"POP QUIZ"

The philosopher said, "Well, first and foremost, God is a philosopher because God created the principles by which humanity is to live."

"Ridiculous!" said the biologist. "Before that, God created men and women and all living things...so clearly God is a biologist."

"Wrong," said the builder. "Before that, God built the heavens and the earth. Before that first creation, there was only complete confusion and chaos!"

"Well," said the politician, "where do you think the chaos came from?"

The true character of God...how God chooses to work in the world...why God’s ways are often so very different from our hopes and expectations: these are difficult concepts for anyone to grapple with. The God we worship and serve is a God who constantly surprises us. And this inability to predict God’s movements can be very frustrating sometimes.

Our reading today, from the Gospel of Mark, looks at one aspect of this issue. It deals, in part, with the discovery that God’s plan is not exactly what we may have thought it would be.

This is the story: For many months Jesus had been traveling through the countryside, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, teaching in parables, and proclaiming the good news of the love of God for all God’s children.

If political opinion polls had been taken in those days, I’m sure Jesus would have had a pretty high acceptance rating among the general public at this point in his ministry. Large crowds were gathering to hear him preach. Still more folks were coming to him seeking healing, both of the physical and the spiritual aspects of their being. Holistic healing is not a new concept, you know. Jesus certainly believed in dealing with mental and spiritual ailments as well as physical aches and pains.

But in spite of his apparent popularity, we get a sense that Jesus was troubled about something. He knew that he wasn’t exactly the kind of "Messiah" – the "Anointed One" of God – that people wanted and expected him to be. The very ones he had been sent to save totally misunderstood his purpose in coming.

That’s not an uncommon occurrence. People misunderstand things all the time. A bank teller looked at a check to be cashed then looked at the young woman before her and asked, "Could you identify yourself, please?" The customer took a small mirror out of her purse, looked in it, and responded, "Oh, yes, it’s me, all right."

The hope for the expected Messiah, among those in the Jewish community of Jesus’ day who had such beliefs, was that the Chosen One would reestablish the supremacy of Israel among the great nations of the world. The assumption was that this would be accomplished in a violent and vengeful manner, with the forceful overthrow and total destruction of the current ruling powers. But before this happened, they believed, the prophet Elijah would return to herald the coming of the Chosen One.

So Jesus had to somehow communicate to his disciples and others who had such high hopes for him that what he was offering was something completely different from what they expected. Jesus’ followers did not and could not understand that to be the Messiah God had sent him to be, his complete obedience to manifesting the true character of God would lead him to sacrifice and suffer and, ultimately, die a cruel death.

And so, one day, while walking along with his disciples, journeying ever closer to Jerusalem and the fate that awaited him, Jesus asked his friends a question he had never asked them before. "Who do people say I am?"

Most likely the disciples were careful in giving their answer. Like political advisors today, they didn’t want to mention any of the bad things they must have heard folks say about Jesus. Instead they responded positively. "Well, Lord, we’ve heard lots of good things about you. Some people say you’re the ghost of John the Baptist, and some even say that you’re the reincarnation of Elijah himself, the greatest prophet in our history. That’s pretty high praise, isn’t it Lord?"

But Jesus didn’t stop there. He wanted to know more. And so he asked this group of close friends, these who knew him better than anyone else, "Okay, now tell me: Who do YOU say I am?"

I suspect an awkward silence followed his question, as the disciples exchanged nervous glances, looked down at their feet or off into the distance, as if searching for an answer that just wouldn’t come. They had no problem reporting what other people were saying about who Jesus was, but when it came to expressing their own innermost understanding of who he was, they weren’t quite so eager to speak. The scene may have been a little reminiscent of a time not too long ago when our current president struggled to articulate his understanding of words like "did" and "have" and "sexual relations."

After what must have seemed like a long time, Peter broke the silence, saying, "You are the Messiah, (or as the word is in Greek, the Christ) the Son of the Living God."

As I prepared this message, a strange thought entered my mind (I know...nothing too unusual about that!). As I thought about this sort of "pop quiz" that Jesus sprang on his disciples, I wondered what would happen if, instead of preaching a sermon, I gave YOU all a pop quiz. (Don’t leave! I’m not going to do it!) But what if I had just re-read the scripture and then passed out to each of you a pencil and a piece of paper with one question written on it: "Who do you say that Jesus is?" How would you respond?

In agreement with Peter...or perhaps copying off Peter...some of you may have written down, "Jesus is the Christ." Others might have echoed words attributed to Thomas: "Jesus is my Lord and my God." Still others might have written, "Jesus is the best friend I ever had." Who do you say that Jesus is?

The world says a lot of things about who Jesus is. Some view him as a figure to be discussed intellectually but lacking any eternal significance. Some see him as a revolutionary who worked for social libertation for the oppressed. Others perceive him simply as an itinerant, nonviolent philosopher spouting pithy maxims. Many respect Jesus as an ethical, if impractical, teacher, whose memorable sayings about turning the other cheek, not casting the first stone, and loving your neighbor make for interesting reading and attractive wall hangings.

Here in this church, as a corporate body, we proclaim that Jesus is the Messiah...the Christ...the Son of the Living God, the second person of the Trinity, our Lord and Savior. But I am painfully aware that we must always ask, "What do these titles mean to us today?" Maybe our answers would be more complete is we simply listed words that describe what we mean. Jesus is: loving, gentle, compassionate, understanding, forgiving. Jesus is my helper, my guide, my friend, my God. Who is Jesus to you?

Sometimes in our zeal to be messengers of the good news, we may answer just a little too quickly. We don’t want anyone to know that we may not be exactly sure what we mean when we say that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. We wouldn’t want anyone to think that our faith is anything less than strong and secure. As people of God, we may feel that we need to know all the answers to questions of faith, when in reality we have trouble answering the one question that Jesus asks his disciples of every age: "Who do you say that I am?"

A woman lost her closest friend in an automobile accident last month. Last week, her teenage daughter came home drunk and half-dressed. The next day, on her way home from the hospital, after having tests done to examine a lump in her breast, this woman say a bumper sticker that said, "Jesus is the answer." And she couldn’t help thinking to herself, "Jesus is the answer to what? My loneliness, my feelings of failure as a mother, my fear of cancer? Exactly what is Jesus the answer to? And if Jesus IS the answer, then why are all these bad things happening to me? I’m a Christian. Why, God?"

When deep and painful questions of faith come up, we’re tempted to give a short reply like, "Jesus is the answer," then change the subject as quickly as we can. If we say more than that, someone might realize that we don’t have all the answers, and how would that look?

But listen to what Unamuno y Jugo, a Spanish philosopher wrote: "Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not truly in God."

Who do you say that Jesus is? The gift of faith may place the confession on our lips, "Jesus is the Messiah – the Christ – the Son of the Living God." But every day we must struggle to understand exactly what that means when we’re faced with the difficult questions of life and faith. When these questions arise in your life – and they will – God doesn’t expect you to have all the answers. Sometimes it’s O.K. to admit, "I just don’t know the answer to that. I don’t completely understand how God works. No one does. But I’m working on it. I’m searching for answers, just like you. Maybe we can do this search together."

For now, we see, as the apostle Paul wrote, "through a glass, dimly." But one day, someday, we will understand fully what it means to confess that Jesus is the Messiah – the Christ. Until that day, we must continue our daily journey of faith, taking one shaky step at a time. And we must not be afraid to admit that we don’t have all the answers. In fact, I’ve got news for you: we don’t even know all the questions. Amen.

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