“This Is Not the Race I Entered!”

Mark 8:27-38

Sunday, February 16, 2003

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John Fleming

I want to ask you this morning if there has been a time in your life when you have experienced God in such a way that you knew for sure that God was the Lord of your life and that God was in control. And not only did you know who God was, but you also knew who you were. I want you to think about that and about that time and I want to share a time when I experienced that. It was a few years ago. There are many steps to follow to become a fully ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. It takes several years. I do not want to discourage anyone from taking these steps, especially Diane Drilling. My friends sometimes call these steps hoops and they say that you have to jump through all of them to be fully ordained.

I vividly remember one of these steps. The step happened on a Wednesday night at my home church in Jackson. We were in our church’s chapel. At the front, near the altar area, was a table. Sitting behind it was our district superintendent, Rev. Jerry Carr, my pastor, Rev. Ken Burnette, and our church’s secretary, Betsy Babb. We were there for a meeting that was called a charge conference. Every year, we have a charge conference in this church. It usually happens in the fall. It is a meeting of the entire church and at this meeting we talk about the business of the church. But this was not that meeting. This was a special called meeting of the charge conference. There was only one item on the agenda and the one item was me. The church that gathered there for this meeting was going to decide whether to recommend me or not to recommend me to be a minister in the United Methodist Church.

I was sitting three pews back. Sitting on one of my side’s was my mom. My dad was on my other side. I was wearing the best clothes that I owned. I wanted to impress my church. While we were sitting there, I could not help but to think to myself, “These people will not vote for me. They will say no. They will not recommend me.” Do you know why I thought that? I thought that because I looked at them like I am looking at you. In the congregation was Verlene Humphreys. I thought, “Verlene isn’t going to vote for me. She changed my diapers in the nursery. She won’t recommend me. When she thinks of me, she will think of dirty diapers. She won’t vote for me!” I looked a row or two past Verlene and sitting there was Ann and Ernest Lawrence. I saw them and I thought, “They won’t vote for me.” I remembered that when I was in the seventh grade and was supposed to be in Sunday School, I snuck out and went to Mr. Donut and there, sitting in a booth, were Ann and Ernest. I thought, “They won’t vote for me. What kind of a minister skips Sunday School?” I thought about that. I looked back and saw all of the people who taught me in Sunday School and who knew me and who had witnessed the things that I had done, and I said, “They won’t vote for me!”

The District Superintendent stood up and said, “We are now going to consider John Fleming. We bring his name up before this charge conference.” Then he said, “I want to say something about John.” He knew something about me. His house was next to our house. He talked about me. He said some nice things. He mentioned some of the things that he had seen in me that I had not yet seen in myself. Then he asked, “Would anyone else like to say anything on John’s behalf?” I slumped in my seat when I saw Ann Lawrence raise her hand and then rise out of the pew she was sitting in. She did not say anything about my appearance at Mr. Donut that fateful Sunday morning. I was thankful for that. Three or four or five or six people talked about what they had seen in me, but more importantly, what they had seen God doing through me in my then twenty or so years. I thought, “Wow!” The superintendent said, “Let’s take a vote on whether to recommend John for the ministry.” I wanted a secret ballot. The people of that charge conference voted for me, every one of them raised their hand and recommended me for the ministry. That was the day when I knew for sure who God was, who I was, and what God wanted me to do with the rest of my life. It does a soul good when your church pats you on your back, shakes your hand, and gives you words of encouragement.

I thought about that this week. Have you had times like that? Maybe you have not had that same experience, but you probably have had affirming experiences. There are those times when we know who we are and who God is. In those times, there are no doubts! Maybe times like those happen at retreats. There we are, up in the mountains. There is a cool breeze. The view is dramatic and the feeling overwhelms us. We Know. Oh, we know. You drink your cup of coffee, look out at the view, and you can just “feel” God. Or maybe you are not a mountain person. Maybe you are a beach person. There you are, walking on the shoreline, as the sun comes up. It is an awesome sight and an overpowering feeling comes over you. Maybe then we say, “God, you are the Lord of my life. You are the rock of my salvation. You are the lily of my valley.” In that moment, we confess and we affirm. We say, “We know God and God knows us.”

It is the same feeling, I think, that Peter felt in our scripture lesson for this morning, taken from Mark’s gospel. Our lesson is the turning point in Mark’s gospel. There are sixteen chapters in this gospel. Mark’s gospel has a great balance to it. The gospel has eight chapters in Galilee and eight chapters as Jesus and his disciples move towards the cross in Jerusalem. In the first eight chapters, Jesus is teaching, healing, feeding, and preaching. Those who are following him are learning what it means to follow him.

Then there is this story, our story for this morning. This story marks the turn as Jesus starts towards the cross. You can imagine the scene. Jesus is walking along with his disciples when he turns to them and asks, “Who do people say that I am?” By the way, it is always easier to talk about what others are saying than what you believe. The disciples answered, “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah. Still others say you are one of the other prophets.” Then Jesus turned to them and asked a harder question, “Who do you say that I am?”

Peter is like that kid in your class who always knew the answer and was eager to share it, “You are the Messiah. The One that we have been waiting for.” That is right, Peter. You get an “A.” Then Jesus says, “To follow me means that you have to deny yourself and take up your cross. The Bible tells us that Jesus and Peter had a side conversation. I think that Peter said to Jesus, “Jesus, what are you doing? Don’t you know that the good life is in Galilee? Don’t you know that the easy life is in Galilee? They love you in Galilee. They throw parties for you in Galilee. They come out by the thousands to hear you preach in Galilee. Why would you want to go to Jerusalem?” This is an ugly scene. Jesus has preached and he has taught. He had hoped that his disciples would have gotten his message. They have not gotten it. Jesus says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan. You are thinking about earthly things. I am thinking about heavenly things. If you are going to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me!”

- Do you know where Galilee is? We could find Galilee on a biblical map. I know that. But do you really know where Galilee is? I think that Galilee is at a worship service where you sit around and hear great music and hopefully a good sermon. In Galilee you say things and you believe things. Galilee is a Bible study where you sit around and talk about how great Jesus is. Maybe you talk about what Jesus is doing in your life, in Galilee. Galilee is sitting around and praying for one another. That is where Galilee is. Now, mind you, there is nothing wrong with Galilee. Galilee is where a lot of people meet Jesus for the first time. It is where we all begin to understand what it means to follow Jesus. Jesus calls the crowd together. He gives them these three hard sayings, “If you are going to be my disciples, deny yourselves, take up your cross, and follow me.” That is a hard saying. An easy saying might be, “Come to me all of you who are tired and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” I think that once Peter confesses, “You are the Messiah” things can never be the same. Everything has changed. The first steps are being made toward Jerusalem this morning.

I heard about a woman who had her forty-second birthday. She did not take it gracefully. She didn’t want to be forty-two years old. She was upset about her birthday. She admitted that she did not want to be forty-two, but if she was, then she was not going to look her age. So she put on her exercise clothes and she began an exercise ritual. Every morning she would walk in her neighborhood. Each day she would go a little farther than the previous morning. But she was not getting the results that she had hoped for and so she began jogging and then running. It turns out that she was a pretty good runner. Every morning, she would run a little farther than she had the day before. After one of her morning runs, she read in the newspaper that a 10k race was going to be held in her city. Ten kilometers is about six miles. She decided that she would enter the race. She sent in her registration form. She received her t-shirt and she began training for the race. The day before the race, she was ready. That night, she did not sleep very well. She was so excited and anxious about the race. She woke up early, showered, got dressed, and headed down to where the race was to begin. She was very early for the start of her race. To her amazement there were several runners already there, warming up. Then she heard the announcement, “Runners, head to the starting line.” It was still early. It was not time for her race. Still she went to the starting line. Standing there, she thought, “This is it. This is what I have been waiting for. This is the race!” The starter’s gun went off and she began running. She looked down at her watch. She had one of those watches that is able to tell you how far you have gone. About four miles later she thought to herself, “We ought to be turning around. This is a six mile race and we have gone four miles. Something told her that something was wrong.” She ran over to the side where a race official was standing. She said, “Sir, we ought to be turning around, we’ve gone four miles!” He said, “Lady, this is the Cleveland Marathon. It is a twenty-six mile race.” She said, “I didn’t sign up for the Cleveland Marathon. I signed up for the 10k.” He said, “That race is going to start in about ten minutes.” She said, “I’m in the wrong race.” The official shrugged his shoulders and said, “Ok.” The woman tells that she had a decision to make. She said that she could get right back in the race that she was in. Or, she could quit and go home. She said this, “I didn’t train for it. I wasn’t ready for it. This is not the race that I entered, but for better or for worse, this is the race that I’m in and I’m going to run it!”

A lot of the time, that is the way that life is. We are in the stance and we are ready to run the race. We are swept up. We are running and we think, I have about two more miles to go. That is all that I have to do. And then we hear that the race that we are in is a twenty-six mile race and a marathon. Do you know what that kind of thing does to us? It disappoints us and it discourages us. It causes us to ask, “Should I keep running, or should I quit?” Disappointment will do that to you. Should I quit. Sickness and illness will do this to you, too. We thought that we always would be healthy, but now we do not feel so good. A bad relationship will cause you to question your running. Perhaps this thought crosses your mind, “This is not what I had in mind.” But there are twenty-two miles to go and you are in a marathon. What are you going to do?

I think that there are two calls of Jesus. I think that the first call is to follow Jesus in Galilee and to hear sermons and to take Bible studies and to be with Christian friends who talk about what it means to follow Jesus. I think that the other call is to keep following Jesus, even when there are twenty-two miles to go. I want you to hear two things. Jesus says, “Those who lose their lives for my sake will find it” When those hard things happen to you, your old life is gone, never to be found again. You have a new life because Jesus promises that. And then Jesus says, “For what will it profit a man to forfeit their life and to lose their soul?” What does it mean to have a soul? I think that I know what that means. I think that it means to have something on the inside. This something is some kind of a character or some kind of a strength so that when you are on the sideline, talking with the official, and making a decision, you will be able to finish the race and to carry your cross a little higher. There are two calls. I pray that you will answer both of them. Let us pray.

(Special thanks to the First United Methodist Church in Jackson, Tennessee for recommending me to the ministry. Special thanks to Verlene who rocked me in the nursery and encouraged me to be the best that I could be. Thanks also is due to Ann and Ernest Lawrence for voting for me and for not telling my parents of my presence at Mr. Donut. And thanks for this church, St. Paul, and it’s members, who answer both calls of Jesus on a daily basis.)