Welcome to Resurrection Parish as we begin the second week of our message series, “Important Enough.”  Last week we talked about this idea of enough and how it is a question that haunts us. We wonder if we have enough, get enough, do enough, be enough.  Success in life requires investing in so many different areas that it seems we can never achieve enough:  family, finances, fitness, faith, friends, work and school.  To do enough in all these different areas might seem impossible and yet necessary for a successful life.
    While we may worry about enough, enough is not even the right goal.  All these different areas are important enough to invest our time and energy in them, but enough is not our goal in life. Think about it, you don’t approach marriage with just enough commitment to avoid divorce.  We do not put in just enough effort at work not to get fired.  If we focus our lives on enough
we might be missing out on the real purpose of our lives.
    It is this purpose that Jesus addresses in the Gospel of Mark. He writes:  “Jesus and his disciples set out for the village of Caeserea Phillipi.  Along the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’” (Mark 8:27).
    Jesus knew that people were wondering about him.  His miracles, his preaching were so fascinating that people could not help talking about him.  The Gospel tells us what were some of the most common things that people were saying about Jesus:  that he was John the Baptist, or Elijah, or one of the other prophets.
    Then Jesus asks the real question he has for them.  “But who do you say that I am?” (Mark 8:29a).  With Jesus it is an incredibly important question that requires an answer. Every person who encounters the Lord must answer that question in two ways.
    We need to answer it objectively.  Jesus stands out uniquely among all people in human history. He wasn’t crazy and he claimed to be the Son of God.  Do I believe that as an objective truth?
    We need to answer the question objectively then we need to answer it personally.  If Jesus really is the savior of the world, then he’s my Savior.  If he really is Lord of heaven and earth, then he’s my Lord.  Do I believe that as a personal truth?
    I would argue the most important question we’ll ever be asked is the one Jesus gives us right here.
    So Jesus asks his disciples the question.  And as is usually the case in the Gospels, Peter is the first one to speak.  Here, we would say he got it exactly right. He states simply and succinctly. He says, “’You are the Christ.” Then Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him” (Mark 8:30).
    Jesus orders them not to tell anyone. Why? Because their understanding of the Messiah is not well informed, in fact it is misinformed. They don’t know what it means that Jesus is the Messiah. They still associate it with a political or military meaning, that he is going to instigate a revolution and establish himself as king.  Jesus’ mission had nothing to do with that.
    “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  At this he turned and rebuked Peter saying, ‘Get behind me, Satan.  You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do’” (Mark 9:31)
    Peter doesn’t want to hear the reality of what it really means for Jesus to be the Christ.  And he doesn’t understand the reality of what it means to follow Christ.
    Jesus goes on to explain for Peter and for each of us.  He says “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35)
    When we find ourselves focused on the issue of having enough, doing enough or being enough, it is precisely this purpose we’ve lost sight of.  Our real goal is to follow. Follow him.
Let Jesus guide us and direct our steps and lead us. Like Peter we can have that right one-minute and forget it the next. And so we need to be reminded again and again. Our goal is to follow.
    To follow Jesus is not a passive spectator sport or consumer exercise (like a lot of people treat church).  To follow Jesus means to go where he goes, even when that means going to the cross.  That sounds difficult and challenging, but it is better than the alternative in which we worry about making life work out for us all alone and on our own.  It is better than the constant feeling of knowing that we don’t have enough.
    When we focus only on “enough” we make our lives all about us and follow only our own will and our own way.
    Following the Lord to the cross always leads to a place of more than enough.  For the wider Church the path forward is neither simple nor will it be easy.  Neither for our parish will it be easy, on the other hand, it will be entirely simple.
    It goes back to the basic question Jesus asks Peter “Who do you say that I am?”  How we approach this moment will actually be our answer to that question.
    For Peter, Jesus was his Lord and Savior, as long as things were going great.  When it came time to face the cross, he ran away.
    This moment is a cross for us.  Not one of our fashioning but one we are being asked to carry.  How?  By doing what we are already doing with increased dedication and maybe a little more humility.
    The future of the Church will not be shaped by Councils in Rome or Commissions of Cardinals.  Rebuilding the Church starts right here in Delran and Riverside, in Resurrection Parish.  We’re going to go right on doing what we do: love God, love others, make disciples.
    With Christ as our leader.  With Christ as our shepherd.  With Christ as our guide.  With Christ, and Christ alone as the head of our Church.