Texts on The Transfiguration of the Lord, February 6, 2005
Mark 9: 2-8; 2 Corinthians 3: 12-18
When Peter senses the awesome power of his mountaintop experience, he wants to build a church up there. How like all religion through the ages: a spiritual pioneer treads upon the unspeakable ground of divine beauty, and asks disciples to drop what they were doing and come tread this ground of God themselves. But, unwilling to wager more than, say, an hour a week gambling for God, we build shrines to the memory of the one who walked with God. There we can wager for heaven on our own terms. That’s the direction Peter was headed in when out of the cloud, a voice: “This is my Son. Listen to him.”
This should get us on the edge of our seats. What’s the Son got to say? Here’s the last thing he said prior to this event–the Word ignored, we might call it: “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 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.” (Mark 8:34) And here is the next thing he said, after this event–the Word worth waiting for, we might call it: “Jesus told them about the Son of Man, that he is to go through many sufferings and be treated with contempt.” (Mark 9:12)
Could the word be clearer? Don’t build shrines! Follow him. Do what he is going to do. Deny yourself, and you will receive blessing and bliss such as earth cannot provide. Take up your cross. Do not try to save your life. Don’t build shrines. This is a hard saying. Today, we celebrate the Church’s central sacrament, Holy Communion. The “words of institution”–Do this, remembering me–are commonly thought to express Jesus’ intention to found a church–an institution–and to give to it a ritual and a form. But that notion is just guesswork. When Jesus took the cup and said “Drink you all of it,” do we suppose he offered the cup merely in a spirit of conviviality, to establish a friendly church?
In the Hebrew Bible, the poets speak of “drinking the cup” many, many times. Virtually always, “to drink the cup” means to accept suffering, whether guilty or innocent, even at the hand of God. Jesus can’t have meant less! He wasn’t building a church or a shrine when he gave his disciples the gift of the communion cup. He offered a symbol by whose power all might remember, again and again, to listen to him! “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Drink, eat, remembering this! Don’t build shrines. Follow me!
Today, we complete a brief series of sermons on how a Christian’s thought and action can relate most faithfully to the large societies in which we participate. We have considered the commonwealth of nations, and our own nation. Now, we consider our relationship with the Christian Church. The gospel of the cup shows the way.
Like everything else on earth, the Church so easily becomes a source of personal satisfaction, an object of adoration, an idol. What is an idol? Any object or experience without which you imagine true happiness will no longer be possible. We are tempted to treat the Church, or at least our preferences within it, idolatrously. Fifty years ago, H. Richard Niebuhr saw how American Christianity was developing on these lines. He wrote:
It seems easy to accept . . . that the last reality with which we are [to be] concerned is the Church itself, and that the summary commandment we obey is to love Christianity with heart, soul, mind, and strength. [But] this exaltation of Church . . . leads us then . . . not to reconcile [people] with God or to redirect their love and ours toward God and neighbor, but rather to convert [people] to Christianity.
The Purpose of the Church and its Ministry, p. 42
To build shrines! This is the idolatrous spirit that has overwhelmed Christian America and swept the halls of political power–the perversion of Christianity by the idea that Christians are on earth to make more Christians. No! Deny yourself. You! Follow me. Niebuhr says it so plainly in this little book. “. . . No substitute can be found for the definition of the goal of the Church as the increase among [all people] of the love of God and neighbor.” (p. 31)
This is the purpose of Christianity. It is like a game. You understand games: a voluntary agreement to act in certain ways, according to peculiar rules, in order to have a good time. You don’t have to play, but once you agree to do so, you play by the rules. There’s a field or a court with boundaries. You are in or you are out. You know the rules are necessary in order to have a good time; ignore them–and what’s the point of playing? Christianity is a game. It’s a particular way of playing life out. You don’t have to play this way, but in a game, after you’re older than six, you never say, I am too playing, as you walk off the field. Christian discipleship is a game. There isn’t a bigger one, and no game can be played more seriously than this one. But it’s still your choice, whether to play life by these rules. What are the rules?
Some Christians think the main rules are, Get more people to obey these rules, and build shrines for them to sit in with us. How sad. Some seem to think the main rules have to do with sex behavior; apparently that’s where their minds are. What is the main rule? Perhaps we need a voice from the clouds to remind us. Listen to him! If any want to play my game, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose this game, and those who lose their life for my sake will win this game. So love full out. Forgive everyone everything. Trust God completely. These are the practices of those who want to play the big game. There is no joy on earth like it. What is the church for? To train for this kind of play, every waking moment, and to practice it. Love, and trust. Love, and trust. Play the game. Through hurt and sorrow, through doubt, delight, fear, or frustration, drink the cup, break the bread. Lose your life for his sake. Play the game, hard, and move your peace into the Kingdom. That’s what the church is for.
delivered at Central Presbyterian Church, Buffalo, New York
©Stephen H. Phelps, February 2005
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