but promises potential converts, health, wealth and happiness but only if they make a commitment to Jesus right now.  Furthermore the commitment invariably involves a gift of cash which opens the door to the exploitation of the poor.  It was Jesus’ opposition to poverty and concern for the poor which most likely got Jesus crucified. 

The core heresy of the prosperity gospel is, not only the idea that a growing church is a successful church but, that anybody that gives their life to Jesus will be successful in the world’s terms. 

That is the idea that prosperity gospel churches use to exploit the vulnerable because it can be twisted around to say if you are not wealthy then you are not giving enough to the church.  Under that heresy low paid people get into debt by trying to be rewarded by God.  Furthermore pastors excuse their excessive lifestyles on the basis that they have to show how much God has rewarded their faithfulness as an example to their congregation. 

Across two thousand years of church history Mark sends the words of Jesus to us.

‘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 life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it.’ (Mark 8: 34,35)

We have talked about a church relentlessly following Jesus in mission to the community without regard for the congregation’s survival but we must also recognise that Jesus’ comments here are directed at individuals. 

We live in a world of individuality where we are encouraged to take responsibility for our own wellbeing.  In our world the poor are blamed for their own poverty and rape victims are blamed for the way they dress.  We even come close to blaming the sick for not eating the right food or choosing a healthy lifestyle. 

Our focus on the individual has become so pronounced that many voluntary organisations have faded away with church congregations just being one among many.  Even sport has become professional to the point that school sport is career focussed. 

People in our world are choosing to save their own life, even sometimes at the expense of others.  Within such a world-view Jesus’ warning that those who want to save their life will lose it seems very strange indeed. However school shootings in the United States are at the top of the news at the moment highlighting the tragedy that the United States can’t pass laws to control guns because that would interfere with people’s individual rights.

When Jesus suggests that ‘those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel will save it,’(Mark 8:35) he his suggesting that putting community first is life giving.  That’s what Australia did when following a mass shooting in Tasmania, in 1996, they enacted much stricter gun control and haven’t had a mass shooting since.  They reduced the rights of the individual in a small way and saved their communities from the misery that the United States continue to suffer with thirty mass shooting incidents this year so far.  

Jesus quite rightly warns us that following his example can be risky.  We may not be crucified but even in our benign society there are risks in going against the mood of our society.  But at the heart of the gospel message is Jesus’ call to live our lives for others and two thousand lives of church history testifies to that truth.

The gospel promise is that if we stop living self focused lives, and follow Jesus’ example of living for others, we will truly live.