“Your Take Home Quiz”

Theme:  “Your Take Home Quiz”       15 Sunday after Pentecost                    September 13, 2009

Text:  Mark8:27-38

School has started so let’s take an assessment of where we have progressed in the learning process.  We are a few weeks into the semester; it’s time for a pop quiz.  The ushers will hand them out, please pass them down the row, one for each person. Leave the extras at the end.  Please don’t start until I tell you.

When you start, put your name on your paper,   Make sure you are in the right class, this is “Confessions 101”, the instructor is “Jesus of Nazareth.”  This class meets “daily”.  There is only one question to our quiz this morning.  “Who do you say that Jesus is?”  You’ll notice we did not hand out any #2 pencils; that’s because this is a take home quiz.  Notice the location of Jesus’ class; they were not in a synagogue or church, but out in the world.  It would be easy for us to take the quiz here, confessing what we believe as we are surrounded by our classmates and symbols of our faith.  So here you have it, “Your take home quiz.”  You may put it aside for now.

The common word in our readings this morning is “Teach”  or “Teacher.”  The perfect thought for Rally Day, we crank up the teaching ministry of our congregation with Sunday School resuming.

We all have images of Jesus, for many of us they were learned in S.S.   With the new curriculum “Spark” we hope to spark these images in the young people God has entrusted to us.  What will they take home?

First we see that Jesus utilizes a common teaching technique, question and answer.  They answered like many of us do stating what they had heard other people say about who Jesus was.  Their answers were complimentary of Jesus.

They mention some heavy hitters, John the Baptist, Elijah.   But Jesus, being the wise teacher that he is, wants a different answer, so he gives them a take home question:  “Who do you say that I am?”  The class brown nose and over achiever Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.”  Jesus then teaches about what is ahead for the Messiah, suffering rejection, death, and resurrection.  Peter tries to teach Jesus a thing or two about what should happen to the Messiah.  What a joke, Peter teaching the teacher.  Many have tried that, and it usually doesn’t help the person’s grade.  Jesus teaches yet again, as Johnny Carson’s Karnack used to say, “Wrong, fish breathe; you are influenced too much the by the evil world around you.  You’re not of the right mind.”

You can’t really blame Peter; he was heavily influenced by the curriculum used for his teaching.  The Messiah was to be a descendent of David who would restore God’s people ruling over a time of peace, and then come again at the end to judge the enemies.  This confusion is understandable. He made a big sacrifice to follow, leaving his successful fishing business; he had gambled his future on this Messiah.  Up to now it had been a good decision, what a trip it had been, casting out demons, healing sick, cleansing lepers, calming storms, raising the dead, feeding the multitudes, walking on water, they were on a roll.  So the answer that he was the Messiah seemed obvious.  What was not obvious was the suffering and death part, not a part of the lesson plans he had been taught.  Messiahs save you from suffering, death for him is unthinkable.  I’m going to drop this class, I don’t like the content.

Let’s get back to your quiz. Your answer results in your actions, isn’t that what James has been talking about?

Your actions let everyone know how you answer this question, you can’t drop this course, every believer must answer this question.  Who is this Jesus for you?  We all have spiritual amnesia or Alzheimer’s, we forget who he is, we slip a little when we are not in class.  The first few weeks of school are frequently review.  That’s why you can’t cut this class called worship; it makes your amnesia, your Alzheimer’s worse.  We come together to be taught, to confess, “I believe in …” and we should do it each week.  “Let us stand together,” as Isaiah said.

So we have this take home quiz, fortunately Jesus gives us the answer sheet, that is the 2nd teaching point today.  The answer will involve suffering and a cross.  The focus of Jesus’ teaching moves to authority and power, the focus now becomes his rejection and death. This switch disturbed the class.  But Jesus is faithful to the curriculum that God had laid out in the syllabus and off to Jerusalem he goes.  To do this Jesus uses tact, tact is to make a point without making an enemy.  To deny oneself is to take up the cross and follow.  CS Lewis said it this way,  “out of ourselves, into Christ, we must go!”  To lose our life for the sake of the gospel.  That’s how we respond to the quiz.

This Messiah will suffer, Peter didn’t like hearing that, and we are no better, you don’t hear that word much in our worship services.  But he suffered – as a follower of Jesus you will be taken to the cross.  As Dietrich Bonheoffer said, “Only the suffering God can help.”  Suffering, bearing crosses, losing one’s life is what a messiah does.

At age 98 Pablo Casals, perhaps the greatest cellist, still practiced 5-6 hours a day.  “Why?” he was asked.  “Because I think I’m making some progress.”  We continue to be taught, we can always learn, every day we have a take home quiz, “Who do you say Christ is?”  Luther began each day confessing his faith, not a bad idea.  Keep learning.  You don’t let your children stop. Please keep making progress as to who Christ is for you.

Related posts:

1. What Does It Look Like From Where You Stand?