Radical Church

Sermon preached at STRATHMORE UCA
by Wes Campbell
PENTECOST 15 SERMON 13th September 2009
Proverbs 1: 20 -33; Psalm 19; James 3: 1 – 12; Mark 8: 27 – 38

‘When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.’

That is what the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in the 1930s in his book, Discipleship (or, as we know it, The Cost of Discipleship):
‘When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.’

It sounds extreme, doesn’t it? Did Dietrich Bonhoeffer know, when he wrote those words that in 1943 he would be put into a Nazi prison, and in April 1945 would be hanged by the Nazis? Did he already sense that the call to discipleship would take him into the Confessing Church movement against the German Christians, then into the secret service, and later into a plot on Hitler’s life?

Of course, he could not know these things. But already, as a young pastor and theologian, he understood the total claim Jesus makes on a disciple.(Jesus’ words in the Gospel):
If anyone wants to become my follower, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For 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. (Mark 8: 34ff)

Dietrich understood that Jesus Christ’s call is to lose your life for his sake.

That is what the Christian community is called to do.

But it sounds so extreme.
After all, for a long time Christians have thought of such verses ‘spiritually’ or morally. Self-denial meant don’t have too much fun, don’t eat chocolate or drink alcohol, and certainly no dancing. Or, more seriously, withdrawing from the world for prayer: that was how to deny yourself.‘Giving up’!

But Dietrich was called to lose his life – by hanging.
It was once thought that the time of martyrs was long gone; yet, in Latin America during the 1970s when Christians spoke out against injustices, and protested on behalf of people in poverty; they were killed by militias; they were taken away in the night and ‘disappeared’, or were shot in full view of others: as happened to Archbishop Romero who was shot as he celebrated Holy Communion. Why?
Because he spoke out against a system of injustice which was crushing the poor. Jesuit priests and nuns were murdered for the same reason. In the Philippines, now, Christian pastors are being shot because they take the side of the poor in the name of God.

Did we think the age of martyrs was over? We have heard the language of martyrdom in recent days: Islamic people who are suicide bombers speak of being martyrs. That will make us wary about using the word. And yet, Bonhoeffer and these others who were killed because of their witness are also being called ‘martyrs’. They themselves understood what they were doing when they set out on their path towards death. They knew that following Jesus would put them on a costly path. Their deaths were not a mistake; rather, they took up the cross.

When Jesus speaks to his disciples in today’s reading, he is talking to reluctant disciples. Jesus has reached a point in his ministry when it is time to turn from his home territory, Galilee, and his successful ministry there, to go south to Jerusalem. He wasn’t mistaken about this; this was his calling. If he was to be faithful to his Father, and if he was to proclaim the nearness of the kingdom of God, he must go to Jerusalem, the city of God.

He knew what it would cost: prophets before him had gone to that city only to be mistreated and killed.

He will go into the city and he makes clear that he will be treated as a rebel, a troublemaker, a threat to the Empire, and killed. The cross was the cost he would pay.

The cross was no spiritual thing. Jesus and his disciples would have been very familiar with crosses – crosses were posted along the roadside and people were hung out to die because they had challenged and upset the Empire.

The Roman Empire had control of the known world, and Palestine was included – an occupied people. The Empire called itself Pax Romana – the peace of Rome; that was the empire ruling in Jesus’ day; just as Egypt and Babylon and Greece had ruled Israel in earlier centuries. The thing about an empire is that it takes complete control; it promises to give life to its citizens – as long as they accept the empire’s rule. Citizens are told to obey; and when necessary, to give their life for the Empire. Augustus Caesar, the ruler of the Roman Empire called himself ‘Son of God’.

When Jesus says, ‘take up your cross’ it is his call to arms – a challenge to such an Empire. As he goes to Jerusalem, Jesus is going to the place where the Empire’s rule is strongest.
He is going to confront this empire with the empire of God. So, he calls others to follow in his footsteps, knowing that his call means entering into conflict with the powers that be.

That is what Jesus says openly to his disciples and to anyone else who will listen. He continues to say it to us.

But the disciples do not want to hear what Jesus is saying. Peter, especially, leader of the apostles, tries to take Jesus by the arm and convince him this is not the way a Messiah should go.

Can we see what is going on; it helps if we read a few more verses than we heard in the Gospel reading today.

Earlier, in chapter 8, Pharisees come and ask Jesus for a sign. That is, they want proof that God is with him. In fact, they are trying to catch him out again, to find reason to discredit and destroy him. But, if they had wanted to see, Jesus has been giving a sign in his whole ministry – a sign they should have recognised: he heals the sick, feeds the poor, raises the dead. This is the clearest sign that in him God is coming close!
Mark depicts the response of Pharisees who are blind to Jesus.

Then Jesus comes to the town of Bethsaida and some people bring a blind man to him. (This is an act of faith on their part – they trust Jesus’ power to heal.) Jesus takes him by the hand, leads him out of the village (and does what other healers might have done), puts saliva on his eyes. At first the man can only see with blurred vision; then after Jesus had laid his hands on his eyes the man can see.

The Pharisees ask for a sign but cannot see what is right in front of them: Jesus is the sign of God’s coming. And the disciples who travel with Jesus – what about them? They should see but are more like the blind man, not seeing.

And Peter is most profoundly blind. He says that Jesus is the Messiah (meaning a ruler and a military commander). But when Jesus speaks of suffering, betrayal and death, he takes Jesus by the arm to guide him off his chosen path, to tell Jesus he has made a mistake.

What a contrast: Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him to see. But Peter is blind – the blind wanting to lead the blind, tries to take Jesus in hand, to direct him where he should go. The disciples, who should see – even if only with blurred vision – are profoundly blind, too!

There at the centre of the Gospel, when Jesus is about to make his final journey, when he looks for followers who know him, what he gets is their blindness and failure to recognise who he is and what he is doing.

When Peter tries to take him by the arm we heard what Jesus said; Get behind me Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God but on human things. Peter, the chief apostle, is now the Tempter, Satan. Yet even then Jesus does not give up on him: he says ‘Get behind me’. That is, ‘Be my disciple’. And to make it clear he teaches them all what it means to be his follower.

From that teaching, Dietrich Bonhoeffer offers the summary:
‘When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.’

I am a visiting preacher today. I am standing in front of you, saying these very confronting things. After the service I will go away again. It will be easy enough for you to dismiss what I am saying as too extreme – perhaps laughable in this peaceful place.

Well, let me at least point out that the other readings (Proverbs and The Letter of James) are included today to remind us that faith and action go together. Both readings tell us that it is possible to live either a wise life, or a foolish life. The wise way takes us into full and abundant life; but the foolish path leads to destruction. There is a great deal of wisdom writing in the Bible. It is there to help us understand what we can contribute to a good life in God’s world.

The apostle Paul knew about wisdom, but takes us to a most startling place: he speaks of the wisdom of God which is to be found in the cross. In the stupid, foolish cross is God’s wisdom.

Paul knows what we do: it seems to be sheer stupidity to speak of a crucified man as wisdom – especially God’s wisdom. But that is what Jesus offers us.

And with that, the words, the life and death of Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
‘When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.’

This is what the church community is called to. When we look at the powers of our day, we see life and death are in conflict: we live in a country that seems to be untouched by the great wars of the past century which destroyed millions of lives (although many families privately carry the scars, and Aboriginal people still suffer); we live in luxury no previous generation could have imagined – but our world has poverty that leaves millions of people dying from starvation and disease; and the planet is made sick. On this weekend we are reminded that we began this century with the attack on the Twin Towers and the so called war on terror. And we have troops in Afghanistan as a result, and, daily, women, children, men – both soldiers and civilians – are killed.

It matters how we hear Jesus, the suffering and crucified Messiah. It matters when he tells us that to follow him is to take up the cross. It matters because he calls a community who lives from the news that God has come near in Jesus, the wisdom that will give life to all. Did Jesus join the military to do this? You know he didn’t: he went in self-giving to the cross, with non-violence! And when he asks people to follow him his emphasis is on take up. This is an active thing; we are to step out behind Jesus, and take up our own cross.

Can we do much? Can we learn to follow this way? Don’t say that things can’t change: that is what the empire wants us to believe. It will tell us that we are consumers; we must buy and sell, and that is what makes life meaningful. We will learn that we are commodities.
It will try to tell us who we are – but it will tell us we can’t change things.

But we do learn new things: think of the way we have all learnt to use computers and mobile phones. We have learnt new things. The question is: will we learn new things that give life? Will our blindness be removed, so we can see what is real, and life-giving?

Have you seen the film The Matrix? A brief summary: there is a young, ordinary man working in an office – then suddenly he is told that the life he is living is an illusion. He is trapped; but if he listens and acts on the advice of another his illusions will be destroyed, he will see what life is really like – and then he will be involved in a struggle for life, for others’ life.

That film is hinting at the same thing that the Gospel according to Mark is telling us. Jesus brings us new sight, and new life. And conflict!

In the second and third centuries when the church prepared people for baptism there was a two to three year period of preparation. Why? Because the path they were about to set out on was so strange, so different; and would involve a struggle against the power of the Empire;
it meant learning whole new lifestyle, in the Christian community.

When this sermon is preached only half the job will be done: the next half involves you exploring together to understand what it means when Dietrich Bonhoeffer says:
‘When Christ calls someone, he bids them come and die.’

It means supporting each other as you grapple with his claim on you and, in that, hearing the call to life. May you be called into this way of taking up your cross, as your way of life.

Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, crucified and risen, by the Holy Spirit, grant us ears to hear you, eyes to see you, and courage to walk your way of the cross, so that we may be witnesses of your strange wisdom and power in this world. For we pray in your name. Amen