2021年2月28日 星期日

Moving Uphill and Downhill, and Then?

 #2021-0228

A Sermon at St. James’ Episcopal Church
for the 2nd Sunday in Lent
Geneses 17:1-7; Psalm 22:22-30; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38
(Mainly talking about Mark's Gospel)
Let us pray.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. – Psalm 19:14

Be seated.

 "Moving Uphill and Downhill, and Then?"

My Reflections on the Trilogy, the Structure of Mark, and Something about Lent

I.          Introduction:

The Gospel reading we’ve just heard is Mark 8:31-38; that is the final part of the eighth chapter. Do you know which verse has impressed me so much that I’ll never forget it? – Or let’s put it another way: In the Gospel reading for today, which verse or verses are the most impressive to you?

Well, my answer to this question is Verse 34: “Then Jesus called the crowd and his disciples to him. ‘If any of you want to come with me,’ he told them, ‘you must forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me.’” (GNT)

Listen to it again, in another version: “[Jesus said,] ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (NRSV)

What a striking teaching it is! Even now I can recall what Prof. David Dai said: “It is the trilogy of being a follower of Jesus (gēnsuí Zhǔ-Yēsū de sānbùqǔ, or sānbùzòu): (1) Deny yourself, (2) take up your cross, and (3) follow Him.” – It’s been a long, long time since my graduation from Shīdà (NTNU), but I still remember what my Bible teacher at university said about this sānbùqǔ (“trilogy”).

By the way, I remember a joke told by him, who taught me The Bible as Literature about 36 years ago (in 1984-1985). He said he had asked his students in another class to “preview” the Gospel of Mark, and when he went to that class the next week, he asked them, “Have you ever finished reading all the 17 chapters of Mark? If you have, raise your hands,” about half of the class raised their hands.

Then he asked the rest of the class, “How about you? Didn’t you read? At least you should have read the first and the final few chapters. Now, if you finished reading Chapters 1 & 2 and 16-17, please also raise your hands.” A few more students raised their hands. – This is a joke! No doubt.

Why? … Why was that a joke? – How many chapters does Mark’s Gospel consist of? – It contains sixteen chapters only.

Now turn to see this. Look! What does it look like? … [Show a triangle made of card paper, shaped like a mountain and representing the structure of Mark’s Gospel.]

II.       The Structure of Mark’s Gospel*:

[* In this section the ideas and the wording are mostly taken from Rev. Judith Carrick’s sermon with the same title, 2003; thanks for the inspiration!]

The structure of Mark’s Gospel is like a mountain. As we go up one side, we hear about the ministry of Jesus; the miracles, the healings, the feeding of thousands, the calling of the disciples. The top of the mountain is Peter’s declaration, “You are the Christ,” (Mark 8:29) the first time it is stated exactly who Jesus is. And then, starting today, we come down the other side of the mountain toward the cross.

Before Peter’s declaration, “You are the Christ,” there must have been a good deal of speculation about who Jesus was, not just among the disciples, but among ordinary folk as well. In the first half of Mark, we see the core issue that many people explored: Who was this man, Jesus?

Of course, finding out exactly who Jesus was brought the disciples more than they had expected. When Jesus told them that he was to be rejected, abused, and even killed, Peter rebuked him. In his human nature, Peter could not imagine such a thing happening to a messiah. It’s obvious that suffering was not part of Peter’s dream for Jesus, nor probably for himself or any of the other disciples.

So Jesus had to continue his teaching to his disciples and others, revealing to them the true nature of his mission on earth and, by extension, their mission as well. Just as Jesus in his healing ministry gradually opened the eyes of the blind man at Bethsaida, so he gradually revealed to his disciples and others the nature and implications of his “messiahship.”

“Jesus would lead; his disciples would follow.” This was not to be a partnership of equals. They must be prepared to deny themselves, to abandon any thoughts of self-centeredness. They must be prepared to take up their cross, to perhaps face martyrdom.

And all for the sake of spreading the good news of the kingdom of God, to attain true life in the age to come, they must trust in God and obey God’s will, being willing to accept loss and injury in the cause of Christ and his Gospel. Simply put, they must follow Christ’s example, to become more like him.

Today, like Jesus’ first disciples, we also have to learn to transform ourselves by not being self-centered, by taking up our own cross, taking on our responsibilities; and by following the Lord, as a real Christian.

This three-step process seems no easy job. Can we understand the significance of it and put it into practice? When we continue to read the 2nd half of the Gospel of Mark, I believe we’ll see a lot more about the other side of the mountain; we’ll have a better understanding of the Truth that the author of Mark would eagerly show in the whole structure of his Gospel.

III.     My Reflections on “Moving Uphill and Downhill”:

[Show the visual aid.] Look at this mountain again; it represents the structure of Mark’s Gospel. Just now I mentioned that the top of the mountain is Peter’s declaration, “You are the Christ.” But there is another point of view: The highest point of the mountain is the Transfiguration (dēng shān biàn mào) seen in Mark 9: 2-13. That very Transfiguration is “the turning point” of Jesus’ ministry on earth. Remember? We heard the story of the Transfiguration two week ago, when we celebrated the Last Sunday of the Epiphany right here.

On the other day my son, Rev. Antony Liang, talked with me about the Epiphany season (xiănxiàn jiéqí). He mentioned that on the first Sunday after the Epiphany we at church always read/hear about Jesus’ Baptism; and on the last Sunday after the Epiphany, always is the story of the Transfiguration read/heard.

So, as you can imagine, from Jesus’ Baptism to his Transfiguration is “moving up from low to high” – from the Jordan river to the top of a high mountain – just as you and me climbing up a mountain; that’s an upward movement along the slope (or one side) of the mountain.

Whether it’s easy or difficult – whether it’s tiring or enjoyable, such an upward movement is sensed to be good, positive, healthy, and full of hope. The question is, after we’ve walked up a mountain – after reaching the highest place we could, where are we going afterward? Are we to stay high up there forever? Certainly not. If we have to return home, which path do we like to take to come down? – by moving downhill along the same path as we previously walked up? Or by taking another path on the other side of the mountain?

We have a Chinese proverb saying “Shàng shān nán, xià shān gèng nán.” That means, “While moving uphill is not easy; moving downhill is more difficult.” It’s true. My wife and I have been hiking in the mountains near our house, in Wufeng. Perhaps because I’m getting old, I feel walking down a steep slope is really a challenge for me; we have to watch our steps!

Fortunately, we have the Lord, who, walking with us, gives us the guidance and help – and, above all, love. Praise the Lord! We’ve been living so well.

But we all are human beings. Sometimes we feel we’re weak, and we become self-centered, even badly in need of special gifts from God. Once we recognize Jesus as the Messiah, we may wish that he would grant us whatever we want, right? – What’s more, we may want to ask these kinds of questions:

Ø How could an Almighty and Merciful god have allowed so much poverty, illness, disorder and confusion to exist in this world?

Ø Why did Jesus, the Son of Man himself, had to suffer and even be killed (as predicted in Mark 8:31)?

Ø Would it be possible that the Lord Jesus have always led us, whether Christians or not, to a super-high place, a place even higher than the highest mountain?

Ponder on this kind of thing, and you’ll get inspired and possibly gain very good answers to your own questions!

For example, to the last-mentioned question, my personal answer is like this – [Show the visual aid that I made.] See, "moving uphill and downhill– and then? I’ll recall the Bible words, “With God, nothing is impossible.” Even after the Crucifixion and Death, the story continued with the Resurrection and the New Life … 


[As I turn up the hidden part of the paper, the original shape of the mountain will immediately become a big children’s slide, with a double-length ramp, representing the Heavenly Ladder!]

IV.    Conclusion:

Well, today is the Second Sunday in Lent. The purpose of Lent, according to the English Wikipedia, is “the preparation of the believer for Easter through prayer, doing penancemortifying the fleshrepentance of sinsalmsgivingsimple living and self-denial.”

Simply speaking, Lent is a period of time for us Christians to “reduce” our sensual pleasures, to restrain ourselves from “overindulgence”; probably we need to eat and drink less. In Lent we should “discipline” ourselves for improvement. If you see the three icons on the front page of today’s Bulletin leaflet, you’ll know what I mean:

Here, in addition to fasting, there are two more things to do: praying and giving. In this solemn season of Lent we should pray more indeed, for ourselves and for others. And we should offer more help to our neighbor, by sharing what we have, materially and spiritually. During the season of Lent, we must discipline and improve ourselves – by studying hard, working hard, and trying our best to get prepared for the next season, Eastertide.

Amen.

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