Sermon Notes March 1 Ps. 22, Mk. 8:31-38

March 1 2015 Mk 8, Ps. 22

We just read of the Transfiguration, that preview of Easter majesty. Now we step back from that bright reading to this crucial one, perhaps central one, in Mark’s story. Some folks come to church to seek some relief from the stresses in life.some come to church hoping that the whole of life gets represented in the liturgy. the ups and downs together.Some seek motivation to see the world in a constant stream of uplift.Lent is a season where we do step back from cultural optimism and recognize the pain and struggle in life. In Lent we are careful together the valley and shadow experiences within God’s embrace.

So often I hear people go into reverie about what it would be like to hear Jesus first hand. My guess is that we would react like Peter did if we heard this warning from his lips, because we do all the time. Peter treats Jesus  as if he has lost his mind, or is possessed. Rebuke was often associated with expelling a demon, recall . Peter is laboring under an assumption. surely the long awaited messiah would usher in an era of good feeling, of power and prosperity for his people. What is this business of continuing suffering borne by the messiah? Had they not suffered enough? I wonder if Peter could even hear the words of rising again and stopped right at suffering, rejection, and being killed?

I do not think that Jesus is referring of small acts of self denial and discipline here, neither about his own life nor the life of disciples.What does Jesus mean to gain the whole world here? (mega church pastoral issues here?) We need to be careful here about self-denial, what Calvin called the core value of the faith. I do not think it means the sense of going on  a diet and not getting cheesecake for dessert, or even the Lenten discipline of “giving something up for Lent. “Self-denial does not mean seeking or embracing abuse for its own sake, as if suffering itself is redemptive or a mark of virtue. Jesus has spent over seven chapters alleviating needless suffering or oppression whenever he encounters it; how could he be endorsing these things here?... Self-denial and redefinition come with their risks. Likewise, cross-bearing ...means death. It means the resignation of one's... life. Crosses imply rejection.Those who follow Jesus, associating with this vividly rejected Christ, take on an identity and a way of living that pose threats to the world's corrosive ideologies and idolatries.(M. Skinner)

I’ve mentioned that Eden Seminary has the great Clinton Mccann teaching Psalms and Ot, so I have sat in on a number of his classes this past fall. Even he wants to lessen the  impact of the cry of Jesus using the opening words of the prayer in light of its more comforting conclusion. Psalm 22 serves as a template for consideration of the suffering and death of Jesus. It is a classic long lament prayer. “It is the prayer Jesus had on his lips at his death. .the prayer knows that God can hear beyond the fact of death.  Not only will the living praise God, but all those "who sleep in the earth" (verse 29) and, "the yet to be born" (verse 31).. And so, we cry out to God with all who have lived, and died, including Jesus.  Few Lenten exercises would exceed learning to pray the lament deeply.We cheat ourselves of the full range of life if we neglect lament, if we shove the cross aside in light of Easter alone.