This morning, we come to the real turning point in the gospel of Mark. These verses mark the division between the first and second halves of the gospel. Up until now, things have been looking pretty good for Jesus and his band of followers. The crowds are friendly. Healings take place wherever they go. Thousands are fed with just a few small fish and some bread. With each miracle, Jesus has become more and more popular with the common folk - and less and less popular with the people in control. In chapter 7, we read about how the Pharisees came to see what was going on and about how Jesus told them to get real religion and stop with all their rules-keeping. The people in power in Jerusalem didn’t like the answers he gave or the way he shamed them in doing so and so they started looking for ways to get rid of Jesus – Jesus was making trouble for them religiously, socially and politically – and they don’t want any trouble. The bigger problem is, that although the common folk follow Jesus because he is a teacher and a healer, they just follow the signs and don’t understand whom they are following. The disciples really don’t quite get it either. They believe that Jesus is a nice guy, a learned rabbi, a prophet --- and they wonder if perhaps he might just be the messiah – but they only wonder. All this has been fine as long as Jesus and the disciples have been in the countryside, but now they are approaching Caesarea Philippi where things are different. First century Judea was not just a quiet countryside. Nor was just a backwater province content to let the Roman world pass it by while it remained a quaint colony. It was a place where of political intrigue; a place where your politics mattered. It was a place where the rulers kept their power and their lives by ingratiating themselves to the Caesar who could take power away as quickly as he had given it. The city of New Caesarea was an example of just how far people would go to get on Caesar's good side. New Caesarea had been built to honor Caesar Augustus (Octavian) by King Herod and Herod's son, Phillip, had continued the building and renamed it Caesarea Philippi - the 'City of Caesar that Phillip Built'. The city may have been in Judea, but it was a gentile city with shrines to both Greek and Roman gods. The villages that surrounded Caesarea derived most of their living from catering to needs of the city's inhabitants and they had a vested interest in what went on there -- much as many of the working folk here in some way have an interest in what goes on with the economy in Washington, D.C. Here politics matter, while itinerant prophets may do well in the hinterland, they are not welcome in places of politics and power where such a prophet may upset the status quo. Here, who Jesus says he is and what Jesus does will matter because news of it will quickly get to Rome and this is one thing the authorities care about and want to avoid. ------------------------ In the first verse of this morning’s scripture, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They answer what they have heard: John the Baptist, Elijah or one of the prophets – they can think of him as a messenger of the messiah, a forerunner of the messiah – but not quite as the anointed one who has come to save the world. They would rather wonder about the truth than live with the implications of the truth. ------------------------- Isn’t it often easier to look forward to the unknown than to be faced with a reality that might not be all that we hope it will be? Wasn’t it always more fun to wait for Santa than to unwrap what he left? – or remember the first time you ever went to the ocean and the joyful expectancy of wondering what it would be like? When I was 10, we lived in Florida. We went to Daytona Beach all the time. My cousin Saundra came to visit that summer. She came from a small town in rural Alabama and had never even seen a big lake. We took her with us to Daytona Beach – and she was excited about seeing the ocean for all the hours it took us to get there.- and then she saw it – and heard it – and smelled the salt air – and was petrified. She couldn’t swim and confronted with crashing waves and water as far as the eye could see, she was afraid even to step foot onto the sand. Ever been there? – when the reality of a situation is more than you can handle? ----------------------------- What about when something turns out to be less than you expect? I still remember the first time I saw snow – I was 12. I had expected it to be like powdered sugar – crunchy and granular enough to pour from your fingers. What I got was a slushy snow-cone-ish mess – wet and cold and slippery – and I have hated it ever since. Ever been there? – when the reality of a situation is less than you expected? It almost always easier to anticipate the reality than it is to experience it. ------------------------- But God gives Peter a special revelation, “You are the Messiah”. He knows that Jesus is not just another prophet, not another messenger, not a forerunner. He understands that Jesus is the real deal. Imagine what he hopes for himself – fame and glory – and perhaps riches, too – and heaven in the bargain. But Peter envisions a regal messiah – one that will take back the crown of Israel from that half-breed Herod. A conquering messiah that will drive the Romans from their land and return the monarchy to the glory it had during the time of David and Solomon. The future must look pretty good to Peter just now. He has it all figured out. He knows exactly what he can expect from Jesus and from his future with Jesus. And then Jesus (v31) begins to tell them what it will really be like. “that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again (NRSV)”. Whoa! This is not what Peter has bargained for. Jesus has stepped out of his little messiah-box and Peter rudely tries to put him back in. Can you imagine talking your leader like that? Can you imagine talking to God like that? But let’s take a step back here. Throughout the ages, peoples have seen and experienced God in many different ways, and they – and we – have looked to God to be many things depending on our differing situations. For the small child God serves as a parent figure. To the oppressed, the Lord comes as a bringer of freedom and dignity. To the lonely, God comes as the comforter who understands their loneliness. To the sorrowful, God brings joy. To the doubtful, God brings assurance. To those without hope, God brings hope eternal. In every generation, people who call on the name of the Lord have found rest for their souls. And all of this is good. Our problems come – and Peter’s issue is – that rather than accept all that God can be to us in relationship, we insist on telling God how it is to be done. We try to limit how God should act and how God should reveal the holy self in the world. ---------------------- Peter has been given the gift of recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, but his vision of who the Messiah is and how the Messiah acts is too small, too limited – and it gives him a glimpse of a reality he does not want to face. ----------------------------- Many of us have tried to put God in one kind of box or another. Many if not all of us have tried to limit how God acts. Most of us have put a face of God that limits who God is and how we can interact with our Lord to make it more palatable, more convenient and less demanding. ----------------------------------- Here are a few examples offered by Tracy Icenogle, a Christian composer and playwright – and a buddy of mine: • God: the Wizard Curmudgeon - on whom we call to get us out of jams that we got ourselves into like ‘please let me get an A on that test’, ‘please let the local team win the big game’, ‘please let me get a good report from the dentist or doctor’, ‘please bend the laws of the universe for my convenience’. • God: the Longsuffering Mother – who sits patiently at home waiting for us to call or stop in whenever we’re not too busy. God who understands that we’re just too busy and who will be happy to see us even if we only come on Easter and Christmas. God who keeps giving everything anytime we want something without asking for anything in return. • God: the Great Punisher – who sits high in judgment just waiting for one little slip-up, one little mistake so we can get zapped. The God for whom we’d better behave every minute lest we face divine retribution. • The New Age God – The God of ‘I’m OK, you’re OK who asks nothing and is nothing and yet all is right with the world and nothing is a problem. -------------------------------- These examples are humorous and a bit extreme, but how many of us have treated God in much the same way at one time of another? How many of us have, like Peter, tried to fit God into a form that we are at least comfortable with even if it’s not a very nice one? How many of us have kept God in a box like that because it’s convenient to have a vision of God that doesn’t want all that we have and all that we are? How many of us want a god who can be called on when we’re in trouble and who will leave us alone the rest of the time? Or a god who will fulfill our notions that, “I’m OK and you’re OK”? ------------------------- Verse 34 of this morning’s gospel cautions us that if anyone really wants to be a disciple of Jesus, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Jesus. Verse 35 tells us that those who want to save their lives will lose them. We can add that those who seek a god of convenience are following the wrong one and will be just as lost. Those who deny the full range of God’s power and work in their lives, who are ashamed to call God lord of every aspect of their lives, lose out on all the love and joy and peace that true disciples of God can experience. ----------------------------------- That faith journey is not without its consequences and its hardships, as Jesus himself points out in this morning’s lesson – but it will be well worth the journey. --------------------------- The question for us this morning, is just what face does our God wear? Have we tried to limit the work of God in our lives by limiting the ways we will see God? The good news for us this day is that even as we come here to pray and listen to God’s word, we sit in the presence of God who stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. We can ask ourselves not just who God is, but we can invite God into our lives in all the fullness in which God can come. We can lay aside the limits we place on God and accept the limitlessness of who God really is. Amen.