Scripture: Mark 8:31-38; Matthew 16:13-18; Psalm 27:1 Series: Lent
A 2nd-Sunday-of-Lent sermon on Mark 8:31-38. Opening with the preacher’s biased Astros fandom and the sign-stealing scandal, it shows how we instinctively divide people into good and bad buckets and always place ourselves among the ‘us.’ Peter rebukes Jesus and is called ‘Satan’ (deceiver) for setting his mind on human things; our decisions have consequences. Drawing on Vonnegut’s Mother Night and Bonhoeffer’s cheap-vs-costly grace, the sermon argues that losing one’s soul is a consequence, not a trade, and that cheap grace imagines Jesus dying only for the already-righteous while costly grace has him dying for all, including us. Taking up the cross becomes light only when we lay down envy, ambition, and the need to always be right; in costly grace we find true freedom (Psalm 27:1).
Illustrations: astros-cheating-scandal, astros-radio-childhood, vonnegut-mother-night, bonhoeffer-cheap-grace
Feb 25, 2024
2nd Sunday in Lent
”Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”“ Mark 8:31-38 NRSV
Pitchers and catchers reported on Ash Wednesday for the 2024 Major League baseball season. I don’t think they were attempting to follow the calendar of the Christian year, but it turned out that way. Spring training is here and the new season is coming soon and hope springs eternal every spring for baseball fans. I grew up as a baseball fan. My father was a Houston Astros fan. I grew up listening to the Astros more than watching them. Listening to Milo Hamilton and Larry Dierker on every car ride I had as a child. Now, two years ago, the Astros won the World Series, and that was really exciting. I was very excited. A few years before that they also won. They’ve won it twice at this point.
Now, when I was growing up, this seemed like the furthest thing in the world from a possibility. We had a solid team, but kept on running into the buzz saw that was the Braves. And then after the Braves declined, it was Albert Pujols and the Cardinals. Then the owner sold the team and the team bottomed out and was built up from scratch.
Now, if you are not an Astros fan, the first word that comes to your mind when someone mentions the Astros is probably cheater. And when the scandal of Astros sign-stealing came out a few weeks after they lost the World Series to the Nationals, (a game that I attended and had to slowly drive home from. not a fun night) my first reaction was to defend the team that I support. I’m biased in this. When I saw the reports of the trashcan lids and everything, I was like, “where is this scandal? Like why do people have signs that are so easy to interpret? I mean, they aren’t taking drugs. Nobody is snorting cocaine, unlike one team that that beat the Astros in the National League Championship series in 1986. I’m not gonna name names, but if you know you know.
So when someone would attack the Astros or even mock them, I would defend them. But among fellow of fans, I would often be very critical of what was going on within the organization. Well, we’ve got a major issue with late in the count batting, especially late in the order, and some curious decisions on stealing bases and other things like that. I don’t understand the contract decisions they make and the desire to not keep stars or always assume you will grow up new ones.
Now, just to be clear, I am a total sports hypocrite. If the Yankees or the Red Sox get caught cheating, they are scoundrels to the core. No excuses accepted. Even if they did the same thing the Astros did. It would be cheating for them but not for us. Notice the us, as if I am on the team. Dividing sports teams into good or bad is one thing. Dividing people is quite another.
If someone came up to you and said, you’re a bad person, I think most of us would in an instinctive way, react by saying, no, I’m not. And trying to list off things we do that makes us not a bad person.
Like sports teams, we often see this quality of being a good person or a bad person as descriptive of ourselves or others, instead of being the consequence of our actions. We think we’re in one bucket or the other. Now, to ourselves, sometimes we can be critical, even hyper-critical. But if someone is going to start accusing us randomly of almost anything, we’re gonna stand up for ourselves.
In the reading from the Gospel of Mark today, Jesus gives a summary of what is going to happen to him on Good Friday. And Peter is not having it. He feels like his friend is attacking himself and he needs to stand up for his friend. Jesus rebukes him. Get behind me Satan. Satan is the name for a deceiver, the one who deceives, get behind me, deceiver. The Gospel makes know distinction between the Satan between the description of Peter as Satan and the Prince of Darkness.
This Peter on whom Jesus will build his church, Jesus calls him Satan. In the gospel of Matthew, this happens right next to each other. In Matthew 18, Jesus asks, who do you say think that I am? And Peter eventually says, you are the Messiah, the son of the living God. And then Jesus responds, well done, Simon. From now on, you shall be called Peter. And on this rock I’ll build my church. And then he goes on to describe what is going to happen to him. And Peter boldly says, no, no, Jesus is not happening to you. And Jesus says, get behind me Satan.
Our decisions have consequences.
After calling Peter Satan, Jesus then offers this lesson,
if anyone is to become my follower, 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 for what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life.
Our decisions have consequences.
The Kurt Vonnegut novel, Mother Night, is about an American in Germany who finds himself as an asset of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, and he’s working undercover for the Nazi communication service as a radio host. basically, a n Nazi shock jock to be sent across to England and America, and yet he uses his transmissions to get information about Nazi troop movements over to the OSS that will help the allies. Most of the story, though, takes place after the war in the situation where the main character’s handler, the only person who knows his true identity, has died. There is no record of his existence. No one sees him as a war hero. The only people who see him with any kind of kindness are former Nazis. He is stuck living the lie because the truth is lost to history. The book has this great line: be careful of who you pretend to be, because in the end, you are who you pretend to be.
What does it gain you, If you get the whole world, but lose your life or lose your soul? What does it gain you? What if you didn’t want lose your soul, but you lose it anyway? Nobody intends to lose their soul, the essence of who they are, their life. It’s not a trade that happens. We have these Faustian bargains in literature, but it’s not a trade that happens. It’s a consequence of actions. As a result, the consequences are hard to see ahead of time.
For Jesus, it starts with this willingness or unwillingness to pick up your cross. If you’re unwilling to pick up your cross, in the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, you’re only satisfied with cheap grace. Bonhoeffer describes cheap grace in the following way.
Cheap grace means grace sold on the market like cheapjacks’ wares. The sacraments, the forgiveness of sin, and the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices. Grace is represented as the Church’s inexhaustible treasury, from which she showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits. Grace without price; grace without cost! The essence of grace, we suppose, is that the account has been paid in advance; and, because it has been paid, everything can be had for nothing. Since the cost was infinite, the possibilities of using and spending it are infinite. What would grace be if it were not cheap?…
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Bonhoeffer contrasts cheap grace with costly grace.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.
The point of my talking about the Astros was not that they’re good or that they’re bad, but that I see them as good and other people see them as bad, and neither of us want to change our minds. We don’t want do the work of looking into whether they’re good or bad. I root for them. Others root against them. There’s a base level of irrationality in all sports fandom, but I think it maps onto our morality a lot more than is comfortable or right. We have people in our life whom we think are as good. And people whom we don’t. There are people in this world whom we see as righteous, and there are people whom we do not see as righteous. Cheep grace has Jesus dying only for the already righteous, costly grace has Jesus dying for all, including us. Whenever we divide the world into us and them, we invariably put ourselves into us. But again and again throughout the gospels, Jesus is trying to break us the habit of division by reminding us in hard language that we are the ones in need of grace and mercy, and God is not finished with us yet. Taking up the cross is only a heavy burden when we refuse to let go of the not loves in our life and in the world. If we’re desperately trying to hold onto envy and jealousy and ambition at the same time as picking up the cross of Jesus, we are going to be crushed by that weight. If we’re desperately trying to hold on to always being correct, having the right answers, knowing what to do, being on the right team, never making a mistake, as well as grasping for the cross of Jesus, we are going to be crushed. Instead, what Jesus is telling us to do when we pick up our crosses is to lay down everything else: we don’t need those things. And in that way, the cross is light because the cross is freedom and grace and purpose and love and hope.
This is the freedom the psalmist describes in psalm 27:
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?“ Psalms 27:1 NRSV
May you see that in the costly grace of Jesus Christ, you find true freedom. You may lose the world, but you’ll gain your soul. The world wanted to crush you anyway. Let us pray, Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us to something greater. Help us to not cling to dearly to the things that pass away so that we may be carried by your love into paradise. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.