Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 116:1-8, James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38
Who do people say that you are? Do people say you are a mother or father, a brother or a sister, a great co-worker, a fun time friend, a person to be counted on, or a Christian? Each one of us can be all or many of these things but they are not all as easy to be known by.
Others can easily tell if you are a parent when they see you with your children or they can tell you are a person to be counted on because you are there whenever you say you will be, but it’s not always as easy to be a Christian or to be known as a Christian. Although we are no longer persecuted as Christians have been in the past, its still not easy.
We live in world today where we are told we must walk on egg shells so as to not offend anyone or to make sure we are being “politically correct” at all times. While I agree that we need to be conscious of our neighbors and to treat others the way we want to be treated, I do not think that that means we need to hide part of ourselves from the world.
The world needs us to be who we truly are, not just part of who we are, because when we are our true selves, when we live out our baptismal covenant, we are capable of many great things.
So what things in your life do you need to share with the world? What parts of yourself are waiting to be shared with those around you? Maybe you have a special skill or talent that could be used to bring help or joy to others? I’m not sure of all of the things that we each have to share with those around us, but by being here today you are choosing to be known as a Christian, at least to those who are also here.
With that being said, coming to church on Saturday or Sunday is not enough. As I said before the world needs us to be all of ourselves all of the time. So how can we practice being Christians in our whole lives? How can we walk the talk like Jesus did? There are many many ways to answer these questions, but I will give you just a few suggestions.
The first is through service. Any type of service to another, whether we know them or not, is self-giving which is like Jesus. When we serve others, we remove the focus of our lives from ourselves to the person or people we are serving. These brief moments help us to see the world more like how Jesus saw the world.
The second is through prayer and regularly attending worship. When we are being spiritually fed through prayer and receiving of the Eucharist we are better able to share with others the good news we have in Christ. I know that it can be uncomfortable or even scary to talk about church with other people but we’ve got lots of good stuff going on here, and in many other churches throughout the valley, so we should share that with our friends.
The final one, and possibly the hardest, is through kindness. We should strive to live the Golden Rule so that we treat each person as we hope they treat us, not because we expect something in return from them, but because it is the right thing to do. I say that this might be the hardest of my suggestions because it might require us to change many things about our own lives. For example, when checking out at the grocery store we should be kind and speak to the check out person rather than talking on our cell phones. Or when we see someone sitting alone at a church event we should offer to sit with them rather than continuing to only sit with people we know.
These suggestions, along with many others are ways that you can show by word and deed that you are a Christian. By letting people know that you are a Christian, you are taking up your cross and following in the way of Jesus as we heard in today’s gospel.
So now maybe you are listening to me and thinking “Ok Reverend Lauren, this all sounds nice but what about when I make a mistake? What about when I try to show my true self to others and they don’t appreciate it or don’t respect it?”
If you are thinking this, it is important to remember that it wasn’t an easy road for Jesus or the Christians that came before us, and it’s not always going to an easy road for us. With that being said we can look at our gospel from today for guidance. There is a pattern in the Gospel of Mark of a passion prediction from Jesus, inappropriate responses by the disciples, and a teaching from Jesus about discipleship. This happens several times throughout the Gospel of Mark, including the passage from today. This pattern is important because the Mark is trying to demonstrate that we can get it wrong, just as the disciples did, but through the example of Jesus we can learn to try again so that we continually back up our words with our actions.
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