Beginning in the Fall Term 2006,
each month, a member of Faculty or a
Faculty Associate posts an entry that reports
activities and reflects on classes and reading/research.
Reports of Faculty sabbatic leaves will also be posted regularly.
Stephanie Sauvé
Dean of the Program for the Study of Women and Gender,
Director of Supervised Ministry and Associate Professor of Practical Theology
June Faculty Notes
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Senior Sermon
Don’t take yourself too seriously
CRCDS Baccalaureate 2007
Micah 6:6-8
Matthew 16:13-28
The Great Rabbi Chuza lay dying in his bed.
His students had gathered around the bed to bide their farewell and to offer words of thank and promise.
The Great Rabbi wept.
At times he wept in convulsive agony.
This behavior confused and frightened his students.
Was their great teacher afraid to die?
Finally one of the students could not contain his confusion any longer.
His words tumbled out:
“Rabbi, why do you weep?”
The Rabbi met the students gaze, tears still streaming down his cheeks and said;
“I’ll tell you,”
“When I greet my Creator, I will not be asked, “why weren’t you more like Moses”; because I am not Moses.
Nor will I be asked “Why weren’t you more like Samuel; because I am not Samuel.
Nor will I be asked: “Why weren’t you more like Elijah; because I am not Elijah.
But I will be asked, “Why weren’t you more like Chuza?”
“This is why I weep.”
My sermon title for this afternoon Baccalaureate service is:
DON”T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY!
This day I want to speak to you about this danger.
For me, taking yourself too seriously begins when we start trying to be who we think we ought or should be.
And stop being who God created us and is ever inviting us to be.
Or as Brian Fellows a Middler student and a budding practical theologian – stated in his final paper for Supervised Ministry:
“I know that I am a better pastor and a better servant of God when I work with God and not for God.”
I think this is an important distinction. When we work with God we work in humility.
But when we work for God, what we do what we do for our own glory.
That’s when we start taking ourselves way too seriously!
That is certainly what happened to Simon Peter is this afternoon’s scripture. He stopped being Simon, and tried to be God.
He does this when he start telling Jesus how things were going to be for Jesus.
Peter was taking himself WAY TOO SERIOULY!
We know this story…
The teacher asks the student a question.
Who do others say that I am?
This is the easy question –
The disciples can parrot back what they have heard.
They can tell of the idol gossip – the wishful thinking – the comments made as others have wondered out-loud.
But then Jesus gets personal.
The teachers asks a question that requires of the students.
Requires that they own what they say.
A question that will tell Jesus where the students are in their development
A question that when answered; will say much more about the student then the teacher
The teacher asks the students, “Who do you say that I am?”
Don’t tell me what others have said
Don’t quote to me some words of a nay sayer or a day dreamer.
Don’t tell me what it says in a primary text
Tell me where you are.
What you think.
What you believe.
The teacher, Jesus dares them to risk
To say out-loud what they have only whispered in their prayers –
And haven’t really dared to believe
Let alone had the courage to say out-loud.
Who do YOU say that I am?
I can picture the scene so clearly.
Maybe it’s because I have seen it before.
It happens in the classroom
It happens in the meeting room.
It happens in a Spiritual Direction Session
It happens more times then we wish to admit.
A question is asked and its far too personal.
And suddenly people get that “deer caught in the headlights look on their face.”
Eye drop to our hands - that are now in the grip of prayer.
Eyes shift side to side.
A nervous cough is heard.
As those to whom the question has been posed,
Ponder.
What can I say?
How should I respond?
I don’t want to reveal to much
I don’t want to be too vulnerable
I need to be Politically Correct
Even though I’m not political.
I want to demonstrate my sophistication,
My intellect
My knowledge
My graph of our polity
The creeds; or my pride in the freedom of not having creeds.
And of course I want to be RIGHT!
As well as just, true and socially continuous
All this goes on in our being,
Bouncing like a tennis ball between head, heart and gut,
Moving at the speed of light.
You take a deep breath, ready to respond,
And suddenly you are redeemed by one who just blurts out an answer – with little thought of the consequences.
“You are the Christ.”
Jesus focuses his gaze on speaker and says; Simon, you did get this answer from a book or a teacher – this was revealed to you by God,
Now let me tell you something about you,
You are Peter, the rock, upon which I will build my church.
And the powers of hell shall never conquer it.
As the teacher favorably greets the response of Peter the others all chime in,
“I agree”
“Ditto”
So the teacher assume they are all good with this notion, and he goes on to tell the disciples what that will mean.
“As the Christ I will have to go into Jerusalem, submit to an ordeal of suffering at the hands of the Religious Leaders, be killed, then I the third day be raised up alive.”
It is at this moment that Simon now Peter took Jesus in hand and begins to protest;
This is not going to happen with Peter – the rock – on the job!
Now let me just pause here for a moment to remind us all of the importance of punctuation.
Lynne Truss in her Runway #1 British Bestseller Eats Shoots and Leaves, The zero tolerance approach to punctuation, states; “… even people who could not punctuation their way out of a paper bag, are still interested in the way punctuation can alter the sense a string of words .”
Punctuation is important. Yes even when you stop writing papers for picky Profs.
And punctuation is vitally important as we look at this text.
Listen to the way the Eugene Peterson in the Message Bible punctuates the following line in our story.
Jesus says to Peter comma step aside comma get behind me
Semi colon
Satan comma, you are a stumbling block period.
Do you remember that Satan said he would come back at a more opportune time?
What moment could be more opportune time than this?
Jesus has had it confirmed that God has worked in the heart of Simon.
Simon has revealed the truth that Jesus is the Messiah
Jesus has affirmed Simon… he is the Rock… the foundation stone of the church,
Jesus, then instruct the disciple telling them in broad brush strokes what this means.
Now Simon Peter is a bit puffed up... with the elevation of his status among the disciples, and he starts taking himself real seriously
So when Jesus say something that frighten Peter, he take it upon himself to let Jesus know that he’s wrong.
Talk about a perfect set up - this is truly an opportune moment for Satan.
And Jesus recognizes the moment for what it is.
OK'D Peter so you are not ready for prime time yet,
in. Lynn Westfield states that Jesus is banishing Simon Peter, He is saying;
“Stay behind me,”
Shadow me a bit longer.
Let me give you some tutoring before you start taking center stage,
proclaiming a word,
Trying to lead.
Hang back a bit.
And you Satan – you are a stumbling block – trying to trip up my Man Peter.
Be gone
Of course we know that Satan always lays in wait for an opportune time.
It happen again for Peter when he had pulled that all nighter, after a big meal, and a stress-filled night of intense prayer,
Followed by the arrest of Jesus and the accusations
Satan claimed that opportune time too.
In that moment Peter did not claim his name, as a disciple
And he deigned Jesus – 3 times
Satan lays in wait for opportune times… when we are weary,
When we are frustrated,
When we are over committed,
Over worked,
Under prayer
And under played.
It is in those moments, when we have lost our perspective,
When we are not center, balanced or grounded –
When we having lost all of our Rock like qualities,
That we begin to take ourselves way too seriously rather than taking God seriously.
In those moments we need to raise the question anew that is found in Micah 6:6
With what shall I come before God on High?
Often when were are in that place we are so filled with the stuff of this plane that we fall back on offering material possession.- earthly resource.
But God doesn’t want that stuff with which we have cluttered our lives and our minds.
God wants us to do justice – to do what is fair and just. In that moment we are called to be prophetic, in our life… with our words and our action.
God wants us to love kindness, to be compassionate and loyal in our love. To be a pastoral person in this journey
God wants us to walk humbly, to be learned. For the more we learn – the more we realized how little we really know.
Eugene Peterson would say, that God wants us to “not take ourselves so seriously, BUT take God seriously… to be a transformative leader, who do the hard work of ever seeking to be transformed so that we can authentically invite others to do the same.
Marcus Borg in an article entitled; Jesus as Jewish Mystic writes:
According to the great mystics of Christianity, transformation is a continual, ongoing process, an unfolding of the soul. It is not accomplished in one step, as in "being saved" after which a person can sit back and pronounce judgments on others. One's "work" has only just begun. It continues in humble service to those in need, in constant prayer and in the realization of God's Presence...
And so on this weekend of high ceremony and horning of work well done, I charge you as people who are pastoral, prophetic and learned - for after all – that’s what we have trained you to be,
To be transformative leaders – who ever seek personal transformation, so that you don’t take yourselves too serious?
And I pray that you will ever take God seriously.
Amen
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