Paul's Advice for Successful Community

13 Pentecost, ap17, September 3, 2017

Exodus 3:1-15  Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

Lectionary Link

In the letter of Paul to the Roman church or churches, Paul sets forth a standard for community living which is enlightened and profound and difficult.    Remember Rome was a rather large city, perhaps a million people in the time of St. Paul and it covered quite a few square miles of area.  So most inhabitants of Rome probably did not even travel to all of the places in Rome in their lifetime.  We naively may think that there was just one church in Rome, but in fact there would have been many churches in Rome.  When traveling from church to church, even a days journey within Rome, there was a good chance that members from one house church would have been strangers to another church.  There would have been diversity in the churches in Rome depending upon the composition of the membership.  Some would have had a Jewish heritage and much of St. Paul's letter to the Romans deals with how Gentile Christianity was grafted into the heritage of Judaism. 

The standard which St. Paul wrote for the Christians in Rome represents enlightened psychological social, spiritual and emotional maturity.  It involved the expected outcomes of what happens when people learn to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.  I would like to go through the list and adds some comments.

1-Let love be genuine; disingenuous love is when we expect to get something from others through pretending behaviors.  Genuine love means we love with no ulterior motive.

2-Hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; Is there room for hatred in Christianity?  Yes, use hatred energy toward evil deeds, not toward people.  It is an important distinction because we can become so disillusioned with people we can become misanthropic.

3-Love one another with mutual affection.... The best experience of love is reciprocal love.  A community which practices mutual love means that there are enough strokes to go around for everyone.

4-Outdo one another in showing honor.   People who are mature in their emotional intelligence have no problem honoring other people.  Knowing an inward affirmation of one's own gifts and value means that we don't have to be in competition and so we honor the different gifts of others.

5-Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. A sports fan, one who is a fanatic, does not seem to lag in zeal for one's team.  They are ardent; they serve their team.  Just imagine the transformation  of our capacity for zeal and devotion directed in our service to Christ.  If we are not ashamed of sports' zeal, why should we be ashamed of a profound zeal in the service of Christ.

6-Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.   Christian optimism is called hope.  Hope is the continuous vision of a better future.  Hope represent what is not yet actual but what we desire for the benefit of ourselves and community.  Suffering is deprivation of what we hope for.  When we haven't attained what we hope for, we may have to suffer lack.  The response of faith is to persevere in prayer.  Suffering is what can bring us to despair or in faith it can intensify our prayers.  Prayer is the best way to orient ourselves toward what we hope for.

7-Contribute to the needs of the saints; Anyone with a cursory observation knows that needs of people are uneven across the geography of the church.  We know that the Houston area and the Gulf region has saints and sinners who need help.  We know that we could be in dire need someday and so part of the reason for abundance is to have the choice of generous sharing.  We invite all to share toward those in need.

8-Extend hospitality to strangers.  I suspect that the churches in Rome were in the context of significant urbanization.  Where did Christians in the hinterlands of Rome find a place of introduction into the big city of Rome?  They arrived as strangers at the churches and it was hospitality which would allow them to get a start in their new location.   St. Paul was a stranger to Rome and he was welcomed into the churches there.  The Eucharist is an event of hospitality and it should result in being a welcoming and hospitable community.

9-Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.   Blessing and cursing were a part of actual synagogue liturgies.  There was a practice of cursing or putting something like a "liturgical hex" on one's enemies and opponents.  The role of cursing is like the negative repulsion of hating.  One should hate and curse that which is evil but not the people, even if they are the ones doing the evil.  This same spirit is expressed in the beatitudes of the Gospel.

10-Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.  One of the highest attainment in human communication is what we call empathy.  Can I be happy when others are happy, or do I secretly pout in jealousy that it isn't happening to me?   Can I feel the sadness of others?  Do I regard my life to be the life of intercession?  Anything that happens to me can happen to others and so everything is an opportunity for prayers of empathy.

11-Live in harmony with one another;  Harmony means having different parts but doing things together with different but not competitive roles.  Melody and unison are fine but harmony is the appreciation of how different parts make better music.  We are better with differences in harmony, than being simply melody or unison.

12-Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; the church is to be classless society.  We all partake of the one bread.  There is no gourmet Eucharist for the people who can afford to pay more.   In our baptismal vows we promise to respect the dignity of all persons.  We should seek out people who are different from us as a way of avoiding haughty separatism.

13-Do not claim to be wiser than you are.  Wisdom is based upon realizing what one does not yet know instead of being overly proud of what one thinks one knows.  We simply know what we know when we know it and we don't need to compare that with what other know when they know what they know.  No one has a corner on wisdom and we should seek collaborative or group wisdom.

14-Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God;  situations of revenge perpetuate the seemingly endless cycle of violence.  We seem to be caught in so many cycles of violence in our world today.  Revenge is wasted energy and wasted life.  It is counter-productive to cooperation and creative advance.

15-So far as it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.   Peace creates the stasis and the equilibrium for people to accomplish the most together.  Christ told his disciples, "Peace be with you," and we repeat this in our liturgy to celebrate the reality of being reconciled to each other.

So there we have it; Paul's description of how the church can be expressive of the evidence of God's love, peace, reconciliation, redemption and Holy Spirit.

And how do we live this way?  The early church had the "catch phrase" of the oracle of Jesus Christ, "take up your cross and follow me."  In the identity with the death of Jesus on the cross, we find the power to check our egos at the door and live the truly peaceful life of knowing the presence of the Risen Christ in our midst.

Let us continually look for the power of the cross of Jesus to check our egos and make room for each other to live in the harmony of God's perfect orchestration of us.  Amen. 

Sunday School, September 3, 2017 A Proper 17

Sunday School, September 3, 2017     13 Pentecost, A Proper 17

Theme:

Take up your cross and follow me.

This was a saying in the early church.

Jesus died on the cross so that no one else had to.

The Cross of Jesus was made into a symbol for Christians.

We know that the Swoosh is the symbol for the Nike brand

The Cross is the symbol for the Christian brand.  We make the sign of the cross as a marking to indicate that we belong to Christ.

What does belonging to Christ mean?

It means that we live our lives as a sacrifice.

It means we have the power to say no to our selfish self in order to help and serve other people.

When we take up the cross of Jesus, we are asking for the power of God to control and tame our desire to live and do things just for ourselves. 

Think of examples of sacrifice:

Play video games or feed your pets.

Watch television or help mom with home chores.

Swing all the time or share the swing with a friend who also wants to swing.

Eat all your lunch or share some of it with someone who doesn’t have any lunch.

Sacrifice is the power to say no to yourself so that you can help other people.

This is what “taking up your cross and following Christ” means in our lives.

Sermon:

  In baseball, what does sacrifice mean?  What is a sacrifice fly?  What is a sacrifice bunt?  It is when you purposely make an out, so that another player can advance or score.

  Sacrifice is a word that comes from religion.  It means to offer something to God as an act of respect or worship of God.

  In the ancient time, people thought that God wanted them to sacrifice the life of an animal to help pay for their sins.

  Jesus came to show us the real meaning of sacrifice.

  He lived his life for others.  He gave up a comfortable life so that he could help the poor, the sick, the lonely people, the strangers, the children and the sad.

  So Jesus was a sacrifice for the life of others.  We know that he sacrificed his life for us when he died on the cross.

  And when Jesus said that we are to take up our cross and follow him, he means we are to learn how to live in a sacrificial way.  When we help others we are living in sacrificial way.  That is how we take up the cross of Christ.

  When you pick up your toys, you are helping your mom and dad, because then they don’t have to do it.

  When you help with house work, you are making a sacrifice.

  When you make peace with your brother or sister after you’ve had an argument, you are making a sacrifice.

  When you help others, you are taking up your cross and following Christ.

  Why?  Because God calls us to help each other, and we don’t need to have the attention all of the time, so when we share with others, we are sacrificing.

  A baseball player does not like to make an out.  But sometimes the manager asks a player to make a sacrifice to help the team win.

  Remember that many people make sacrifices for each of us every day:  Soldiers, police, doctors, teachers, moms, dads, grandmothers and grandfathers.  Many people have shared with us to make our lives better.  So too, we need to learn how to share.

  This is a lesson that we can learn from today’s Gospel.  Take up your cross and follow Christ.  And  we can do this by sharing our lives to make the lives of other people better.  Amen.

Family Eucharistic Liturgy

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

September 3, 2014: The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Lift High the Cross, He’s Got the Whole World,  Eat This Bread, Soon and Very Soon

 Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And Blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Lift High the Cross (Blue Hymnal # 473)

Refrain: Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim till all the world adore his sacred name.

1-Led on their way by this triumphant sign, the hosts of God in conquering ranks combine.  Refrain

2-Each newborn servant of the Crucified bears on the brow the seal of him who died.  Refrain

3-O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree, as thou hast promised, draw the world to thee.  Refrain

4-So shall our song of triumph ever be: praise to the Crucified for victory.  Refrain

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen

First Litany of Praise: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 105

Give thanks to the LORD and call upon his Name; * make known his deeds among the peoples.

Sing to him, sing praises to him, * and speak of all his marvelous works.

Glory in his holy Name; * let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you." But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Then Jesus told his disciples, "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 will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?  "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

 Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Liturgist:         The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:            And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song:  He’s Got the Whole World (Christian Children’s Songbook, # 90)

He’s got the whole world; in his hands he’s got the whole wide world in his hands.  He’s got the whole world in his hands; he’s got the whole world in his hands.

Little tiny babies.  3. Brothers and Sister  4. Mommies and Daddies

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of our birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

(All may gather around the altar)

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

 the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

 this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Alleluia.  Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Hymn: Eat This Bread, (Renew! # 228)

Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry. 

Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Soon and Very Soon, (Renew!  #149)

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king.  Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king.  Soon and very soon we are going to see the king.  Alleluia, alleluia, we’re going to see the king.

No more dying there, we are going to see the king.  No more dying there, we are going to see the king.  No more dying there we are going to see the king.  Alleluia, alleluia, we’re going to see the king.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist:    Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People:      Thanks be to God! 

  

The Tetragrammaton Is Not a New Video Game

12 Pentecost, Cycle A  Proper 17, August31, 2014

Exodus 3:1-15  Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

Lectionary Link

Priya: Are you familiar with the Tetragrammaton?

Chike: No, is that the latest video game?  Should I buy a copy today?

Priya: No, it is not a video game.  It is the unpronounceable name of God Almighty?

Arinze: But you just said God Almighty.  So you pronounced the name of God.

Priya: Well, yes I did but God Almighty are English words for God, but the ancient Hebrews did not pronounce a particular written form of the name of God.

Chike: Is that like the rock star Prince, who decided not to have a name any longer and so he became just a symbol?

Arinze: Well, people still had to talk about him; a symbol is only written and so people began to say "The artist formerly known as Prince."

Priya: Well, God's name came to be written in the Hebrew language.    And it is written with four Hebrew consonants.  Tetragrammaton means "four letters" which in English would be YHWH.  And if you added vowel sounds to the consonants, you might say, "Yahweh."  But of course, when we say Yahweh, we offend devout Jews because we are presuming to speak the holy and special name of God which cannot be pronounced.

Chike: But don't we still use the word Jehovah to refer to God in the English language?

Arinze: When they started to try to say Hebrew words and names in English they used to replace the Y sound with the hard J sound.  So, the old Jehovah is the new Yahweh.

Priya: So Yahweh is the pronounced name of the Holy God formerly pronounced as Jehovah.

Chike: How did it come that God's name should not be pronounced?

Arinze:  The story of the calling of Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt began with a fire which all firefighters would like?

Priya:  Why?

Arinze: Because it gave the special effects of a bush being on fire, but the bush did not burn and the fire did not spread.

Chike: Well, that some special effects!  Why do you think God appeared to Moses in such a spectacular way?

Priya: I think it was because God needed to get Moses attention.  Moses had run away from his people in Egypt.  He had gone to the land of Midian and got married and settled down.  He wanted to forget about his failure in his first attempt to lead his people.  But God would not let him forget about his responsibility to lead his people to freedom.

Arinze: Well, Moses was only human.  Sometimes it is very hard to deal with failure.

Chike: Sometimes when we fail, we just want to give up.  We just want to run away.  I think Moses gave up when he had a failure.  He doubted himself.  He did not believe that he had the ability to be the leader of the people of Israel.

Priya: I think that this story about Moses is important for us because we can get very disappointed when we experience failure.  Failure hurts even more when it involves the rejection by the people we are trying to help.

Arinze:  Yes, it was a real blow to the pride of Moses.  He wanted to help lead his people to freedom and in his first effort, he angered both the Egyptians and also his fellow Israelites.

Chike:  Moses was thinking, "What's a use?    I'll just run far away and start a new life somewhere else."  And that's what Moses did.

Priya:  This story tells us someone wonderful about God.

Arinze: What's that?

Priya: It tells us that God does not give up on anyone.  It tells us that we look at failure differently than God does.

Chike: How does God look at failure?

Priya: I think that God looks at failure as simply training and practice to live our lives better.

Arinze: Priya, do you think that you would believe God if you saw a burning bush and heard a voice from God speak to you.

Priya: Well, I don't always hear or listen when my brothers or parents are speaking to me, but I think if I saw these special effects, I would believe.

Chike: Even when Moses saw the burning bush and heard the voice, he asked God to tell him the Divine Name.

Arinze: And God said, "I am that I am or I shall be that I shall be."  The special Holy Name of God may be a form of the verb "to be." And so when God told Moses that the divine name was "I am that I am," it could be that Yahweh is a form of the verb "to be."

Priya: Since God is the greatest and best Being, it means that God always was, is now, and will always be in the future.  So the name of God could mean that God is more everlasting than anyone or anything else.

Chike: God is always going to be around.  Perhaps God was trying to tell Moses to keep trying because even our failure cannot make God go away or stop being God.

Priya: Well, I am glad that God doesn't have to speak through burning bushes and thundering voices.

Arinze: Why not?

Priya:  It seems a little scary and not very personal.

Chike: That is why Jesus Christ is important.

Arinze:  How so?

Chike: Jesus Christ is God in a human person.  Since God came to us in the form of a human person, we can know and feel treated by God in very personal ways.

Priya: Jesus was a teacher for his friends and students.  He needed to remind them about the true nature of the messiah.  He told that education and learning is like dying to an old state of ignorance so that one could learn new things.

Arinze: Taking up one's cross and following Jesus became an important phrase in the early church.  It did not mean that people wanted to be crucified like Jesus.  It meant that they were die to the things which are bad and be born to the things which are good.

Chike: Well I glad that we have learned some lessons today.

Priya: What have we learned?

Arinze: We learned that God does not give up on us when we think that we have failed.

Chike: Yes, failure is simply a teaching method to get better.

Priya:  And if God does not give up on us, we should not give up on ourselves and each other.

Arinze: We also learned that God does many things to get our attention, even dreams and visions and voices.

Chike:  But God has spoken to us best by sending Jesus Christ to this world.

Priya: And Jesus remains with us through the words of the Bible and through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Arinze: The words of Jesus remind us that we never graduate from the school of life where God is always trying to teach us new lessons.  We die to old ignorance to take on new knowledge.  This is the educational process of life.

Chike: Moses learned it.

Priya: The disciples of Jesus finally learned the lessons of God in their lives.

Arinze: Let us remember that God is always trying to get our attention so that we might learn to become better people.

Chike:  Amen to that.

Priya:  And can everyone say "Amen?"

Amen.

What about the Messiah?

Lectionary Link

11 Pentecost, Cycle A  Proper 17, August 28, 2011

Exodus 3:1-15  Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

  In today’s appointed Gospel, we find some rather harsh words from Jesus for the man who was to become the premier leader in the Christian Movement after Jesus left this earth.  Jesus said to Peter, “Get behind me Satan.”  Satan is the personification of the lie.  Lying is not just saying things that are not true, it is also choosing to remain in comfortable opinions of things that are only partially true.

  This Gospel highlights an issue amongst the early followers of Jesus and the Judaic community that excommunicated them from the synagogue around the year 80 of the Common Era.  This was an issue:  How is Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah?  And what is the significant definition of the Messiah?  When Jesus told his disciples that he was going to suffer and die, it was hard for Peter to accept this.  How could this be the Messiah?  How could this be God’s anointed one who would be like King David and come to re-establish independence and order for the people of Israel?  Peter was saying to Jesus: “Jesus you are wrong about yourself.  You don’t know how to understand yourself.  The Messiah can’t suffer and die and so you cannot suffer and die.”  It does seem rather comical if not absurd that Peter is trying to correct the Messiah about His misunderstanding of the Messiah.

  The early expositors of the Messiah had a dilemma.  Those who witnessed the suffering and death of Jesus had to look for other Hebrew writings to find other models of the Messiah.  They found such a model in the Prophet Isaiah who wrote about a Suffering Servant Messiah.   But what about a King David triumphant kind of Messiah?   The early expositors wrote that the Suffering Messiah would leave but someday soon return as the triumphant Messiah, and so the two notions of the Messiah were reconciled in a first coming and a seconding coming.  Many members of the  early church and St. Paul believed that they would see this second coming in their own time.  And lots of Christians are all oriented towards this second coming today, even to the point of being apocalyptic fatalists and dismissing the need for taking care of our planet.  After all if Jesus is coming tomorrow, why do we have to conserve and preserve?  We still do have varied opinions about the Messiah today.  Just recently, a preacher was predicting the rapture on May 21st, now delayed until October 21st.  Another TV preacher--who is a self proclaimed spokesperson for the divine meaning of natural disasters-- said the Earthquake that put a crack in the Washington Monument was a sign from God of the approaching coming of the Messiah.

  Get behind me Satan!  Let us not get trapped into a lie about very narrow and limited views of the Messiah.  The record of the Scriptures presents a variety of messianic meanings.  The notion of messiah comes from the Hebrew word that is associated with the ritual anointing with oil.  It meant that people understood the person or the object to represent God’s selected mode of presence or action in this world.  It was used to refer to early Levitical priests in Israel.  The sons of Aaron were God’s chosen and anointed priests.  The notion of anointing and designation referred also to the Temple and the holy objects as well as the unleavened bread.  (In the same sense the Eucharistic bread and wine are also messianic objects in how we regard them to bear the presence of Christ).  Messiahs were not necessarily always good; King Saul was the first “anointed” king of Israel but he and his lineage lost the “messiahship” to the Davidic line.  The investiture of Israel’s Kings involved the pouring of a horn of oil over the head of the new King thus designating God’s anointing and selection.  The Davidic line declined and lost the “messiahship.”  In fact, the Kings of Israel and Judah became so bad that the prophet Isaiah even called the conquering King Cyrus the Great of Persia, a messiah.  This conquering king was designated as one who was doing God’s will and work in carrying the people of Israel off into exile.  So can we admit that the notion of the messiah in the Bible is quite diverse in its application?

  Yes, indeed the hope of people in Israel was for restoration and for someone and some way to make it actual in their lives.  Hope is always looking for a narrative and heroes to bring justice in our world.  Justice is always looking for laws and law givers to make justice actual.  Hope springs eternal and so Hope will always inspire notions of the messiah, notions of how God will be present to us in significant ways.

  We still look for the messiah today in many, many ways.  The problem for Christian messianism is that some still are just like Peter; they want to cling to a very limited notion of the messiah.  Popular messianism today of fundamentalist Christian communities today has more to do with assuming precise correspondence  of catastrophic events with their own  interpretations of the Bible.  Most of these communities and their leaders essentially hope for a messiah who will come in the way they want and they mostly think that God will prove that they were right and to prove it their followers will be whisked away in a rescuing rapture.  I assert their right to have such narratives of hope and such visualizations to bear up with the pain that they think that they are in; but it is a very limited notion of the messiah and like Peter’s notion of the messiah, it is a selfish notion of the messiah that centers on their own exclusive beliefs and communities.

  We do not have to give up hope for our future; we do not have to give up dreams and visualizations of Peace and Justice achieving actual success upon earth.  We can maintain hope and the narratives of hope without falling into very limited notions of the Messiah.

  I would invite us to find the messiah as personal events for us today.  Where has God anointed our lives and our world with the divine presence?  How and where does God get through to us?  How and where does God move us and inspire us in the work to surpass ourselves for better and more excellent outcomes for our lives and the betterment of our families and communities?  The messiah and the messianic come to us in many ways, and even in suffering and apparent failure or in the experience of lack.  It is not that the actual events of suffering, failure or lack are messianic but it is our faith and hope in the future that helps us to redeem such negative experiences in subsequent events of our lives.  Resurrection gives death a new meaning; suffering, failure, and lack can be made to be messianic events with subsequent redemptive events.  Peter could not see anything messianic about the suffering and death of Jesus.  And we can forgive him for that; the notion of a suffering messiah is very counter-logic.  The risen Christ invites us to think outside of the box of logic so that we do not limit the notions of the messiah.

  We like Peter, should always hear the rebuke of Jesus: “Get behind me Satan!”  when we try to limit the work and the presence of the Messiah.  Let us believe that the Messiah touches our lives in many ways and let us be attentive to present ourselves so that we can be the hands, the hearts and feet of the Messiah to bring hope and good news to our world.  Amen.