This (it being a frantic week) owes a lot to Roots on the Web. The readings Were Proverbs 1, 20-the end and Mark 8, 27-the end. I kind of used this script at Stebbing but deviated massively because I needed to launch the vision statement there.
This week as we continue to travel through Proverbs and St Mark, we are directed to the difference between God's way and our own, and exhorted to follow his wisdom and commands.
The teaching in Proverbs is delivered as from a father to a son, and some of it may be based on the teachers of the Egyptian and Babylonian Empires. But what is remarkable alongside this heritage is the high regard given in the Book to women, of which we shall hear even more in next week’s reading. The book begins (chapter 1 verse 8) by giving respect to a mother's teaching alongside that of a father. And now Wisdom itself is personified as the most desirable of women. Wisdom is the revelation of God, the fountain of life, giving us discernment, which frees us from death and leads to life. The Wisdom of the God of Israel is not a goddess like those of ancient fertility religions. She is the word of the living God who pours out the divine Spirit (1.23). Those who respond to her will share in the messianic banquet, as we read in chapter 9 verses 1-6). It is fascinating and perhaps unexpected that the book of Proverbs contains a resurrection hope.
From chapter 1, though, the first call of Wisdom is to conversion. The path of violence must be abandoned and the first step on the path to life is to recognise how pervasive violence is in those who turn their backs on 'the fear of the Lord'.
The punishment envisaged for this failure to seek divine wisdom is not a thunderbolt from heaven. Rather, it is simply that the foolish will reap the consequences of their own folly. They 'eat the fruit of their way' because they have ignored God's call.
The view expressed in Proverbs had been a simple message; that 'those who listen to me will be secure and will live at ease' (1.33). Later Wisdom literature like Job, Ecclesiastes and Lamentations would temper this sunny innocence with a realistic recognition that things do not automatically go well for those who follow God's way. This provides the basis for Jesus' remarks in today's Gospel reading from Mark 8. It probably also resonates slightly better for us in the light of our own life experiences. Perhaps that’s why Proverbs doesn’t feature heavily in books with titles like “why do bad things happen to good people?”
Jesus asked the disciples who they say he is, and Peter confesses him as the Christ, i.e., the Messiah. Having commended Peter's answer by indicating that his confession is divinely revealed, Jesus immediately goes on to outline the nature of his understanding of the Messiah. He was not going to be a warrior king at the head of a triumphant army who would come to overthrow the occupying forces and “restore the Kingdom to Israel”. Our familiarity with that phrase from Acts chapter 1 is an indication that even after the resurrection, the disciples didn’t necessarily get the message!
Instead, Jesus explains that his destiny is to be a wounded figure who is eventually killed. Nonetheless, even here there is hope for vindication through resurrection.
I have always been intrigued by this episode. It reveals so much about Jesus but challenges us in two ways; first, to consider his very nature, ands second, in our own response to his question, “who do you say that I am?”
We confess in our creeds that Jesus is God incarnate; we acknowledge his authority and power and we worship him in response to those things. But I can’t help but wonder whether Jesus was really expecting Peter to give the answer he did. Can he have known it was coming and so did he therefore plan his consequent teaching session on what was to come, or was it all spontaneous? We will never know.
What we can be sure of though is that Peter made his declaration unprompted, other than by the words he had heard and the actions and attitudes he had seen coming from Jesus. We could I suppose conclude that whether or not he foresaw Peter’s response, Jesus seizes this moment to tell his disciples about his death in order to reinforce the point that he is not the Messiah that most Jews were waiting for. He is God, but he is human and has to react as a human to the workings of Peter’s very human mind.
And so, when we are asked, “Who do you say that I am”, we probably know the answer we are expected to give, if we say the creed often enough. Yet I acknowledge that not everyone here would answer that question in the same way as Peter did. This passage is frequently used to indicate the importance of personal confession of the person and nature of Christ in the Christian faith, and there is no doubt that our faith is edified by being able to say it with him, but we need to remember that Peter didn’t say this out of nowhere; his confession was not out of the blue, but was the result of spending a lot of time sitting and listening to Jesus’ teaching, watching him in conversation with others, and presumably worshipping with him. We need to remember this because if we forget it, our ministry of welcome to those who come along to church looking for something or someone, and our ministry of inclusion of those who struggle to confess like Peter, will be compromised, and we will appear to be saying, “If you come here, you need to be able to say that”, which of course we are not saying at all.
Peter’s confession may have been sudden, but it was a long time coming. Unfortunately his next pronouncement is less well considered, as we then turn from the wounded servant messiah to wounding tongues. Having just been commended by Jesus, Peter is then sharply rebuked for daring to suggest that the way of suffering was not an appropriate way forward. Peter's response to this public rebuke is not recorded but it is not unreasonable to think that he would at the time have felt stung by that censure, and he might remember it forever.
However, when we recall that Mark's Gospel may well be based on Peter's preaching, the fact that this is remembered would seem to indicate that by this time Peter was happy to admit to his fault, rather than feel resentful about the just rebuke. He had not appreciated the divine wisdom behind Jesus' remark, and behind his going the way of the cross. Are we wise enough to listen when we are called to account, or do we make the occasion one for bearing a grudge and trying to get even?
Sunday, 13 September 2009
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