Sermon for Feb 25, 2024: Saying No to Shame based upon Mark 8:31-38

​Mark 8:31–38 Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

Then he began to teach them that 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. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But 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.’

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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’

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​     Shame is powerful. In 1990, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was not yet law, hundreds of disability rights activists went to Washington DC to work for the bill’s passing. They used all the levers of democracy at their disposal, including direct action protest. On March 12th of that year, dozens of protesters gathered at the bottom of the steps that lead up to the West Entrance of the Capitol building. They then began a slow ascent up the steps, leaving behind all their mobility aids. Some ascended on their own, some with the help of family and friends. The protest would come to be known as the Capitol Crawl.
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    I found this quote from Michael Winter, former Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Independent Living in an article about the Capitol Crawl. He said, “Some people may have thought it was undignified for people in wheelchairs to crawl in that manner, but I felt that it was necessary to show the country what kinds of things people with disabilities have to face on a day-to-day basis. We had to be willing to fight for what we believed in.” What these wise organizers were counting on was the power of shame.

     They were counting on the lawmakers feeling ashamed of having driven their constituents, some of whom were children, to such a vulnerable and painful act just to get their attention. The organizers also knew that plenty of other citizens would see the protest and be appalled that the protestors had been driven to such direct action by the inaction of legislators. Those citizens would call on the lawmakers to draft legislation to make actions like the Capitol Crawl unnecessary. Ultimately, the legislators did act. The Americans With Disabilities act was signed into law on June 26th, 1990.

     Shame is powerful in Christian circles.  It is both a tactic we use to compel people to behave in a certain way and an emotion that arises within us as a result of theologies and ethics we are taught in Christian circles. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard of teenage girls being pulled aside and scolded for wearing shorts or tank tops. They are shamed for wearing certain types of clothes and tempting the boys and grown men around them to sin. In these cases, men and boys are rarely held accountable for managing their desires. Many women continue to carry that shame in their hearts, even if they leave the Christian communities that harm them this way, making it difficult to feel comfortable in their own bodies and making it challenging to form healthy relationships with other people, especially men. It can take a lot of years to disentangle religious shame from our hearts.

     Shame is powerful and that’s why Jesus addresses it in today’s reading. He has been teaching for a while at this point. This chapter also includes one of the most wide-reaching miracles, a feeding of four-thousand people, as well as an individual healing story where Jesus has to take two tries to heal a blind man’s vision. After all of this he asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They offer a couple responses that they’ve heard people say: John the Baptist, Elijah, or maybe one of the other prophets. Richard Horsley, in his notes on this text, says that all of those responses make sense given what and how Jesus had been teaching. Then, in the verses just before today’s reading, Jesus asks, “who do you say that I am?” and Peter replies, “You are the Messiah.” Then, Jesus does that thing he does in Mark where he tells his disciples not to tell anyone about him. Jesus also tells them than in the coming days, it will be necessary that he suffer. He says he is going to be rejected. And, that he will be killed, though, after three days, he will rise. Peter is appalled when he hears this.

     Remember: Shame is powerful. In her commentary on the text, Marilyn Salmon reminds us that the rejection and suffering that Jesus will experience would have been viewed as deeply shameful in the era in which he lived. There is a certain amount of shame that comes with following a leader that respected members of the community rejected. That is an embarrassment akin to routing for the losing team. The suffering that Jesus was speaking about was more than that. For those of us raised with an understanding of the empty cross as a symbol of Jesus’ loving power, it is easy to forget that crucifixion was intended to be a humiliating death. Salmon reminds us that the public, messy, and agonizingly slow nature of death by crucifixion was intended to shame the victim and shame all the people who cared about them.

     Jesus doesn’t mention crucifixion in this scripture, but it was written after his death and would have been on the author’s mind. Also, I think there is a subtext in this scripture that the “would be killed” means “would be killed by powerful people, like John was.” The Messiah was supposed to save the nation, not be murdered. But Jesus knew that following his mission put him in conflict with powerful people. And, powerful people will use their power to harm their enemies. He knew what the risks were and wanted to make sure his disciples did, too.

     I kind of wonder if Paul was trying to avoid feeling the shame associated with following a leader who has been rejected, and that’s why he rebuked Jesus. “Jesus, come on. You’re bumming the disciples out. Don’t talk like that. You are the Messiah! People will believe you! Surely, everyone will see that, right?” Jesus rebuked Peter right back. He didn’t need disciples who are surprised into inaction by the poor reception his message invoked in powerful people. He needed disciples who would be willing to be seen as undignified, embarrassing, and disreputable in service to the Gospel. He needed disciples who understood that being shamed by powerful people will be hard. They must be able to build up enough spiritual fortitude to resist the shame that unjust leaders and community members heap on them. He wanted to warn them that the shame was coming so they could develop a commitment to love that is stronger than shame.

     Have you ever heard the saying, “Tell the truth and shame the devil?” This week, I saw a video of someone telling the truth and shaming the devil. Sean Cummings, a city council member of The Village, which is a suburb of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, took the state’s Board of Education to task. The board, dominated by hateful transphobes and homophobes who are also Christian Nationalists, has been tormenting LGBTQ kids and families for years now. This week, a 16-year-old student named Nex Benedict, whose family is Choctaw and who was non-binary and used they/them pronouns, was severely beaten by three other students at school. Nex died the next day.

     While many details around Nex’s death are not yet clear, it is quite clear that the culture of hatred fomented by adults in political leadership contributed to their death. Sean Cummings showed up at the school board meeting and made sure the board knew that truth. Cummings said, “Three older girls don’t just jump a 16-year-old in a bathroom for no apparent reason, especially when they’re from the alphabet community, who you personally have attacked ever since you ran for office.” He even went so far as to say that the public school superintendent and a nationally known transphobic social media influencer whom he has allowed to be an advisor to the school board, despite her not living in Oklahoma, “have blood on their hands.”

     Councilor Cummings, who has worked hard to protect his LGBTQ constituents, has been targeted by that influencer in the past, garnering scores of death threats when she has directed her followers to attack him. He even told the board that he anticipated more death threats to follow the meeting where he told them off. Even knowing that these powerful transphobes will incite their followers to threaten him again, he still went to the meeting in hopes of holding the powerful accountable. He told a local reporter that “he often felt like a lone voice standing up for LGBTQ rights in such a ‘red state.’” And, yet, he has the spiritual fortitude to speak up. He said, “I’m a dad, I have a dog at home. I don’t have anyone at home. If anybody wants to come after me, they can come after me.”

​      I don’t know anything about Council Cummings’ religious beliefs. I will say that he seems to be a clear example of someone who has a commitment to love that is strong enough to risk the ire of the powerful. He has a commitment to love that has overcome the shame that some Christians will heap on him for standing alongside his trans neighbors. It is clear to me who is acting like Jesus wants his disciples to act. May we be this unashamed to follow Christ into love, especially when following him is a risk.
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Resources consulted while writing this sermon:
Marilyn Salmon: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-in-lent-2/commentary-on-mark-831-38
Capitol Crawl: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/capitol-crawl-for-ADA/
Richard A. Horsley’s notes on Mark in The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001)
An article about Sean Cummings: https://news.yahoo.com/lawmaker-accuses-education-board-libs-214726178.html