"God's Work, Our Lives"

 Sermon from 9-12-21 “God’s Work, Our lives”

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our lord and savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

It’s been cute seeing all the “first day of school” pictures on Facebook for the last few weeks! Everyone is wearing new clothes, new masks, new backpacks. We’re coming into a new season, there are new classes and schools to attend, new initiatives at work, new routines at home… but also still navigating a lot of uncertainty: Is my child safe at school? When will my child be eligible for the vaccine? Will there be a new Covid variant later this year? 

We try to put our best foot forward… But a few weeks from now, those clothes won’t be AS new… crayons will break… the pens will leak... the notebooks get lost, or messy with juice spills and dog drool… piles of dishes, laundry, and homework threaten to overwhelm. 

We have the best plans and make the best preparations… but usually life throws us a curveball – or two – and things don’t always turn out as nice as we imagined. Life can feel like a pop quiz that we haven’t studied for. 

This particular passage we just heard is smack dab in the middle of the Gospel of Mark, where the luster of following Jesus is perhaps wearing off for the disciples. Jesus decided to check their progress with a little surprise midterm exam, with JUST TWO QUESTIONS. Question 1 is: “who do other people say that I am?” Peter nails it - THE MESSIAH! Ding, ding! Gold star,  Peter!

But there is a SECOND question to this exam, and this one is an ESSAY - “who do YOU say that I am?”

But then… Peter doesn’t quit when he’s ahead. Peter says: “Now look here, Jesus. You’ve got this Messiah thing all wrong.” To which Jesus responds, “Get behind me, Satan.” Oops. 

We tend to be so hard on poor Peter, probably because Peter is us. We would all prefer to live at the beginning of the story where everything is still shiny and new; or to skip all the way to the end, where everything is nicely wrapped up. 

But we don’t live our daily lives there, at the beginning… or even at the end of the story. We live in the middle, that awkward place where we don’t know what’s going on, but the novelty has long worn off, and we’re just tired. In fact, I have heard our feelings right now described as “languishing” and I think that’s accurate. All our preparations and good intentions are out the window, and honestly we have no idea if this whole mess is going to turn out OK or not, and we are exhausted by the wondering. 

The good news is that to be a follower of Jesus, we don’t have to have it “all together.” We don’t have to wait until our lives look like the perfect dorm room in that slick and new IKEA catalog.

But… the flip side is that following Jesus is not a path OUT of the awkward middle part of the story, either, as Peter thought. Peter saw Jesus as a ticket right INTO power and prestige, to rival the Roman Caesars in authority and might. But that’s not what Jesus is about. Jesus calls us to a path that he himself followed: living his whole life for the sake of others, even to the detriment of himself.  

This very weekend – known in the ELCA as “God’s Work, Our Hands Day,” but also as the 20th anniversary of 9/11, is kind of an accurate mish mash that is perfect for the middle of our story. So many of you came out this weekend, sporting your Emmanuel shirts, ready to give some time to care for our little corner of the planet here in Vienna. And today, also acknowledge how worn out and in need of healing we and the community are...  plus we recognize the world-shaking, life altering tragedy that occurred not all that far from here twenty years ago yesterday. 

We remember all the people who lost their lives that day, and also admire the special type of courage and sacrifice it takes for so many people to put the lives of so many others ahead of their own. For some, it meant the end of their lives, like for those on Flight 93 and many first responders in New York. For some, it meant opening up hearts and homes to seven thousand stranded strangers from all over the world, as it did for the people of the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland. 

Serving, healing, remembering - this is the work that God is up to, and the work that God is calling us to do in this still very awkward middle time. Who would have thought that we would be entering a third program year of navigating hybrid and online learning as our youth get sent off into something we haven’t gotten a handle on yet? Who would have thought, 20 years after 9/11, we rightly wonder how the last 20 years could have gone differently.  

I saw an unattributed quote floating around Facebook - “Grief is a journey with three stages - the beginning, the middle, and the rest of your life.” Our world has shifted around us so often in our lifetimes, and there is no roadmap for what we have yet to face. We’re going to make mistakes, prioritize the wrong things, and fall flat on our faces, epically and often, not unlike Peter. 

But Jesus did not reject Peter. When Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan,” he’s telling Peter to get behind him IN ORDER TO BETTER FOLLOW HIM. Like, stay in your lane, Peter, and let me lead. 

Letting Jesus lead will feel awkward sometimes, and some of the things we hold dear might end up looking a little different… or have died away only to be resurrected into something new. If we’re ready to do this, we better buckle up because the way is going to be anything but boring. 

You may lose the sure ground under you, but you will gain your life. You may win a cross, but death will lose its sting. You may lose your life as you know it, but Jesus has won the victory over the grave. Because it is our hands and our lives, but it is God’s work to do. Thanks be to God, amen.