Mistakes

Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

September 16, 2012

James 3:1-12, Mark 8:27-38

Words seem to be flying in every direction in our Gospel reading today. Jesus gives his disciples a little pop quiz at Ceasarea Phillippi – a midterm at this halfway point in Mark’s gospel. Each answer loaded with theological significance – John the Baptist, Elijah, a prophet. And Peter’s direct and prophetic answer, “You are the Messiah.” But don’t tell anyone Jesus says as he goes on to explain he must die and rise again. Peter takes him aside and rebukes him, Jesus in turn rebukes Peter and gives everyone a good stern warning. Significant words flying back and forth, rebuke coming from every direction.

But before we get too hard on Peter, I want to point us back to some very important words in the reading from James. With all the words flying around in the readings, I don’t want to miss it. It comes in the second verse: “For all of us make many mistakes.” I want to take a moment to honor that those words are scriptural. That the Bible says, “You know what, all this stuff I’m telling you, I know you’re not always going to get it right.” James does not let us off the hook. He calls us to strive toward greater control, deeper discipleship, richer words that bless rather than curse. But he wouldn’t have to say it if everyone was getting it right.

Peter certainly makes a mistake. Actually I’d like to propose that he makes several mistakes. The first is that he says to Jesus, “You are the Messiah.” He’s right, of course, technically. Jesus is the anointed one, which is what Messiah means. But it quickly becomes clear that what Peter means by that statement is not at all what Jesus has in mind. Peter meant you are going to be the one who liberates us and leads us out of slavery into freedom in a political sense.

Here is where Peter’s second mistake comes in. When Jesus explains how he will be the Messiah, Peter doesn’t have the good sense to check his words and listen but instead rebukes Jesus. I give him a lot of credit here for engaging Jesus. You have to wonder that everyone else isn’t thinking the same thing and keeping it to themselves until they can talk about it later on behind Jesus’ back. At least Peter engages Jesus, and gets this nonsense out of the way.

Jesus informs Peter and the disciples that they are mistaken. They are not going to get their way, and it’s going to be okay. They aren’t going to win the day over Roman rule, and it’s going to be okay. They aren’t going to get rich and famous, and it’s going to be okay. They aren’t going to be popular or successful, and it’s going to be okay. “For all of us make many mistakes,” you can almost hear Jesus saying maybe even chuckling to himself.

Now sometimes our mistakes are big. This week people died because of someone’s hateful words. To be honest that probably happens more than we know, but this week it made international news. I’m talking about the anti-muslim video that sparked a violent attack in Libya. Hateful words were spoken and people died. Rebukes flying back and forth. The counter-demonstrations, though, sounded like James. There were signs that reminded people that Muslims are people who strive to do what James requires of us – they condemn the hate speech against Islam and they condemn the violence supposedly done in its name. They are taking a stand that they will not be people who curse with the same mouth from which they bless. That video and the violent attacks were terrible and tragic mistakes, and yet it isn’t that different in nature than some of our mistakes.

I’m hoping that none of us in this room would go to the lengths of creating a movie that defames anyone else for religion or otherwise. But I’m guessing that all of us have started down that path with words that do not lift up, with words that, intentional or not, have done harm. Sometimes they come from our own place of hurt, often from our own deepest place of need. But they do not belong with the words of blessing that also come from our lips.

And like Peter we have literally or figuratively taken Jesus aside and rebuked him for not having things our way. We use our words to remind Jesus and others that we are right. That our religion is right, that our way of life is right, that our ideas are right. But in the end it’s not about getting it right. For all of us make many mistakes. Like Peter, we don’t, in the end, know what it is that is best for us. Peter gets the words right but not the meaning and doesn’t want to hear that there is another way.

The reminder from James that all of us make many mistakes is not an excuse to give up trying. In fact quite the opposite. It’s permission for us to try again after we’ve failed. We might easily give up when, we like Peter realize we haven’t gotten it right the first time around, or when we like Peter make it worse on the second try. The reminder to us is that not only does Peter earnestly and honestly, if also mistakenly, engage with Jesus, but Jesus also earnestly and honestly engages with Peter.

Jesus rebukes him and it probably does not feel good. But he also reminds Peter that it doesn’t depend on him. His place is following, even if that is a bumbling kind of following with words that aren’t always right and an ego that sometimes gets in the way. It’s a rebuke, but also a comfort to know that it does not depend on us getting it right. For all of us make many mistakes.

Ultimately it is not our words, for good or for ill, that save us from ourselves, from our sinful nature, or from death. It’s God’s words for us. The words that say I love you, you are mine. And I imagine God often getting a good laugh at our many mistakes and our attempts to fix them. In Jesus’ words we have our minds stuck on human things and not divine things. Things that in the end simply don’t have the power we try to give them. Because louder than our failed and broken attempts to answer Jesus’ question and louder than our failed and broken attempts to bless or curse one another are God’s words of profound forgiveness, God’s words of abundant blessing, God’s words of life.

Pastor Steven Wilco