SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be God's family now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together, Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_01: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be wooed without end.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving kindness through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: A prayer for Juneteenth.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, you rescued your people from slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Throughout the ages you have never failed to hear the cries of the captives.
SPEAKER_01: Remember before you our sisters and brothers in Galveston, Texas, who on this day received the glad tidings of their emancipation.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive us for the many grave sins that delayed that liberating word.
SPEAKER_01: Anoint us with your spirit to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim the year of your favor.
SPEAKER_01: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: There were twelve yoke of oxen ahead of him, and he was with the twelfth.
SPEAKER_03: And Elijah passed by, Elisha, and threw his mantle over him.
SPEAKER_03: And Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, Let me kiss my mother and my father, and then I will follow you.
SPEAKER_03: And Elijah said to him, Go back, for what have I done to you?
SPEAKER_03: And Elisha turned back from following after Elijah, and took the yoke of oxen and slaughtered them.
SPEAKER_03: Then with the equipment from the oxen, Elisha boiled their flesh and gave it to the women, children, and men around him, and they ate.
SPEAKER_03: And then Elisha set out and followed Elijah and ministered to him with the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: The psalm appointed is Psalm 23, as found in Eurulatin.
SPEAKER_03: We'll read responsively by the half verse.
SPEAKER_03: In green pastures she makes me lie down.
SPEAKER_03: My soul she restores.
SPEAKER_03: Yea, even though I walk with shadow valley death, I do not fear evil, for you are with me.
SPEAKER_03: You prepare before me a table in the presence of my enemies.
SPEAKER_03: Only goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life.
SPEAKER_00: Reading from 1 Peter, for unto this were you all called, because the Messiah also suffered for you, leaving behind an example for you, so that you all would follow in his steps.
SPEAKER_00: He committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth.
SPEAKER_00: He, when reviled, did not revile and turn.
SPEAKER_00: When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.
SPEAKER_00: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.
SPEAKER_00: This, so that we, taking no part in sins, might live for righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: By his wounds as you have been healed, for you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Invite you to join me in your blue hymnal for hymn three hundred and sixty-two.
SPEAKER_01: Hymn three hundred and sixty-two, and we'll sing the first, second, and fourth verse.
SPEAKER_01: Glory be thee, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now Jesus went with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
SPEAKER_01: And on the way he asked his disciples, Who do people say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And they answered, saying, John the Baptizer, and others Elijah, and still others one of the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: He asked them, But who do you all say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: And Peter answered Jesus, You are the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: And he warned them, so they would tell no one about him.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Woman must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scholars, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
SPEAKER_01: And he boldly said this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
SPEAKER_01: But turning and looking at his disciples, Jesus rebuked Peter and said, Get behind me, accuser, because the mind is not on that which is God's, rather on that which is mortal.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus called the crowd along with his disciples and said to those women and men, If any one to follow after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_01: For the one who wants to save their life will lose it, and the one who loses their life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will save it.
SPEAKER_01: For what will it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose their life?
SPEAKER_01: What then can a human being give in return for their life?
SPEAKER_01: Indeed, the one who is ashamed of me and of my words in this unfaithful and sinful generation, the Son of Woman will also be ashamed of that one when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Let the dead bury their dead, you follow me.
SPEAKER_01: Another one says, I need to sell my business, and Jesus basically says, Until you give that stuff up, you're not ready to follow me.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you realize.
SPEAKER_01: Is anybody familiar with these sayings, by the way?
SPEAKER_01: But we'll see them again in a few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: But you get to hear sort of the basis for the story, which is in 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_01: You probably have heard of the prophet Elijah before.
SPEAKER_01: He's the one who has the showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel.
SPEAKER_01: He's sort of like the typical prophet from the Hebrew Bible, so much so that people think that Elijah has to come back in person before the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Some people thought that was John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: And then this story, Elijah is going to pass on his ministry to Elisha.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's a little confusing, right?
SPEAKER_01: There's Elijah and Elisha, and later there's a king, Jehoiakim, who has a son Jehoiakin, who has another son, Jehoiakim.
SPEAKER_01: Right, so sometimes these names it sounds like Daryl, Daryl, and my other brother Daryl.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, there's Elijah, and he calls Elisha.
SPEAKER_01: And the way he does it is he takes his mantle, so think about like, I mean, people didn't wear chasubles.
SPEAKER_01: He takes off his poncho and puts it on this guy who's plowing a field and says, Come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: And Elisha says, Let me say goodbye to my mom and dad.
SPEAKER_01: And Elijah says, I do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: Do whatever you want.
SPEAKER_01: Follow me or don't.
SPEAKER_01: And Elisha does this really interesting thing.
SPEAKER_01: He kills all of his ox on the spot, which is like extremely valuable, right?
SPEAKER_01: He essentially blows up his John Deere tractor and then shares it with the village to eat.
SPEAKER_01: So not only does he kill the oxen, he takes the yoke, he takes the plough or whatever he's got to use a fire and cooks his future on the spot.
SPEAKER_01: Elisha sort of does this thing.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of like lingering to do this job, Elisha liquidates any other possibility he has in life other than following Elijah.
SPEAKER_01: Sort of an interesting and extreme way to live.
SPEAKER_01: It's sort of like when the rich man, or in Mark, it's the young ruler, says, What do I have to do to have eternal life?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then follow me.
SPEAKER_01: That's kind of what happens in the Elijah story.
SPEAKER_01: He feeds a bunch of people who don't have anything to eat, and then he has nothing to fall back on.
SPEAKER_01: He must have been a teenager.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is like teenage stuff, liquidating your future so you have no fallback plan, and therefore there's only one way to go, which is forward.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to keep that in mind because it's an interesting response that Elisha has to hit that and call.
SPEAKER_01: Fast forward to Jesus and the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: They're in this place called Caesarea Philippi, which most tour groups to Israel then visit because it's pretty close to Lebanon.
SPEAKER_01: And because you know, since the mid-80s there's been a lot of friction between those two countries.
SPEAKER_01: Some people reckon it dangerous to go up there.
SPEAKER_01: Caesarea Philippi is a place of multiple shrines that are carved into essentially a mountain and there's towns below, the biggest one being a shrine to Pan.
SPEAKER_01: So when Jesus is walking around, he's seeing all of these shrines that other people have devoted to different deities.
SPEAKER_01: And the context is important, right?
SPEAKER_01: He sees other people actively worshiping, well, the gods of their choosing, and says, Who do folks say I am?
SPEAKER_01: I see who folks are saying Pan is.
SPEAKER_01: I see what folks are saying the Caesar is.
SPEAKER_01: What do folks say I am?
SPEAKER_01: And you get this lovely answer, right?
SPEAKER_01: Some people say you're Elijah, some people say you're one of the prophets, some people say you're John the Baptist, like 2.0.
SPEAKER_01: And then comes this question, and by the way, this question's really interesting because in the Gospel of Mark, it falls sort of right in the middle of the Gospel.
SPEAKER_01: But who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_01: In fact, one might argue that the whole point of the Gospel of Mark is to ask this question of the reader.
SPEAKER_01: And part of what Mark's doing is tell you these like events about Jesus so you can understand him from other people's perspective.
SPEAKER_01: But the goal of the gospel is for you to answer the question: who do you say Jesus is?
SPEAKER_01: Peter's got a bright idea.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you're the Messiah, the anointed one, which please don't think that's a religious term.
SPEAKER_01: The Messiah is like saying, you're the real Tsar.
SPEAKER_01: You're the political ruler who's gonna deliver us from all of our problems.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, right?
SPEAKER_01: But like you're Cheikh Guevara.
SPEAKER_01: To a Russian, you're you're pu you're Putin.
SPEAKER_01: You're Vladimir Putin.
SPEAKER_01: Like you are gonna take us back to where we used to be.
SPEAKER_01: If you're wondering why people vote for that guy, I mean, it actually doesn't matter whether you vote for him or not.
SPEAKER_01: Like, that is essentially the Russian ideal, is to go back to the days of glory.
SPEAKER_01: This is what Peter essentially says.
SPEAKER_01: Peter does not have in mind that Jesus is going to die a humiliating death.
SPEAKER_01: We see that play out because Jesus says, I'm gonna die a humiliating death.
SPEAKER_01: And Peter goes to his czar and says, You are so wrong about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that interesting?
SPEAKER_01: You are so wrong about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jesus, get with the times.
SPEAKER_01: Put down the plowshare and pick up the sword.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, it's interesting when he rebukes Peter.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't even talk to Peter.
SPEAKER_01: He talks to everybody else.
SPEAKER_01: Because Peter was the one who shared what everybody else was thinking.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that Peter was wrong, it's that everybody was wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Now, uh, the story's interesting because, again, I think it calls to us, and look, uh, there's a couple of ways you can hear what I'm getting ready to say, and I hope you will not hear it in the way of shame.
SPEAKER_01: The way of shame goes like this.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I heard at uh at youth camp as a kid.
SPEAKER_01: It's a compelling question, but I think if you can pull the shame out, it starts to work a little bit better.
SPEAKER_01: If you were to die today, would there be enough evidence to convict you of being Christian?
SPEAKER_01: This is like low evangelical preaching, right?
SPEAKER_01: It sort of asks, does anybody know, based on your life, that you're following the way of Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Take the shame out of that question because it can be very humiliating, put in those terms.
SPEAKER_01: It can be very extreme that you're supposed to be an extreme follower or you're nothing.
SPEAKER_01: But I do think it's an interesting question to ask.
SPEAKER_01: Who do we say Jesus is, not just with our rhetoric, but with how we treat our neighbors?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, that sort of is the heart of the gospel I'd like to offer.
SPEAKER_01: The heart of the gospel is who do we say Jesus is with our deeds and with our words?
SPEAKER_01: And what's so interesting is we so often, and I'm gonna sound a little bit critical of tradition that raised me, no surprise.
SPEAKER_01: The tradition that raised me, what was most important is what we said we believed about Jesus, not how we showed that belief.
SPEAKER_01: What we said we believed about Jesus, we had the right answer, was the premium over and above how we treated other people.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that if somebody said something wrong, it was our duty to straighten them out, not to get to know them, not to understand where they were coming from, but simply to correct their cognitive propositional beliefs.
SPEAKER_01: Because that was what was most important.
SPEAKER_01: And I do wonder sometimes if we don't find ourselves saying that Jesus endorses whatever we do.
SPEAKER_01: I have to tell you, I'm gonna sound political for a second, and I think that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna be partisan, I'm gonna be political.
SPEAKER_01: There are two frontline candidates this year, no surprise.
SPEAKER_01: And neither one of them is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you hear me say that, and that doesn't bother you.
SPEAKER_01: Both of them are human beings, they have lots of flaws.
SPEAKER_01: Neither one of them is the incarnation of Satan, they're human beings, but they both have flaws.
SPEAKER_01: Neither one of them is the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Neither one of them has been chosen by God to lead us from bondage in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Neither one of them.
SPEAKER_01: Do we want somebody who will represent our economic interests, or do we want somebody who we perceive, who will do justly, and love mercy and walk humbly with God?
SPEAKER_01: Put this way, the way in which we vote, I don't mean who we vote for.
SPEAKER_01: What we prioritize when we vote does say something about who we say Jesus is.
SPEAKER_01: Do we vote for ourselves?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we vote on behalf of justice, mercy, and humility?
SPEAKER_01: Now we don't know who's going to do what, do we?
SPEAKER_01: Because people are fickle, and they often say things that they think we want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And so do we.
SPEAKER_01: Say things that we think other people want to hear.
SPEAKER_01: And this is why Jesus reminds us as he goes on to say what it means to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: And I have to be honest, there are days where I would rather not do this.
SPEAKER_01: You want to follow me?
SPEAKER_01: Pick up the cross.
SPEAKER_01: So you can beat up your neighbor with it.
SPEAKER_01: Nope, that's not what Jesus has in mind.
SPEAKER_01: The cross is, in fact, not to be a weapon.
SPEAKER_01: So, by the way, this political season, when people leverage the cross against their opponent, please hear, that's about as anti-Christian as you can be.
SPEAKER_01: Because the cross is not a weapon, it's a way of dying.
SPEAKER_01: It's a way of being humiliated on behalf of other people who are categorically excluded.
SPEAKER_01: Just to disabuse you, that I get to do this once a year.
SPEAKER_01: I don't usually talk about this in Holy Week because, like, we don't have this passage.
SPEAKER_01: Carrying your cross.
SPEAKER_01: It's a penalty reserved for people who are poor.
SPEAKER_01: If you were rich, you have your head cut off.
SPEAKER_01: Poor people are crucified because it's public torture, and people are crucified right outside of city gates as a billboard to everybody coming in and out.
SPEAKER_01: This is what happens when you commit insurrection against Rome.
SPEAKER_01: You don't get crucified for stealing.
SPEAKER_01: You get your hand cut off for that.
SPEAKER_01: You get crucified because you're messing with the economic system, or you're plotting for guerrilla warfare, or you've killed a Roman soldier, like you're doing something to damage the institution, and you don't have money.
SPEAKER_01: If you had money, you lose your head.
SPEAKER_01: People get crucified often enough that there are, you know, like in medieval towns, there's a gallows that just kind of stays there.
SPEAKER_01: There's like a five foot eight post right outside the city gate that's permanent.
SPEAKER_01: So people didn't carry a T-shaped cross around.
SPEAKER_01: They carried the crossbar only.
SPEAKER_01: When you see Jesus with the T-cross in movies, that's an artistic statement.
SPEAKER_01: It's not a historical one.
SPEAKER_01: People didn't carry a 200-pound railroad die.
SPEAKER_01: They carried a five-pound two by four.
SPEAKER_01: In that beam was a little notch that you could just slide that little 2x4 in.
SPEAKER_01: You probably know this.
SPEAKER_01: Nails are not enough to hold up your body weight.
SPEAKER_01: Like if somebody just used nails, they would rip right out.
SPEAKER_01: So ropes are used to tie somebody's hands to the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Then perhaps you put nails in as psychological torture.
SPEAKER_01: And it takes exactly two people to hoist somebody up on a two by four and drop it into a slot.
SPEAKER_01: If they're tall, you just bend their knees.
SPEAKER_01: See, it's it's one size fits all.
SPEAKER_01: How do you die on the cross?
SPEAKER_01: You suffocate.
SPEAKER_01: Because in order to breathe, you have to pull your body weight up to give your room, your lungs, room to expand.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're not able to do that, then you suffocate.
SPEAKER_01: The other way you die is uh through just shock.
SPEAKER_01: So people sometimes die, including Jesus, in about five hours.
SPEAKER_01: Their body just shuts down.
SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, people were sometimes crucified for days.
SPEAKER_01: Like for three or four days.
SPEAKER_01: And please hear, when you hear in the Gospels that the Pharisees spat on Jesus, it wasn't like a southern watermelon seed spitting contest for a guy that's 15 feet up in the air.
SPEAKER_01: They were literally face to face.
SPEAKER_01: People were crucified so low to the ground that animals eat them in the night.
SPEAKER_01: Like wild animals come and eat them.
SPEAKER_01: We like to put the loincloth on Jesus to preserve his dignity.
SPEAKER_01: People were crucified naked to humiliate them.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says, if you want to follow me, you have to do something so bold that it amounts to treason to the way things are done.
SPEAKER_01: You have to commit treason against what we have settled for, against powers that profit by excluding others, against powers that profit from people as commodities instead of people as subjects.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure my investment portfolio, I'm going to be honest, it does very well, and it's through the Church Pension Fund.
SPEAKER_01: It does so well, I'm afraid of profiting at the expense of others.
SPEAKER_01: I actually don't know what to do about that.
SPEAKER_01: I also have this lovely benefit when I go into hospitals, particularly as a priest wearing a black shirt.
SPEAKER_01: Nine out of ten nurses know what that means and will violate HIPAA to tell me how people are doing.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to say that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I think the question is, what do we do with that?
SPEAKER_01: There is not a lot of privilege, actually, when I'm among an ecumenical gathering of Christians in discussing gay and trans rites.
SPEAKER_01: My privilege goes right out the door.
SPEAKER_01: Because most people aren't in favor of that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're aware.
SPEAKER_01: Most of my Christian brothers and sisters are not in favor of women in ministry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm suspicious if I were vocally opposed to those things.
SPEAKER_01: We'd probably get some new members.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean poor me.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't mean that by any means.
SPEAKER_01: I still have a lot of privilege here.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean to say is, are we willing to take up a cross?
SPEAKER_01: Especially when it's inconvenient, in order to represent, frankly, the way Jesus chose to live.
SPEAKER_01: And so, look, when people say a joke that is degrading, am I willing to say, you know, I just don't find that funny, and I would really appreciate it if you would abstain from jokes about Jewish people in my presence.
SPEAKER_01: I just don't think that's funny.
SPEAKER_01: I really would like to invite you to consider the language you're using around women.
SPEAKER_01: Because I would not talk about my own wife or kids that way.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's just pushy, you know, you might be bothering somebody.
SPEAKER_01: You might.
SPEAKER_01: But if we never present somebody with a counter-narrative, maybe they never hear one.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know that God is asking you to burn down your house so that you have nowhere to go back to, to go back to the Elisha story.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know that God is asking you to burn up the equipment you use to make your living.
SPEAKER_01: But I do think there is this fundamental question, once again, who is it that we say Jesus is, not only when it's convenient, but when it's really inconvenient?
SPEAKER_01: With not just our theological discourse, but with the way we vote.
SPEAKER_01: With the signs we put in our yard, with the memes we put on Facebook, with the way we talk to family members who are difficult to talk to.
SPEAKER_01: We all have these things.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think they're unique to me or to you, that you have a family member that's difficult to deal with, or somebody who doesn't listen, who likes to swap monologues at best.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think uh I think it's fair to say Jesus probably had those problems too.
SPEAKER_01: Because he was a human being like you and I.
SPEAKER_01: I think the question is, do we interface with those folks like Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Or do we sometimes find ourselves being Peter and saying, Lord, let me set you straight?
SPEAKER_01: Let me set you straight, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Goodness and mercy are great ideas, God, but they're not realistic.
SPEAKER_01: You ever had that prayer?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe not intentionally.
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel, I think, is inviting us to consider whether we do, in fact, pray that way on a daily basis or not.
SPEAKER_01: If this sounds like a tough teaching, it's because it is.
SPEAKER_01: And it's probably some of the reason that the disciples continue to scratch their head and don't get the guy.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, look, if you really want to have new life, you gotta give up your old one.
SPEAKER_01: You can't make room for anything new if you're so saturated in the way you used to do it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't say that as a message of shame.
SPEAKER_01: I think the gospel says that's a message of opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: It's an opportunity to reorder the way we worship, to reorder the way we think about what it means to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Actually, it doesn't bother me if you get the beliefs wrong if you do the right thing.
SPEAKER_01: I think God would be grateful if you do the right thing, even if your thoughts are convoluted.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, wouldn't you agree?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we prioritize the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_01: The wrong thing is not that we have an ironclad way of thinking.
SPEAKER_01: The bad thing is that we choose to love even when it costs us something.
SPEAKER_01: We got 20 more weeks to reorder our time, ordinary time.
SPEAKER_01: We got 20 more weeks.
SPEAKER_01: So I invite you to take that journey with me.
SPEAKER_01: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things.