“THE GOD WE WANT AND THE GOD WE GET”

Matthew 16:21-28

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Are we always looking to God to be our hero, our champion, and our “yes” man? It seems that at times all of us are guilty of expecting to be rescued by God, but what God wants and we want are not always the same thing We are guilty of forgetting that God gives us what the world needs.

A recent commentary on this morning’s challenging text by Carter Shelley left me with this intriguing thought, and my theme for this morning’s sermon: “The God we get may not be the God that we want, but the God we get is the God the world needs.” (repeat)

I am a subscriber to a free weekly newsletter from the Alban Institute in Richmond, Virginia. The Alban Institute is widely recognized as one of the leading church consulting and development organizations in North America. The following paragraph appeared in a newsletter I received this week: “Defining the church’s ministry by responding to people’s needs is a common notion; but, because of the blurred line between want and need, no matter how much we speak of needs or perceived needs, it puts the church in the position of being defined not by its faith or history but by people’s wants. This trivializes the church, its mission, and its outreach. It eviscerates the heart of the church’s message and cuts the church off from its identity as the people of Christ. But the attitudes engendered in people who come to congregations expecting the church to make meeting their needs (or, more likely, their wants) a priority also harms the church. Simply put, when we say the church is to meet people’s needs, many people personalize that message. They hear, “If I go to church, those folk will take care of me.” In selling the church as a place where people’s needs are met, we draw people for whom there is, at least in their perception, an implied promise that if they come to the church it will provide them with what they think they need. The measurement of a congregation then becomes personal: “Is it meeting my needs?”….Their confusion between needs and wants means their attitude often becomes not “Is this congregation meeting my needs?” but “Is this congregation giving me what I want?”

Today’s gospel falls right on the heels of the Apostle Peter’s historic confession. In response to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter was unhesitating in his response. “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

On that statement alone, Peter was a real hero. He showed more spiritual resolve than all the others put together. For a moment in time, Peter appeared to have it all figured out about the who and what of Jesus - the incarnate Son of God who had come to earth to show and tell all people about God in a very real and personal way.

Peter - the great hero of faith - the Rock - the one on whose statement of faith the Church of Jesus Christ has been established.

But, oh, how inconsistent we really are. Peter quickly changes from the hero to satan. In a matter of a few short verses affirmations become condemnations - “Get away from me, Satan!” said Jesus. “You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, and not from God's.”

“The God we get may not be the God that we want, but the God we get is the God the world needs.”

Peter was wrong. The “Rock” had become a “Stumbling block.” Peter, being squeezed by centuries of tradition, was seeing things merely from a human point of view. Peter’s idea of a fiery, military Messiah of power, glory and conquest was clearly out of step with God’s idea of Messiahship.

Peter had simply missed the fact that God’s way of putting our world in right order would be different than our human way - that God thinks and works differently than we do - so differently in fact that Jesus had to die for our sins to show us how things really work within the realm of God.

Jesus must go to Jerusalem to be who he really was. Suffering, rejection, and even death on a Cross are all part of God’s plan for the salvation of the world. And God will do all of this because of love. “There is no greater love than this,” said Jesus, “that one would lay down his life for his friends.”

As the bible says, “God’s ways are not our ways.” The will of God is not the will of humankind. Speaking about the nature of God’s wisdom the Apostle Paul writes, “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God.”

In here book, ‘Christianity For The Rest of Us,’ Diana Butler Bass seeks to describe how the neighbourhood church is transforming the faith. In the early chapters she describes, from her research, the context in which we find ourselves in today: “We are all pilgrims in a strange land now, exiles and immigrants wandering in the new world of this post-everything age. Most of us have forgotten the village churches of our ancestors, forgotten that they, with their comprehensive way of life, once defined the Christian faith….Indeed, through much of the 20^th century, the old village churches became secularized and lost their sense of wonder, transcendence and passion. This loss of holy beauty hastened their decline.”

Today, many of us really don’t understand the ways of God. We have made the Christian life too easy. Like so much of the secular world, we come like consumers, looking for a church that will satisfy my needs and wants. “What’s in it for me?”

I read an article recently by Presbyterian minister, Rev. Dr. Gary Charles, where he said, “Every day we are constantly tempted in this life to take the easy way out and to do things which were contrary to God's will. Some said then and some say now that God's Kingdom plan just won't work. They say that people want to get rid of pain, not take it on. People want to accumulate assets, not give them away. People want to know their own minds, not bother trying to know the mind of Christ. With due respect to Jesus, they argue that the good life is a measure of what we have, how easily we can get what we want, and how seldom we are inconvenienced. They might never say this aloud, but they are confident that God's Kingdom plan is destined for the same resting place as the Titanic.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer who was a martyr during World War II in Germany wrote a book entitle ‘Cost of Discipleship.’ In it he writes, “Christians today are living by cheap grace - grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ….whereas, the costly grace of the gospel, says Bonhoeffer, confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and a contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man or a woman to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him.” “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man (person) will gladly go and sell all that he has ... Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again.”

Jesus said, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He also said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. ²⁵If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”

According to the pattern of Jesus, the Christian faith has always been about giving - doing for others. It’s not about receiving.

Hard words - words that lead to harder choices - to give up one’s self that we might become God’s instruments of justice, peace and reconciliation - that we might be servants instead of consumers.

Peter’s problem was that he tried to be out in front of Jesus telling him the way he should go. He tried to offer him an easy, painless way to escape the Cross. For Peter, it was all about his selfish desire for a God who would satisfy his wants.

Let us not give up on God’s world-reversing plan too soon. Notice that Peter never had any hope of understanding God’s abundant life until Jesus told him to get behind him. That's the only position from which you and I will ever learn about the life that Jesus intends for us and models for us by standing behind Jesus, listening to him, watching his every move, and trusting in God's plan despite the most lively critics within and outside the church.

Disciples are always called to follow along the road to self-denial and a Cross. As Jesus said, “if you give up your life for me, if you commit your life to following me, you will find true life.” God’s greater purpose, you see, is never to deny us life but to give us abundant life.

From a worldly perspective, the upside-down nature of the Gospel may seem illogical. It doesn’t make sense that those who lose their life will find it. Not so according to Jesus. No one can find ultimate meaning and purpose by indulging in oneself. The world has been trying that since the beginning of time and it hasn’t worked. Purpose and meaning in life in Jesus Christ and in serving others in the name of Jesus today means that we may have to stand for values the rest of the world rejects. We are called to stand for peace, justice, and the well-being of all people when there is a tendency to solve problems through violence, war, and terrorism. We are called to compassion, care and understanding of the sensitive needs of others. We are called to be Christ's followers in a time when that is becoming increasingly unpopular. Frederick Buechner writes: “The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”

Think about it. This changes our whole understanding of what our mission is all about. Jesus Christ has given his all for you and me and invites us to do the same for him and others as we follow in his footsteps. Count the cost carefully. The church is not a bargain basement where you get more for less. The church is a community of disciples who knows what it takes and what it costs.

No wonder Peter and the other disciples got a glimpse of what Jesus was really up to and who he really is, for you see, the Messiah we get is in fact the Messiah the world needs today.

Let Us Pray: Lord Jesus, we thank you for your selfless, outpoured love - a love revealed in the path of suffering you chose for the sake of the world. Give us the courage, the conviction and the faith to follow your example - walking behind you toward your cross. Strengthen our resolve to take up our cross as well. Help us diminish so you might increase; to die to self that we may come to life in you; to empty ourselves so that you might fill us with your Spirit and your power.

Compassionate God, we thank you for the many ways in which you have always come to our aid. Even in our unfaithfulness, you have remained faithful to us. You have sent people to guide and nurture us. We thank you for our parents - especially our fathers who have guided and nurtured us. We pray that you will bless all our fathers past and present with gifts of grace and love. You have given us a caring community of faith, and you have invited us to be part of your mission to this world. And so we offer to you our prayers for our community and the world this morning. Too often our history has shown us that what we think is the right way may in fact be a hindrance to your greater plan for peace and reconciliation. We thank you for the government of Canada and the historic apology given this past week to the aboriginal peoples of Canada. May this be the beginning of a new path we walk together as sisters and brothers on this good earth which you created. We pray for all who struggle for a more just world and are persecuted because they claim your name. May there be peace in our world today.

We also pray for ________….________…._______….And others that we name in silence.

Gracious God, as your Spirit embraces them, allow us to be part of your embrace. In the strong name of Jesus, we pray….Amen.