“We Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For”—Barack Obama

September 13, 2009:  Mark 8: 27-38

I believe that most people, most of us, are waiting for a Messiah in some form or other. If we go over to

Think about the Messiahs we are looking for, or waiting for.  There’s a widow in our building and on the elevator we exchange pleasantries. One day I was coming home with groceries and she said wistfully, “I sure wish I had a husband to do get the groceries for me.”

How about the hockey Messiah—the player who can score 50 goals and get 50 assists. If only we had him, we surely would be Stanley Cup contenders.

Or sometimes we hope our inner feelings of sadness, despair, depression can be fixed by a Messiah-friend. Or our inner emotional angst will be cured by our next romantic relationship. Or we are waiting for the financial Messiah who has all the answers so our investments will be both secure and make a pile of money.  Often church members are waiting for a Messiah in the form of their next minister. For people who have been enslaved, their answer was that the Messiah would take them to heaven, out of the the suffering they were enduring.

This minister is waiting for a Messiah to walk into the office and offer to clean up and organize my piles of folders with sermons, programs, ideas etc that have become clutter behind my desk.

Jesus in his life re-defined what Messiah means as well as re-defining what it means to be a disciple.

The story from Mark’s gospel, about Jesus’ classroom by the side of the road is very insight for those of us who want to live authentic Christian spirituality.  Jesus stops the day’s hike for lunch and while they are relaxing he asks, “Who do you say that I am? Immediately they jump into the role of being good students, trying to get a gold star, or a happy face from the teacher.

One disciple offers, “Some people say that you are Elijah or one of the prophets.” This answer was reflective of the Jewish thought that when the Messiah returned to turn the world right-side up again, Elijah would come along.

For the Jews for thousands of years of ups and downs in history:  victories, defeats, exile, persecution by their neighbors, they have waited, prayed and hoped for The Messiah to come and bring them military, economic, and political victory over their enemies. In Jesus’ day this was the thought of the Zealots a necessary violent challenge to the power of the Empire of Rome.

But Jesus is giving his followers a  new way of perceiving. Jesus says, “I don’t care about what the experts say, I don’t care about the footnotes in the historical record, I want you to answer the question, ‘Who do YOU say that I am?’”

One anonymous pundit answers Jesus’ question if it was asked of a United Church member:  Jesus asked the United Church , ‘But who do you say that I am?’”  They formed a committee, and two sub-comittees, who all sent out pages of questionnaires and seven years later when the answer was sent in a report of General Council here is what it said:

“You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement; you are he of speaks of the theonomous  viewpoint of an analogia entis, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.  You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and darkness, the overwhelming roughness in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness, in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationship. 

You are my Oppressed On, my soul’s shalom, the One who was, who is and who share be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, in the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, and whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”

And when the United Church’s answer was finished, Jesus replied, “Huh?”

Simon Peter, usually the first one to raise his hand with an answer declares, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!”  “Christ” means “the one.”  And Jesus tells the class, that Peter’s answer came from divine insight. And everybody cheers and thinks the victory is won, just like we Eskimo fans cheered when we are 14 points ahead on Friday night.

But Jesus was bringing, and continues to bring new dimensions to our old answers.  Today’s gospel reading continues and tells them and us that Jesus is proclaiming a new understanding of Messiah. The gospel of Mark is the first of the 4 gospels written, most likely in the decade of the sixties—approximately 30 years after Easter. 

Mark is writing to a growing community who live in or close to Rome so they know first hand the power of the Empire, and Mark is conveying the good news of a different kind of power—the power of servanthood—meeting another person’s needs instead of being self-centered.

To be a disciple of Jesus is NOT simply to have a good theological answer. It is NOT to worship Jesus, we are called to Worship God the Creator.  No, we are simply called to FOLLOW Jesus.

To borrow from the movie character Forrest Gump, who wisely said, “Stupid is as stupid does”  Mark’s gospel conveys the truth, “Jesus is as Jesus does.”  Other gospel writers set up Jesus having dialogs with the religious authorities. Jesus often sanswers using simple, but profound parables, and then the authors will take many verses having Jesus explaining what he meant in the parable.

Mark simply tells us what Jesus did:  he preached, he healed, he cast our demons—mental illness and he built a community of people to carry on his work. 

The American people out a a tumultuous 8 year of a whole series of challenges to the status quo:  terrorism, increasing drug and gang violence, economic chaos, the impending threat of environment disaster, reached out for a Messiah who preached a gospel of “audacious hope” and Barack Obama was elected or chosen to be their new Messiah.

But Obama in one of his speeches makes the same kind of comments that Jesus made about being the Messiah.  Obama said, “We are the ones, we’ve been waiting for.”  In other words, roll up your sleeves and do the work facing you, no one else is going to do it for you.

For the Oilers there is no 50 goal scoring Messiah out there, but instead maybe 10 players each need to score 5 more goals this season. For those looking for another person to fix their inner emotional troubles, it’s healthier for you to do your own healing and then be open to a new relationship.

For myself, there is no magic Messiah who is going to clearn up my office, that’s my task.

For some in McDougall Church the potential partnership with the University of Alberta may be seen as the solution to our problems. I believe that we are quite capable of getting much stronger as a spiritual community with or without the University. Yes, it seems like that partnership may be a plus for us, for the U of A and for the community, it will NOT solve all our challenges.

The Messiah has already come and gone. Life is a day by day privilege, challenge, opportunity and adventure. I believe, like Simon Peter, that Jesus is the one for us to follow to live that life to the fullest. After this worship service, downstairs the Festival of Faith will give you ideas of how to follow Jesus in a variety of ways in McDougall United Church.

I invite you to follow Him along with this dynamic and creative community of diverse people.  Amen

Rev. John Henry Weinlick