Cut Peter some slack

 

SERMON PREACHED at St MARY’S, NORTH OAMARU

ORDINARY SUNDAY 19 (26^th September) 2021

 

Readings:

 

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Psalm 124

James 5:13-20

Mark 9:38-50

 

In Mark’s gospel-account we have we have the work of an instinctive story-teller. In this series of glimpses into Jesus’ relationship with his followers – and the implication id s that we too are those followers, they are simply  obtuse and obtuser – or to put it in real English, dumb and dumber. With apologies to Peter and the crowd, you really just don’t get it, do you? And yes, I shall put my fingers over my ears and refuse to hear you, Peter, saying “and nor, bro, do you.” I hear “lalalala,” okay? I’m not listening!

You know – I mean really … does a couple of hundred words back Mark tells a weird story about Jesus, when he talks about defecation and the Kingdom of God (Mk 7:17-23) then playfully warns his followers to concentrate, or they will join the ranks of the ne’er do well. Perhaps the warning is they never left them. Sand yeah, Peter, I can’t hear you saying “an’ nor bro, did you.” Lalalala.

But it’s not just Peter and his mates, I guess. I mean the Pharisees. C’mon! Jesus feeds a whole lot of hungry people out of nowhere, and those religious of his day trundle along and say “Jesus mate, show us a sign that you’re who you say you are.” But Peter, really you take the cake. You even tell Jesus that he’s the Messiah, pay lip service to getting it, and then try to stop him doing Messiah stuff. And yeah I get that you were expecting a bit of a revolution and the overthrow of the Caesar, but really? Hasn’t Jesus just been saying that outward appearances don’t count for much, that it’s what’s in the gut that matters? As it happens in a Covid era we might begin to get that: if I do meth, it’s revealed in the sewers. If I have covid it’s revealed in the sewers. Jesus didn’t miss much, eh?

And now, Peter, James, John, you’ve had a really big Wow moment, just you and Jesus up a sort of Palestinian Mount Cargill, and you start bickering about who’s the top dog? And some other passing dude performs a really life giving miracle and you whinge because you didn’t get to do the histrionics? C’mon.

This of course is all masterfully knit together by Mark. Matthew and Luke get all a bit po-faced about it, and I guess it’s good we get their stuff too. But Mark strings us along. Man, we’re the suckers here.

I once had a colleague who shall remain nameless, but he was a masterful storyteller. I remember once he told us a story which had us all killing ourselves laughing because one of the characters in the story was making an absolute fool of himself. And then suddenly the nameless storyteller turned on us and said “Come on guys you are that person.” And we realized we were. How often do we see those outside our doors and whinge­ because they are doing the work of God? Those who are working astronomical hours to keep us safe in an age of covid?

Basically, and to be fair, it’s not surprising, and we need to cut Peter and his sometimes mates a little slack. The Hebrew people had long expected a Messiah. They did not expect him to start talking about suffering dying, and then some nonsense about rising again. That was not in the playbook.

But there’s strong hints that we are as western Christianity replicating those same errors. The Christian community presents, by and large, as a group of nay-sayers. The most popular faces of Christianity are those who wave big sticks and condemn others who don’t behave they way they do – or in some case they pretend to do. Too many bearing the name of Christ condemn those who declare that love is love, condemn those who are seeking to save vulnerable people from a rampant virus, condemn those of other faiths who perform stunning acts of compassion and kindness – giving a cup of water – with more credibility than many Christian spokespeople do.

Mark was a stunning storyteller. He tells, with humour, tension, energy – of the Jesus who enters into the dark places of human existence, the Myanmars, the Afghanistans, the Covid wards, the suicide statistics and there, in these hells, releases hope, compassion, kindness. Mark’s telling conveys the warmth of the Messiah who would soon be crucified yet who loves even today. Mark tells of the Jesus who does all this and then says to us, ‘c’mon, you lot, do likewise.” And even that isn’t the end of the story, because Jesus sends his Spirit to guide, warn – I always want to say “warm” because that too – and revive us, his church. And our simple task is, as best we can, to go, do likewise. Aided as we can be by the Spirit of God.