B, Post Pentecost 26 Proper 28 - Mark 13 "Final Day Failure to See Failure"

On January sixteen, two thousand and three, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration in the United States of America, launched space shuttle Columbia into a sixteen-day orbit around the earth for an extensive scientific mission.  It never touched down!  In the sixteenth minute before it was due to land, mission control lost contact with the orbiter as it broke up on re-entry over Texas and Louisiana. 

The greatest fears were confirmed as video from the media was broadcast to the US nation, unbeknown to mission control in Houston, who were still trying to reestablish contact with Columbia.

A chunk of foam, not unlike the expander foam you can buy at a hardware store, just twenty-one to twenty-seven inches long by twelve to eighteen inches wide, that’s about half to three-quarters of a metre by thirty to forty-five centimetres.  It broke off the large propellant tank strapped under the shuttle, just eighty or so seconds after launch, smashing into the reinforced carbon-carbon covering the left wing of the orbiter.

There were concerns over the incident by some at NASA, but it was dismissed because it was unbelievable that foam could damage, let alone, destroy reinforced carbon-carbon on the wing of the Columbia.

The scientific mission of Columbia was ended, ironically,  by a scientific impossibility, as some believed.  However, in the aftermath of the disaster, it was shown through experiment that foam could destroy reinforced carbon-carbon, when it’s travelling at high speed.

The fracturing of foam was known to NASA.  Yet people at NASA control still kept sending astronauts into orbit knowing brittle bits of foam were being dislodged.  Some of which earlier had caused damage to one of the Atlantis shuttle’s solid fuel rockets without catastrophe, since these are ejected after launch, not needed for re-entry. 

However, the damage to the Columbia space shuttle orbiter proved fatal on re-entry, due to catastrophic destruction of the left wing’s protection from the foam collision on take-off.  Therefore, without this protection, the super heating that occurs on re-entry, opened the vehicle for destruction, and the crew was lost.

The great pleasure in NASA,  and the accomplishment of a successful mission dissolved into NASA’s and the United States’ realisation of their greatest fears. What they had marvelled over as their greatest achievement brought about their greatest fears, destruction and death!

The disciples marvelled at the stones and the buildings of the Jerusalem temple, to which Jesus replied, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2 ESV)

This was not the first temple but the second.  Solomon’s temple had long been sacked, and in its wake, Herod set about to construct the second temple.  Last week we heard in Solomon’s Psalm one hundred and twenty-seven, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil.” (Psalm 127:1–2a ESV)

However, the Jews didn’t take heed of God’s Word, nor the four hundred years of events that led to Jesus’ coming.  Rather, they vainly trusted in themselves and their deeds, forgetting what led to Israel’s and Judah’s destruction and desolation.  Hear the unbelief of the people when God sought to call their vanity to account through Jeremiah…

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’ Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.”  (Jeremiah 7:3-4, 8–11 ESV)

From Mark’s Gospel we hear Jesus prophesy the reality of Jerusalem and its temple in the end times.  After the destruction and desolation, that saw their forefathers exiled to Babylon and beyond, having not remained under the warnings from God in his Word, they continued refusing to listen to Jesus, the Son of God, and sought their own desires causing desolation and destruction.  

In these last days, in which we have been since Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, the church continues to test God with its opposition to his Word, and fails to heed its warnings, as it seeks to place its trust in culture and the authority of the mob.

Our General Pastors’ Conference and General Convention of Synod, like NASA, like the Jews, has not listened to God and his Word, nor the advice of previous synods, nor two thousand years of Christ sustaining his church from desolation and destruction. 

At best, what is done has occurred through apathy, as a deception of the “abomination of desolation standing where here ought not be” (Mark 13:14)  That is, evil in the place of Christ, masked as an angel of light, working through mischief to lead the apathetic into a unity of ignorance that’s false and leads to destruction.

At worst, like those who lead others into deception, some are acting with deliberate disobedience before God and his Word, by placing themselves over the Word of God in seeking to conform the church to the catastrophic cultural corruption all around us.   

So, like NASA and the pressure upon it to be popular and positive, the church is led into negatives that lead to the worst.  Without addressing the issue that was the worst, the worst occurred at NASA.  Nothing was learnt from the “sins of the past”.  Nothing was done about the foam breakage issues, until it was too late.

The greatest fear in front of us in God’s church, is that we become lost to our baptismal salvation, like the crew and vehicle of Columbia.  In ignorance, we trust in the word of others, rather than God’s Word, and tempt finding ourselves on the wrong side of God’s judgement.  

We can lose control and burn up so close to salvation, through apathy and deception, or active wilful disobedience.

Don’t let what others say, “is a harmless little piece of foam”, when it can destroy your baptismal faith!  Don’t allow your faith to become a piece of foam that destroys you.  Don’t let that which is meant to protect you become dislodged so that it destroys you!  If you think this can’t happen to you, I invite you to open God’s Word and allow the Holy Spirit to show you that it can, and has, to God’s chosen people, who had “the temple of the Lord”, that ultimately, he allowed to be destroyed in 70AD.

Speaking of NASA and the disaster, a shuttle chief engineer said, “I feel ashamed!  So, who’s guilty? I’m not just going to say the program managers are. We’re all guilty. If you don’t speak up for your own system and you’re victims of this environment, we’re guilty too!” (Rodney Rocha – NASA Shuttle Chief Engineer, Series 1 Episode 3, The Space Shuttle That Fell To Earth, ABC Television)

How do we galvanise ourselves against our greatest fear, eternal death and destruction?  On judgement day it’s no good saying to God, “I believed in Pastor Heath!  I believed in the bishops!  I believed in the LCANZ!  I believed in what I felt, in what “I” thought about God.  We have to believe “the Word of God”!  To open it!  Read it!  Pray for understanding, worked in you by the Holy Spirit, so you stand in submission under Jesus Christ and his Word!  God calls you to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13 ESV)

Jesus says to you who desire to fear and love God, who fear eternal death over earthly death, “See that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray.” (Mark 13:5–6 ESV)

The seemingly harmless pleasures, “the pieces of foam”, within each of us, within our congregation, parish, district, and synod, can destroy us and bring eternal desolation.  Therefore, be strengthened in the Word of God to be on guard against your sinful self; the evil within.  Be strengthened against the cultures of chaos working through others; the evil from without!   Be strengthened against the abomination of desolation standing where he ought not be; that is, the devil, the evil one, inside and outside the church!

Since Christ ascended into heaven, the commonwealth of God’s holy church has always been tempted into becoming common by losing the holiness of its wealth.  Two thousand years into the end times, some have lost sight of what makes us holy, that sets us apart from the world, as God’s children, as his commonwealth. 

This commonwealth community of God is a republic of repentance.  Our eternal wealth is built on the knowledge of our failures having been forgiven.  The Holy Spirit leads us as a republic of repentant sinners constantly being forgiven in Jesus Christ.  The fragility that fractures this faith, is your human spirited apathy or wilful disobedience to participate in the Holy Spirit’s republic of repentance. We’re being made one as the Holy Spirit works common repentance, reviving us as God’s renewed public property, a holy commonwealth in Christ.

Your fear of failure needs you to understand your weakness and ability to fail!  If you don’t, you will place your faith in yourself; the very thing that causes your failure.  Failure to repent, to know you need to repent, is catastrophic!  

An accident investigator of the Columbia tragedy said, “This was a known failure. But I think failure to imagine being wrong, the failure to imagine the consequences of failure, are catastrophic.  And I think it’s this whole notion of the failure, to imagine failure.” (Patrick Goodman – Accident Investigator, Series 1 Episode 3, The Space Shuttle That Fell To Earth, ABC Television)

Like NASA, the Jews failed to recognise their failure to follow God’s Law and their failure by trusting in the temple the Lord gave them, rather than his Word.  When we fail to recognise our failure and the forgiveness offered because of our failure, and place faith in what fails us, we become like those who believe in the temple, rather than God who gave the temple.  And like those who believed a cheap piece of foam couldn’t harm reinforced carbon-carbon.

The only safe ship that will deliver you through the atmosphere of failure and death into eternity, is the eternally enduring coverings of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh!  Amen.

B, Post Pentecost 25 Proper 27 - Psalm 127 "Little Pigs"

We all know the tale of the three little pigs who built three houses to protect themselves from the big bad wolf. 

A house of straw was built by the first pig whose labours proved nothing for the big bad wolf to huff and puff and blow the house down.  He runs to the second pig who built his house of sticks.  But his house also succumbs to the wind of the wolf, albeit with a few extra huffs and puffs.  They then find shelter in the third house that their brother had built out of bricks. 

The wolf cannot blow the house down and is tricked into climbing down the chimney with the idea he can devour the three little pigs once inside.  However, at the bottom of the chimney is a boiling pot of water put there by the pigs.  The wolf is scalded to death in the boiling cauldron and as nursery rhymes go, they all live happily ever after.

The three pigs now live without fear, trusting in what they’ve achieved, to pursue whatever they desire to do.  Like winning the lottery, they live limited only by what they can imagine. 

Fast forward to a time in the future.  Where are those three, aged pensioner pigs now?  How have they fared in the wake of the wolf?

They’ve got families now!  Little pigs upon little pigs litter their properties!  Prosperity has also seen the three little pig enterprise grow into a massive operation.  In the eyes of many outside the organisation, these three porkers of pleasure have become what the big bad wolf was, ruling their kingdom in their power and glory.

But really, how healthy are the three pigs?  Yes! They have become masters of their domain.  Yet all three live in suspicion of each other.  The two pigs that fled to the third pigs house of brick, ride on the rigorous planning and work the third little pig always seems to produce.  Two pensioner pigs and their families live in laziness, loving the life afforded to them by their brother.  But this third little pig resents them for their life of ease while he, a workaholic, can’t stop building and planning for the future.

But his work has taken its toll!  The stress of keeping his enterprise afloat sees him riddled with cancer with days to live.  There’s a new big bad wolf in the house and he can’t escape it.  Nor is it any better for the other two and their families.  Their life of luxury sees them suffering from all the diseases of a delightful life.  Now that their brother is dying, and his children will inherit the dynasty, they will not be able to continue affording the medications that mediate their lives.  Their attitude to working and life is so engrained they now resent the third pig as a big bad wolf for not giving them more of what they have selfishly taken.

As listeners and observers of this extended fable, built on the three little pig nursery rhyme, you will have identified with events that have recently occurred in the media, the community, and perhaps even your own life.  If not the events, perhaps the health struggles, or the feelings with which you daily deal, living with others.

We are all builders of some sort.  It’s in our DNA to build stuff.  We get this from God, our Heavenly Father.  He is the eternal builder; he created heaven and earth!  Yet what we build shows that although we get the gift to build from God, we use it in a way that does not please God.

In Psalm 127, King Solomon the builder of the temple in Jerusalem, raises up the reality that the Lord God is the true builder and keeper, and the consequences for us when we usurp him.  As we’ve heard, Solomon says, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.” (Psalm 127:1–2 ESV)

Three times we hear that unless it comes from God, works are worked in vain.  In fact, this word, “vain”, means a deed of destruction rather than construction, and a deed that brings desolation rather than habitation.

Unless the Lord builds, those who build, construct with destruction.  Unless the Lord watches, those who watch, watch their destruction.  It is for desolation that you rise early and delay rest to carve your idols.  To “carve your idols” is the literal meaning of “eating the bread of anxious toil”.

We all pray to our Father, “your kingdom come”.  However, how often are we led into the temptation to build our own kingdoms?  But for what?  Solomon spells out the reality… vanity that leads to destruction and desolation!

If we return to the three little pigs there are three shelters built, a straw house, a house of sticks and a building of bricks.

Those of us who build straw houses trust in things that are short lived.  So much of what’s relied on today are straw houses built for immediate gratification.  Here today gone tomorrow, knowingly temporary at best.  The easy road that leads to destruction.

Then some build houses of sticks, that are transitory as well.  They might last a lifetime.  However, they too become dwellings of destruction and desolation.

Those who trust in the first two dwellings, do so to their detriment.  Trusting in the third dwelling brings destruction too but it’s different, it’s built of brick!  This is the place where most dwell, having fled the transient houses which have not served us well in this life.  But this house of brick that seemingly protects us from the big bad wolf, that seemingly drowns all the big bad desires in life, is actually the dwelling in which the spirit of our destructive desires, seeks its daily resurrection in those who trust in its walls.

The fairytale temptation to build our own kingdom might seem all good in a house of brick.  But the house remains to decay in this world, long after your frame has decayed in its grave.

Unless the Lord, our Father, builds the house, we do so in vain!  The kingdom, the power, and the glory are his, not ours!  What kingdom are you building for yourself?  As I’ve mentioned, we’re all builders, it’s in our nature!  But what does your building exalt?  What god is glorified?  In what kingdom is your trust?  Whose power is working in your world? 

In this Psalm God invites you to look into yourself and see the kingdom you’re building, the power with which one builds it, and for whose glory you’re building it!  In his word God reveals human construction as destruction and humanity’s efforts for habitation as bringing desolation.

The second half of Psalm 127 Solomon speaks about habitation, through producing children.  We hear, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” (Psalm 127:3–5 ESV)

It seems the little pigs after surviving the big bad wolf, set about making more little pigs!  Many in the church today see the future of the church as children. 

So, by the will of man children are produced, by the will of man children are thought of as the church, and by the will of man the children flee the straw idol that’s been constructed for them in the fairytale minds of others.  Every child of God is presented with a kingdom coming, then they’re encouraged to embrace the straw, stick, or a brick kingdom that’s not built by God!  Some reject these, only to flee to other fairytale dwellings.  But some realise the grave reality of our situation, trusting what our Maker tells us in his Word!

The reality of the matter is this:  pigs don’t build houses!  That’s a fairytale!  Likewise, humans don’t build heaven!  Worse than a fairytale, building your kingdom is a deceptive lie that brings eternal desolation and despair!  When one tries to build heaven, they’re just creating a place in hell!  The kingdoms we humans believe we’re building are myths and mirages, vanities that lead to destruction, desolation and despair.  In a huff and a puff these houses are blown down forever! 

Still, there’s another little pig who didn’t build a house, nor ran away, but allowed himself to be built as the foundation and cornerstone of the Father’s eternal house.  He was nailed to a tree in time,  even though he was with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the beginning to create all things.  In this holy house, God’s house, the devil is truly cooked!  He knows it!  And he rages in these last days to deliver as many as possible into destruction and desolation!

However, you are holy bricks in this holy house of God!  If you believe in the Cornerstone, you have the right to be God’s children. You are the bricks being baked and built into the eternal kingdom of God!  Gathered together and built by the Holy Spirit into an eternal dwelling!  Built into a holy place where Jesus is worshipped through repentance of sin, confessed that he is the resurrection and the life, for the forgiveness of your sins and the sins of those around you.

As God builds you into his house, you’re in his kingdom, in all his glory, in all his power, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

B, Post Pentecost 18 Proper 20 - Mark 9:35 "Wisdom in the Wind"

Mark 9:35 (ESV) “And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’ ”

Imagine you are walking in the dark.  Your light is fragile, a candlelight, a burning wick, that’s easily snuffed out.  It’s not a battery-driven, weather-proof torch that continues to burn after taking a beating, dropped in the mud, submerged in water.  No! It’s a flame that requires three things in perfect balance to exist: oxygen, heat, and fuel.

The fuel is the wax of the candle, or the oil in the reservoir.  Oxygen too is needed, but not too much, especially with such a small flame!  And heat is the third.  But because the flame is so small and its heating qualities are limited, too much oxygen, too much air, will take the heat away in an instant and the flame is out, and the light is gone.

Now imagine you are walking in the dark, in a raging windstorm, just before the rain comes pouring down, or perhaps near the ocean where the waves are whipped up by the winds and freezing salt spray is soaking everything.  How do you keep your wick burning.  You have oil in your lamp; to light the way, how do you keep it burning?

In ages past various devices have been designed to protect the wick from the wind.  Glass was typical, or a metal mesh scrim was used to diffuse the air and protect the flame.  How fortunate we are today to have torches that recharge with electronic light sources such as bulbs or LEDs (light emitting diodes)! 

Nevertheless, a fragile flame in the wind is a good picture for understanding ourselves and our faith.  Our faith flickers in fragile vessels as we face furores along the way of life.  What sustains the flame of faith within, so we might withstand the day of judgement, and not be blown away like chaff in a windstorm?

You all know the answer is Jesus Christ!  He sustains the flame of faith within, so we might not be blown away in the wild storms of life and death.  But to our continual surprise, how Jesus sustains the flame of faith is contrary to human thinking, it’s opposite to human modes of operation, what we do and how we react, and Jesus’ way is the reverse of what we’re taught by the world.

Jesus was born into the fragile frame of humanity.  And within that frame he bore the same fragile flame, as do we all. 

James speaks of the qualities with which we should operate.  These are ultimately the qualities of Christ.  James asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.” (James 3:13 ESV)

Meekness of wisdom or wisdom born in meekness is a quality misunderstood by most.  Where Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5 ESV) The modus operandi of the world is to put meekness aside in favour of assertiveness, self-confidence, and boldness as individuals and collectively with mob mentality!

But the structure with which the world operates is contrary to what Christ Jesus brought on behalf of God the Father, and how it was enacted and empowered, when he put aside the privilege of his divinity, humbled his spirit, was compelled by the Holy Spirit, and ultimately gave up his human spirit on the cross.  Within Jesus’ meekness was a wisdom far above the works of any other person.

When James asks, “Who is wise and understanding among you?” The answer is Jesus, and not me!

Yet what we find when the storms of life threaten the fragile flame within, our worldly way turns on the gas of the old Adam within, and the pilot light of Christ gives way to the heat of our fiery passions and pride.  And rather than being protected from the storms we face, we engage with frenzied force adding to the faithless fracases of the world.

We hear from James, “if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.”  (James 3:14–15 ESV)

Our jealousy and selfish ambitions are no match against God, since “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? (James 4:5 ESV)

So jealous is God our Father over you, he sent Jesus to be the “blessed one”.  Jesus is the blessed one of the Psalms and is the blessed man introduced to us in Psalm one.  He is blessed or balanced in a way fulfilled by no other person.  His way is the blessed way, he does not walk with the wicked, he does not stand in the ways of sinners, nor does he sit to join with the scoffers.

However, Jesus who delights in the law of God, sits with sinners to teach them God’s way, he does not stand in the way of sinners, but he stood for all sinners on the cross, having walked the way of the cross. 

In meekness and humility, he took what was earthly, unspiritual, demonic, on himself on the cross and gives you what the world cannot.  He allowed his separation from the Father and the Holy Spirit and descended into hell, so we no longer have to go there, or be separated from God.  But in the wisdom of his meekness, he won victory over death. 

When Jesus sat down with the twelve disciples, he sat down with sinners, not to join them in their sin but to teach them the way of the cross.  Their lesson was a bitter lesson learnt.  They were the first to learn through their bitterness when they deserted Jesus at the cross.  Yet eleven of them were reinstated in the forgiveness they received, and the blessing Jesus bestowed on them when he breathed the Holy Spirit on them.

They were the first to learn the lesson, and the lesson continues for us, through the bitter experience of sins exposed by God’s Word of Law.  But the blessed reinstatement continues too, with the breath of the Holy Spirit keeping the flame of faith burning, so we receive and believe the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus sat down to serve sinners, to balance us with his blessedness, to straighten our crooked ways with his blessedness.  He took his stand and hung on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin, and he walked the way of the cross for your salvation.  Jesus’ meekness led him through death to the resurrection. This was a meekness that allowed his flame to be snuffed out.  But the wisdom in his meekness meant death had no control over him.  He could not stay dead!  This wisdom is meek, but it’s servanthood contrary to the ways of the world, you and me, who daily struggle to allow the Holy Spirit deal with the pride and passions of the old sinful spiritual self. 

The world does not understand what Jesus teaches you and me.  That, “if anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”  In fact, Jesus is the only one who understands this in a practical way, having willingly experienced not just meekness, but the weakness of death, to be last of all and servant of all.  Having done so, he is the firstborn of the dead, the glorified head of the church.  Even so, he continues to serve us now, interceding for us before our Father in heaven.

Unlike the world, the church lives under a servanthood structure.  Where structures in the world are triangular with the base at the bottom, where servants serve the person at the pinnacle, the pinnacle of the church is on the bottom and serves the base at the top. 

Undergirding this upside-down triangle is the Trinity that bears the church.  The upside-down pinnacle of the church is balanced on the cross of Jesus’ death and resurrection that connects it with the Triune God.

This balance defies all human pride and passions that struggles under the folly of the world’s frenzied faithlessness.  This balance and level in the church comes from Christ who balances our frailty and fragility with his wisdom won through being the eternally begotten firstborn of creation. But also, because he is the Servant Head of the church, the firstborn of the dead (Colossians 1:15-20).

You now have this wisdom within.  Despite the fragility of your frame, within is Jesus’ faithful flame, that has not only weathered the storm but has conquered the raging storm of death so you can take you stand, straight and balanced in Christ, anchored in his blessed wisdom in the wild windstorms of life and death.  Amen.     

B, Post Pentecost 17 Proper 19 - Mark 8:27–38 "To Identify with Jesus"

Mark 8:27–38 (ESV)  And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus is on the way to the cross.  Without any coded language, Jesus bluntly and openly teaches his disciples, “that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.”  (Mark 8:31 ESV) In other words the way of the Son of Man is the way of sacrifice and servanthood. 

Peter was ashamed of what Jesus said!  He identified Jesus as the Christ, but didn’t identify being the Christ, with suffering and death.  So, he took him aside to rebuke Jesus’ way.  But Jesus rebukes Satan within Peter for trying to lead him astray from the way.

This brings Jesus to another teaching opportunity that any way other than the Son of Man’s way, is not God’s way, but an evil deception as Satan’s way, saying, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.”  (Mark 8:34–35 ESV)

Here for the first time the cross is connected with suffering many things, rejection by the fathers and priests of Judaism, being killed, and then raised after three days!  This was not just a death of suffering and rejection; it’s the death of defilement, desecration and dreadful disgrace.  It’s  a shameful and humiliating way to die, for the convicted, and for anyone associated with the person being hung!  But three days after this death of shame, comes a resurrection?   What is this?

Moses taught in the law that, “A hanged man is cursed by God.”  They would have seen this Roman practise time and time again.  Cursed creatures hanging on crosses for days for all to see.  They would have heard the mocking words of those passing by, perhaps even mocked them themselves, albeit under their breaths!  Noone ever came back to life after this accursed death!  Now, they were confronted with Jesus’ call for them to carry a cross!  How could this be?

Imagine you’ve being accused of the most wicked crime, remained silent, not giving any defence, then stripped of all dignity, and left hung out to dry and die, as if you were the guiltiest grub ever to get what was wanted!  This is what Jesus became for every man, woman and child!

Jesus then gives a comparison between the Son of Man and man, that is humanity!  Here Jesus injects new thoughts into the hearts of the bewildered disciples in the wake of his rebuke of Peter, in front of them all!   He questions them, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?  For what can a man give in return for his soul?”  (Mark 8:36–37 ESV)

This question is also for you too!  What can you give as a payment for your life?  What’s the point of getting everything you’ve ever wanted, only to find at the end of it all, you’ve lost your identity, your being, and your purpose in this world?

Jesus’ identity sits on this comparison between a person whose lost their identity, and the servant of humanity, the Son of Man, whose identity is built on serving our Father, whose purpose is to reverse the death and depression of our suffering due to sin!

Jesus fulfils the words of Psalm nineteen.  The Son of Man, the Servant King, was kept back from presumptuous sins.  Pride and presumption did not have dominion over him.  Jesus is blameless and innocent of all bad behaviour.  Everything he said, everything he thought, and everything he did, is acceptable before God the Father, his Rock and his Redeemer!

Jesus identifies with us as he walks to the cross and he is not ashamed to do so!  He walks there to bear the shame of your sin and my sin.  Imagine walking on the world stage with all your hidden sins there for all to see.  Your deepest darkest desires, naked for all to see, under the spotlight of social exposure.  This is the shame Jesus bore for you on the cross! 

The Son of Man gained the sins of the whole world and lost his life.  At the cross he breathed his last and gave up his soul for the profit of humanity!   What can you and I give for the return of our souls? What are you giving for the Son of Man’s suffering service for the redemption of your identity?

Recently I read that people rarely rise to the occasion when threatened with a crisis.  Unlike many of the superhuman feats portrayed in the fiction we watch on the screen.  Instead, what regularly occurs is people usually sink to the level of their training. 

United States Army officer, General George Patton of WW2 fame, said, “the more you sweat in training, the less blood you lose in battle.”  Similar is also said of sporting success!  But what about your training in identity?  Do you identify with carrying a cross?  What Cross-training do you fall back on in your life crises?

Last week we heard of Jesus healing the deaf and dumb man near Lake Galilee at the Decapolis.  We’ve also heard about hearing the Word of God and the deeds of faith that come as a result of the Holy Spirit working the Word within us. 

Perhaps like Peter you’re quick to rebuke those who call you to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Jesus!  Perhaps, you hear the call but quickly forget the minute you leave this place.  At the resurrection, at his return, will he find you deaf and dumb to his Word, to his Cross-training?  Your identity depends on what you hear and how you allow it to train you within.  The proof of what and how you hear is how you pick up your cross and follow Jesus.  When Jesus comes will he find you ashamed of this adulterous and sinful generation or will he find you ashamed of him and his Word?

There are one-hundred and sixty-eight hours in the week.  When we give only one or two hours of that week to hearing, reading, and pondering God’s Word — Cross-training!  It’s reasonable to assume the other one-hundred and sixty-six or sixty-seven hours of worldly white noise competes to deafen and render us mute. 

The world without you and me bearing our cross, renders the world and those around us rudderless, like a ship without its steering.  Without the tongues of Christians trained in the way of the cross, the world runs wild like a horse without a bit in its mouth, like a wildfire out of control without water to douse the flames.  You are Cross-trainers in the world!

As Jesus asked his disciples, “who do you say that I am?”   He asks you, “In whom do you identify yourself before others?”  When the devil’s got our tongue, we’re like Peter whom Jesus needed to rebuke!  But like Peter whose tongue was freed by the Holy Spirit when Pentecostal tongues of fire rested on him and the other disciples, you too have been given an identity in Jesus’ Cross-training.  Jesus became Peter’s Rock and Redeemer, and Peter was identified as the rock on which Jesus would build the church.  In the same way, the Holy Spirit trains you to identify Jesus as your Rock and Redeemer!

Your Cross-training began in Holy Baptism, to identify Jesus as your Rock and Redeemer.  In Baptism the Holy Spirit’s given to Cross-train you, to pray for the will to share your “Jesus identity” with others!   If you sense this not to be the case, keep knocking on his door in prayer!  Jesus promises to identify your sin, forgive it, and lead you to open your mouth in confession and thanksgiving before him, each other, and the world.  It’s the Holy Spirit who exercises your Cross-training in Jesus.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, replace our broken spirits with your Holy Spirit, so we might daily die to self, turn to Jesus’ way, identify with him, and with Holy-Spirited desire, pick up our cross and share his identity with others.  When Jesus comes with his holy angels, take us to be with you, our Rock and Redeemer. Amen.