ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 31 August 2014 From that time on, 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. This mornings Gospel picks up where last Sundays left off. Peter has confessed Jesus as Messiah and Son of God, and now, as is so often the case, he manages to put his foot in it. When Jesus begins to explain to him and the others what being the Messiah means, Peter tries to tell him hes got it wrong. Its hard to imagine what Peter had in mind. Like many of his compatriots he he may have been thinking of a political Messiah who would rally the nation, march on Jerusalem, throw the Romans out, and reign as King on Davids throne. Knowing Peter though, its more likely he just hadnt thought it all through. But in that hes not alone. Theres a type of predominantly American Evangelical Gospel lite that seems to ignore the fact that as Christians we follow a crucified Saviour, and confidently offers believers a worry-free life of prosperity and unblemished happiness. Sadly, though, it wasnt like that for Jesus; and as Jesus makes plain to Peter and all his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, it wont be like that for them either: 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. The problem with these words, well known as they are, however, is that we have tended to do one of two things with them. Either we have trivialized them, reducing carrying the cross to little more than putting up with a difficult relative – Oh, thats the cross she has to bear – or we have associated Jesus language with such heroic sanctity that it seems quite beyond us. We think of the great saints and martyrs, many of whom bore the cross quite literally in imitation of their Lord, and we think (quite realistically) thats beyond me. But what does it mean for us to take up our cross in the circumstances of our generally less heroic lives? Part of the problem is that, as someone has put it, its very easy for us to admire the extravagant gesture, and forget the day-to-day acts of kindness and generosity to which we are all called. It is no doubt very noble and fulfilling to be able to write a cheque for tens of thousands of pounds for some worthy cause, and to bask in the praise we receive for so doing; the challenge comes when we are actually called to give our lives away in 10, 20 and 50p pieces. Somehow that seems less glamorous, and much harder to do. Thats where Pauls words in our Epistle today come in, as he continues to work out the implications of faith in Jesus Christ in the great exposition of his message that is the Letter to the Romans, which we have been following through the Summer months. Last week we omitted our Epistle reading because of a baptism, but in it Paul spoke about the Christians calling to offer him (or her) self as a living sacrifice, using whatever gifts God has given us for the common good and the building up of the body of the Church. And this week he translates that calling into simple advice all of us can follow: Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good ... Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer ... Extend hospitality to strangers ... Bless those who persecute you ... Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep ... Do not claim to be wiser than you are ... Do not repay anyone evil for evil ... Live peaceably with all. Of course he says more; Ive only cited a selection of verses. But is there any one of these things that you or I cannot do? For these are the 10, 20 and 50p pieces of a life offered as a living sacrifice; the small change which adds up to truly bearing the cross: sincere love, patience, prayer, hospitality, sympathy, humility and gentleness towards all. Jesus ends with two rather harder verses. First he speaks about his coming in judgement; and the essence of what he says is that what we do matters. 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. Its a foretaste of the parable of the sheep and the goats, which we hear this year on the Feast of Christ the King, the Sunday before Advent: Just as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me ... or not, as the case may be. The other verse is at first hearing more difficult still: there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. There are similar sayings in all four Gospels, not least in Jesus conversation with Peter on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Peter asks Jesus what is to become of John: If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me! No doubt the first Christians interpreted these words in the light of their own expectation of the imminent end of all things; as a literal prophecy that some of Jesus original disciples would still be alive on the Day of Judgement. But there is another event that may make more sense of these words, namely the Transfiguration which, although we do not read about it in the ordinary course of our Sunday readings, occurs immediately after the events of Ceasarea Phillipi we have been thinking about. Six days after Peters profession of faith, Jesus takes him, James and Andrew up Mount Tabor; and there in a very real sense they see the Kingdom come, as the Father from the cloud confirms the truth of Peters insight: Jesus is indeed the Son of the Living God, whom all must heed. More significantly, the Transfiguration marks the critical turning point after which Jesus expressly begins the journey towards Jerusalem where all that he has been telling his disciples about – and all that he discusses with Moses and Elijah on the mountain – will come true. Peter would, of course, be one of those forced to bear the cross quite literally, crucified in Rome within a few years of Pauls execution by the sword – both heroically witnessing to Christ. But the rest of us bear our cross no less truly when we deny ourselves for the sake of others, living out the values Paul so simply describes in our Epistle today. And in so doing we too see the Kingdom come in our own lifetimes.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 11:00:00 +0000
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