Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 19, Year B)

Unknown Artist, The Last Judgment
Church of the Most Holy Mother of God of Kazan

Mark 8:38

In today’s Gospel, Our Lord concludes his teaching about taking up the cross and following him with what may seem a curious saying: Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Interesting choice of words: What does it mean to be “ashamed” of our Lord? And what will it mean for him to be “ashamed” of us when he comes in the glory of his Father?

We’re actually dealing with two related words with similar but distinct meanings. “To shame” someone means to dishonor, disgrace, humiliate, or embarrass that person. “To be ashamed” has a slightly different meaning: more subjective and personal. A quick online dictionary lookup yields this definition: “[to feel] embarrassed or guilty because of one’s actions, characteristics, or associations.”

One of the most potentially wounding things we can ever say to another person is, “You ought to be ashamed of yourself.” Conversely, one of the most reassuring things we can ever say person is, “You have nothing to be ashamed of.”

The assumption in New Testament times was that anybody found guilty of a crime and condemned to punishment had something to be ashamed of. So the punishment was a form of shame in itself, in the sense of public disgrace, humiliation, and dishonor.

But in today’s Gospel our Lord is saying that even though he will suffer the shame of death by crucifixion, he has nothing to be ashamed of. If his followers remain unashamed of him despite his shameful death, then at his coming again he will be unashamed of them of them even if they suffer the shame of persecution and martyrdom for his sake. Conversely, however, he will be ashamed of those who in this life are ashamed of him and of his words.

Notice that according to this definition we can be ashamed not only of our actions, in a moral sense, but also of our characteristics or associations, in a completely non-moral sense. In other words, being ashamed may involve embarrassment rather than guilt; and sometimes the things we’re ashamed about can be quite irrational. Some people are ashamed of their height, or their weight, or of not knowing how to drive, or to cook, or to speak any foreign languages. Some people are ashamed of their families, their social origins, or their regional or ethnic backgrounds – and go to great lengths to try to cover them up.

One of my relatives from Northern Ireland moved to England round about the beginning of the Troubles in the late 1960s. After some particularly horrible atrocity, one of her English colleagues said to her, “The way your people are behaving is disgraceful! Doesn’t it make you ashamed to be Irish?” (I don’t know what she said in response, but I know what I would have said!) That was a particularly egregious instance of an attempt to shame someone, to make someone feel ashamed of her ethnic and cultural identity.

I mention this because I think that as Christians we face a similar type of challenge today. We’ve come under enormous cultural pressure to be ashamed of Christianity, the Church, and certain individuals and groups among our fellow Christians. The worst part of it is that some of our fellow-Christians seem to be doing their best to make us ashamed to be associated with them.

For example, when Kim Davis in Kentucky refuses to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples on the basis of what she declares to be her Christian principles, some applaud her, but others cringe with embarrassment, ashamed to be known as Christians if this is how Christianity is representing itself to the wider society.

Speaking personally, what I find particularly disturbing is the spectacle of politicians describing people as Christian martyrs simply because they have to pay a fine or spend a night in jail. That type of political capitalizing debases the language of martyrdom precisely at a point in history when we need to be aware of and concerned about the real martyrs in places like Iraq, Syria, and Libya, being put to death for their faith by the hundreds.

So, how do we respond to this pressure to be ashamed of our Christian identity and heritage when our fellow Christians say and do things that we find scandalous, embarrassing, or outrageous? Let me offer three suggestions.

First, we need to be aware that we also may be guilty of speech and behavior that gives our religion a bad name. We need to examine our own words and deeds, asking God for the grace to avoid giving our fellow Christians cause to be ashamed of us. Elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus said something about attending to the log in our own eye before attending to the splinter in our neighbor’s eye.

Second, we need to understand that one of the reasons we feel ashamed of our fellow Christians is precisely that they are our fellow Christians. In other words, it’s a dispute within the family. The great temptation is to want to repudiate and disown them. Nonetheless, as strongly as we may disagree with them, however repugnant we may find their attitudes and statements, however much we may rightly want to dissociate ourselves from their positions, we still need to remember that our common baptism and our shared faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is a deeper bond than anything that divides us.

Third, we need to remember that even when our fellow Christians do give us cause to be ashamed, as indeed they will from time to time, nonetheless today’s Gospel warns us against ever being ashamed of Christ. Frankly, there is much to be ashamed of in the Church, in Christianity, among our fellow Christians, and indeed within ourselves. Apart from the grace of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are all too human, prone in our fallen nature to all kinds of errors and misdeeds.

But Saint Paul points us in the right direction when he writes: “I am not ashamed of the Gospel; it is the power of salvation to everyone who has faith …” Whatever else we may be ashamed of in this world, we need never be ashamed of our Lord or his words. Even though he underwent the shame of crucifixion, God his Father has vindicated him; and if we remain unashamed of him, even at the cost of shame and suffering in this life, he will declare himself unashamed of us in the next.