Year B
Mark 8:31-38
The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn
The Smooth Waters of Faith
If baptism is where we began our Lenten journey last week in the texts, the next step of that journey is surely faith. To set out on any journey calls for some faith, doesn’t it? A journey I’ve often thought I might like to take. One that would be very exciting and scary would be going whitewater rafting down some fast flowing mountain stream. Whitewater rafting surely requires a lot of trust. As a rider, you trust the person guiding you with your safety. As a guide, you trust the riders to listen and obey your directions. That trust becomes a pact, a covenant, and both parties must uphold their side. Our pilgrimage through these forty days of Lent calls for this kind of pact, a covenant of faith in what God wants for us. We have to believe and trust in our guide. In life, our guide is the Lord.
Yet sometimes it seems we are asked to believe the unbelievable, and believing becomes very difficult. We can see the danger that lays ahead possibly some rapids so we either panic; get frightened, or we trust the instructions of the guide and dig in with our paddles and row with all our might. No matter how scary it gets or impossible it seems we know the guide has been on those waters before and we can trust the guide knows the way through the rocks. Yet, nurturing a belief in something that seems unbelievable is tough and in a sense, every Christian is invited to this at times.
Our Christian journey which starts in baptism soon takes that next step of believing against all the odds. And yet, ironically, faith can mature to the degree that we are willing to trust God and ourselves to accomplish the impossible. This fundamental feature of faith is scattered about in all our lessons for this second Sunday in Lent and knits them together into a continuous discussion. The lessons today remind us that we are to be open, optimistic, and hopeful people willing to take that first step and trust that God will be there to lead us in God’s paths. And that God will make sure we get through this rocky and sometimes scary ride to the smooth water on the other side.
Abraham has to trust that God can do these things, as God lays out the divine plan (land, descendants, making him the father of nations). He has to believe God can bring life out of death, a nation out of a barren womb, something major out of something meager. Abraham and Sarai expressed trust in God and graciously received new names from God. They believed the promise of the birth of a son and accepted the tremendous responsibilities that would surely follow. After their initial shock, they opened themselves to the future that would radically change their lives.
The apostle Paul reminded the Christian Community in Rome that the promises made to Abraham and Sarah depended on faith, not on the law. Filled with hope they believed the promise of God and did not waver from it. Paul strongly stated that authentic life for those under the New Covenant comes by accepting through faith the saving, justifying love of Jesus Christ. The question of faith for every one of us is no different from Abraham’s. Do we believe, in spite of every scientific or philosophical reality, as impossible as it might be, that God “gives life to the dead and calls things that don’t exist into existence?” That is, after all, what the gospel is all about. Do we “have faith in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead?” The resurrection is proof that life can come out of death. And with it comes the final verdict that light conquers darkness and sin is wiped away out of sheer love and grace.
This is the covenant that God has made with everyone who trusts that the Lord can bring life out of death; Jesus will be with us, forgive our sins, and we, too, will be credited as righteous. If we can trust like Abraham, if we are willing to faithfully and wholeheartedly love and serve the God who raised Jesus from the dead, then we are a part of the family of Abraham. We are part of Paul’s family. We are all a part of a family of imperfect people who have nevertheless been saved by God’s grace. Our faith has been credited to us as righteousness. Yet, sometimes this faith wavers when it’s actually put to the test. Even the most faithful and willing, like Peter today in our gospel lesson can struggle with trusting and following Jesus.
I’m sure he thought he was fully behind Jesus. Right before our text today, Peter and the other disciples had stopped outside of Caesarea Philippi when Jesus asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter declared, “You are the Christ.” But Peter couldn’t understand the depths of what he was saying. So when Jesus openly and honestly tells the twelve that he must “undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” It is not what Peter wants to hear and since time is getting short and events are happening quickly, Jesus does not tell a parable or offer a lengthy discourse. Instead, he immediately takes Peter aside and sets him straight.
Jesus was not condemning Peter to everlasting damnation. He was correcting his limited and inadequate concept of the Messiah. Peter and the other disciples did not expect Jesus to suffer; and they certainly were not ready for him to die at the hands of his opposition. When we are honest with ourselves, most of us must have to admit we struggle intellectually over the same issue. Why did Jesus have to suffer? He calmed the storm, changed water into wine, fed multitudes with a child’s lunch, healed the sick, and raised the dead, how could this worker of wonders and miracles allow his enemies to defeat him?
Mark quotes Jesus’ explanation. He tells Peter “You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” The Human One must undergo great suffering. The path to victory goes though defeat. The journey toward life passes through death. To receive forgiveness, we have to take a long, difficult look at our sinful lives. This tells us a lot about God’s plan for our journey as Jesus then goes on to speak to the rest of the disciples and the crowd…and to us today, “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.”
If we want to follow Christ and place our faith in God, then we must say no to ourselves and take up our cross. This is the way. Jesus calls us to: come after him and follow him; do what is necessary, not what is easy; let go of all the stuff we think we need or anything that hinders our journey with Christ; trust God’s way is better, because in the end it is the only way that leads to life; and take up our cross. When Jesus challenges us to take up our cross, he’s asking us to embrace the consequences of following him; to live our lives sharing the gospel with the world.
Charles Wesley said it this way: “Christ has many services to be done; some are easy, others are difficult; some bring honor, others bring reproach; some are suitable to our natural inclinations and temporal interests, others are contrary to both. In some we may please Christ and please ourselves; in others we cannot please Christ expect by denying ourselves. Yet, the power to do all these things is assuredly given us in Christ, who strengthens us.” Jesus is ready to open the kingdom to us and give us everything we need.
He went to the cross to being us salvation but let us remember; the Roman and Jewish authorities did not take his life from him. He willingly gave it and in our own ways, may this be true of our lives as well. If we take that first step and trust, God will be there. He will lead us in his paths. God will help us carry our cross to follow. God will make sure that we get through this rocky and sometimes scary ride to the smooth water on the other side.