Saturday, September 9th, 2006
Jesus 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?” 28 And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”a 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. 31 Then 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. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But 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.” 34 He 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. 35 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,a will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words b 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.”
Mark 8:27-38 NRSV
Jesus Christ
are you the son of God?
i want to know
you ask that i believe
not one day goes by
that i don’t compromise your love
for the cold love of the world
it’s killing me through my own evil pride
not one day goes by
that i don’t know that i’m dying
I’m Dying (VAST - off self titled album - fantatstic album!)
Who are you Jesus?
The standard evangelical reply which comes from CS Lewis (I think…) is that there are only three alternatives
Liar
Lunatic
Lord
However this does not hold up today with many people suscribing to conspiracy theories (such as the Da Vinci Code) that there is a massive cover up and that Jesus never really claimed to be the Messiah but that everyone else made it up, or it is some secret code etc …
I am not really interested in this question - if you want to beileve that the whole New Testament is a cover-up and that Jesus really married Mary Magdalene and lived happily ever after then good on you. Jesus is no more or less than any other historical spiritual guru and what he says is not to be taken too seriously as in the famous words of Mr Smith, he is ‘only human’ (Matrix - as if you had to ask …)
What interests me is what happens even if you say Jesus is Messiah (or LORD) …
Here we have Peter saying Jesus is the Messiah, which should get him the thumbs up, right?
WRONG!
What the passage above politely writes as ‘And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him’ is the same command to silence that Jesus yells at the demons when ever they call him ‘holy One of God’!
Man, how hard is this Jesus guy to please? Even when Peter gets it right he is subjected to language that Jesus reserves for demons. If I was Peter I would be quoting the famous phrase from a red-headed ex-MP ‘Please explain!’.
The question is not really whether Jesus is liar, lunatic or LORD, but what sort of LORD is he?
Peter wants a Messiah who will return Israel to the glory days, who will kick the Romans butt and bring forth a golden age for God’s people.
Sound familiar?
Ever heard preachers decrying the sad state of our world and country, where God and his church is no longer top dog, where gays, muslims, greenies and atheists are running our schools and governments? Where our world is on the slippery slope of sin etc …
Now don’t get me wrong, I agree that our world is on the highway to hell - but the question is - what are the real causes and what do we do about it?
Too many Christians see the problem as a rampant secular society and all the moral issues that that raises and that the solution is a world where God and his church is returned to the rightful place of power and our country becomes a ‘Christian’ country run by Christian people (hence the evangelical - vote for Christians as MPs and the rise of Family First).
Sounds Good.
… except this is the exact same sort of thing that Peter wanted and he got told to shut it!
It seems that Jesus isn’t quite on board with the whole power thing.
Becasue that what Peter was all about in this statement - POWER - we want to be on the winning side and by God we want to show those heathen Romans who the boss is!
So how does Jesus reply?
He tells them that the Messiah is the opposite of power - must be rejected, suffer and die - don’t sound to good. And then will ‘rise again’ …
Peter, for one doesn’t like having his power fantasy bubble burst so he takes Jesus aside to rebuke him - and the words are the same once again as what Jesus used to rebuke the demons … what a nerve … you can guess that Peter is in for a hiding and boy does he cop it - now he is SATAN!!! The numo uno disciple and rock on whom Jesus will build his church is none other than SATAN!!! ok - he wasn’t meaning he is actually satan, but that his words were of satan, but still, you get the drift - this is a pretty big slap in the face for Peter!
So far then we have this order of conversation
Peter: Jesus is Messiah
Jesus silences Peter
Jesus is the Son of Man who must suffer
Peter silences Jesus
Jesus silences Peter
Jesus: Peter is satan!
A bit of a war of words here! But this is the point, the war is not about about whether Jesus IS the Messiah, but about WHAT SORT of Messiah he is.
Peter wants power
This is what he gets:
Jesus calls the crowds to him (this was no private teaching) and tells them
you want to call me LORD (follow me)? then
DENY yourself
TAKE UP your place in Guatanomo Bay (todays equivalent of take up your cross)
FOLLOW ME
hmmm . first one is hard - but maybe I could handle that, the third one I get, but that second one … what the hell is he on about?
To call Jesus LORD is to give up every thought we have of comfortable, respectable, nice quiet lives. Instead we are to think of ourselves as the people who the rest of the world forgets about. The people who are despised in the newspapers and opinion polls, the people who our own government refuses to recognise as having rights - they are no longer ‘citizens’ but ‘grey’ people existing in some limbo.
Not really a good advertisment for followers. But this is what Jesus INSISTS that it means to call him LORD.
That it will cost you EVERYTHING.
But …
It is the way of life -the ONLY way of life. Everything else is a fraud.
Now this is the point of the whole thing.
What sort of LORD are you following?
One who offers you power, comfort, respectability, the knowledge you are on the winning team?
Well you better get behind Jesus satan, ‘cos that ‘aint what the man is offering!
He is offering LIFE, but it will cost you everything.
Are your prepared for this journey? Are you ready to travel the road of following Jesus knowing that you are PROMISED suffering? Knowing that you are PROMISED that it will not neccessarily go the way that you want - that it will take you down a narrow road that will COST you?
But that on the way you will find out the meaning of what it truly means to live and be alive and know that your life will last beyond your own mortal body? To not fear death and power because you know that the one you follow has risen, will come again and on that day will vindicate you or give you what your soul and spirit has always longed for?
This is not about being a good member of a church, this is about will you follow Jesus in every aspect of your life.
Unfortunately you won’t neccessarily learn what this means by attending church most sundays.
This is partly why this blog exists - to try and work/live out what it means to follow Jesus - the real Jesus - not the Jesus that Peter wanted.
But Peter ended up getting it - so much so that eventually he died being crucified for his faith in Jesus - upside down at his request - because Peter said that he wasn’t worthy to die in the same way as his LORD. He did give it all up. He did lose his life for his LORD - do I think he regretted it? … No way.
It is hard for us in the western world to belive that anything could be worth risking money and our egos/respectability for (let alone our lives!).
I in no way claim to be a radical disciple who has given everything up - the best I can claim is to being a disciple somewhere between Peter rebuking Jesus and Peter getting crucified upside down - but closer to the Peter rebuking Jesus. This writing is as much a challenge to me. I write it not because I have ‘made it’ in my discipleship, but because I am ‘on the way’ and everyday Jesus challenges me to follow him. When I read passages like above this is what Jesus says to me, and then I pass it on.
All I know is that Jesus is the only one worth following - he is the MESSIAH (and not just a very naughty boy …), he is the only one who gives me life, and as he give me life, I seek to give that life to him the best I can. That challenges me everyday, but I know that Jesus is with me every step of the way.
What LORD are you following?
TWO RESOURCES for seeking to live the way of Jesus We Can be - living the beatitudes
http://wecan.be/
http://www.incommunion.org/articles/issue-30/living-the-beatitudes
Posted in Gospel, Mark | 3 Comments »
Saturday, September 2nd, 2006
Father’s Day
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every fatherhood in heaven and on earth takes its name
Eph 3:14-15
Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father a does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished. Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.
John 6:19-23
“My Dad has to be in a wheelchair but he can do most anything. Except walk and play sprts. But I wouldn’t trade him for anybody, even Mark McGwire!”
Paul
“I love it when he told me about what happened before he became a teacher. His dad really wanted him to be a shoe salesman like him but my dad went to college. When I think of that I know how strong he is.
Megan
(taken from ‘Me & my Dad’ Compiled and Illustrated by Stuart Hample)
In the mid 1970s the Mattel toy company wanted to market a family of dolls called ‘The Heart Family’ with Dad, Mum and two kids. When testing the dolls with children, many of the children took the Father dolls, put them aside and played with the rest of the dolls. When asked ‘What about the Father doll?’ they replied ‘He’s at work’, and left the doll untouched in a corner!
from ‘Manhood’ by Steve Biddulph (abridged).
How many dad’s are untouched in the corner today?
Whether through work, divorce, out with the mates, violence, couldn’t be bothered, too hard …
The list of reasons could go on for ages - but the result is always the same, generations of children (especiially boys) raised mostly, if not soley by their mums.
Now mums have done a fantastic job and I am certainly not knocking them, but the question remains ‘Where have all the father’s gone … long time passing … they opted out every one … when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn’ (thanks Pete Seeger!)
When I walk around the streets of my community (Deception Bay), talk with mums at playgroup, or kids at kids club, I often hear stories of dads who are not there - either not at all, or dad’s who who live at home but are not part of their kid’s life.
I could go and talk about the effects that this has on children, famiies and whole communities - but it will suffice to say that
sick fathers = sick communities
(you could put sick mothers = sick communities, but I think that there is little doubt that on the whole mothering is much more healthy than fathering)
I think of myself as a Dad and my two boys Jordan and Micah (2 & 7 mths - they are beautiful! … mostly) and I think what sort of dad to I want to be - what role model of Fathering is going to help me?
Hence the two passages above.
Ephesians
Here Paul is about to embark on a prayer for the Ephesians and he starts off with this strange line which you have to ask - why put it in a prayer at all? Paul uses this phrase to establish God’s authority/power - God is God and every other authority/power comes from him. For our purposes we are interested less in the naming of God as source of authority and power than the idea that all power/authority including our own fatherhood takes its name and origin from God.
Conclusion - our fatherhood (which is an exercise in our power and authority in our family relationships) takes its origin in God’s fatherhood - this is to say more than just we should be Godly fathers, but the whole concept of fatherhood takes place within the relationships of the trinue God. That is - the real Fatherhood is of God the Father in his fatherhood of Jesus (note that while I use ‘his’ I by no means mean that God is male in any way, even when talking fatherhood - we are talking a relationship not a gender). This is why Jesus says ‘call no man Father, execpt your Father in heaven’ and why he says that when we lose families for Jesus sake we will receive a hundredfold ‘mothers, brothers and sisters’ note no fathers!
This may be a hard concept for us as Father’s to grasp (especially on Father’s day) but we need to acknowledge that there is only one true Father of our children - and that is God the Father. We take our fatherhood from his - as a gift and a responsibility.
This leave the question, that if we take our fatherhood from the true Father of our children, then what sort of father do we have to be to live within God’s Fatherhood?
John
Go back to the top and read this passage again - but as you read it don’t let your eyes glaze over! Read it not as a theological treatise but as a statement about the relationship bewteen a Father and a Son.
When I read this passage in this way I go all warm & fuzzy inside! I think of me working out in the garden with my son ,Jordan, and how he just wants to do what he sees his dad doing (however unhelpful this may be to me!). He copies everything I do, uses the tools I use and cannot bear to be out of my sight so that he can’t see what I am doing, and so that I can see how well he is doing everything with is continual ‘Daddy, watch!’. And I think how when anyone says something good about Jordan, I feel good inside and how protective I am if there is any criticism …
This is the quality of realtionship (times infinity!) that I see in Jesus words. Here is a child who adores his father, who will do nothing other than what his father shows him. And here is a father who holds nothing back from his child. Who show his child everything that he is and has to offer.
To have a Father/child realtionship like this! What a dream - but if I take Paul’s words seriously - this is the relationship that God is calling me to, to live out part of God’s Fatherhood for these children that God has gifted me with.
So what do I take practically from this? What do I need to do (the bottom line …)
Presence and Oneness
Presence
The first and most obvious requirement is of TIME, but not just time without involvement. Presence means being there and available, physically, practically and emotionally. How else can I show my child all of me and who I am unless I spend heaps of time hanging out with them - playing, working, doing the shopping, holding them when they are sick, changing their nappies, disciplining them when they step out of line.
Jesus tells how his Father has show him everything of who he is and how he works, how, is a mystery for us, but the point being is that the Fatherhood from whom we take ours holds nothing back from his children and is involved in every aspect of their lives.
Today, the biggest issue is dads off loading their responsibilities to mums (or mums thinking to be the perfect mum that they have to do everything). There is no dad’s work or mum’s work when it comes to the practicalities of rasing children (ok - except breast feeding and having the baby!). Changing nappies, feeding, playing, clothing, disciplining we MUST be involved in all of it. Who we are in the practicalities is different to mum’s - but there is no escaping the fact that we MUST be involved.
For Dad’s reading this - that is MUST - no ifs, no buts, and definititely no ‘that women’s stuff …’
But going along with the doing of the stuff is the showing of the being - we have to show who we are - our thoughts, morals, reasons, feelings (not just anger) we have to help our children know what is right and wrong, good and decent and why. We have to show them everything because they will try to be like us and if we are shallow and show no depth … pity the children.
Oneness
Secondly, related to this presence we see and oneness of purpose, values, character and being between God the Father and Jesus (if you have seen me you have seen the Father …) - this is scary stuff for us. Do I want my kids to grow up like i REALLY am - not juts the me that I put on in public …?
What sort of person am i trying to be? There can be no put on with kids, they see us as we really are - and that truly is a scary thought, but the grace of God is that they love us anyway!
In this oneness we see a Father who does not see himself as separate to his child, but intrinsically related and part of (i guess since they are God they are ontologically the same being). So much so that the FAther is quite happy to give over his responsibilties (judgement, eternal life etc .. the usual dad jobs!) to his child and hold nothing back. So much so the Father wants the child to share in all his honour, and that to honour the child is to honour the father, and ishonouring the child is dishonouring the Father.
This oneness is probably the most threatening aspect of fatherhood for many guys - you are called to be in essential oneness with your child - not to maintain your distance and retreat to be with your mates when ever things get tough. Sure we need our mates for friendship and support, but not as a place to run away to when we can’t cope so that we can leave the mother to deal with it. Your are called to see yourself and your child as sharing an essential unity and oneness that is sacred.
Oh … and the God bit …
Lastly, we take from John’s passage the uniqueness of Jesus and his Father - God alone has the power of judgement and life and he shares that with his Son Jesus - so when we follow Jesus we come into that relationship with his Father that he has. We find that we have a Father who holds nothing back from us, who love us unconditionally, who wants to show us all that he is.
It sounds too good to be true - but that this is the relationship with God that Jesus promises us when we follow him. Jesus promises us that when we follow him, we get to share in his relationship with God …
that God would be a daddy to us … and not like a human daddy but the perfect daddy that we can always go to when hurt, sad, happy, proud, who shares all our joys and fears and holds nothing of his love back from us …
Sound to be good to be true? That is why it is GOSPEL - GOOD NEWS
I for one can’t think of any better news this Father’s day than that I have a God who is my daddy.
All I pray is that I might be a daddy like him to my boys.
Amen
Posted in Gospel | No Comments »
