Year A
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8\u00a0
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter was on the right track\u2026 last week Peter was a rock star\u2026 at Caesarea Philippi he proclaimed Jesus the Messiah\u2026 the Son of the living God\u2026 he answered Jesus\u2019 question well\u2026 so well in fact\u2026 that Jesus pronounced him the rock on which the church would be built\u2026 and not even the Gates of Hades would be able to prevail against it\u2026 he answered Jesus so well\u2026 that Jesus was going to give him the keys of the kingdom\u2026 and that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven\u2026 and whatever he loosened on earth would be loosened in heaven\u2026 but first\u2026 let me try to explain what this binding and loosing means \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We start by remembering that\u2026 as disciples of Jesus\u2026 we live in a spiritual realm\u2026 and constantly face spiritual battles\u2026 as Ephesians 6:12 says\u2026 for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh\u2026 but against the cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil<\/em>\u2026 and in that struggle we continue to be sanctified\u2026 but when we bind on earth\u2026 the scarcity we believe about our experience\u2026 God in effect says\u2026 OK\u2026 if that\u2019s what you want<\/em>\u2026 and we limit the possibilities that God has made available to us\u2026 Heaven on Earth falls far short of its potential\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But when we loose ourselves from those limited notions and beliefs\u2026 when we let go of that myopic vision\u2026 when we let go of fear\u2026 we tap into God\u2019s abundance\u2026 and the divine imagination works through us\u2026 and we can hold on to the truth embodied in the Shema\u2026 that there is One Presence\u2026 always seeking ways to find expression in and through us for our highest\u2026 greatest good\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But today\u2026 Peter is Satan\u2026 a stumbling block\u2026 in fact\u2026 the word Satan means\u2026 the adversary\u2026 because Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem\u2026 and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes\u2026 and be killed\u2026 and on the third day be raised\u2026 and Peter accuses Jesus\u2026 rebukes Jesus\u2026 God forbid it\u2026 Lord!<\/em>\u2026 he cannot wrap his head around the idea that Jesus must suffer and die\u2026 it goes so totally against the ways of the world\u2026 Peter wants Jesus to have the grandeur of what he sees around him\u2026 the power and prestige of Rome and its leaders\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Jesus is on another track\u2026 he is grounded in another realm\u2026 the spiritual one\u2026 and he says\u2026 those who want to save their life will lose it\u2026 and those who lose their life for my sake will find it<\/em>\u2026 The Rev. Susan Butterworth explains that the IT that Jesus mentions\u2026 refers to eternal life\u2026 not just the death of the body\u2026 and so Jesus exhorts Peter to focus on divine things\u2026 which are given expression in the promise of Romans 6:5\u2026 for if we have been united with him in a death like his\u2026 we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peter rebuked Jesus\u2026 and I\u2019m reminded about one of the times I rebuked Jesus\u2026 after I finished my second year of seminary\u2026 during that summer\u2026 Joel was laid off after sixteen years at the Ohio Historical Society\u2026 his was the only income we had for almost two years\u2026 and money was tight\u2026 and so now I was facing the death of my seminary education\u2026 after all the challenges I faced\u2026 after a lifetime of discerning this call\u2026 I was going to have to drop out\u2026 and I thought\u2026 I believed\u2026 I feared\u2026 that once I did I would never be able to pick up where I left off\u2026 and I told Jesus that this could not be so\u2026 and my lament was like Jeremiah\u2019s\u2026 truly God\u2026 to me you are like a deceitful brook\u2026 like waters that fail<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n You see\u2026 having an experience of God that is not redeeming\u2026 is also part of the spiritual life\u2026 because it shakes us out of ourselves\u2026 and may open us up to new insights\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 Satan language may seem startling\u2026 but it can also help shake us out of our rootedness in Empire\u2019s systems\u2026 it can bring us face to face with our desire to dismantle the systems which we believe are against God\u2019s will\u2026 but you know\u2026 which have worked out really well for us\u2026 so maybe we won\u2019t dismantle them\u2026 just yet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And after I rebuked Jesus about Joel losing his job\u2026 Jesus rebuked me\u2026 and said\u2026 get behind me\u2026 I can see farther than you can\u2026 and I will lead you into possibilities you can\u2019t imagine\u2026 I will open doors you can’t see\u2026 and I will connect dots you can\u2019t perceive\u2026 and I will breath new life into a circumstance you can only understand as death\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n So after sharing my situation with a few others at my two partner seminaries\u2026 Bexley Hall and Trinity Lutheran\u2026 different pieces came and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle\u2026 and presented a different picture than what I envisioned\u2026 but which revealed the outcome for which I prayed\u2026 and I was able to finish without interruption\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\u2019 Satan language may seem startling\u2026 but it can bring us face to face with our faltering desire to dismantle the systems which we believe are against God\u2019s will\u2026 do you think you know whose shadow that is on the bulletin cover\u2026 we might make many guesses\u2026 but it\u2019s actually anyone of us\u2026 who resists God\u2019s will for us\u2026 God\u2019s best for us\u2026 any person who sees the better way but chooses to avoid it\u2026 because\u2026 well\u2026 things are working out well for them when it comes to the ways of the world\u2026 to the ways of Empire\u2026 and why rock the boat\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man on the bulletin cover is rebuking Jesus\u2026 he is acting as an adversary against what God knows is needed\u2026 what God knows is just\u2026 and so we must ask\u2026 whether physically dismantling 671 high-speed mail sorting machines across the country\u2026 including one in Grand Rapids\u2026 has some kind of parallel to spiritually dismantling voting rights which the law says ought to be available to all those who are eligible\u2026 especially when the President Trump acknowledged on August 13\u2026 that he wanted to make it harder to process an expected surge of mail-in ballots due to the pandemic\u2026 and we must ask how its possible to point fingers at the symptoms of systemic racism without pointing fingers to its causes\u2026 and we must ask how Jacob Blake could be shot seven times in the back\u2026 while Patricia and Mark McCloskey were praised by some for brandishing guns at protestors\u2026 contributing to an atmosphere of fear and individualism\u2026 and possibly emboldening seventeen year-old Kyle Rittenhouse to murder Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber\u2026 and wound Gaige Grosskreutz\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bp. Satterlee said that sometimes Jesus rebukes us by making us vulnerable\u2026 that Jesus rebukes us\u2026 but never abandons us\u2026 and so we can take up our cross\u2026 and proclaim the burden of our own experience\u2026 its lament\u2026 the ways we may sometimes experience God like a deceitful brook\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Year A Jeremiah 15:15-21 Psalm 26:1-8\u00a0 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28 May the words of my mouth\u2026 O God\u2026 speak your Truth\u2026 Peter was on the right track\u2026 last week Peter was a rock star\u2026 at Caesarea Philippi he proclaimed Jesus the Messiah\u2026 the Son of the living God\u2026 he answered Jesus\u2019 question well\u2026 so well in fact\u2026 that Jesus pronounced him the rock on which the church would be built\u2026 and not even the Gates of Hades would be able to prevail against it\u2026 he answered Jesus so well\u2026 that Jesus was going to give him the keys of the kingdom\u2026 and that whatever he bound on earth would be bound in heaven\u2026 and whatever he loosened on earth would be loosened in heaven\u2026 but first\u2026 let me try to explain what this binding and loosing means \u2026 We start by remembering that\u2026 as disciples of Jesus\u2026 we live in a spiritual realm\u2026 and constantly face spiritual battles\u2026 as Ephesians 6:12 says\u2026 for our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh\u2026 but against the cosmic powers and spiritual forces of evil\u2026 and in that struggle we continue to be sanctified\u2026 but when we bind on earth\u2026 the scarcity we believe about our experience\u2026 God in effect says\u2026 OK\u2026 if that\u2019s what you want\u2026 and we limit the possibilities that God has made available to us\u2026 Heaven on Earth falls far short of its potential\u2026 But when we loose ourselves from those limited notions and beliefs\u2026 when we let go of that myopic vision\u2026 when we let go of fear\u2026 we tap into God\u2019s abundance\u2026 and the divine imagination works through us\u2026 and we can hold on to the truth embodied in the Shema\u2026 that there is One Presence\u2026 always seeking ways to find expression in and through us for our highest\u2026 greatest good\u2026 But today\u2026 Peter is Satan\u2026 a stumbling block\u2026 in fact\u2026 the word Satan means\u2026 the adversary\u2026 because Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem\u2026 and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes\u2026 and be killed\u2026 and on the third day be raised\u2026 and Peter accuses Jesus\u2026 rebukes Jesus\u2026 God forbid it\u2026 Lord!\u2026 he cannot wrap his head around the idea that Jesus must suffer and die\u2026 it goes so totally against the ways of the world\u2026 Peter wants Jesus to have the grandeur of what he sees around him\u2026 the power and prestige of Rome and its leaders\u2026 But Jesus is on another track\u2026 he is grounded in another realm\u2026 the spiritual one\u2026 and he says\u2026 those who want to save their life will lose it\u2026 and those who lose their life for my sake will find it\u2026 The Rev. Susan Butterworth explains that the IT that Jesus mentions\u2026 refers to eternal life\u2026 not just the death of the body\u2026 and so Jesus exhorts Peter to focus on divine things\u2026 which are given expression in the promise of Romans 6:5\u2026 for if we have been united with him in a death like his\u2026 we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his\u2026 Peter rebuked Jesus\u2026 and I\u2019m reminded about one of the times I rebuked Jesus\u2026 after I finished my second year of seminary\u2026 during that summer\u2026 Joel was laid off after sixteen years at the Ohio Historical Society\u2026 his was the only income we had for almost two years\u2026 and money was tight\u2026 and so now I was facing the death of my seminary education\u2026 after all the challenges I faced\u2026 after a lifetime of discerning this call\u2026 I was going to have to drop out\u2026 and I thought\u2026 I believed\u2026 I feared\u2026 that once I did I would never be able to pick up where I left off\u2026 and I told Jesus that this could not be so\u2026 and my lament was like Jeremiah\u2019s\u2026 truly God\u2026 to me you are like a deceitful brook\u2026 like waters that fail\u2026 You see\u2026 having an experience of God that is not redeeming\u2026 is also part of the spiritual life\u2026 because it shakes us out of ourselves\u2026 and may open us up to new insights\u2026 and Jesus\u2019 Satan language may seem startling\u2026 but it can also help shake us out of our rootedness in Empire\u2019s systems\u2026 it can bring us face to face with our desire to dismantle the systems which we believe are against God\u2019s will\u2026 but you know\u2026 which have worked out really well for us\u2026 so maybe we won\u2019t dismantle them\u2026 just yet\u2026 And after I rebuked Jesus about Joel losing his job\u2026 Jesus rebuked me\u2026 and said\u2026 get behind me\u2026 I can see farther than you can\u2026 and I will lead you into possibilities you can\u2019t imagine\u2026 I will open doors you can’t see\u2026 and I will connect dots you can\u2019t perceive\u2026 and I will breath new life into a circumstance you can only understand as death\u2026 So after sharing my situation with a few others at my two partner seminaries\u2026 Bexley Hall and Trinity Lutheran\u2026 different pieces came and fit together like a jigsaw puzzle\u2026 and presented a different picture than what I envisioned\u2026 but which revealed the outcome for which I prayed\u2026 and I was able to finish without interruption\u2026 Jesus\u2019 Satan language may seem startling\u2026 but it can bring us face to face with our faltering desire to dismantle the systems which we believe are against God\u2019s will\u2026 do you think you know whose shadow that is on the bulletin cover\u2026 we might make many guesses\u2026 but it\u2019s actually anyone of us\u2026 who resists God\u2019s will for us\u2026 God\u2019s best for us\u2026 any person who sees the better way but chooses to avoid it\u2026 because\u2026 well\u2026 things are working out well for them when it comes to the ways of the world\u2026 to the ways of Empire\u2026 and why rock the boat\u2026 The man on the bulletin cover is rebuking Jesus\u2026 he is acting as an adversary against what God knows is needed\u2026 what God 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And when we follow Jesus\u2026 when we do our best to stand up for Gospel truth\u2026 people will rebuke us\u2026 and sometimes their rebuke will be about them not wanting to change\u2026 so they can get back to their idea of “normal” as quickly as possible\u2026 because it\u2019s been working out so well for them\u2026 but maybe part of the truth\u2026 is that we are all like Peter\u2026 both rocks\u2026 and stumbling blocks\u2026 both saint and sinner\u2026 and that may just be the nature of being a disciple\u2026 who seeks to loosen ourselves from the values of the world\u2026 and bind ourselves to the spiritual and eternal life that Christ offers\u2026 as gift\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"