Who Do You Say That I Am?

Sermon – Who Do You Say That I Am? – Mark 8:27-38
Rev. Sara McCurdy, Laguna Niguel Presbyterian Church
September 15, 2024

        It’s been decades since we first began hearing the term post-Christian nation.  My guess is that most Christian church attenders did not like hearing that our nation is entering a post-Christian Era. I know I didn’t. – Do you remember your initial reaction.   For me it was kind of an “ouch” – post-Christian nation not the world I was hoping for.

I do not want to give the impression that I am advocating for a Christian nationalism agenda. I believe this nation’s diversity both ethnically and religiously along with our Constitutional doctrine of separation of church and state is a big part of what makes us strong and the country the US was meant to be. Identifying a national religion where Christianity is a given is not the answer.          

Research shows there are still places across the country where being a Christian is taken for granted.  Where you could assume with some certainty that the family next door reads the Bible and attends church on Sunday morning.  
     
9 years ago, in 2015 the American Bible Society and the Barna Group updated their list ranking 100 American Christian cities on the basis of Bible-mindedness.  It’s notable that the survey research question 9 years ago was “what are the 100 top Christian Cities.”  They had clear criteria for identifying Christian cities Bible mindedness, for example. Today the research question is phrased a little differently “what the top post Christian cities in the U.S. with clear criteria are as well, for example, do not believe in God, identify as atheist or agnostic. Disagree that faith is important in their lives (the list is long).  As you might expect, common geographic stereotypes are reaffirmed.  The Midwest and the South are the “most Christian” regions in the U.S.  (The top five most Christian cities were Chattanooga, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., Roanoke, Va., Springfield, Mo. and Shreveport, La.   San Diego and Los Angeles ranked 72 and 73 out of 100.)  
     
So, it appears that some North Americans still live where Christianity is the dominant religion.  Now the research question was stated from a post-Christian context. Barna’s new national profile looks at the changing religious make up of American cities using a “post-Christian” metric.  This year the research identifies the 10 most post-Christian cities in America. Instead of identifying the most Chistian cities, the most Bible centered the research today identifies the 10 most post-Christian cities measuring percentages of people who identify as atheist or agnostic, where people do not pray or attend a Christian church, read the Bible, and do not feel any responsibility to share their faith.  The top. Post-Christian cities are Springfield, MA, Portland, ME, Providence, RI, Burlington, VT, Boston, MA.  Santa Barbara, Santa Maria an Sn Lui Obispo, CA made the list at number 9 most post Christian city.  
   
Over the past 10 years the research metric changed and rightly so because today we do live in neighborhoods where we increasingly encounter people with either no religion, the unchurched, or who attended church in the past but no longer attend, the de-churched.  Not what most Christians, what Jesus for that matter wants for others, but there’s a silver lining if you are willing to see it that way. The silver lining is that the religious context in which we live challenges (and I hope causes) us to clarify what it is we believe. Challenges us to see ourselves as capable of changing the world. It’s been said “The only people who can change the world are people who want to. And not everybody does.”― Hugh MacLeod.  

Perhaps no other passage in the Bible does a better job and challenges us more to consider what following Jesus means both personally and for the church as does Mark 8:27-38.  Does following Jesus, for you, mean assuming some responsibility for sharing your faith?  If so, what does sharing your faith look like.  Mark 8:27-38 invites us to explore who God in Christ is.  “Who”, Jesus asks, “do you say that I am”.  Our Christian journey includes answering that question. “Who do you say that I am?”            

And so, who is this God in Christ whom we worship and adore?  As Bible minded people who are regular Bible readers, we believe that God is revealed in Scripture.  The Bible reveals God to be a fully self-giving Holy God who is the fullest revelation of perfect love and steadfast mercy – a sacrificing God who is willing to suffer on behalf of those God saves – on behalf of us.   We worship and obey a savior God who for us was willing to undergo great suffering – and who for the sake of our salvation – out of his love for us was killed – and who, again for us, was raised from the dead.
     
This was Jesus’ own self-revelation. The disciples, especially Peter were not having it. They wanted to reject this description of Jesus. This was an image of God they could not accept, even though Jesus taught them with great authority.  It was a kiros time – a decisive time for Jesus to fully reveal the suffering he would face in Jerusalem – his betrayal –the denial – his suffering and death and, what was perhaps most mysterious and impossible to grasp, his assurance that he will rise again.  And so now as Jesus approached the cross in Jerusalem it was critical for his followers to grasp the divine message of who he is – what kind of Godly Messiah he truly is.   They needed to focus their minds and expectations on divine rather than human things. It was critical for his followers to understand that there is more to being his disciple than watching him heal and hearing him teach with authority.  They must learn what it means to take up their cross and follow him.  
     
Peter could not accept any of this - for which he was sternly rebuked.  Peter had just confessed Jesus to be the Messiah – the first time that title Messiah or Christos in Greek is used in Mark’s gospel.  Peter’s confession of faith sounds right on yet it had an unsettling effect on Jesus.   Jesus took him aside and began to rebuke him.  The verb for rebuke, epi-ti-mAo, is strong language, often used in reference to silencing demons.   “Get behind me Satan”, said Jesus.  “For Peter you, are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”  Which was exactly Satan’s approach when temping Jesus in the wilderness.  Tempting Jesus to get his mind on human things rather than divine.  

21st century “human things”, the things we value from the perspective of culture, in this world really haven’t changed very much from 1st century “human things”.  Jesus is saying, come on Peter, don’t place your hope on “human things” but on “divine things.”  Likewise, our Christian hope for the world is based on the journey Jesus sets out for his followers in this passage.  “If any”, Jesus says, “want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” with hearts open to living for the sake of love as symbolized on the cross, with minds and hearts focused on divine things. Consider this, as the Post Christian era marches on, perhaps this is our kiros moment in which we have a chance and a responsibility to make a difference. The following quote applies to us, “Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ― Barack Obama
     
Divine things – involve sacrificial love – God’s self-giving love for us as revealed on the cross. Human things at least in this passage mean things like:

•Basing respect for Jesus on his strength and authority or

•On the wonder and attention, he received for his perplexing parables and dramatic healings, or

•On the hope of a Messiah that would bring military and political greatness.   Now the Son of God is revealed in the weakness of suffering and death.    Where in Peter’s very human scenario was there a place for that kind of savior? Or for losing oneself for the sake of the gospel or taking up ones own cross.  That contradicts everything that a human mind imagines that God should be. Martin Luther wrote that to know God truly is to know God in Christ, which means to know God hidden in suffering.
     
Because we live in a culture in which Christianity is no longer a given, we are challenged more than ever to keep our minds on divine things rather than on human things.  With minds on diving things, on whom the Bible says that God is, we understand that discipleship comes to us in the form of a cross.  A cross that even today appears as foolishness and weakness to a world that values wisdom in power and strength.  
   
And so once again we find ourselves living within the tension between the values of our faith and the values of the culture.  As disciples this passage calls us to live not on the basis of our culturally determined hopes and conditioned desires.  We are called instead to know ourselves well enough, and this is key – to know ourselves well enough, so that we are able to recognize, label and deny those parts of ourselves that get in our way of truly being Jesus’ followers.  The content of denying oneself – what that means in your life differs significantly person to person.  The cross each one of us is to carry also may differ person to person.    

We live and are immersed in a time and culture that values success measured by numbers and dollars, technological advance, personal and private fulfillment, bravado, and when it comes to the churches, growth that measured once again by size and wealth.  We live in a culture that prides itself on success, deliverance from pain, and dominance on the national and worldwide political scene.  And so, we lose sight of the good things of God. We become focuses on worldly things, on buildings, numbers, worldly organizations, doing worldly things to achieve worldly ends. Buying into those values and then placing our trust and putting our energy primarily into the “human things” of this world is counter to what Jesus asks us to do.       For in this passage Jesus is reminding us that picking up ones cross and following Jesus is a way of being in the world – a way of living that finds truth in a very different way.  It is knowing that faith is not always certainty but an outward and inward journey, that hope is not simply optimism, but hope is discovered in the process of spiritual transformation, and that love is not painless but involves a measure of self-denial as we give up the things we think we want for Jesus’ sake.
 
We don’t live in one of the top five most Christian cities.  And we also don’t live in one of the top post Christian cities   But, we do live in neighborhoods in which we are very likely to encounter people who adhere to a different set of religious beliefs or who even more likely have no religion at all.  And so, we live in a place and time that challenges us to know what it is that we believe, a place and time that challenges us to have our personal answer Jesus’ question the tip of our tongues, “Who Do You Say That I Am?”.   Amen