Towards Sunday, August 24, 2014

Scripture:  Matthew 16:13-20 ("Who do you say that I am?")
Working sermon title:  Breaking our addiction to superheroes

By the time of Jesus, the image of "the Son of Man" (regardless of its original meaning to the prophets of old) is something like our modern-day "superhero" -- a person miraculously and/or tragically both human and other-than-human, who appears at a critical moment to save the world by avenging evil and protecting the right.

So when Jesus asks his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is" he is asking who do people look to as God's Lone Ranger / Superman / Wolverine?

(I know the picture is fuzzy, but so is some our superhero thinking about God and Jesus.)

Its' interesting no one sees Jesus in the role, even though some pick John the Baptist.  It seems Jesus is not strong, angry, forceful, vengeful, miraculous, more-than-human, or destructive enough to fill the bill.

So he asks, "So if I'm not the superhero who comes into the scene from on high with greater-than-human power to avenge evil and set things right, who do you tell people I am?"

The answer is, "You are messiah, the son of the living God.  You are the one who lives as God does, and who we follow as the way of true and holy living for ourselves.  We don't look to you to fight our battles for us; we look to you as the one who leads us in the way of good and holy community -- truly human life, in our own living."

And Jesus says, "Ah!  Bingo!  And it's people who see me like that who will be the church -- the community of God in the world that no evil can stand against or defeat."

And then he adds, "Any by the way, stop calling me Messiah.  People may get the wrong idea about that, too."

A few questions towards Sunday:

• superheroes are big again (Iron Man, Wolverine, Batman, even Guardians of the Galaxy); in what ways are any of them and Jesus alike -- and un-alike?
• how do we cast Jesus into a superhero role that he doesn't want?
• when evil threatens Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon turns on the bat-light to summon Batman into action; when evil threatens Winona, Hamilton, Niagara, what does a messianic community do?