Bethel Ontario Early Video Worship - 2nd Sunday of Lent

You know, sometimes churches put ads on, well, now social media, and often signs on their lawn or front signs in an attempt to attract passersby. The friendliest church in town or lonely, anxious, come to our church. We'll fix that. Imagine how many people this church would attract if we put a sign out front saying, are you looking for more pain, anxiety, suffer suffering, and stress in your life? [00:43:00] (33 seconds)  #ChurchSignIrony

Jesus, as we journey with you toward the cross, your way becomes narrower and more difficult for us to follow. Most of us, when we began this journey with you, did not know that it would be so demanding. We fear that we are falling behind. We wonder if we can make it. It's one thing for you, son of God, to go to the cross. It's altogether another thing for people like us to go with you. If we are going to make it to the end of the journey, you will need to help us. [00:32:57] (30 seconds)  #HelpMeFollowJesus

Judaism has one basic theological conviction. There is a God, and you're not it. That's what a good Jewish friend said to me recently. From what I've seen, maybe Judaism does do a better job than Christianity in keeping the appropriate gap between who we are and who God is. That can be tough for us because we Christians believe in the incarnation. We believe that in Christ, God has come close to us. [00:36:50] (36 seconds)  #DivineGapAndIncarnation

There is a hunger in our world right now. It is a hunger for security, for food and clothing, for shelter. It is a hunger even for assurance that we as beings will continue to be, to exist, to have meaning and purpose. And there is a hunger for the spirit, for God. God made and honored a covenant with Abraham and Sarah that they would be fruitful, that nations and kings would come from them, that they would be blessed and provided for. [00:33:51] (36 seconds)  #HungerForBodyAndSpirit

Peter's humanity in the light of such kingdom realities reveals how fickle people can become when it comes to discipleship. Most of the time this is true. Just most of the time, like Peter, we want to follow as long as the terms are acceptable and not too costly. But Jesus models powerfully what true following means as he denies self, takes up Christ, and follows God's lead. [00:41:51] (34 seconds)  #CostOfDiscipleship

Jesus turns to his disciples and begins to teach them. And the lesson he teaches them is not one they wanted to receive. Jesus begins to tell them plainly, openly, it says, that he will be rejected. He will suffer. He will die. Now it's true. He did mention resurrection, but none of them comprehended what that meant. The main thing that shocks them is for Jesus to say that he will be rejected, suffer, and die. [00:40:01] (36 seconds)  #JesusPredictsSuffering

Jesus' response to Peter so clearly relates that Peter needs to get behind him. Such is the only place a true disciple can ever be if one is to follow. Jesus then uses this opportunity to define once again the true nature of what following him means. In light of Jesus' prediction, the message is all too real. Ultimately, discipleship means giving up everything. [00:42:24] (35 seconds)  #GetBehindMe

The disciples are in the middle of their journey with Jesus. And right in the middle of the journey, Jesus teaches them, surprising them by teaching them that they are walking away that nobody wants to go. They are walking not toward glory and power, but toward rejection, suffering, death. Now the reality of why Jesus has come is just too much to bear, and Peter attempts to keep him from such a future. [00:41:13] (38 seconds)  #WalkingTowardTheCross

Peter, the lead disciple, rebukes Jesus. Peter reju rebukes Jesus? Wow. Okay. He rebukes him for saying something this outrageous. To him, it is utterly unthinkable that God's anointed one, the Messiah on whom will be pinned all the hopes of Israel should suffer this ignominious fate. Jesus turns and rebukes Peter using the term Satan and telling him he is a victim of purely human thinking. He says, you are not thinking God's thoughts, but human thoughts. [00:40:38] (35 seconds)  #ThinkGodsThoughts

In other words, church is where we come to close the gap between us and God. But sometimes, and maybe this Sunday is one of those times, when we listen to scripture, we're impressed by how little we truly understand God. It's as if in the scripture reading, the preaching, and the encounter with Christ, the gap between us and God is opened. We discover that our understanding is limited, [00:38:27] (30 seconds)  #ScriptureRevealsTheGap

and we don't totally have an understanding of the awesomeness of God or the reach of the realm of God. We might think to ourselves, wow. I guess I didn't know God as well as I first thought. It's not that God isn't right next to us, beside us, within us, and about us. It's that there's more to God than we can understand. In our story today, Jesus' disciples have been walking with Jesus for a while now. [00:38:57] (32 seconds)  #GodBeyondUnderstanding

They have had a front row seat from which to observe his exorcisms and his healing wonders. They've heard him teach, and they've heard him preach. They've marveled as he drew larger and larger crowds. Perhaps they thought to themselves, this Jesus movement is really catching on at last. People are being drawn to him. And isn't this the corroboration that Jesus is indeed our long awaited messiah? And right here right here at this point in Mark's gospel, [00:39:30] (31 seconds)  #FrontRowToTheMiracles

Christ did not come in and politically overthrow the Romans. Instead, Christ came to establish God's realm in a totally different way. Perhaps all this thought about making sure we understand that kind of a difference goes against why we even came to church this morning. Church is often where we come to be close to God, a place where we come to a more sure and certain faith where we deepen our understanding of God. [00:37:54] (33 seconds)  #KingdomNotPolitics