Sermon: Unfurling Toward Your True Self
A reading from the Gospel according to Mark.
Jesus and his disciples headed out for the villages around Caesarea Philippi. As they walked, he asked, “Who do the people say I am?”
28 “Some say ‘John the Baptizer,’” they said. “Others say ‘Elijah.’ Still others say ‘one of the prophets.’”
29 He then asked, “And you—what are you saying about me? Who am I?”
Peter gave the answer: “You are the Christ, the Messiah.”
30-32 Jesus warned them to keep it quiet, not to breathe a word of it to anyone. He then began explaining things to them: “It is necessary that the Son of Man proceed to an ordeal of suffering, be tried and found guilty by the elders, high priests, and religion scholars, be killed, and after three days rise up alive.” He said this simply and clearly so they couldn’t miss it.
32-33 But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works.”
34-37 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. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
Question: What does a bolt of fabric, a fiddlehead fern and your spiritual journey all have in common? They can unfurl. They begin by looking one way and slowly, but surely, with a little help are allowed to open up to reveal their full shape and potential. To reveal a form that hides nothing and where every detail matters. You can picture this with the fabric…it rolled out on the floor or table perhaps revealing a subtle pattern you couldn’t fully observe before. You can picture this with the fiddlehead fern…once a tiny coil, now a broad fanned out verdant plant. Both the fabric and fern are beautiful, tightly wound, but there is a freedom and truth in their reveal. With spiritual unfurling, the process is that of a transformation, a path to restoration or resurrection, perhaps even salvation - a journey to a place or state where nothing is hidden, but everything belongs. The freedom of revealing your true self.
The translation of our passage today mentions both “true self” and “real you.” So let’s take a closer look - because if you ask me, I’d like to discover the freedom of my true self, my real you. But this is a challenging passage. Jesus is sending a lot of mixed messages here if you ask me.
For example, mixed message 1: Jesus starts off by asking the disciples who people are saying he is and then ultimately asks them what they think. He says, say it! Tell me! And then he says, shhh, don’t let anyone know.
Mixed message 2: After Jesus seems to confirm that the disciples are right, that he is the Christ, the Messiah, he reveals that well, yeah, but I gotta die and go away. I’ll come back, but you have no idea what I mean or what that will look like.
Mixed message 3: When Peter shows his wavering belief over the imminent suffering of Jesus, Jesus says, get lost! Get out of my way! But then he gathers a crowd of people and explains how they are to follow him and stick together.
Jesus is confusing. Scripture is confusing. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something.
Anyone who says scripture is clear, that Jesus is clear, well, it's my turn to say get out of my way! I would like my spiritual journey to unfurl, thank you and you are blocking my path, you are cramping my style.
So. How do we allow our spiritual journeys to unfurl? How do we walk down the path of transformation and restoration? How do we reveal our true selves? Run this race? Train for our truth?
To get there, I’d like to back up a bit. Hi. My name is Kristin LeFeber and I am the director of children's faith and spiritual formation here at Federated Church. I teach our kiddos. And I’m usually not in here, but out there with them. And what do we do with our time together? What do I teach? What do we learn? Well, determining that can be confusing too, just like understanding Jesus or scripture and I’ll tell you why.
First, I only get 45 minutes with our kiddos once a week…what is most important to impart? And second, week to week, I never know which kiddos are going to be there, how old they are going to be or even how many will come…how is it best to reach them? And no matter how meticulously we plan, my teachers and I have to improvise every class. But we love it. It’s a rewarding challenge.
So because of this challenge, I’ve had to determine some core tenets - the things I want our kiddos to learn even if they learn nothing else. And that I try to incorporate into every lesson. Things that kiddos of every age need to learn and relearn as their journey unfolds.
God loves you and will never leave you
The stories about Jesus teach you how to live.
The Holy Spirit dwells in you and guides you.
And then I also often remind them that as some understand God in these three parts, there are three parts to us: body, mind, and spirit and that we need to keep each part healthy in order to thrive. We go to school to exercise our brains, we go to the gym or join sports teams to exercise our bodies, and we go to church to exercise our spirits and allow our journeys to unfurl.
Can you learn at home? Sure!
Can you work out at home? Of course.
Can you practice your spirituality and religion anywhere? Absolutely!
But there are reasons why going to school with teachers and to the gym with trainers and to church with leaders is important. Not only are these special people versed in how best to exercise said part of your whole, holy self…there are other people in these places, too. People to bounce ideas off of, to stay accountable to and to lean on.
So yes, the church has specialists - like pastors and leaders and teachers and we would be even more lost without them. But the church has something else…someone else…you! Each one of you can play a role in allowing spiritual journeys to unfurl and not just your own. Don’t forget that. You’re not just here for yourself. And you are not alone. Yes, utilize the knowledge, experience and passion of the church specialists. Just like you would a teacher at school or a trainer at the gym. But don’t forget about the knowledge, experience and passion of your fellow seekers. And don’t forget that one reason you are here at church is to allow your spiritual journey to unfurl - to exercise your spirit - to move closer and closer to your true self, your full potential.
Let’s return to our passage now and what I think is the heart of it considering our focus today. The part where Jesus is actually clear (just kidding!)
34-37 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. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?
So what I think is going on here is Jesus is laying down the rules for his followers - to help this group of seekers, this church to thrive…to help them down the literal road as they travel together, but also to help them down their spiritual paths. To run their race. To train for their truth. He doesn’t have much time with them either and so he uses this opportunity to sum up what they need to practice as a group and individually.
Practice letting Jesus lead, following his example, trusting his directions.
Practice embracing suffering! Yay! And again, follow Jesus’ example on this.
Practice self-sacrifice over self-help which is again, how Jesus says he rolls.
We could talk for hours about the importance of each of these to exercising your spirit and allowing your spiritual journey to unfurl. But I was to focus on number three. Number three seems special because Jesus clarifies this one as the way, his way, to salvation, his way to revealing your true self.
So. Self-sacrifice over self-help. What do we do with that???
Yes, taking care of yourself is important - but definitely not to the detriment of your true self, or, of course, not to the detriment of others.
Let’s view self-help as curling up tight, only focused on feeding a false, some might say, ego self, blinded by always needing to be right or first or best. Sure, you are still beautiful and good in that state, like the fiddlehead fern or that bolt of fabric, but are you free? Are you really you when you are all closed up? Are you at full spiritual capacity? Jesus asks, “what good would it be to get everything you want and lose you, the real you?”
How tightly curled are you?
Conversely, let’s view self-sacrifice as slowly, but surely allowing yourself to open up to become everything you were created to be, shedding the things that are getting in the way and instead doing the hard, sometimes vulnerable work of revealing your true self through service and suffering, practice and prayer. Still just as beautiful and good, but on the active path to freedom. Jesus asks, “What could you ever trade your soul for?”
How openly unfurled are you?
And if you long to open, but are stalled or stuck, how can being here, the church, the practice field, the training ground help you get closer to who you truly are?
Take these challenging questions to heart and think through what might be a good next step toward allowing yourself and your spiritual journey to unfurl - that should be the reason you are here - to practice following Jesus, to grow stronger in spirit and become the real you.
Amen.
