Proper 7C V. Kempf 6/24/07

“There are two kinds of people in this world: winners and losers.

In each one of us there is a winner – at the core – a winner waiting to be unleashed on the world.

Go out and be winners!” So goes the “motivational speaker” who is the father in the family featured in the movie “Little Miss Sunshine.”

He says “Will yourself to win. Want it more than anyone else.” And “There’s no sense in entering a contest unless you think you can win. Do you think you can win?”

This was a movie about denial, loss, grief and family. It celebrates, not winning,

but the power of community and the power of love.

There is the silent hostile adolescent, the flaky mother, the coke sniffing grandpa, the suicidal scholar, and of course, little Olive, a child who is afraid of losing because, as she says:

“Daddy hates losers.”

The world around us is continually sorting and dividing. There are winners and losers, haves and have-nots. There are racial, sexual, and class divisions. You’re either for us or against us – either a patriot or a supporter of terrorism; sacred or secular; saint or sinner.

Furthermore, the world defines success as winning, and offers more and more ways to look younger, live longer, suffer less. Hold onto your life at whatever cost! Losing your life is the worst thing that can happen.

We do celebrate heroes – those who lose their lives for others, like those nine fire-fighters in Charleston this week. But then we are tempted to turn our heads helplessly away when we hear of those who suffer and die as the “collateral damage” of war.

Races struggle for supremacy, religions do too. And even within races (Darfur, the middle East) there is polarization, oppression and persecution.

Christians battle one another too – either in the not-too-distant past of Northern Ireland

or in power wars in denominations and communities.

The dad in Little Miss Sunshine says “don’t apologize, it’s a sign of weakness.” So we go on trampling one another and say “that’s just the way the world is.” And maybe it’s so.

Then what are we to do with this man Jesus?

The world says: a messiah should be a king. Who ever heard of a dead messiah? What good is that? There are two kinds of people in this world – winners and losers, and according to the world’s judgment, anyone who gets himself nailed to a cross is a loser. And those who follow him aren’t following the leader, but the loser.

It all comes down to how we answer the question Jesus posed in today’s Gospel: who do you say that I am? A loser?

A man who suffered needlessly when we assume he could have called down all the powers of heaven and taken over by force?

In making the statement he did in the Gospel today, Peter did more than take a guess at who Jesus really was. He defined himself as a disciple. As a follower of Christ, one who understood, finally, the reality of “Messiah.”

There were various Messianic ideas current in Jesus' day.

One was that the Messiah would be a second David, a great king, who would reign through power and goodness

Another was “the son of man.” Messiah would be a man from heaven, a transcendent messenger who would transform the world.

A third idea of Messiah was the "suffering servant" found in Isaiah. And it’s just this concept that Peter and the others had such trouble with.

Jesus asked “Who do people say that I am?” What are they saying about me, whispering about me? Who do those people, who are outside of this little group of friends, think I am?

They hedged a bit. Well, some say this and some say that.

Then he asked a deeper question, one which would push them further than rumors they had heard: “Who do YOU say that I am?”

Peter took a risk, kind of like walking on water and said "You are the Messiah of God." I can almost see Jesus’ face – Eureka! Someone gets it!

Then the hard words followed …. Words of suffering and death. And not just for himself …. Jesus opened the door to suffering and expected his disciples to come through with him: "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Deny what? Deny this persona I’ve worked so hard to build up? My agenda? My idea of what “religion” is all about? And how far I’ll go to “practice my religion.”

“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” Will we ever truly understand what this means?

I remember a love song from the 80’s that has this line: “I’m holding you with open arms.”

Offering a love so great that it’s willing to lose it for the sake of the other. Love which has given up it’s own plan. “I’m holding you with open arms.”

“For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”

Does Jesus want us to hold onto our own lives this loosely? Can we keep our hands from grasping at our life’s agenda, holding on desperately? Could we be so open to the agenda of God, that we are able to follow with open hands and arms?

There’s something about letting go … of power, of control, of stubborn willfulness … that brings us closer to the way of Christ.

There’s something about letting go of fear – including the fear of losing – that brings us closer to the way of Christ.

There’s something about letting go of even our death, and our grasping for life, that brings us closer to the way of Christ.

The gospel passage talks about suffering, rejection and death as an alternative to winning…. Or maybe it’s the way to win in a different way.

Jesus says “Take up your cross, and follow.” Take up your own death, and be willing to offer it for the sake of the Kingdom.

Your death….. Beginning with all those little opportunities we have each day to die to our own agenda, our own fears, angers, prejudices for the sake of the kingdom: replacing them with ways to share our faith with others, to serve Christ by serving others, by learning and growing in our understanding of our faith, & by giving and living abundantly.

In Little Miss Sunshine, the first day of the road trip, the surly non-speaking adolescent wore a bright yellow t-shirt that proclaimed in bold black Gothic lettering “Jesus was wrong.”

So it comes down to that too. Was Jesus right or wrong? Is it worth it to know the answer?

In the answer we define ourselves.

Saying who Jesus is – says who we are as well. Who do you say that I am?

A Parish For All People!