There are some things that almost all of us share in common. I guess it's just part of what it means to be human.
Among other things, we want the best of what life has to offer us, whether that’s a good education, a good job, a loving partner, or a well-cared-for family.
We want security, whether it's financial security or the security of our personal property.
And it could also be said that most of us want to be appreciated or liked or understood by our peers.
And we want to know that if people are talking about us, they are at least saying good and positive things.
And so in that sense, Jesus was showing his very human self in this morning's Gospel reading. "Who do people say that I am?" he asked his disciples.
"What's the word on the streets?" Well some said he was John the Baptist, which may have been another way of saying he was a charismatic preacher.
And others were saying he was Elijah, which may have been another way of saying he was a prophet and miracle-worker.
Now, had it been me, I think I would have been very pleased with such a report card. To be called a charismatic preacher or a prophet or miracle-worker is an A+ in my book.
But Jesus seemed to know he was more than just his words or deeds. And so he probed further by asking the disciples what they themselves thought about him.
He seemed to be asking them to think for themselves, to not regurgitate what they had heard from others, but to share what their own heart was telling them about their rabbi.
When I'm invited to speak to people about my role as an out gay Christian pastor, I usually try to follow the lead of Jesus
and start the conversation out by asking what they have heard about people like me. What are others saying? I haven’t ever gotten as glowing a report as did Jesus;
people rarely describe my preaching as charismatic or my deeds as miraculous and prophetic. And when I ask what they themselves think,
when I ask, "And do you also agree that I am an abomination like you may have heard from your pastor?"
I've heard different replies, but never has anyone described me as a messiah, the way Peter described Jesus.
And yet when Peter said, "You are the Messiah," Jesus mysteriously told Peter not to tell anyone about him. I think the reason was because even though Peter gave the right answer,
he had the wrong idea of what kind of Messiah Jesus was. You see, Peter, like most of the Jewish people, was anticipating a Messiah who would overthrow the Roman government,
someone who would liberate the Jews from the bondage of slavery that had become a way of life for them. That's the Messiah that Peter was proclaiming Jesus to be:
a military conqueror. And so Peter had the right answer but the wrong idea of who Jesus was. He had the right title but the wrong understanding of what the title meant for Jesus.
And so Jesus tried to clear things up a bit for Peter by inviting him to consider an alternate image of Messiah. Not a victorious Messiah, but a Messiah whose destiny was crucifixion.
Not a Messiah who led soldiers, but one who served the poor. Not a Messiah who overthrows the enemy, but one who, instead, forgives and loves the enemy.
And Peter didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. And the truth of the matter is neither do we. We still resist the idea of loving our enemy and praying for those who persecute us.
But it's to just that sort of thing to which we are called. If we want to take on the identity of Christians, if we want to call ourselves Jesus followers,
then we must take seriously these important words that Jesus spoke in our Gospel reading, we must embrace them, and we must put them into action.
And those words are, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves." And our very spirits shudder within us, don’t they?
Because self-denial goes against every fiber of our being. But first, let’s be clear about what Jesus was talking about when he told his followers to deny themselves.
I don't think he was talking about self-mortification. Jesus spent too much of his ministry relieving suffering to be misunderstood to expect his disciples to embrace suffering as a way of life.
Too many of his parables were about banquets and feasts for people to think he would encourage people to suffer.
By denying one's self, I believe Jesus meant letting go of one’s identity. That's the tie-in with the preceding text. Sometimes we think our identity is how other people describe us.
And sometimes we think we are what we do. When someone asks how I am doing, I often find myself slipping into the bad habit of answering by telling them what's going on at the church.
My identity is entangled in a not-so-healthy way with church programs, and my value, then, is found in the success or failure of those programs.
Or sometimes I ask people how they are doing, and by way of an answer, they start telling me what's going on with their children or grandchildren instead of what's going on in their own lives.
Or there's the workaholic who will answer the question by talking about his or her deadlines and work accomplishments.
We have this false sense of self that we’ve created and to which we’ve become attached, but it's nothing but an illusion. It's not really who we are.
And if we ever hope to discover who we are, we need to let go of these people and accomplishments and institutions to which we have become so attached.
In the words of Jesus, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life will save it." In other words,
those who continue to hold onto these false images of self will never come to know who they really are. And it's only through letting go of self
that we come to discover who and whose we are. We are always being called to 'let go of' or 'die to' that self that is driven by our ego needs
in order to open up to the Divine flow of love in which we all move and have our being. And so when we let go of our ego,
then we are free to replace it, then, with compassion – that to which God calls each of us. We replace serving ourselves and our own needs
with serving the needs of others. There are different ideas about what that looks like, but I think one of the best is something called the Charter for Compassion.
Supported and created by leading thinkers from many traditions, the Charter activates the Golden Rule around the world. You have a copy of it in your worship bulletins,
and right now I want to play for you a video recording of that charter...
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world
and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest,
to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others—even our enemies—is a denial of our common humanity.
We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
We therefore call upon all men and women to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion,
to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate,
to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures,
to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity, to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings—even those regarded as enemies.
We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness,
compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence,
compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community...
Letting go of self and showing compassion to others. This is who Jesus really was. This is what he was about,
and this is what it means to be a follower of Jesus. May we each find the courage to be followers of the Christ. Amen.