“Back in the 1950s, we didn’t have the Internet, but we had something else: a new form of film, where the images leapt off the screen. In order to experience it, though, you had to see things differently than you normally would. This required special 3D glasses. Without them, the images on the screen were blurry and confusing.”
Christians today are trying to figure out which pair of glasses to put on. Through television and the internet, there are a lot of people out there, offering their way to make sense of life and the godly life.
I was brought up in the Holiness Movement, rural churches in Upstate New York that came out of Methodism just before the Civil War. The
early reformers often mixed personal holiness with social holiness and 
separated partially because the Methodist
Church raised money through pew rentals, accepted slavery, and would not allow the ordination of women.
By the time I was born 100 years later there was not much left of the emphasis on social holiness. But many holiness people saw God as an angry God who had to chase after humanity and keep them from dancing, watching television, movies, baseball games, rings and cosmetics, cutting women’s hair, pants for women, and shorts for men. And of course, we all enjoyed hearing when a leading member tried to have it both ways and oppose television and yet got to the furniture store to watch their favorite show on the display TV.
I was traveling recently and watched a Mennonite couple in the airport and her out of fashion clothes, coiled hair, and lack of adornment and I could have walked up and been talking her language within seconds. It made me homesick. That was the way we viewed the world.
What is your view of God? Baylor University just did a major study of Americans and found that there are 4 different groups of people, based on how they see God. These Four Gods — dubbed by researchers Authoritarian, Benevolent, Critical or Distant according to USA Today. 31% of all Americans see God as we did in my childhood as Authoritarian. This God is easy to anger but favors the USA because there are so many Christians here.
The Benevolent God is best captured by the story of the Prodigal Son. God is unhappy and keeps pushing the world towards reconciliation, but is also unwilling that any should perish.
The Critical God is held by 16% and they mostly don’t go to church. They don’t see God as friendly, but they don’t think God cares that much.
And the last group, the Distant God, also don’t attend church because they think God simply started everything and we are completely responsible as to whether the human experiment succeeds or fails.
We are going to use the Methodist way of answering – the Wesley quadrilateral. We will look this morning to Wesley’s famous formula for answering difficult questions – go to scripture, the Holy Spirit, reason, and tradition. If you are struggling to please God in your own life, I believe that the service today is going to help you pray with more satisfaction and confidence. Let’s worship
In his discourse on discipleship, Jesus radically redefines the expectations of the Messiah and what it will mean to follow the Messiah. This story requires the listeners to look at Jesus and the ways of God in the world from a new perspective. It is like watching a 3D movie and then remembering to put on the 3D glasses: what made no sense suddenly becomes vivid and alive. In this story, we are invited to see things from God’s perspective.
The setting of the story in Caesarea Phillipi is significant. It was the northernmost town in Israel and was on the border with Syria and Phoenicia (now Lebanon), Israel’s ancient enemies. This place is the symbolic geographical center of the boundary between Jews and Gentiles, between “us” and “them.”
Jesus’ initial question—“Who do people say that I am?”—invites the disciples and Mark’s listeners to reflect back over the stories they have just heard. What are the stories of Mark? Healings, casting out demons, calming the powers of nature, fed 5000 followers, and even walked on the water.
Throughout this mission, he has demonstrated in his teaching that he both understands and has come to establish the kingdom of God. The disciples’ first answers—that he is one of the prophets like John the Baptist or Elijah—are natural conclusions, but wrong. The prophets did not come to set up a new kingdom.
Peter’s recognition that Jesus is the Messiah. Peter begins to see that Jesus is not trying to be Elijah. But the tradition of the “anointed one,” Messiah, was a tradition of military leadership, of winning battles against the armies of Israel’s enemies and setting Israel free from Gentile domination. To follow the Messiah meant to take up a sword, join the Israelite army and follow the Messiah into battle. Saul and David were the great
Messiahs of Israel, both of whom were anointed as Messiah.
To see Jesus as the Messiah requires us to look at the Messiah tradition with different glasses. But if Peter’s identification requires some adjustment, Jesus’ immediate
prophecy that he, the Son of Man, would suffer, die, and be raised is a total shock. The passion prophecy is a complete reversal of expectations. The expectation of the Messiah was that he would be victorious and establish a long and prosperous reign as King. Jesus’ prophecy is a radical redefinition of what a Messiah would do.
Peter’s response is an expression of the shock and offense of every listener. Peter’s rebuke of this prophecy grows out of personal loyalty and affection and out of a rejection of this definition of Messiahship. Jesus’ words make no sense in the context of the Messianic tradition.
To follow Christ is to have the radical confrontation with Jesus as Lord. Jesus gets to say who he is and we have to reach for a new pair of glasses to make sense of the new kingdom and its ways.
Of the four views of God, we can ignore the Distant God. There is a love and passion behind the Incarnation, the Hope of Heaven, the Atonement, and creation of the Church which are signs that God is passionately involved with creation. This planet can’t get away from the embrace of God even when it tries.
Similarly, the Critical God is not possible, judgmental but lacking in energy to zap us and put things right.
The current pope seems to be part of the Authoritarian God group. He has made vicious remarks about gay people, but his basic comments about Islam as a religion that only likes violence is a comment from someone who sees himself announcing judgment like Jonah to get people to turn away before God explodes.
In the media, I see Christian groups like the Methodists who stress grace and social holiness. How do you know that this is our real emphasis? Because we tax each church and operate one of the largest mission agencies with the money. Our church has to pay about $40,000 this year because this is how we see the Christian role in the world.
The Presbyterians and Reformed have always stressed right doctrine and belief, the Lordship of the Mind. The Baptists have stressed personal holiness. The Catholics portray the sacrifice of Christ each week in the Mass, but guilt and obedience to the church is what I often hear as common reactions of people.
What is our answer? I believe with my whole heart that God is a Benevolent God. First, I know my life. If God is not benevolent, then I have no chance. People, look at yourself honestly for a moment. Forget those half attempts you have made in their moral areas where you struggle. Isn’t it true that if God does not accept you as a child of God no matter how many times you fail, that you are lost? I urge you to change your glasses and see God in a new way right now. God as the wonderful Savior who is in your corner, no matter what. The God who comes to the sinner before we come to God. The God who saves oppressor and oppressed. The God who cannot see our most shameful secrets because the Bible says they are covered by the sacrifice of Christ.
The media is focused on violence in Islam, but Christian violence in the 70 years war, the conflict in Northern Ireland, and the Crusades should remind us again that God must be benevolent or the church would have been destroyed long ago.
When I last went to a Catholic Church, they would not serve me communion. They still have not put away their thoughts that Protestants are outside the state of grace. I sincerely hope that they are wrong. God is much more benevolent that I am.
This way of seeing the world culminates in this passage. The way of the Messiah is not the Warrior, but the Martyr. We are the people who specialize in the ways of peace. Peter is so shocked that Jesus rebukes him strongly. And it is very hard for us to accept too. But in a confusing world, make sure you have the right glasses on, be certain that your anchor holds, don’t accept that accusations against you by Satan. God loves us and returns to us again and again with love and a chance to try again. God loves the world. For God so loved the world, that He gave his only son.
