Turning Points – The Road Less Traveled, Continued

Proper 19B; Isa. 50:4-9a; Mark 8:27-38 St. Paul’s, Smithfield, NC 9/13/2015

Jim Melnyk: 

“Turning Points – The Road Less Traveled, continued”

Last Sunday we witnessed Jesus facing a major turning point in his life.  Faced with the stubborn request on the part of the Syrophoenician woman that Jesus heal her daughter, Jesus had to come to grips with a widening of his calling.  Was he called only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, or did his messianic charge go beyond Galilee – beyond Jerusalem – beyond Israel – to encompass a whole world.  In Mark’s telling of the story it takes an argumentative gentile woman, and the healing of a deaf gentile man, for Jesus to embrace his turning point. 

Last week I mentioned that Jesus’ prayer as he healed the deaf man, “Ephphatha – be opened!” may well have been as much a prayer he uttered to himself and his disciples concerning their need to be open to the full inclusion of the gentiles in his mission as for the man he healed. 

Without that turn we would be outsiders looking in, rather than a people fully grafted into the household of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  That Jesus and his disciples made the turn is good news indeed, not just for each of us, but for a whole world as well.

One point the gospel seemed to drive home for us was the need to pay attention to the turning points in our lives, and how Jesus calls us to that same sense of openness in our own lives and ministries – a challenging reality for sure.  We closed with the promising words of the poet Robert Frost:

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”

And so, as we also mentioned last week, we come to a Sunday of multiple turning points in Mark’s gospel.

Just who is it everyone is saying this Jesus character might be? 

What will the disciples say when pressed by Jesus?  What will those statements elicit from Jesus?  What will his disciples do with this new-found knowledge?

Today’s lesson from Mark’s gospel begins with the first of two turning points in the lives of the disciples.  It all begins with a pop quiz by Jesus: “Who do the people say that I am?”  The answers run the gamut – everything from John the Baptist raised from the dead, to Elijah, to simply one of the prophets – nobody seems to know which – but one of them.  Question two: “But who do you say that I am?”  And Peter, bless his heart, is the one who jumps in with the pronouncement, “You are the Messiah.” 

None of the others argue Peter’s declaration.   Turning point one for the disciples: a bold statement that they believe Jesus to be the Christ of God.  What Jesus has to say next about his life and ministry will bring the disciples face-to-face with the second major turning point in their lives – what will they do with this insight – especially when Jesus introduces them to reality of his impending death on the cross?  In order to understand what’s going on in the mind of Jesus and then his disciples we need to take a brief look at our first lesson for today.

Our Old Testament passage is the third of the four servant songs in Isaiah, and it sets up the final two turning points in today’s gospel passage.  While there are multiple interpretations of who the suffering servant is meant to be, there is a great deal of evidence that points to Israel when she is at her covenantal best.  The servant songs of Isaiah point to Israel’s continuing suffering at the hands of gentile oppressors, and the hope and promise that God would vindicate Israel. 

Based on the gospels we know Jesus was conversant with the writings of Isaiah – and so it is no coincidence that his life and faith mirror those writings.  And it is not surprising that over the centuries Christians would identify Jesus with the suffering servant.

           

In today’s lesson from Isaiah we find Israel waiting upon and hoping, looking for vindication and a return from exile.  The nation, still in Babylon, sets her “face like flint” trusting God to present with her in the midst of all her troubles.  Likewise, in Mark’s gospel, Jesus sets his face like flint as he turns toward Jerusalem and the cross – he will not be stopped from trusting God to be with him along this challenging road. 

This is the second great turning point in the life and ministry of Jesus, following closely on the heels of last week’s passage from Mark.  Jesus has come to understand that his mission and the Good News he has proclaimed – especially to the poor and disenfranchised members of society – has become a threat to those in power around him.  And like the many faithful prophets of God who have come before him, Jesus has come to understand that the only place to speak a word of truth to power is at the very source of power itself. 

Jerusalem has become his inevitable destiny, and only someone not paying attention would fail to see the train wreck that such a journey is destined to become.  The disciples, also conversant with the stories of their faith, know what usually happens to prophets who show up in places like Jerusalem to speak a critical word to those in power – the disciples paid attention.

Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem and the cross and his disciples have come to a fork in the road – which path will they take?  They can turn away from Jesus and quite possibly live long, if not challenging, lives.  Or they can journey with Jesus toward Jerusalem – understanding that the Roman cross of crucifixion may well await them as much as it awaits Jesus.  The disciples turn their faces toward Jerusalem with Jesus – even though it takes a bit of debate between Jesus and Peter to get them moving – including a bit of name calling on Jesus’ part – and even though it takes the rest of the gospel, and finally Jesus’ death and resurrection, before the disciples fully understand what that journey means. 

The disciples’ turning points become our turning points as well.  Who is this Jesus for us – and in making our decision, will we follow him even if it means going to Jerusalem – to the places of power and great risk– as well.

Speaking the Good News of God in Christ only becomes a challenge and a threat to us when we understand that the Good News is a word of challenge to people in power – a word of challenge to people live only for themselves – a word of challenge to those who would ignore the very people Jesus sought out and embraced – the voiceless, the lost, and the powerless.  Speaking the Good News of God in Christ becomes a challenge when we speak it in places that cannot live beyond, or even see beyond, their own comfort zones.

           

And I am thankful that the ministry of St. Paul’s, through groups like the Outreach and Social Justice Committee, the ECW, and the Brotherhood of St. Andrew – as well as ministry of many others individually – speaks and lives words of comfort and hope for so many around us.  This is Good News indeed.

Pastor, author, and Christian activist Brian McLaren puts it this way: “Faith was never intended to be a destination, a status, a holding tank, or a warehouse.  Instead, it was to be a road, a path, a way out of old and destructive patterns into new and creative ones.  If a spiritual community only points back to where it has been, or if it only digs in its heels where it is now, it is a dead end or a parking lot, not a path” (citation unknown).  The Good News of God in Christ becomes a challenge when those around us would rather live their faith out in a dead end or a parking lot – and it becomes a word of comfort for all who long for a pathway that leads us – and leads others – into the heart of God.

It doesn’t take much research to understand Jesus’ understanding of the Good News.  Preaching in his home synagogue, according to the author of Luke, Jesus reads another passage from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19).

Having read that portion of scripture, Jesus looks at the congregation and says, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  Jesus doesn’t add any qualifiers to Isaiah’s words.  He doesn’t give himself any outs, and therefore doesn’t give us any outs either.  As a modern day disciple of Jesus puts it: “Our job is not to judge.  Our job is not to figure out if someone deserves something.  Our job is to lift the fallen, to restore the broken, and to heal the hurting” (Facebook Meme).  The word we speak to power must also be a word of comfort for those who need hope.

As modern day disciples of Jesus we face turning points in our lives as well.  Having decided who this Jesus is for us, how will we proclaim the Good News of God in Christ in and through our own lives?  Having decided who this Jesus is in our lives, what word will we speak to power – especially when power ignores the very people whom Jesus embraced and commanded us to love? 

Many times throughout our lives we will find ourselves standing at forks in the road – and we will have to decide which path to take.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”