Saugatuck Congregational Church, UCC
©Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
March 1, 2015
Scripture: Mark 8:31-38
Some of the bravest people I know are recovering alcoholics. The ones who keep showing up for AA meetings. The ones who choose their vacation destinations based on whether there is a twelve-step meeting near-by. The ones who admit, every day that they won’t make it alone, that they need a community and they need God to get them through. What I admire isn’t their ability to stop drinking (although that’s hard enough); it’s the courage with which they acknowledge what is really true for every one of us: that we are flawed; that we screw up, we fumble and fail; that at least some of the time, we all stumble along, weighed down by fear, confusion or doubt. It takes courage – and unrelenting honesty, to admit that we don’t always have it all together, that we can’t make it alone.
Our culture values strength. Achievement. Stoicism in the face of adversity. Imperfection is frowned on: gray hair is tinted and wrinkles are airbrushed away. Political speeches are polished and public appearances by the rich and famous are painstakingly planned. At work, in school, on the ball field and in the board room: so much of our lives is about maintaining the appearance of confidence and skill.
When I served on the staff at the Peoples Church of Chicago, I sometimes hosted youth groups who traveled to our neighborhood for an ‘urban immersion’. One Saturday morning, a visiting youth group gathered in the Peoples Church sanctuary. Randall, our senior minister, sat on the edge of the stage, wearing jeans, his hair pulled back in a short ponytail, and talked about our congregation – which included a whole mix of people: professors and students, a carpenter and an airline attendant; business professionals, a poet; homeless folks and people living with mental illness. Randall described what it was like to make space for all those people in worship – including the man who rambled on during the prayer time, because he hadn’t take his medication that morning, or the bi-polar woman who was full of talkative energy one week and profoundly depressed the next.
When Randall finished speaking, one of the adult leaders approached me, visibly moved. We sat together on two of the well-worn, theater-style seats in the sanctuary and she told me that she is bi-polar. “The thing is,” she said, and her eyes teared up, “I could never say that in my own church. I could never talk about having a mental illness.”
That conversation happened years ago, but I still remember how she thanked us for speaking so openly about mental illness – right there in the church sanctuary. And I wonder: how many of us move through the world –feeling like she did: like we have something we should hide; like we can’t possibly share the grief or the trouble that weighs us down? How many of us know what it feels like to put on a brave face, to keep up appearances, because more than anything, we want folks to think that we’ve got it all together…?
Which brings me to that conversation between Peter and Jesus: “Who do people say that I am?” Jesus asks. Peter, devoted Peter, answers without hesitation: “You are the messiah! You are the One we’ve been waiting for, the one who will change everything!” This is all well and good, but when Jesus begins to speak openly about his own suffering and death, Peter balks. He pulls Jesus aside and rebukes him – scolds Jesus. “What are you talking about? Jesus: you are the One, the Victor, the next Davidic King…Kings don’t suffer: they conquer!”
Peter’s tradition had taught him that the messiah would restore the Jewish people to their former glory, to that long-ago time when King David ruled the people with Justice and Peace. That’s what Peter was envisioning: A leader who’s got it all together: A powerful and perfect King. So it’s not surprising that he’d be confused by Jesus’ talk of suffering and death. “Die? You can’t die. That’s not how the story is supposed to go!” Jesus’ response might startle us as much as it startled Peter: “Get behind me, Satan! You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
… not on divine things but on human things.
It turns out, that the Divine is not concerned with power and perfection; we are. God is more concerned with healing and wholeness, compassion and justice. God knows we, all of us, fumble and fail. We fall off the wagon. Just like the disciples, we misunderstand, misinterpret, misbehave and mistake Jesus for what he is not. Like Peter, we may be tempted by perfection: We want glory without suffering.
But glory doesn’t heal the world. Glory doesn’t mend broken hearts or ease the pain of mental illness or give someone the courage to stay sober every day. Christ does that, not by avoiding suffering, but by wading into the fray, by choosing to walk the difficult road with us. Some call this the scandal of the cross: that Jesus – of all people – would suffer and die, would seem to us to have failed. But believe it or not: This is the Good News. It’s what recovering alcoholics talk about: that the Holy One does not take short cuts, does not skip over suffering on the way to glory, but rather meets us in our turmoil, helps us to pick up the pieces and lends us the strength to become something new.
Jesus said, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up the cross and follow me; for those who want to save their life will lose it…” Here’s what I think he meant: When we get too hung up on appearances, when we invest all our energy in preserving our own lives – our own image, we lose sight of the real call to discipleship: which is not to look good, but to do good; not to be perfect, but to be faithful.
That takes courage. It takes courage to be a community that makes space for all of us imperfect people – courage and honesty and grace to open wide our arms and welcome each other not just when we have it all together, but when everything is falling apart.
Here’s the astonishing news: when we do that, when we lay down our lives for one another, we discover what it really means to be members of Christ’s Body, bound together, not by power and perfection, but by our very brokenness: bound together with everyone else who has ever stumbled along, weighed down by fear, confusion or doubt. Bound together with our neighbors across the room and across the globe, and by the life-restoring good news that well before we get it all sorted out, we are already well-loved.
This Lent, as we journey toward the cross, may God bless each of us – and all of us – with the courage to acknowledge that we cannot make it alone, and the grace to discover that we do not have to. Amen.
Scripture
Mark 8:31-38 – NRSV Translation
27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” 28And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man 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. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For 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. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”