Worship As Resistance II - Narratives - A Sermon for the Second Sunday in Lent February 25 2024

GOSPEL: Mark 8:31-38

The holy gospel according to Mark.

Glory to you, O Lord.

After Peter confesses his belief that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus tells his disciples for the first time what is to come. Peter’s response indicates that he does not yet understand the way of the cross that Jesus will travel.

31[Jesus] 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.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

I offer you instalment two of this Lenten preaching series

Worship as Resistance.

This series is inspired by Rev. Dr. Chad Rimmer

who presented “Resurrection as Faithful Resistance”

to the Alberta & BC Synod study conference earlier this month.

Lent is about resistance.

Resisting Sin.

Resisting temptation.

Resisting coffee or chocolate for 40 days plus Sundays

But I’d like to invite us into something a little deeper

than just giving up chocolate for Lent.

Who are the authors of your story?

We are all products of nature and nurture,

together, in concert.

We are all products of our birth parents,

and all the big and little things that come from that.

If both your parents have high blood pressure,

good chance you will too.

But we are also products of nurture.

If the parents who raised you

tell you you’re mischievous

well, you might just come to believe it.

We tend to believe the stories we are told about ourselves.

I played baseball growing up,

and the stories that my coaches told me,

for better or for worse,

they stuck with me.

One coach told me I ran like I was angry at the ground.

Just some overweight kid.

One coach told me I was un-coachable.

Another coach told me I was fabricating

the elbow pain I had when throwing the ball.

I believed them.

I’m not saying it is completely their fault,

but I believed the words I heard,

and it became a part of me.

I believed I was just a difficult, overweight kid,

and a liar.

It takes some time to unlearn

the false narratives we are told about ourselves.

I was fortunate, a couple years later,

to play on a different baseball team

with new coaches,

who told me a different narrative,

a different story of who I am as a ball player.

With some proper coaching,

I learned how to, more efficiently, run the bases,

not so angry at the ground.

I learned how to properly throw a baseball,

and my arm didn’t hurt anymore.

I learned how to get the most out of my swing.

This set of coaches helped me unlearn the false narratives

that I had been told.

But being called a liar

that took more time to unlearn.

We worship in Spirit and truth.

We tell the truth,

the Liar has no place here.

We worship our God,

and we resist not only the Liar,

but the lies we have been told.

Part of our worship is resistance

against the false narratives that you’ve been told

or that you’ve told yourself.

Peter held a false narrative.

Peter had his own understanding of who the Messiah would be

A political - military kind of leader.

Though with a harsh “Get behind me, Satan”

Jesus corrects Peter,

you are setting your mind not on divine things

but on human things.

Until Jesus came around,

Peter was just some fisherman.

Jesus invited Peter out on the water for walk,

and he did it - until he doubted himself.

It was probably easy for Peter to believe that he is the Rock

- the Petros -

who sinks in water.

Peter became the one who denied Jesus,

I would argue this became his identity,

John’s gospel tells us he went back to fishing for fish,

it’s what he knew,

but Jesus removed the false narrative:

Feed my sheep.

Fish for people.

It can take some time to unlearn false narratives.

Consider Abram and Sarai.

Old. Barren. Childless.

That was their story.

God gives them, not just a new narrative, but new names:

Abraham. Sarah.

Ancestors of a multitude.

And even in old age,

God gave them laughter, in Isaac,

and indeed their descendants are numerous as the stars.

But it took them some time to unlearn the old narrative.

Sure, it seemed that God took God’s sweet time bringing the child

but we know Abraham and Sarah’s narrative,

their story,

is ancestor.

When you think of your own life,

what might be the false narratives you’ve been told?

what are the narratives you’ve told yourself

that require some unlearning?

The world tells us that we are consumers.

Buy this product and you’ll be handsome.

Buy this product and you’ll be happy.

The world tells us to be selfish,

look out for number 1.

The world tells us your worth is based upon

having the right gender,

or skin colour or ethnicity,

class or income or political party of choice.

The world tells us the winners of life 

are those with the most toys.

Sometimes the church becomes the place

where false narratives are taught.

Think of how many Christian churches

teach women that they are not eligible to be pastors,

or which marriages are valid or not.

Some Communion tables aren’t available for certain people.

Some have been taught that you’d better believe in Jesus

or you’re going to hell.

Some even teach that Jesus wants you to be rich!

Part of our worship, in Spirit and Truth,

is resisting these and other false narratives we’ve been taught.

In Spirit and Truth,

we declare:

You are not just a consumer,

you are a child of God,

and that makes you beautiful,

and you are blessed.

We declare that we are created

to experience joy in the presence of God:

We declare that you are a good creature,

created in God’s image,

worthy of love and acceptance,

and yes, we confess we are all sinners,

but we reject the false narrative that sin is what defines you.

We reject that your worth is dependent upon

having the right gender,

or skin colour or ethnicity,

class or income or political party of choice:

We declare that your worth is found in baptismal waters.

We declare that these baptismal waters free us for life,

resurrected life, new life.

We resist a flimsy faith that just waits for heaven when we die

and we listen to Jesus,

we are invited to take up our cross

and follow.

We resist the temptation to find our worth

in our possessions,

we tell the truth that our possessions can easily possess us

We declare the words of Jesus:

What will it profit us to gain the whole world

and forfeit our life,

indeed what can we give in exchange for our life?

The world tells us the winners of life 

are those with the most toys,

but we declare that the one who dies

with the most toys,

still dies.

We resist the false narratives, the lies,

that say gender is a prerequisite for pastoral service,

We resist the false narratives, the lies

that say certain marriage formulas are holier than others.

We resist the insider and outsider rhetoric,

and we declare that Christ’s Table is open for you,

for any, for all.

We resist setting our minds on human things,

and instead we set our minds on divine things.

Jesus says “If any want to become my followers,

let them deny themselves

and take up their cross

and follow me.”

I suggest we start by denying, resisting, rejecting

the false narratives of who you are.

Deny the false narratives of what makes life worth living

But don’t deny your worth,

as a child of God,

created in God’s image,

gifted by God’s Spirit.

May we resist the false narratives we’ve been told

and live in Spirit and Truth.

May we find our worth in baptismal waters.

May we take up our cross and follow Jesus,

trusting in the hope of resurrection today.

Thanks be to God. Amen.