Unapologetically Human

Transcripts are computer-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

Debbie: Well, good morning, everyone. Cody, that was…I think we're all right now—Maggie, me, Jae—going, “Wow!” That was…you really took it up a bar! Thank you, that was awesome. That was absolutely wonderful. Thank you for sharing that this morning.

But hey, I'm Debbie Manning, one of the pastors here on the Table Team, and it's good to be with you. We continue on in Lent and in the book of Mark. We're going to jump in on Chapter 14, which is where we get to the Passion narrative, those last days of Jesus' life. The plot to arrest Jesus and the anointing at Bethany, marks the beginning of the Passion and the Resurrection narratives. That will make up the whole rest of Mark, which is going to take us through to Easter Sunday.

The first part of Chapter 14, preceding the text that we're in today, we have the anointing of Jesus by the unnamed woman, and it's framed on either side by this renewed plot to destroy Jesus. In this reverential love and honor offered to Jesus by this woman, is in sharp contrast to the plotting of the religious leaders at the time to try to get rid of Jesus. The betrayal of Judas brings us right up to the Last Supper, where Jesus establishes a new Passover, where he talks about his blood poured out for many, representing the blood of the Passover lamb and introducing a new covenant for all God's people.

And all this leads us up to our text tonight: Mark 14:26-31:

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives, and Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away, for it is written. I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered, but after I'm raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." And Peter said to him, "Even though all fall away, I won't." And Jesus said to him, "Truly I tell you, this day, this very night before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." But he said vehemently, "Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you." And all of them said the same.

Well, this is one of those moments that I'm kind of glad that we all, those of us familiar with this story, know what's next. And even beyond what's next, the denials, the fleeing, the bigger picture of what happens, because I am that kind of person. I really don't like to know when we're in these moments of anxiety, Jesus' prediction of this, and it reminds me a lot of the Viking season, not this last year, but the year before. Because we were always at The Table in the evening, so my husband and I, we'd record the game, and luckily I got to know all those games time after time where they were so far behind and they were losing in those very last seconds they won. And I can't tell you how many times I said to Steve, "I would have walked away. There's no way I could stand it. I cannot stand the tension."

And it's a little bit of how I feel about this text tonight. It also reminds me of something that I learned when I was parenting. Never say never. And you learn that as your kids grow up. Never say never. So here we are. It's the night before Jesus dies. Jesus is dying and he knows it. He and his disciples, they've just finished this meal together. They're on their way to the Mount of Olives, and they're singing. And what they do is they sing the Psalms, and Jesus predicts, "You will all fall away." But Peter, with this great confidence, proclaims, "Not me." And all the rest of those disciples, they say, "Same. We're not going anywhere." But we know, like I said, what they don't know in that moment, and they will. They will fail. They will flee. They will desert Jesus.

This text is familiar to a lot of us. I think I've preached on it several times, and we often focus in on Peter, the chief disciple, and those disciples, and how can they be so stumbling and bumbling? I mean, actually they witnessed, right? All those miracles, all those healings. They witnessed Jesus. And yet, in the moment where it felt like it counted, they couldn't take it. They left.

And while this, that look at the text is important to us, because I think we see ourselves reflected in some of that, right? Those moments where we might deny Jesus, walk away from God. Those moments that might not look just like that, but moments and things that we say or don't say. Moments that we might turn this way because we don't have the energy to look this way. But there are moments in our life that might be a little more nuanced, a little more subtle, that we deny Jesus. And that can look a lot of different ways.

So I know that's important to this text. I know it is something that feels hard, and it feels convicting, because it does ask us, "Where do we stand? What do we stand for? Who do we stand with? What do we believe? When are we going to make, when are we going to stand up for those beliefs? When have we denied? When have we betrayed? And how do we make it right?" All that is in these five verses. All that is important to this text.

But I want to look a little differently at this text tonight. I want to pick a different piece of that text, which I think is important to all of us as well. Because I think while parts of this text is convicting, this text holds always that both and, there's something really freeing in this text. And hopeful. So here's Jesus. He's telling the disciples what he does know. Friends, it's inevitable. You will fail. You will flee. You will deny me. Because here's the thing: discipleship is hard. It's the hard road, but it's the right road. It is the only road we have to the full life that God created us for. But what Jesus does here is he recognizes the limits of the disciples and he tells them the truth. And here's the truth: You're human. You are human beings. And we too are all too human to follow Jesus faithfully.

So one thing I want to say on the front end is acknowledging our humanness doesn't excuse us. It's a little bit how I parented too. It's like, I can understand you're tired and that's why you're trying to hit me. But it's still not okay that you're hitting me. So that's how I think of it. But acknowledging our humanness doesn't excuse us, but it frees us. What it does is it frees us to step into a faith where transformation happens when we're honest.

You know, I'm sure you guys are constantly scrolling The Table website. You can thank Maggie Keller for it because it's awesome. I always look back on it. What is it that we said about this? But you've heard us say from up front that we are a community practicing the ways of Jesus by creating space for all to be loved and belong. And if you go to our website, to our values page, you will see a set of values there. And front and center and where everything flows from is this value of we are Christ-centered.

But one of the other values we hold is that we are unapologetically human. And here's what we have to say about that. Patti, you can throw that up there:

In the life of Jesus, we encounter one who is always honest, self-disclosing and fully present with friends, strangers, and even enemies. And just as the resurrected Christ led with his scars, we believe that transparency is a prerequisite for transformation. We're committed to living honestly before God and one another.

And it's in that honesty, the honesty that Jesus was having as he spoke to the disciples, it's in that honesty that we find freedom. And it's honesty with ourselves. It's honesty with God. It's honesty with one another. And one of the things I was thinking about was you actually can't separate all those things. If you're not honest with all those things at the same time, you're not being honest. And when we take a good look in the mirror, when we peel the problem back, that thing behind the thing, often it comes back to our human tendency to make it about me. And I think that's what Peter was doing in this text. It was about him.

Now, think about this for a minute. I think the things that add to that for us in this culture as we live in this culture, right, that just holds up of high value perfection. It calls us to perfection, this culture we live in, to be extraordinary, to stand out, to be one of a kind. And while that, the truth is, is that we are all uniquely wired and created in the image of God. The thing that we actually share—Gino, get ready, plug your ears—is brokenness. Gino likes to think it's more about being cracked, but we are broken. We are broken. We are sinful. We make choices that lead us away from God, that lead us away from others. That's our human tendency.

But what I'll say is we can try as much as we want to strive for that perfection, to be that perfect person, to be perfect in all. We do, but I will promise you one thing, that will not be ours. We will not be able to maintain that level. And our mistake is not our failure to be perfect. Our mistake is to think that we could be. We are human. And what Jesus knew was that failure in us, those moments that we fall and flee and deny, that those moments are the moments that often bring us closer into relationship with God.

You know, one of my, and I've quoted her before, but favorite pastors, Nadia Bolz-Weber out of Denver, says the life of faith is not a life of perfection, it's a life of participation. Be all in. Because it's that life of honesty and participation that allow us to be all in. Because when we try to be perfect, I think it holds us back from participating, from being all in. We are all in this room today. We are here and we are worshiping. We are going to be partaking in the community, the life of faith as we hang out over donut holes and coffee. And we are doing that not because we have perfect faiths, but just the opposite. Because we're not. We don't have perfect faiths.

So I think we can look at that idea that somehow we have to be perfect, and we can hold that with this other cultural value we have about confidence. And sometimes an overconfidence in ourselves. I certainly want all of you. I hope I want to raise kids that are confident in who God created them to be. But sometimes we forget about the God who created us as to who we are, to lean into God that we, over time, as we get good at stuff and get better at stuff and things are good, we forget. And our confidence becomes in something, oh, me. It becomes in me. And not God.

And I think that's the mistake that Peter made, because in our text we see that Peter had great confidence in his own faithfulness. Twice Jesus had to tell him the truth. You will deny me. But Peter was so confident that he spoke vehemently, that's what Mark said. That's the only time in Mark's gospel that he even used the word, "vehemently," that he would not deny Jesus. And what he did was he made it about him. He made it about him and his confidence in his own faith. I got this. And he forgot about Jesus.

Something interesting too, as a side note, is that he kind of missed a big thing in that text, right? Because Jesus talks about how the eye will strike, the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered. But then he says a sentence that Peter totally talks over, that he totally ignores. Because he goes on to say, "But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee." And that's when Peter says, "Well, even though I'll fall away, I will not." Wow. Like that was just like totally not listening to something big. There was no question of, "Say more. What do you mean you'll be raised?" That was an important piece because Peter was thinking about Peter that he just like walked right over.

I think the risk is when we get good at things, when we start to believe more in me and less in God, this idea that I've got this, that it's then that we stumble, that it's then that we break relationship with God and one another. It's then when we make those mistakes. I thought about that a lot. It's easy for me to look back on my parenting and see that, those moments where things happen and my response, my reaction doesn't match at all what happens. And I've had to step back and ask myself, "What is this about? Is this really about what happened? Or as I peel it back, is it about me and how I might look or how I might be embarrassed about my kids' behavior or about how I might feel judged?" And sometimes I was able to do that really well. And there's a lot of other times I missed the boat. But it's been a practice I've tried to continue to have.

And I've, you know, in this last year, we've had a big year. We've talked about it, right? We had Matt leave, my co-pastor. We founded this church. Well, we left and planted this church eight years ago. We've had change. We've had losses and additions, and we've had a big move. There's been a lot going on. And I've realized as I was looking at this text, the moments that have been hard, that I feel like I've stumbled, are the moments that I've made it about me.

And I catch myself saying, "Well, I need to do that. I need to make sure the nursery is set up. I need to make sure that this is happening at the church." And I'm like, "Well, you know, my church, and every time I catch myself saying, "Me and mine and I,” I know that I'm off base. I am making this about me because we have a whole team of people that are making this church happen. And guess what? This isn't about me. This move and waking up in the middle of the night and feeling like, "Oh my gosh, what have I done?" It isn't about me. We are stepping into God's call. It's about God and what He's doing in the life of this community. And I know that I need that reminder over and over again.

And I've found in my own life, the moments that I do that best are the moments that I'm least confident about my skills, that I don't know what to do. It's those moments I think back on my years as a Minneapolis police chaplain, and for five years, three days a month, I'd get called, and if there was an accidental death, a suicide, a homicide, I'd walk up to someone's door all over the city, all times of the day or night, and I'd knock on the door, and I'd identify myself: “I'm a Debbie Manning, a police chaplain with the Minneapolis Police Department, and do you have a son? Do you have a mom? Hey, your husband. And I'm so sorry.”

And there wasn't one time that I walked up to the door that didn't pause outside the door. And pray, God, I have no idea what to do. I have no idea what I'm walking into. But here's what I do know, that you are God, and I am not, and that you do know. And I'm going to step in, and I'm going to listen, and I'm going to lead with where the Spirit is leading. And there was not one single time that I was with a family that I didn't experience God in a way that was transformational, that changed who I am to this day. Because it wasn't about my confidence in me. It was about my confidence in God.

And when that happens, when we can remember, it's life changing and it's freeing. It is so freeing to realize, oh, this isn't just about me and what I can do. It's about what God can do, and do often through all of you. And that's a beautiful thing. And if we could live out of a confidence held in the knowledge that no matter what you guys win or lose, succeed or fail, measure up or fall short, here's what we know. We are known and loved by God. Can you imagine if we could grow that kind of faith in our children, or that we could accept that kind of faith in ourselves? That it's not perfect, but a faith that owns our humanity, that brings us closer to the true and honest relationship with God.

This last Wednesday night we had Women at The Table. Marta started with a devotion that certainly speaks to this, and the theme of the devotion was, "I'm enough." But that evening there was someone in our community who shared her story, a story that had some hard in it, some grief and loss in it. And I was thinking about that and three different pastoral care meetings that I had last week with people that were struggling with grief and loss, people who were struggling with mental health issues and depression and anxiety.

And one of the things I realized was the thing they had in common in all those shared stories, it's not that they had this perfect faith and that through all of it they just depended on God and God showed up. No. What they had in common was the hard truth that there were moments that they didn't feel God's presence. Was the moments that they kind of walked away from God. But what they shared was an honesty, an honesty in sharing their story, an honesty in sharing the hard parts. And what it all came back to was that honesty is what brought them closer to God and to one another. And another beautiful benefit is when we share the hard in our lives, it reminds others that they're not alone. And that's what I love about sharing our stories.

You know when Jesus started this text, or when Mark started this text, Jesus starts with a reference to the Messianic prophecy from Zechariah 13 predicting the desertion of his And all of the followers, like sheep, will desert or fall away. What's interesting is that the Greek verb translated desert or fall away is skandalizo. That's where you could guess we get our modern word scandal. But here's what I thought was interesting. Forms of the same Greek word that were used throughout Mark and the other gospels translate skandalizo as caused to stumble. Or be caused to stumble.

And I think that makes what Jesus is saying just a little bit different. Because what lays ahead for the disciples looks less like intentional desertion and more like stumbling, losing their way, falling off the path that they'd been following. And who of us hasn't stumbled, hasn't made a mistake, hasn't lost our way, sometimes without even realizing it. But here's where I think the real hope in this passage is. We can read this passage and know again what the disciples didn't know at the time that they would fail and flee.

But there's so much more to this big story, friends. We can read further on into the gospels and we can see where the disciples' faith journey actually took them. Because after all that, all that failing and fleeing, and don't forget, Jesus shared a meal with these people knowing what would happen. They'll meet Jesus again, the one they fled from. They'll break bread again, the one that they denied. They'll embrace the one they love with all their broken, cracked humanity. And yet, God's going to continue to work through them. And he does that despite their stumbling, their imperfection and falling off the path and their flawed nature as human beings.

Because here's what happens, and you know this because we know this story. Hi, Sammy. They continue on the They built the church. They spread the word. They brought the good news. And all of that is good news for us because I think a big part of our faith is like this shame that we're not doing it well enough. That strips away the shame. What we can know from this text is we will make mistakes and God will continue to use us. God will continue to redeem God will continue to work toward the kingdom.

I'm going to end with referring to some words from a professor, author, theologian, commentator. Her name is Shannon Daley Harris, and she refers to the Last Supper by saying this. And I think this sums up what I'm trying to say beautifully:

Jesus extended the cup to all. Even the one who would betray him, even the one who would deny him, even to all who would fall away and flee, bread and the cup are offered to all that we may be sustained in our journey after all of our stumbling and fleeing back to the one who knows and loves all of us, back to God and whose image all of us have been made.

Lent is a time for honesty. I'm going to encourage you all to do that. Jesus said the truth will set us free. So let's be truthful with ourself, with God, with one another. Let's remind ourselves that we have stumbled. We will continue to stumble. We will continue to fall away. And yet, here we are, despite the moments of falling away. We have returned. And together, here we sit. Please pray with me:

Holy and gracious God, we are so grateful that you are a truth-teller and that you call us into honest relationship with self and one another and with you. And it's through that that we can live the full life, that we can continue in our messy, crooked road, stumbling ways. We can continue to follow you. We can continue to partner with you in your story and be part of the good news that And we pray all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.