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Proverbs 1:20-33
Psalm 19
or Wisdom 7:26–8:1
James 3:1-12
Mark 8:27-38
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
These words of today’s psalm are a traditional prayer for the preacher to say before they get started preaching – they were the words my childhood priest said in the pulpit every single Sunday. It’s an acknowledgement that words have power, especially words spoken from a pulpit or a podium, and as the epistle of James reminds us today, it is a fearsome thing to get up and speak words in front of other people. For all of us make many mistakes.
Which is, I’m sure, what our presidential candidates were thinking in their debate this week, right? They spent weeks preparing their words. Words chosen for their punch and sound bite quality; words chosen for their ability to needle the other person; some words not chosen at all but just blurted out, destined to become memes. It’s an interesting thing, this debate tradition. We keep this ritual not because it necessarily shows us which candidate will make a better president – but somehow we still value words and arguments as we go about choosing our leaders.
And today’s readings are all about words – words of wisdom or foolishness, words that hurt and words that teach, words that express our deepest hopes and dreams and words that show how little we understand. And ultimately, the words that Jesus asks his followers to speak, words that answer the question that lies at the heart of our faith: who do you say that Jesus is?
Turn to your neighbors and discuss. Kidding!
To give the context for this gospel passage: Jesus has argued with the scribes and Pharisees, and then he encountered the Syrophoenician woman, who seems to open his eyes to his greater purpose – not just to the anointed messiah of Israel, but to be savior and healer for everyone. He then heals one who is deaf and mute, restoring him to language and words (Interesting), and then, as he travels further along with his disciples, drops the question: Who do you say that I am?
It’s not a comfortable conversation, what ensues. Peter pipes up immediately with what seems to be the correct answer, you are the Messiah! But Jesus immediately tells him to shut up, sternly ordering him the way he elsewhere orders demons to keep still. Then he goes on to paint the picture of what will happen next, his suffering and betrayal and death, and Peter gets upset: What are you saying, Jesus?? Whereupon Jesus snaps at him and all the disciples, Get behind me Satan! I can’t imagine the dinner table conversation they managed to have after all this was over.
Why is Jesus asking this? Maybe Jesus just wants to know what people think of him, asking in order to gauge how his message is coming across, a sort of marketing focus group with his disciples. He’s tried over and over to get people to keep silent about him, telling people not to say anything – ridiculous, given that he’s just healed them and completely changed their life. That tactic isn’t working, so ok, let’s at least get on top of the message here. Or perhaps he’s further trying to understand for himself what he is doing. Coming as this does so soon after the Syrophoenician woman, it does seem like maybe he’s doing some major internal processing about now. But I think he also is asking because he wants his disciples to stop and think about their answer. He’s not just their friend. He’s not just a wonderworker. Who do they really believe him to be?
The thing is, it’s a compelling question not just for the disciples, but for all of us. We also need to ask that question of ourselves. Who is Jesus, really? Who is God? It’s not just something we engage in as an idle exercise, spinning theories about angels dancing on the heads of pins. I remember quizzing a friend ages ago who was doing his DPhil at Oxford on the doctrine of God. Why exactly does this matter, I asked? Well, he pointed out, what we say and believe about God affects what we do and how we live. Of course, there are also things we might say we believe about God and Jesus because we think it’s what we’re supposed to believe. We’ve absorbed ideas from church or culture and we think they’re the right way to understand God. But deep down – and we express this in how we spend our time and money, or how we treat other people or make big decisions in our life – we might really believe otherwise. It deserves some thought to begin to live more faithfully, and with integrity.
The tense exchange that follows on Jesus’ question shows how complex it is to answer. Peter gives what is technically the ‘right’ answer. Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God, the Messiah. The whole of our faith is based on that central belief – in our creed we say every week that Jesus is God from God, light from light, true God from true God, the incarnation of God. Yet when Peter answers, Jesus rounds on him and tells him to shush. Peter may have the right words, but he has the wrong idea behind them – he is instead thinking of the Messiah who will march in with his army and free the people of Israel from their oppressors, in this case, Rome. But Jesus instead explicitly spells out what kind of Messiah he will be – one who will suffer and die for us, for love of us, and who will rise again, conquering death. And if you want to understand what I mean, Jesus implies, stick around with me a while longer and see how this unfolds. These words may not make sense to you right now. But they will, when you have lived them.
The words might be the same: Jesus is Messiah. But the meaning of those words takes a long time to work out.
Just this week, I saw two different understandings of God that brought this sharply into focus. On Wednesday, I went to a performance at Joe’s Pub called ‘There is Room, Room, Room in the Many Mansions of Eternal Glory for Thee, and for Everyone.’ Yes, all that. It was a deliriously happy, all-inclusive love fest for people who experience God’s love as all-embracing, all-affirming safety – pretty remarkable while you’re sitting there drinking your beer at the Public Theater, by the way. And the next night I was at a screening of ‘Bad Faith,’ the documentary our own Anne Nelson is part of, about white Christian nationalism – the belief that God’s love is explicitly for white Americans, and that the Bible expresses God’s judgment and condemnation for all those who think differently. Same words at the center, you could say – the same Bible, the same Christian creed – but a pretty diametrically opposed understanding of those words. See why it matters to ask ourselves the question, who do we say that Jesus is? See why it matters to really dig down inside ourselves for the answer?
It’s not just about finding the ‘right answer.’ This is not about getting the nuances of doctrine correct, the right summation of the teachings so that we can repeat the password at the pearly gates. There are orthodox statements of faith, there is truth, and a foundation of truth, that we stand on. But that truth runs deep, deeper than we can understand at face value. We live more and more into that truth throughout our lives. Peter blurted out an answer to Jesus’ question, but he didn’t really understand what it meant until much later. Sticking close to Jesus as long as he could helped him really see and know who Jesus was, for him and for everyone. Jesus didn’t tell him he was wrong. But it was clear that Peter needed a lot more time to understand just what was right.
And that is the work of a life of faith. We need to hang around for a while to understand. We need to live out what these teachings mean in our lives, and understand and explore with others just what they mean. And we need to test them, asking critical questions of scripture and tradition and our own experiences, and asking those questions in community with others. We’re never really done – all of our life in faith is a long process of formation. When we stay close to God, when we pray and listen and wade through it all to hear what is true, we come to that truth as well – who we are, who God is, who Jesus really is for us. And then we really begin to know God’s love for us, and for all.
Who do you say that I am? asks Jesus. It’s a question we are called to answer. And it is an answer we are called to grow into, even as God continues to draw us further into that truth. So may our words come from our hearts, and may they show forth the love of God, our strength and our redeemer.
