Sunday, September 3, 2023
/Proper 17
Exodus 3: 1-15; Psalm 105: 1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12: 9-21; Matthew 16: 21-28
The Rev. James M.L. Grace
In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN.
While in seminary, I spent a summer as a hospital chaplain at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. My summer assignment was the level one trauma center and emergency room. That meant I was called into all kinds of circumstances, ranging from an emergency baptism of a premature infant before the ventilator was to be removed to praying with a city worker had recently lost his leg in a truck accident.
There was nothing in seminary – no book or class – that prepared me for walking into a room to provide pastoral care to parents who had just lost their child or offering hope to man with an inoperable malignant tumor on his brain. So, with not a lot of preparation, I jumped into the deep pastoral waters of that hospital. Over the summer, as I visited and prayed with patient after patient, I found myself learning more about God in a trauma center than I did in theology class.
This experience of having to act – to figure out what to do in situations we are not prepared for is what makes us all human. We improvise. We do our best. As I read the Gospel for today, I believe the disciples were going through this very experience. Until today’s reading, the disciples seemed to enjoy following Jesus around, watching him perform miracles – healing the sick, turning water to wine, raising the dead to life. As much as the disciples saw this, I am not sure that they really understood what they were being asked to do.
That changes today, where Jesus tells the disciples very clearly that because of who he was, his fate would lead him to Jerusalem where he would suffer before the political and religious authorities, where people would spit in his face, and where he would be crucified. All of this must have come as a tremendous surprise for Peter. What Jesus was talking about was the complete opposite of what Peter was hoping for. Like some people at the time, Peter was expecting Jesus to be a king like David or Solomon – a military leader who would bring the Jewish people out from underneath the oppression of the Roman Empire.
Peter wanted Rome out of Israel, and he believed that God’s messiah would do that, not turn himself over to the Romans to be crucified. Peter replies to Jesus, saying, “God forbid this Lord! This must never happen to you!” And Jesus replies quickly, perhaps even coldly with his rebuke “Get behind me Satan” (that’s also the name of great album by the White Stripes – I digress).
Recognizing that the disciples aren’t really understanding what Jesus (or their) purpose was, he says that they need to understand three things: (1) they are called to deny themselves, (2) they must take up their cross, and (3) they are to follow him. Now it’s getting real for them. There is nothing they could read or learn to prepare themselves to do what Jesus is asking them. They were likely completely shocked and confused.
The three-fold path Jesus explained to his disciples is the same path for us as well. None of us are exempt from the same call put toward the disciples:
(1) Jesus tells us to deny ourselves. In the eating hall of a Buddhist monastery, a beautiful stuffed parrot hung from the ceiling. From its golden beak dangled a card which read, “We are in training to be nobody special.” Try repeating that phrase to yourself throughout today, and as you do, notice how repeating it redirects you from a certain seductive struggle into a more stable focus. Forget what others think of you, forget the future goal of achievement; arrive instead into this present moment enjoying the freedom of being nobody special. Deny yourself.
(2) When we are told to take up our cross that means we must confront the things in our life we would prefer went away. We all practice some form of denial in our lives, and if you are like me you might have a psychological closet full of problems you prefer to keep behind a closed door hoping that God will be like the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus and wave the magic wand and they will all go away. God doesn’t have a magic wand. God does have a cross, and we are compelled to carry our problems, and bring them there. The spiritual life unquestionably involves pain and sacrifice. The word sacrifice means “to make sacred.” When we take up our cross, we are taking up our problems, and making our problems sacred. When we do that, a door opens, and God begins to live in that sacred space we have created, and God builds a comfortable residence in the midst of our problems. Have you invited God into your problems?
(3) We follow Jesus. We hear this all the time “follow Jesus,” but I don’t we really understand what that means. There is no course to take for following Jesus. You just do it by praying in the morning and in the evening, by reading the Bible. I promise you, over time, if you follow Jesus with all your heart, you will experience a peace which passes all understanding. The sought after peace of God is more valuable than anything else in the world. We cannot buy this peace as it is not for sale. The only way to find it is by denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus. It is a lifetime journey, and it begins with a single step. If you have not started, I pray that you take your step today. You are ready. AMEN.