3 Words – a bullet pointed life

Trinity 14 St Giles Cheddington

Reading Isaiah 50: 4 – 9a

⁴ The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
       to know the word that sustains the weary.
       He wakens me morning by morning,
       wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

⁵ The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears;
       I have not been rebellious,
       I have not turned away.

⁶ I offered my back to those who beat me,
       my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
       I did not hide my face
       from mocking and spitting.

⁷ Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
       I will not be disgraced.
       Therefore have I set my face like flint,
       and I know I will not be put to shame.

⁸ He who vindicates me is near.
       Who then will bring charges against me?
       Let us face each other!
       Who are my accusers?
       Let them confront me!

⁹ It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me.
       Who will condemn me?

Gospel Mark 8: 27 – end

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah and Jesus Predicts His Death

²⁷ Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"

²⁸ They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

²⁹ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
       Peter answered, "You are the Messiah."

³⁰ Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him.

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. ³² He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

³³ But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns."

³⁴ Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. ³⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶ What good is it for you to gain the whole world, yet forfeit your soul? ³⁷ Or what can you give in exchange for your soul? ³⁸ If any of you are ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Sermon

The gospel is a familiar reading to those who attended Advent and Lent courses, or Parish Weekend at Holland House. “Who do people say I am?” “Who do you say I am?”

If asked by one of us, question might be “What are people saying about me?” or “What do people think of me?” They would betray some insecurity on our part. Still a question we might usefully ask ourselves from time to time.

Isaiah is clearly being persecuted and bullied for his faith in God. He can have little doubt about what people are saying. He offers his back to those who beat him. He does not hide his face from mockery and spitting. He sets his face like flint and confronts his accusers. He challenges his enemies to bring their charges against him. ‘Let us face each other’ he says ‘because God who vindicates me is near.’

Few of us would want to be so confrontational. Hardly any would want to show a face as hard as flint. None of us have to endure such severe persecution. But all of us are interested in what other people say about us.

So what do people say about you? What would they write in an obituary? What inscription would appear on your grave stone? Something more flattering than ‘a courageous little lady who did her best’ I hope. What bullet points sum you up?

Would what people say be right? Would it be fair, do you think? Or would it be like the Arctic Monkeys CD, which was called Whatever people say I am, That’s what I’m not.

Serena Williams was not being bashful last week at the US Open Tennis. Her T-shirt proclaimed she was Vicious, Ambitious and Delicious. 3 words was all she needed to sum up her winning attitude.

Here are a few other attempts I have seen:

Mrs Jane Jones
Father, brother, husband
Sensitive, caring, kind
A good friend
Child of God
We connect people (that was a mobile phone company)

So let me turn the question round, and ask you how you would like to be described, or how you would ideally want to sum yourself up in only 3 words.

Feel free to turn to the person in front or behind and see what ideas they have. After taking communion, you might like to write your 3 words on this flip chart and I will display it in the church next week.

Peter took 4 words to answer the question “Who do you say I am?” You are the Messiah. One word really. Son of God would be three words, except Jesus never used that title of himself. Son of Man – those were the 3 words Jesus used.

Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer – these three words describe God to us. In the OT when Moses asked God who he was, God used only 2 words I AM.

What you write might of course not represent reality. I suspect it is idealised. Perhaps you are not like that. Maybe your words are what you aspire to. Idealised, rather than fact. How you would like others to see you – not how you really are.

Self help web sites are full of exercise like the one we have just done. The trouble is, you have to help yourself. That’s what self-help means. No one can do it for you. They can only try and help. You are on your own.

But the Christian faith is not like that. We cannot help ourselves. No self help will work. As Paul says in Galatians 2:

...a person is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

Or in Romans 4, Paul compares those who earn their wages and receive them as of right with our salvation through the grace of God:

⁴ Now to anyone who works, their wages are not credited to them as a gift, but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to anyone who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.

So what are my 3 words? What will I write on the flip chart? That’s easy – they come from I Corinthians 13. We read the passage at pastoral services quite often. Faith, Hope, Love. That’s all.

¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. Amen