Second Sunday in Lent

ADVENT ~ Week 1
~ Today’s Service ~
the second sunday in
Mark 8:31-37
~ Sunday, February 25 2018 ~

An Invitation to a Stationary Fast…
For whatever reason – in response to
whatever “grievous, sacred moment” –
I invite those of you who are able
to embrace the Christian tradition
of a “stationary fast” throughout
the season of Lent (through Good Friday)
- Wednesday and Friday
- Choose to skip lunch (and breakfast?)
- Set an alarm for prayer (however brief!)
- Leave any potential results up to God…

GetTheBehindMeSatan
Mark8:31-38
-Tissot(Between1886-1894)–

- I will preach Jesus the best I know how,
and share some biography as well…
- I will share my perspective on living
as a follower of Jesus, acknowledging
that I do so imperfectly and from an
incredibly privileged position…
- I will share/explain my perspective;
you are, of course, free to disagree…
Today’s Message

God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross
your Son embraced the power of death
and broke its hold over your people.
In this time of repentance,
draw all people to yourself,
that we who confess Jesus as Lord
may put aside the deeds of death
and accept the life of your kingdom.
Amen.
A Lenten Prayer

Then (Jesus) 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…
Mark 8:31-33

"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?
Mark 8:34-37

“Following Jesus is, more or less,
Mark’s definition of what being a
Christian means; and Jesus is not
leading us on a pleasant afternoon
hike, but on a walk into danger
and risk. Or did we suppose that
the kingdom of God would mean
merely a few minor adjustments
in our ordinary lives?”
What It Means to Follow Jesus

- Experiencing minor inconvenience
- Interacting with difficult people
- Getting an unexpected bill
- Scraping an inch of ice off your car
- Cheering for a team that loses
What “Taking Up Your Cross” Is NOT

- Willingly dying to yourself, how you live
out your passions/desires/wants, etc.
- Following the example of Jesus,
considering the lives of others – even
those of your enemies – more precious
than your own
- Living – and being willing to die –
in ways that are faithful to Jesus…
What “Taking Up Your Cross” IS

JusticeLeague
-2017–
American
Culture
AMERICAN &
KINGDOM
citizenship
AMERICAN
citizenship
KINGDOM
citizenship

Separating and Ordering The Boxes…
AMERICAN
citizenship
KINGDOM
citizenship
NOT THIS EITHER…
AMERICAN
citizenship
KINGDOM
citizenship
THIS.
AMERICAN &
KINGDOM
citizenship
NO.

Separating Jesus From Toxic Masculinity…

Separating Jesus From Partisanship…

BILLY GRAHAM (1918 – 2018)
“I came close to identifying
the American way of life
with the kingdom of God...
Then I realized that God
had called me to a higher
kingdom than America.”
Separating Jesus From Nationalism…

THINGS NOT TAUGHT BY JESUS
- The Declaration of Independence
- The U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights
- The Pledge of Allegiance or
National Anthem
- Any political party’s platform
Separating Jesus From Nationalism…

- I try to run all my theological and
political perspectives through the
primary filter of God’s self-revelation
in the crucified and resurrected Christ;
this includes my commitment to
consistently valuing human life, which
includes my embrace of the Christian
tradition of practicing non-violence;
this clearly influences my views on
a whole host of things…
Why I Think/Preach/Live The Way I Do…

TERTULLIAN (160-220)
“When Christ disarmed Peter
(in the Garden of Gethsemane)
he disarmed all Christians.”
The Early Church on Non-Violence

SAINT MOSES THE BLACK (4th
Cent)
“He welcomed the visitors on that day
to his community, and they killed him,
along with the seven who stayed with
him. His witness to us is not one of a
gentle temperament, not one of naïve
hope that those who do not live by the
sword shall live long and in peace,
but that faithfulness carries a price,
as does sin.”

MARTIN OF TOURS (316-397)
“Hitherto I have served you
as a soldier, allow me now
to become a soldier to God...
I am the soldier of Christ;
it is not lawful for me
to fight.”

- “Love your enemy, and pray for
those who persecute you”
- “Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God”
- “Those who live by the sword
will die by the sword”
- “Take up your cross and follow me…”
Jesus’ Teaching on Non-Violence…

ELTON TRUEBLOOD
“The historic Christian doctrine
of the divinity of Christ does not
simply mean that Jesus is like God.
It is far more radical than that.
It means that God is like Jesus.”
The Christlikeness of God

“God is cruciform love, and in him
there is no non-cruciform love at all.
Which is to say, there is no aspect
of God that is not characterized
by the non-violent, self-sacrificial,
enemy-embracing love that is
revealed on the cross.”
The Christlikeness of God

“…in the New Testament the death
of Jesus is not only the source, but also
the shape, of salvation. It therefore
also determines the shape of the
community – the community of the
new covenant – that benefits from and
participates in Jesus’ saving death.”
(see: “anticipatory participation”)
The Christlikeness of God’s People

GunsIntoGardenTools
-InspiredbyIsaiah2:4-

GunsIntoGardenTools
-InspiredbyIsaiah2:4-
“He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords
into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall
they learn war any more.”

FLEMING RUTLEDGE
“We really are going to need
a nonviolent movement.
No better way than to being
studying the civil rights
movement…”

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
“Non-violence means avoiding
not only external physical violence,
but also internal violence of the
spirit. You not only refuse to shoot
a man, but you refuse to hate him…
Non-violence is a powerful and just
weapon which cuts without wounding,
and ennobles the man who wields it.
It is a sword that heals.”

EKEMINI UWON
“Many Christian conferences…
completely ignore…Christ’s desire
that each of us move deeper into
our own practice of nonviolence.”

BILLY GRAHAM (1979)
“If I begin to take the love of Christ
seriously, then I will work toward what
is best for my neighbor. I will seek to
bind up the wounds and bring about
healing, no matter what the cost may be.
Therefore, I believe that the Christian
especially has a responsibility to
work for peace in our world.”

“Of the 16 million men in uniform
during World War II, only 431 received
the Congressional Medal of Honor.
One of these was placed around the
neck of a young Seventh-day Adventist,
who during combat had not killed a single
enemy soldier. In fact, he refused to carry
a gun. His only weapons were his Bible
and his faith in God.”
Desmond Doss (1919-2006)

“Nobody believed a soldier without a
weapon was worthwhile…Then they
attempted to court martial him for
refusing a direct order—to carry a gun.
But they failed to find a way to toss him
out, and he refused to leave. He believed
his duty was to obey God and serve his
country. But it had to be in that order.
His unwavering convictions were
most important. ”

“His brave actions as a combat medic
were done. But not before insisting that
his litter-bearers take another man first
before rescuing him. Wounded, in pain,
and losing blood, he still put others ahead
of his own safety. He would choose to die
so another could live. After all, that's
what he read in his Bible. Such was the
character demonstrated by Jesus Christ.”

Separating and Ordering The Boxes…
AMERICAN
citizenship
CHRISTLIKE
KINGDOM
citizenship
THIS and ONLY THIS.
ALWAYS, in EVERY situation.

God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross
your Son embraced the power of death
and broke its hold over your people.
In this time of repentance,
draw all people to yourself,
that we who confess Jesus as Lord
may put aside the deeds of death
and accept the life of your kingdom.
Amen.
A Closing Prayer

Hear, O Israel:
the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind,
and with all your strength.’
And, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment
greater than these.
Mark 12

Second Sunday in Lent

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