The Good News Proclaimed
Preached by the Reverend Doctor Durrell Watkins at
the Sunshine Cathedral on Sunday, September 13, 2009.
27…Jesus asked the disciples this question,
“Who do people say that I am?”28They replied, “Some say John the baptizer; others, Elijah; still
others, one of the prophets.” 29
“And
you,”
he went on to ask,
“who
do you say that I am?”
Peter answered, “You are the messiah!”
(Mark 7)
Before we talk about Mark, I want to remind you of another story.
In the 32nd chapter of the book of Genesis, Jacob wrestles with
a stranger, do you remember? They wrestle all night. And Jacob refuses to let
the stranger go until he gives Jacob a blessing. The blessing Jacob finally
gets is to learn who he really is. The stranger says, “You are no longer
Jacob. Your name is now Israel, for you have struggled with God.” And then
Jacob, or now we should say Israel, asks the stranger, “And what is your
name?” And the stranger simply says, “Why do you ask MY name?”
You see, Jacob had deceived his brother Esau, deceived his father, had been
deceived by his father-in-law, had been on the run from his brother whom he
feared had a vendetta against him, and after all this dishonesty and running
and struggling to find his way, Jacob’s struggles are symbolized by an
encounter with a stranger. Maybe it was a dream he had where the subconscious
mind was dramatically helping him work out his issues, who knows? But after
struggling for so long to know who he was and where he fit in, he learns who
he really is. The struggle to know himself was a divine struggle, and so he is
Israel… the one who engages in a divine struggle. And the blessing that
results from that struggle is to know who he is. When he asks the stranger,
“What’s your name?” The stranger basically says, “That’s not even the right
question… what you needed to know is who you are… and now you do.
I love that story. And I see it being repeated in a way in today’s Gospel
reading. Mark seems to have a similar message, but comes at it a bit more
directly. Instead of having a stranger tell us who we are, Mark has us affirm
our Truth for ourselves. We simply get to decide!
Mark’s Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?” And there’s a list of
opinions that others have been all to glad to offer. There is always a
politician, a religious institution, a family of origin, a lover, an ex-lover,
a friend, a salesperson, a teacher, a stranger, an ad agency… there is always
someone telling who we are. Who do people say that I am? Some say this, some
say that. But who do you say that I am?
And Peter answers for himself, he decides what the answer is for him. Peter
says, “you are anointed.” There’s no complicated Trinitarian formula, no long
creed to be recited, no loyalty to a hierarchy, no literalist view of an
ancient text… just the simple affirmation… you are messiah… that is, you are
anointed. I see something divine in you, on your life. Something holy in me
recognizes something holy in you. You are anointed.
But the question is do you say that I Am? If we can see the divine spark in
Jesus… if we can the Logos, the divine Idea being expressed in, through, and
as Jesus… then that must be our I-Am-ness recognizing his I-Am-ness. The I Am
Consciousness, the understanding that I Am a child of God, that I Am one with
all that is, is what is being reflected back to us from Jesus.
You know, our mothers used to tell us that when we point a finger at
someone we have three more pointing at us! We tend to project onto others what
we believe about ourselves. If we feel inferior, we look for the inferiority
of others to help us feel better. If we feel incomplete or not good enough, we
see the flaws and failures in others and lift those up to keep from
acknowledging our fears of inadequacy.
But when we see our goodness, our potential, our light, our nobility, the
Universal Wisdom expressing through us, divine Love manifesting as us… then we
see those same wonderful gifts in others. To say to Jesus, “you are anointed”
is to say that deep down, I recognize that I am anointed. Who do I say that I
AM. That’s the point of today’s exchange. Just as with Jacob, the divine
encounter is meant to leave us knowing our true nature. The blessing is to
finally know who we are.
Modern day mystic and Dominican priest turned Anglican minister Matthew Fox
reminds us that the very early church leaders and the medieval mystics a
millennium later all understood and celebrated the omnipresence that God is.
Divinity is found everywhere, in everyone, in everything. Fox quotes medieval
thinker Meister Eckhart saying, “in this breakthrough I discover that God and
I are one…” To know that God and I are one is the I Am that we see in Jesus,
and that we see in Life, and that we see in the mirror when we look through
the lens of enlightenment.
The 4th gospel has Jesus saying I Am living bread, I am the
light of the world, I am the gate, I am the shepherd, I am truth and life, I
am the vine. Matthew Fox tells us that when we read those statements they are
meant to lead us to ask, “how am I also living bread to the people around me?
How am I light to those who are looking for illumination? Jesus’ positive and
affirming I Am statements are meant to inspire our own. What are we pulling
into our I-am-ness? How are we using that divine name, I Am that I am, to
express hope and healing and life and love and courage and compassion in our
world?
Matthew’s gospel puts it this way, “When you did something for the least of
these my sisters and brothers, you did it for me.” I AM one with all life. I
AM one with the lonely, the hurting, the confused, those who haven’t yet
learned to love themselves. When you help that human, you’ve helped humankind…
you’ve injected something wonderful into the stream of life and you have
acknowledged the source of life equally present in and to all creatures. God
is omnipresent… when you find something of God, you have found all of God
because God must be totally and equally present at all times and all places
and in all people… that’s what Omnipresence is! You are anointed by God… hey,
wait… that means that I am anointed by God. The anointing in non-local… it’s
omnipresent. To affirm you is to affirm me.
Even at the Communion Table, we hear Jesus say, “I am bread, I am wine.” I
am one with food and drink, wheat and wine, soil and sunlight, rain and
reaping, work and play. I am one with all life. To celebrate the divinity we
discover in bread and wine is to celebrate the divinity that dwells within us,
and within our neighbor. Our communion is just that… comm-union… a symbolic
representation our unity with all that is, and with the divine Presence that
gives birth to all that is.
Jesus doesn’t ask Peter today, “What do I do?” He doesn’t ask Peter, “What
can I prove?” He doesn’t ask Peter, “What is my job?” He doesn’t ask Peter,
“What are my accomplishments?” He asks, “Who do you say that I am?” You are
anointed. I must be seeing through the lens of anointing to realize that you
are anointed. I Am anointed with the love and grace of universal life. The
divine in me acknowledges the divine in you… isn’t that what Emmanuel — God
with us — is?
Jacob struggled to know his true dignity, worthiness, and sacred value.
Because we have been taught that we were no good, we must struggle too. The
image of struggle in Mark’s gospel today is to take up a heavy cross bar and
follow in Jesus’ footsteps. But those steps lead us to know who I AM. I am a
child of God. I am light and truth and living bread. I am one with the
magnificent heavens, and with the least of these my sisters and brothers. I am
one with the work of producing bread and wine, and I am one with the delight
of eating and sharing bread and eating and sharing wine. It’s worth the work
to learn who we are.
Who do others say that I am? Fine. That’s just information. But who do I
say that I am? Well, that’s the affirmation that makes a difference. I get to
decide to embrace the divine truth of who and what I am. And learning the
truth of who I AM is the good news. Amen.