Back in 1997, the year I graduated from college, I began dating a girl that I really liked who had just recently become a born-again charismatic Christian. The charismatic part of her Christianity mainly meant that she believed that the gifts of the Holy Spirit were still at work today as they were in the first century.
The gifts of the Spirit, found in 1 Corinthians 12, or manifestations of the Spirit as some call it, include speaking in tongues, the gift of healing, and the infamous gift of prophecy, which in my experiences seemed to have less to do with Old Testament Biblical prophecy and more to do with fortune telling.
Now understand that I really liked this girl, so despite being an avid hedonist and despite having a bit of disdain for evangelical Christians at the time, I agreed to go with her to an Assemblies of God uber charismatic worship service one sunny Sunday morning.
Little did I know…
I remember being so nervous if not downright scared about setting foot in a church, especially one that I associated with speaking in tongues and possibly snake-handling. But like I said, I liked this girl, so I went despite my hesitations.
I vividly remember this little girl with these thick, I mean thick coke-bottled glasses who performed an interpretive dance for the special, and she kept losing her balance as she twirled around and around. But she always got back up. She was accompanied only by a lone and very out of tune trumpeter belting out Amazing Grace.
And I remember thinking at the time that surely God was pleased with this little girl and her precious special dance routine. That is if there really was a God, for remember, I was only there because of a girl.
When it came time for the preaching of the Word of God, the preacher stood up on stage and introduced a very special guest speaker for that morning, a self-proclaimed prophet who had his own prophetic ministry in Australia of all places. Now I do not remember the prophet’s name, but I will never forget how he looked.
He was a rather tall slender man dressed in blue jeans and a buttoned-down shirt. He had narrow facial features and what I remember the most was his dark greasy black hair he wore back in a pony-tail. I thought, this is going to be a fun show.
He started out talking in his heavy Aussie accent about his ministry in Australia followed by a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit and the Bible. But what he did next is the stuff of nightmares. Well at least my nightmares.
About halfway through his sermon he stopped speaking and locked his intense eyes upon me. Then taking his long slender finger he pointed directly at me and bellowed, “You!” Now I was sitting in the last pew, and y’all, I actually turned around hoping he was talking to some other poor bloke behind me.
“Yes mate, you!” he said. “You’re like a wild stallion throwing your head to the left and to the right, but the LORD wants to put a bit in your mouth and a bridle upon your heart.” And then he went right back to talking about Australia and the Holy Spirit and the Bible again. I kid you not.
To this day I don’t quite know how to process this strange and abrasive interaction with the Aussie prophet, but I do know this to be true. That girl and I eventually parted ways, for the best, and although the LORD did not exactly put a bit in my mouth and a bridle upon my heart on that prophetic day, eventually he would put a collar around my neck.
I’m reminded of this bizarre story because this morning we read from James’ epistle, a bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
(James 3:3-5)
James goes on to talk about how a small spark can start a forest fire and then compares the human tongue to that small spark. Can we talk about the tongue this morning? Raise your hand if your words have ever got you in trouble? Keep it up if your words got you in trouble this morning? Truth is, we all trip over our unbridled tongues.
James goes on to say, It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell. (3:5-6)
Remember the expression we learned as kids, sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. I’m here to tell you, that’s not true. Our words hurt. Our words destroy.
This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
In our gospel lesson this morning, we encounter poor Peter, once again tripping over his own tongues, and receiving a rebuke from Jesus. When I first read this passage, I was thinking, whoa Jesus, take it easy. Peter means well. He’s a good guy. He just doesn’t understand. But the more I spent meditating and studying this passage, the more I realize the importance of Jesus’ discipline here.
Let me set the scene. Jesus and his disciples are making their way to the villages of Philippi. Along the way Jesus begins questioning his disciples asking them, Who do people say I am? And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”
And being a big fan of Peter I’m like, that’s right Pete, you tell him! Speak the truth brother! But then Jesus begins to describe the road which the Messiah must travel, the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Great suffering? Rejection? Killed? That’s not the route of a conquering king! So, Peter takes Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.
Peter’s concern here may be coming from a place of admiration. He thinks the world of Jesus and wants to see him fulfill is Messianic identity. But the problem is that Peter wants to make Jesus in his own image. An image that is free from suffering, rejection, and death. Peter wants to make Jesus in the image of a conquering king who by force liberates all of Israel from Roman oppression.
Peter wants Jesus’ path to look very different from the path of suffering, from the path of the passion. Peter, in his ignorance, set forth by the fire of his own tongue, wants to make Jesus into a type of antichrist. But it’s not just poor Pete who’s on the hook.
Jesus knows the hearts of his disciples are wicked and incapable of perceiving the true Messianic identity of the suffering servant. So, turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8:33)
Jesus made it clear that in order to fulfill his messianic ministry, he had to suffer, die and rise again. Peter’s objection to this showed that the apostles still didn’t understand the true nature of the Messiah’s identity and work. The suggestion that Jesus should turn back from the cross was yet another temptation by Satan. It was an attempt to persuade him to gain his kingdom by some way other than death, and so cause him to fail in the very thing he came to do.
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. (Mark 8:34-35)
Let me put it like this, Peter and the disciples saw the world in which they lived as a pyramid, where ultimate power comes from the top and rulers rule through tyranny. The kingdom Jesus came to establish circumvents the power structure of the pyramid by turning it upside-down and placing all authority and power at the bottom where servants serve out of love.
Or to put it simply, Jesus came to turn the world upside-down.
The Message paraphrase Bible reads the same passage as, Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. (Mark 8:34-36)
If I were to try to combine our Epistle and our Gospel lesson into a singular theme this morning, I think I might say we need to practice being people who are quick to listen and slow to speak. To put it into the words of the great Lutheran theologian Paul Tillich, The first duty of love is to listen. After he rebukes Peter, Jesus calls the disciples and the crowds into a position of active listening by saying basically, You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.
I keep this horse bit in my office today to remind me of the words that Australian prophet spoke over me 25 years ago. It is a reminder for me to listen before speaking. It is a reminder that I am not in control, I am not in the driver’s seat of my life. For I like Peter would rather make Jesus in my own image, free from pain, free from suffering, and free from death. But where is the good news in that?
Only one man has punched a hole through the dark veil of death and now lives eternally to make intercession for us. He is the one alone who holds the words of life. He is the one I want to listen to. He is the one I will take up my cross and follow. For in the words of the old spiritual hymn,
Jesus is tenderly calling thee home,
Calling today, calling today;
Why from the sunshine of love wilt thou roam
Farther and farther away?
Jesus is pleading, O list to His voice:
Hear Him today, hear Him today;
They who believe on His name shall rejoice;
Quickly arise and away.
Amen.
References
1. Crosby, Franny. Jesus is Calling, 412 Hymnals.
2. Peterson, Eugene. The Message.
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