How Quickly We Fall - the Story of Peter

Matthew 16:21-28

The gospel text for today is a continuation of the text we read last week. When Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am,” Peter is the first to answer, declaring that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. For that, Jesus heaps praise on him. Yes, Peter, you got it! And on the strength of this truth, Jesus says, he will build his church.

It was a pivotal moment in the ministry of Jesus. It was a moment of profound transition in the gospel of Matthew.

So, as the story continues today, the gospel writer tells us that from that point on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and undergo great suffering, and be killed, and be raised on the third day.

      After 16 chapters working up to this moment, of Jesus teaching about the true nature of God, of Jesus calling disciples into ministry with him, and his teaching the disciples how to be disciples and even giving them a few practice runs, once the revelation of Jesus’ divinity is made, Jesus moves on to revealing the purpose for his coming; Passion; Death; Resurrection.

       But, hearing Jesus talk about his own destruction and death is more than Peter can comprehend or bear. “God is merciful to you, Lord! This will never ever happen to you!” In Peter’s mind, the God who loves, sent, and guides the Messiah could never allow such suffering to befall him – could never allow such an end to come to the Anointed One.

Jesus’ response to Peter is, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a big problem to me because you are not gripped by the concerns of God but by the concerns of human beings.” That, my friends, is the crux of the problem.

       I have compassion for Peter. Following so closely on a pinnacle moment for Peter, Jesus’ response indicates that in his eyes, Peter now embodies evil.  In the blink of an eye, the movement of the text goes from praise to condemnation.

Rather than being praised for possessing knowledge that is the rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ would be built, Peter is denounced as a stumbling block. A rock that doesn’t build up the work of the church becomes an impediment and worse – it causes other to trip, to fall.

How easy it is for us to lose sight of who we are supposed to be.

Peter’s problem is that his imagination is crippled by the way he wants things to be – by the way he’s always understood or imagined God works. He is crippled by the comfort he experiences as he imagines how God will save God’s people, and he is unable to imagine, he cannot fathom, the way that Jesus has revealed salvation will come.

Peter confessed a Jesus he thought of as the conquering hero, mighty warrior king the people of Israel had been expecting. It was leap enough for him to imagine this itinerant rabbi who had become his friend as the Anointed One sent by God to redeem Israel, but once he got past the fact that this man who seemed so ordinary was fact God’s Son, well, he reverted back to assumptions based on the way it had always been: the weak were routinely overcome by the more powerful; therefore of course the victorious Messiah would show himself to be the ultimate, most powerful avenging hero.

Are we any different in our expectation for God? Greed for power and wealth still drive the world in which we live. Therefore, power and acquisition are still viewed as vital requirements for and measure of success, even in the church.

David Lose writes – “Like Peter, what we most often want is a little more of what the world already offers – be it force or security or wealth or status or popularity or whatever. But Jesus didn’t come to comfort us with a little more, but instead to free us. And freedom first means realizing that we’ve settled for something that isn’t life giving.”

It's like this: Imagine you are making lists on a paper with 2 columns on it: 1 side for the way God blesses us, and the other side for the way God challenges us.

On the blessing side, we would likely list words like comforts, consoles, feeds, nourishes, saves, gives us life and love and riches and family, health, wealth, friendships, church, activities, forgiveness, light in the darkness, etc.

The other side, the one for the challenges might list things like, “sends us out to feed the hungry, tells us to forgive our enemy, love our neighbor, embrace the outcast, accept and accompany those who aren’t like us, insists we must bear the Cross of countercultural activity in Jesus’ name.

God demands that we name evil things for what they are – egoism, racism, poverty, discrimination, white supremacy, religious intolerance, ignoring the desperate, pursuit of wealth at the expense of the less fortunate, sexism, homophobia, perpetuating injustice through our choices. Ignoring the least, the last, the little, the lost and the lifeless. The list just goes on, and on, and on, doesn’t it?

We tend to pray easily for those things on the “blessings” list – we try mightily to ignore the things on the challenges list – the call to move counter culturally in the realm into which Jesus calls us.

Jesus’ way is countercultural and mysterious – he is fully divine yet fully human; he has power over the earth yet submits to death on the cross; and he neither yields to those with earthly power nor does he beat them into submission with mighty arms.

       Instead, Jesus declares, it is divinely ordained and even necessary that he go to Jerusalem where he will be condemned by those holy and righteous leaders of the religious tradition and the political elite. They will torture him and kill him. But Jesus also predicts, and to be honest I don’t think that Peter and the rest of the disciples even heard this part of what he says, as shocked as they are – that on the third day he will rise from the dead.

       They miss the point of what Jesus’ true victory will be – that through his death and resurrection he will defeat the powers of sin and death, and he will rise again. And you can’t blame them.  They have absolutely no experience on which to base what Jesus is telling them about how God will act in this story. They have no way to even begin to imagine it. They have no way to comprehend that in the midst of death God brings life and even when Jesus dies on a cross, God will use him to raise us to new life.

     So, today I invite you to join me as we challenge our imaginations – where are the places that God is at work in and through your life for the good of the world? Can you imagine what you, your congregation, or your community has to offer the world? Can you imagine, that when you befriend the lonely or encourage the frightened heaven rejoices? Can you imagine that, though afraid, when you stand up to those who spew hate God is with you? Can you imagine that even smallest acts of love and generosity can change the world order and introduce a different reality; That through your hands, God’s work truly is done? Can you imagine that love is more powerful than hate and that you hold that power inside your own beating heart? Can you imagine that God raised Jesus from the dead in an act of defiance, strength, power and life for the world?

      Many of us have been moved by the outpouring of love and support across racial and economic lines for the victims of Harvey this week – we’ve even joined in. We’ve been amazed at the heroic acts by strangers who risked their own lives to save the lives of those in peril.

I don’t believe, and I sincerely hope that none of you believe, that this hurricane was a sign of God’s wrath, judgement or punishment. While God’s ways are mysterious to us, so too are God’s enormous store of strength and compassion and drive for forgiveness and relationship. I believe that God is at work in acts of kindness and generosity large and small in the healing of those affected by the storm and floods and that God can use these blessings to change hearts and build bridges.

      When we drift and falter as Peter did, God is there to challenge us, bless us, and call us back. God forgives us and frees us to set our minds, wills, and action in the direction God intends for us as redeemed children of God. In Paul’s letter, we hear the call to let love be genuine, hate what is evil, and hold fast to what is good. Life places us in a complicated world. But with Jesus’ blessing, each day we have an opportunity as his disciples to live out the radical, unexpected love of God in Christian life and service. May the Holy Spirit empower us, that it may be so.

Amen.

           

           

           

A Gut Feeling

Matthew 9:35-10:4

During the sermon on Holy Trinity Sunday last week, we heard through text and sermon about how God’s activity through the Holy Trinity is God’s living out the divine promise of “I’ve got you covered.” The Trinity’s ongoing presence and work as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit functions to show us who God is and how God operates throughout the universe. We acknowledge that though the Trinity is a mystery, and we don’t fully understand exactly how it is possible, it is through in Trinity that God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has us uniquely covered – simultaneously creating, redeeming, and making us a holy people.

So, last week’s “I’ve got you covered” text and sermon addressed the how and what of God. This week’s gospel starts out by telling us the why of God. 

Today’s gospel text begins by telling us how Jesus went about the cities and villages – in other words, how he went to every type of people and every kind of community. Then, we come to verse 36 we read: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Here we have it – this is the why of God. God has compassion.

In and through Jesus, God responds to our suffering out of compassion. Jesus brings God’s comforting Word, teaches people who need to hear that Word about the true nature of God, and heals their sicknesses out of compassion. But the thing is, this word as we read it here, compassion, is truly a watered-down version of what the word written in Greek really means.

So, for instance, when you hear the word, “compassion,” what do you think of? What does it mean? <accept responses> To feel for? To take pity on? To want to help?

Good answers. It’s a good start. Yet if you look at the etymology of the English word, compassion, it goes a little further; ‘compassion’ comes from the Latin cum, meaning ‘with’ and passio, meaning ‘suffering’. So, when we have compassion, we are suffering with another person, or feeling their suffering.

To go a step further,  we have the Greek word actually written into this text; splanknizo, or, in this case, splanknizomai, since it is in verb form, means to “feel in the viscera.” In plain English the closest way I can put that is, ‘to feel in the gut’ – to feel to your very core – to have a gut-wrenching reaction to something - to feel it so deeply in your insides, that you literally feel something within you move.

God sees the helplessness of God’s creation and God acts out of compassion. God doesn’t simply feel badly for the people who are suffering, God acts because God feels our pain and is moved to the very core by the plight of humankind. God knows how harassed – how out of sorts, beleaguered, and overwhelmed we are - how much we suffer from depression, oppression, and suppression; that is what affects God, moves God so much that God sends Jesus Christ to us as the Word incarnate, to heal our pain and brokenness, and save us from our sin.

That is the truest meaning of the word translated here, and it reason for God’s action; it is the reason that Jesus reaches out and heals and cures the people he encounters on his journey through the cities and towns and villages; through the city streets and along the country lanes through which he passes. Jesus doesn’t simply feel badly for the people, pity them or judge them as pitiable, rather, Jesus sees their humanity, and he is moved to ease their pain.

But Jesus cannot do this work alone, because he knows that one day, he will leave this earthly plane and will need workers to carry on the work he has begun. He will need apostles who will likewise speak the Word, teach, and heal.

So, in a touch of irony, Jesus summons these early disciples, and instructs them to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest.

Now, when I was in seminary, a very wise professor told us, “when you pray, be sure that you do not pray for something, for which you are not willing to be the answer.”

In the very next verse of our text today, Jesus calls twelve of these disciples and gives them the authority – read this as marching orders – to do the same as he has done. So, on the one hand, Jesus says, ‘pray for workers to help with the harvest’ – on the other hand he says, ‘now, you are to be first among those workers.’

Jesus calls his disciples – those who learn from him, not only to pray for the solution but to be part of the solution. And Jesus asks the same of us today, as community together with and for each other, and as harvest workers for the world around us. Jesus calls us to be moved to the very core of our being for the suffering ones – the harassed and helpless ones, the grieving and hurting ones, the hungry and homeless ones - and to respond; to reach out with compassion and heal those we encounter along our journey.

As the disciples go, they will proclaim the good news of the kingdom of heaven, and they will do this not for pay, nor for their own glory or benefit, but only for the sake the other, and the fullness of God’s kingdom.

I recently had a conversation with a woman who told me this story: she, along with her husband, had just joined a new church, but were not yet well known there, when an unbelievable tragedy befell their family. They were devastated, grieving, and suffering great pain and loss.

The incredible tragedy they had suffered was announced to the congregation in several forms of communication that went out, and members felt deeply sorry for anyone who would suffer such a loss, and they dutifully prayed for her family.

But what the woman told me was that not one person from that church called, sent a card, or reached out to her and her husband.

She and her husband had joined that church seeking to be part of a faith community. But perhaps because they weren’t all that well known yet, it seemed like the compassion of the members of the church was only skin-deep.

While prayer is very important, that family needed to know by the actions of their faith community that they were moved to the very core of their being by the pain and loss the family had suffered. Instead, the silence they experienced was deafening and only served to increase their pain; they felt betrayed and isolated by the community they thought would stand by them in their hour of need.

The result? The woman told me that though her faith in God was not shaken, her faith in the community of the church was shattered. They now felt it futile to belong to a church. What was the point? The community had failed them. The lesson for us all: our compassion needs to be more than skin-deep and it needs to be evident in our words and actions.

Whether the need comes from someone within the community itself or comes from one of our neighbors, Jesus calls us to know gut-wrenching compassion for those God places on our path and along our journey.

As a church, we’ve been doing a lot of talking about numbers. We talk about the numbers of people who come to worship. We talk about the numbers of people in the community around Easton whom we would like to bring into the body of Christ at Grace.

Jesus calls us to look past the numbers and see the people who are hurting, harassed and helpless. Jesus calls us to reach out to those in need of hearing the good news of God’s “I’ve got you covered” in a believable way – through our words and our actions. The best way to tell others about God is to show others about God, by modeling the love and compassion of God not only by what we say, but also by what we do.

The compassion of Jesus described in this text is a model for all of Christ’s disciples. Our text names those disciples whom Jesus sent out, even names some who failed him in some ways. Yet even in their failure, they have served the larger purposes of God.

In our baptism, we were each named as well. We were named children of God and workers in the new community to which we were joined, along with all the other laborers needed to serve the harvest of God.

The work is not easy. It is taxing. It is emotionally exhausting, it will not always be successful by our measures of success. But faithful service to God serves the larger purposes of God’s kingdom, to heal the hurts and feed the souls of those who most need to experience the love of God through the care and fellowship of the followers of Jesus.  It matters not whether we are able to discern “success” or not. We may never know the difference we have made in a person’s life – the reward is not ours to enjoy. But showing compassion through action in the name of Jesus Christ is our purpose in life and in this community for the ministry we share in God’s kingdom here on earth.  

Jesus sends us out in mission: to be the heart and guts of Christ for people. Jesus urges us to pray not only for our work but that more workers may join us, for the sake of the mission of God. Jesus models loving, compassionate caring that is more than skin-deep, but is demonstrated as well in faith through action.

Through the Holy Spirit, God grants us gifts of ministry for healing, and blesses us with the apostolic mission of the church. God grants us fellowship with all the workers who are sitting in the pews beside you here today, plus other workers who are sitting in pews in other churches hearing the good news of the compassion of Jesus and our commission to follow in his ways. This fellowship includes those who have yet to join us.

So today we go from “I’ve got you covered” to “Feeling it in the gut: the mission and ministry of Christ”. How does that work as a title for this message? It may not be very catchy, but it’s pointed. Christ’s love and presence are real, and he calls for ours to be, as well. May God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, grant that it may be so.

Amen.