Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost – Pastor Ellen Mills
I am offering you two ways to receive this. In print, you will need to read the scriptures for yourself, and then the prayer and reflection that follow in this post. If you click on the audio link below (below), you can hear all of it, including the scripture.
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Let us pray,
O God, we thank you for your Son, who chose the path of suffering for the sake of the world. Humble us by his example, point us to the path of obedience, and give us strength to follow your commands, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Jeremiah 15:15-21
Psalm 26:1-8
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28
Last Sunday, Will got to talk about Peter’s moment of glory as he declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God. What could go wrong? This morning, in the verses just after last week’s passage, Jesus “began to show his disciples” what that meant. Interesting choice of words. Jesus started something that would be ongoing, and Jesus did not just tell them – he showed them – what would happen to him as the Messiah. And it horrified Peter. Following Jesus should be about glory and honor, privilege and high position. Shouldn’t it? Jesus disagrees. Jesus describes instead his upcoming great suffering, death, and resurrection. This was not how Peter saw it, and possibly not the others either. Peter is the one who speaks up, but he may not have been the only one with such expectations. When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, it covered just these issues. What sort of Messiah would Jesus be? And therefore, what would any disciples of this Messiah be called to as well? Would it be earthly glory and honor? Would it be privilege and protection from any harm? Would others get to see how important they were?
Suffering. What is that all about? The Greek word for suffer, pasco, means to undergo or endure something for someone else’s sake. For me, this unlocks the meaning of this passage. It isn’t about pain itself. It is about our willingness to allow or do something that is difficult for the benefit of someone else. I think that when Jesus starts to talk with them about suffering, we immediately jump to the horrific pain he experienced in being whipped and then crucified. But when Jesus tells his disciples what will be expected of them, he says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Will we all be crucified on a literal cross as Jesus was? Some of his disciples were then, but that is probably not ahead of us. But we must not allow ourselves to take a big sigh of relief and think that nothing is then demanded of us. We are still told to take up our cross. What cross? The cross of denying our will and ego for the sake of others. Jesus did not just physically suffer. He also allowed God’s will to be done, and not his. He allowed himself to be mocked, rejected, despised, and taken away. He put aside any claims to earthly glory and honor. He put aside any claims to basic human comfort and care. Why? To show us not only how much, but how God loves us. To show us a suffering love that will always be with us, and never let go. To show that there was nothing God would not do for us. To show that love of others involves giving up our desire to revenge ourselves for anything done to us as well as our desire to please ourselves first. When we become willing to do God’s will, we seek to understand what God’s will for a situation or for our lives might be. What does loving God and our neighbor look like here and now? For Jesus, it was about being a different kind of Messiah than what they wanted, because he came to be the Messiah they needed. It meant accepting what looked like the failure of his life and mission in order to let God’s love and new life break forth. It meant going to the heart of the matter, not just making things look good on the surface.
And what I think makes it so very hard, is that Jesus showed them, rather than just taught them with words. And we are expected to do the same. Is our life shaped by the cruciform shaped love of Jesus? Do we live out of God’s love inside of us, and are we willing to do what it takes to belong to God all the way to our core? Are we even willing to be fully loved by God if that exposes who we are with all of our failures and brokenness? Are we willing to see ourselves as God sees us, both in total truth and with God’s love?
And how big is our “we”? Do we see ourselves as part of the whole human family, or only as a member of a specific tribe? In our world today, we need a love that is a huge “we” rather than a love that is “us,” but not “them.” Jesus may have started his ministry with 12 Jewish men, but he saw and spent time with people who were not acceptable at that time, who were ill or contagious, who were not Jewish, who were not men. He touched the dead and the bleeding, and spoke to women. He showed how big God’s love really is.
The suffering we are invited into is indeed suffering. It is the suffering of allowing someone else’s will to be done. It is the suffering of sharing what we have. It is the suffering of listening to another person’s story that calls into question some of our favorite assumptions. It is the suffering that we undergo when we become willing to change, or be changed by God. It is the willingness to let go of our way, our importance so that God’s will can be done. God’s will that is so very much bigger and wiser and more loving than our own.
We started this morning with a reading from Jeremiah. Prophets were called by God. They were not called to a cushy life. They were to say tough words to people in power who had forgotten the ways of God or chosen to disregard them. They spoke out against practices that oppressed the poor and they reminded people how God called them to live. And, as you can imagine, that often did not go well. God called the prophets to speak. God did not guarantee that anyone would listen. But there are words of hope in Jeremiah as well as in Romans. God’s story is always bigger and more loving than our story. We have our part to play, along with many others. We are called to faithfulness, not to success. How we live matters. And for whom we live matters greatly. We are called to live for God and others, to work for the coming of the kingdom, which will not be completed in our time. Why? Because God loves us and works with us and through us for the sake of the whole world. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Confident of your care and helped by the Holy Spirit, we pray for the church, the world, and all who are in need.
God of faithfulness, you bid your people to follow Jesus. Set the mind of your church on divine things. Grant us trust in you, that we lose our lives for the sake of Christ and thereby discover joy in life through him. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of wonder, the earth is yours and all that is in it. Heal your creation and give us eyes to see the world as you do. As the seasons change, pattern the rhythm of our lives in harmony with all creation. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of all nations, you call us to live peaceably with all. Give us ears to hear one another, even those we name as enemies. Fill all leaders with mercy and understanding, that they advocate and genuinely care for those who are poor and most vulnerable in their communities. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of salvation, you promise to deliver us. Give those who suffer a strong sense of your presence and love. Accompany those who are uncertain, raise the spirits of those who are despairing, and heal the sick. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of community, you call us to rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, and persevere in prayer. Make our congregation a workshop of your love. When we quarrel, bring reconciliation. Help us overcome evil with good. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of love, be with all who come together on Sunday to vote on extending a call to our pastoral candidate. God of mercy,
hear our prayer.
God of all grace, you give us everlasting life. In love we recall your holy ones who now live in your undying light. In our remembering, give us a foretaste of the feast to come. Lord, in your mercy,
hear our prayer.
In the certain hope that nothing can separate us from your love, we offer these prayers to you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine upon you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.
Amen.