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| Andre-Rublev's Saviour |
Homily
preached by Br. Luke at Blaxland on Sunday 1st March 2015:
Second Sunday of Lent
Readings:
There is so
much to focus on in today’s readings.
But I’d like to begin in Genesis.
There is Abraham and Sarah in their old age, not having any children and
there is God saying to them I will make you fruitful, you will… “I will make
you multitudes of people from your descendants”
It’s not a
surprise really that later in the scriptures we read that Sarah laughs. God
says he will make many Nations from their descendants. Menopause had well and truly come and gone
for Sarah. But there is God making this
promise that from you will come a multitude of nations. Oh my goodness, the power of God.
I am really
partial to that story in Genesis, however I am going to be naughty and go
straight to Romans.
Paul’s letter
to the Romans is a very good one, it is full of Theology. Paul is writing very
early Christian Theology. In all he says it is a Theology of Life, and he is
teaching people how to live a Christian life. Remember he was a very very, We
have to remember that Paul was a very Orthodox Jew, he was a Pharisee, highly
experienced in the Jewish Law. He knew all about the scriptures, which is why
we when read the scriptures they say he ‘opened the Scriptures and showed them.
He could do that; he had an innate knowledge of the scriptures. So he draws the
parallels and talks about Abraham and Sarah.
I want to talk
about that passage from Mark because it is one of those passages where we may
get a little bit alarmed if I can use that term. Now here is Peter, the premier
disciple, the first disciple, the rock on which Jesus said he would build the
church. I have always had a very soft
spot for Peter because Peter is always putting his foot in it, he is always
doing probably what I would do. So I have a very soft spot for Peter.
But here he is
where Jesus is saying the Son of Man is going to be crucified, Peter says ‘No!
no; you’re the Messiah, that is not going to happen to you!’ What does Jesus
do? He says get behind me Satan. He chastises Peter. He says to the Premier
disciple, Get out of here! What you are saying is human. You are thinking as a
person. You are not thinking about the Mission that I have been sent to do. The
Mission is from God.
I have always
loved the line from the film, The Blues Brothers. “I’m on a Mission from God”.
And that’s what Jesus is on, a Mission from God. So Peter is distracting from
that purpose, but he says no no no no; wait, you’re the Messiah – that can’t
happen to you.
And then Jesus
goes on and makes that very complicated and confusing statement “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. (Mark 8:35) What, does that mean? And
that equally complicated gospel passage “if any want to become my followers let
them deny themselves take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34).
The cross is
an instrument of torture, that’s how the Romans killed criminals, it wasn’t
just Jesus. Pilate was horrendous in
terms of what he did. There were thousands of people of people he crucified. He
was a particularly nasty bloke. Romans were a bloodthirsty people. There was no forgiveness there.
So here is
Jesus’s saying if you want to follow me, deny yourself and take up your cross
and follow me. To do what- after all the
cross is a nasty way to die. And those who lose their life will save it”. This is very complicated. What is he saying to them? What he is saying
them to is if you want to be a follower of mine you are going to have to focus
now on the things of the world, but on the things that are divine. He is making
a distinction between our physical lives and our spiritual lives. Those who lose their lives will save it you
will be saved in the Resurrection, in the life Everlasting. Right!
Remember,
Jesus talks about life eternal, so he is taking that passage and saying if you
lose your life in this life, you will gain your life in the future. Does this make sense? It’s the same words but he’s using a
different context.
Take up your
Cross. What is a cross? I’ve said before, it is an instrument of torture – but
it is also a burden or an affliction of some description and that’s the cross
that we carry. That’s a burden that we
carry.
Now we are in
Lent, and traditionally Lent is about giving up things. It’s about penance. Preparing ourselves for
Easter. And what is the major event of
Easter? It’s is not the
crucifixion. The major message of Easter
is not his death, it’s his Resurrection. That the message of Easter. It is the defeat of death. You lose your life, Jesus dies on the cross,
but he rose again and you will save your life. See how the message flows
through the Scriptures.
And when we
stop and say, well, what is our cross? It can be as simple as having to do
something you don’t want to do. Going to
work every day, especially in a job you don’t like doing. Or for some individuals it’s a disability or
an addiction, or their mental health. It’s a cross they carry.
Our cross is
something we carry every day. Jesus tells us what will it profit us if we gain the
whole world, but lose our life. That being a Christian is a cross we will
carry. He tells us that being Christian will be difficult. We know that by following him when our
physical lives end, we will be with God in eternity. That’s what he means when
he says to them you will save your life.
And finally “Those
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.” (Mark 8:38). So that’s the sting in tail isn’t
it? If you are ashamed of me, if you don’t really want anyone to know that you
profess to be Christian, then you’re being ashamed of me. You know what’s going to happen. When I come back, then I’m going to be
ashamed of you. Because you’re not being
true to the message. You’re not being
true to what you are called to do.
And you hear
me say this all the time: what’s the message of the Gospel? The message of the gospel is love. John right in the beginning of his gospel. What did he write? “God so loved the
world.” “God is love.” Jesus says when asked, “What is the greatest
commandment?” Love the Lord your God
will all your heart; with all soul, with all your mind and with all your
strength. As a second is like it, love your neighbour and yourself, on this
hang all the law and the prophets. The first is very hard. Make no mistake
about it. And loving your neighbour as
yourself? That is the biggest cross that Christians have. If we stop and think about loving our
neighbour, because there are times when we say to ourselves: “I really don’t
like that person!” Or we say to
ourselves about the other person, “why don’t you just go away?” The Christian message says no, we have to
love the lot.
Amen.
Recorded and transcribed – at Maroubra by br. Andrew
