Sunday Sermon: September 15

After last week’s sermon, which was fairly serious and challenging, I said I was going to keep it a bit lighter but I struggled all week trying to find a thread or theme I could pull from these passages to keep my word. It wasn’t easy because the Gospel picks up from where we left off.

While continuing their journey towards Caesarea Philippi, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  

They give him multiple answers - John the Baptist, the return of Elijah, other prophets. Jesus presses them further, asking, “Who do you say that I am?”  Who do you think I am? Peter steps up, proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus hushes him and tells them to keep it a secret. Just as last week, when Jesus told them to keep his healing of the deaf man a secret. These passages in Mark, when Jesus tells his disciples to keep his miracles a secret, are called the Messianic Secret and are unique to the Gospel of Mark.

I’ll try to explain the concept of the Messianic Secret, but I have to say there are full university courses on the subject. It’s complicated.

The Messianic Secret is key to the Gospel of Mark because Mark is writing to answer the question, “Why was Jesus not seen as the Messiah by the Jews of his day?  If they didn’t see him as the Messiah, why should we, a generation (now generations) later?”  

It’s a good question. After all, Jesus was travelling throughout the land healing and performing all sorts of miracles but the Messiah was supposed to be a kingly powerful presence, not a persecuted and crucified criminal. The Messiah was to be a gallant, all-powerful king who would smite the enemies of the Jews. The Messiah wasn’t supposed to be a lowly child who grew up to be a protesting, challenging, self-sacrificing, crucified rebel. So Jesus’ identity wasn’t obvious to most but Peter figures it out. He sees Jesus as the Messiah and since Jesus does not want to be discovered yet, he says to Peter, “don’t tell anyone,”  “it’s our secret.”  

This is how Mark explains why the Jews of Jesus’ day didn’t see and accept him as their Messiah. It was Jesus’ secret. He didn’t present as the powerful royal leader that they were expecting, but rather as a humble, kind, healing, and discreet miracle worker who died a shameful death. Mark claims that he was able to keep his secret. During his lifetime the people couldn’t see him for who he really was and the disciples were told not to tell anyone about his identity. This is why the Jews of Jesus’ time didn’t see him as the Messiah for his identity was not to be revealed until after his death and resurrection.  

That’s the Messianic Secret in a very brief nutshell.  

Identity is a fascinating subject. Who we are, who we want to be, who people see us to be. It’s very complicated, especially these days. Now, I’m not going to get into gender identity today, for that is not what today’s gospel is about. Today’s reading is about who we are called to be as people of God, and that we must be self-aware as we live out our Christian identity.

Do you ever ask yourself, “Who am I - really?”  

Who are you, really?

And do you ever ask yourself, “Who do people say that I am? Who do they perceive me to be?”

Are the answers to these two questions at odds? Is who you are the same or at least somewhat consistent with who people say that you are?

When I ask this question, I’m not asking about your roles in life. We all have our roles. I have roles - as a son, a husband, a father, a priest, your new priest. As such, we end up projecting our understanding or expectations of these roles onto the person.  

Celebrities probably provide the best example of what I mean by our perception of who a person is versus the public role they portray. I think, for me, Bill Cosby is the most obvious example. When I was growing up, I loved Bill Cosby. He was the Jello man with a great smile and I loved his comedy. He had his own series and was considered ‘America’s father’, offering sage advice, usually in a humorous way, to his children, neighbours and spouse, and to all of us viewers. Bill Cosby was beloved and then. Well, we all know the story. He was accused of drugging and assaulting multiple women, was convicted, served jail time, and fell from our high regard. The Bill Cosby we thought we knew, the role he played, was not who he really was.

We all play our roles but who we really are is defined by our actions.

Every once in a while I research myself - creep myself - to see what kind of portrayal I have on the internet. Who does the internet say that I am? I hope that when you heard I was coming here, you all looked me up too. If you haven’t, don’t worry about it now, my internet presence is actually pretty boring. If you really want to know me, meet with me and get to know me in person! I’ll try to be more interesting than my internet identity. Definitely come out on the 29th and ask good questions! 

Quite a few years ago someone took my identity on Facebook and misrepresented me - impersonating me, they wrote rude and inappropriate things about the Head of Lakefield College School, my boss, at the time. Fortunately I was able to get Facebook to remove the fake identity and posts. That incident reminded me of how important my identity is to me, how easily it can be compromised, and how I have to protect it - from hackers and even from myself.  One slip-up can destroy my career, my ministry, my life, but even more important, my dignity.

So, who do people say that I am?

People will see and say that I’m far from perfect. I make mistakes, I sometimes swear too much - I’m working on that - I can have a bit of a temper (not to make excuses but I am half Sicilian after all). They will say I like routine, I’m overly organised, and that I believe everything has a place and is to be put in that place. They see me as a sports fan, a person with a sense of humour who likes to have fun. I am told I am a loving and loyal friend and confidante.

Who am I - to me? Who do I believe I am?

I do like routine and things to be organised. I do like to have fun, I’m a frustrated Toronto Maple Leafs and Miami Dolphins fan. I Iove the outdoors but not as much in the winter months. I love animals, especially horses.

I am a person of faith. I believe that the love that Jesus modelled for us is the love we are called to share with others. I am a loyal person who does his utmost to keep his promises. I believe that humour, having fun, and laughing are wonderful and important gifts of the spirit.  

As you can see, I think that who I am generally aligns with who people see me to be. Though my actions don’t always align, who I really am is defined by my morals and values.  It is my morals and values that forge my dignity, inspire my actions, and make my identity visible. 

You’ve probably noticed that I don’t always wear my collar, an outward and visible sign of my vocation and identity as an ordained priest. I am very intentional about when and how I wear it because when I do it cloaks the rest of my entire identity. It creates, for those who don’t yet know me, a preconceived notion of who I am and disables their ability to see all of me. They project their understanding of what a priest is onto my identity. So, I wear my collar when I know people need to see me as a priest (with whatever preconception that means for them) and I wear it when I need to show others that I am a priest, reflecting the vows I made to God.  Sometimes a situation arises when I really wish I was wearing my collar.

Cycling to work recently, I had such a moment when I found myself stopped at the traffic lights beside a Hells Angels biker in full regalia. Imagine the scene. I’m on my Kermit the Frog green 18 speed bicycle, he’s rumbling beside me on his huge Harley. If I’d been wearing my Priest’s collar, it would’ve been the perfect image - the kind of sharp juxtaposition that makes a great picture.

It’s also the perfect example of identity assumption. His Hells Angels colours and my clericals make two distinctly contradicting statements about who we are - our identity - but no one truly knows who we really are.  Our book covers do not tell the full story of our identity, our character, or our values.  

Jesus’ identity was cloaked in a similar fashion.  At this point in Mark he is mostly seen as a wandering, miracle working, anti-establishmentarian but when Peter told Jesus that he saw him and that he knew him as the Messiah, Jesus rebuked him. Not because Peter was wrong but because Peter’s understanding of the role of the Messiah was misguided. Peter’s vision of the role of Messiah was as a powerful leader and king who would overthrow their oppressors - a human role with human actions - but Peter was missing the point of Jesus’ ministry. 

The Messiah that Jesus was sent to earth to be is a divine, humble, and self-sacrificing saviour. A model the disciples, and all of us as Christians, are called to follow. Our world and our lives pull us into roles that often compromise our identity as Christians. Our society, and who we have to be in it, often compromises who we are or want to be seen to be. Our world, as Jesus says, sets our mind on human things and often blinds us from seeing and being seen as people of God.

So, I invite you to take moment and think about these two questions this morning during our reflection time:

Who are you?

Who do people say that you are?

As you think about these questions, are the answers that you come up with consistent with each other? Is the person you are recognizable as, the person you want others to see?  Is your mind set on human things? Are you who God calls you to be? 

As people of God, we are called to be people whose lives reflect the love, humility, integrity, and compassion that Jesus modelled. When we set our minds on divine things, we will be the people we want to be, we will be the Christians God called us to be. 

Amen.