A Lived Faith

A sermon preached on Zoom with the people of the Cathedral of St. Paul and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Video of the sermon is available on YouTube.

We come into our Gospel reading this morning just after Peter has made his bold proclamation of faith, naming Jesus’s true identity: “you are the Messiah,” he says. In Jesus, Peter has found the truest hope. Hope for justice, for love, for humanity; hope for the world as it should be.

But after Peter’s pronouncement, Jesus turns to telling his disciples what they can expect in days to come: rejection, suffering and death. And Peter pulls Jesus aside to talk to him. We don’t know exactly what he said, but the word “rebuke” is used to describe it.

I imagine Peter’s words went something like, “No, this can’t be right. You are the Messiah, you just confirmed it. There’s a crowd nearby, what if they hear you? We’re the winners in this story. Why are you talking about failure?”

And Jesus responds to Peter with those chilling, memorable words, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Jesus’s phrasing seems almost cruel. And, my guess is he chose those cutting words carefully.

I believe this was a warning to Peter, and it is a warning to us: if we conflate the power and divine majesty of our God with a sense of false, human triumphalism, then we have succumbed to deadly and dangerous temptation.

Far from quieting down, as Peter would have wanted, Jesus then turns to the larger crowd gathered nearby. “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me,” he says. “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.”

Last week, we heard about Jesus’s time in the wilderness, tempted by Satan; tempted to be something he is not; tempted to be an earthly king moving the fate of nations or a magician performing tricks. Tempted to set his mind on things human, rather than things divine. Jesus knows what it feels like to experience this temptation. And he knows just how dangerous it is when we give into it.

Throughout Christian history, human beings have given in to Satan’s temptation. The cross has been used as a banner of unjust war, a tool of racialized terror, a symbol of wealth, status and power, and an icon of empire and oppression. Today in this country, we see the cross being used as an emblem of white nationalism.

Jesus knows how easy it is for human beings to take the words of triumph and power that belong only to God, and the symbols that are associated with that triumph and power, and impress them upon ourselves. He knows how easy it is for us to then take that façade of power and use it to advance an agenda entirely antithetical to the gospel; an agenda that makes life even harder for those on the blessed side of the beatitudes. An agenda that brings death and not life.

So it is so important that we resist those temptations and use our voices and our platforms to make clear that the symbols and words of our Christian faith do not belong anywhere near those beliefs, policies and actions that bring death and destruction. Cross bearing does not look like nationalism, racism, misogyny, antisemitism, ableism, heterosexism, transphobia or any form of bigotry. Cross bearing does not look like benefitting the rich at the expense of the poor. Cross bearing does not look like taking actions that cause deeper harm to our natural environment.

Cross bearing may not look like winning – in fact, it will sometimes look like losing. And it may not be popular. Cross bearing will look like loving, noticing, caring, advocating and giving. It will be vulnerable and risky. It will look like so many of the beautiful individual and group ministries I have been privileged to witness and be a part of here in Erie, with you.

I believe in the almighty power and glory of God.

And this morning, Jesus in his love and wisdom is reminding me how easy it is to get confused. How easy it is to be tempted to believe that these things I know to be true of God are also true of me. Or of the people who look like me, or act like me, or live where I do, or love how I do, or worship the way I do.

Peter’s statement of faith – “You are the Messiah” – is breathtaking and true and good. And, Jesus tells us our faith is not about proclamation alone. It is not about words or symbols alone. Ours is a lived faith.

When I reflect on these things, I find myself especially thankful for God’s mercy. We do not get one chance at this life of faith, we get as many as we need. In this season of Lent we are reminded of the gifts of confession, repentance and forgiveness. We will stumble. We will make mistakes. Or I should probably say, I will stumble, I will make mistakes. And if anything, our Biblical accounts of Peter assure us that God’s mercy is real. We know from Peter that we can “step in it” many, many times. And God will be right there with us. God might have some choice words for us, but She will be there ready for us to dust ourselves off, pick up our cross and begin following again.