This Gospel is a potent text
It is full of potent language
Language of undergoing great suffering
Language of Satan
Language of denying oneself
Language of taking up a cross
It’s heavy
And…I have so many questions!!!
The first question I have is
What is it, exactly, that PETER gets so very wrong?
The second one is
What does it even mean to deny myself?
And the third one is
What does it mean…for me…to take up my cross?
It isn’t just a matter of my being curious
I love getting into the text…investigating translation issues
Wondering about the 1st-century context
But my questions are more fundamental than that…today
…they aren’t just curiousness
This reading makes me cringe a little
What is it that PETER gets so very wrong?
Jesus’ strong rebuke indicates that PETER has messed up in a very big way
7 days ago…in last Sunday’s Gospel
we read the story of “Peter’s Confession”
In last Sunday’s Gospel,
Jesus posed a question to his disciples:
“Who do you say that I am?”
And, “top of the class Peter”, replies
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”
And then we heard Jesus say to Peter,
“Bravo Peter!
Blessed are you!
Gold star!
And for that:
Here are the keys to the kingdom!
YOU ROCK!”
It has been a week of days
But, in Gospel time…all that was only three short verses ago!
Three short verses later
we have today’s STUNNING REVERSAL!
From YOU ROCK to
“Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block!”
(Our translation says ‘obstacle’ but that loses the original wordplay)
Just a few verses ago, Peter was named ROCK
“You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church”
But now he is a different kind of ROCK
He is the kind of rock that causes others to stumble!
That is one lightning-fast reversal!
So…What DOES Peter get so wrong?
This movement from ROCK to Stumbling Block gives us a clue.
To be a stumbling block
You have to be out in the front
And what does Jesus say?
“Get behind me!”
WHAT Peter gets wrong is that
He is in the wrong place!
He decided to take the lead from Jesus
He got ahead of Jesus!!!
Being a disciple means to follow
“If you want to become my followers” the text says
If you want to ‘come behind me’
The Greek means literally “if anyone wants to come behind me…”
Well…you best stay there
That’s what it means to be a disciple
A disciple follows
If you jump ahead you will, sooner or later, become a stumbling block
What Peter gets wrong is
Well he is having trouble staying ‘behind’
He is having trouble following
…trouble being a disciple
But I totally get Peter
He doesn’t want Jesus to “undergo great suffering”
He doesn’t want Jesus to die!
So, he steps out in front to give better directions!
I get that.
Question number 2
What does it mean to deny myself
It can’t mean to deny my being
my personhood
That would be horribly counter to the Incarnation
And good ole modern psychology;)
It must mean to deny something else.
The most central teaching in Matthews gospel is the Sermon on the Mount
The Sermon on the Mount
With all its talk of being the salt of the earth
And the light of the world
And then the beatitudes
Blessed are the poor
Blessed are those who mourn
Blessed are those who seek righteousness for the sake of the Gospel
Etc.
The Sermon on the Mount is the ethical backdrop of the whole of Matthew’s Gospel
What we need to deny
Is whatever it is
That hinders us
Or that acts like a stumbling block
Whatever keeps us from the kind of living
that Jesus lays out in the Sermon on the Mount
And here we can look to the reading from Paul’s letter to the Romans
…It has a “Sermon on the Mount” feel.
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 repay evil for evil
Feed the hungry…even hungry enemies
There is a Sermon on the Mount…a Beatitudes, kind of feel to Paul’s words today.
Denying myself must mean to deny entry…
…to deny entry into my being
of any evil that will hinder a life lived according to these ideals.
Deny entry…deny them power to define who I am
And Question 3
What does it mean…for me…to
“Take up my cross”
There is so much I don’t know about what this means.
But there is something that I think I know.
What I know is that when I get like Peter.
When I think I could do a better job as Premier Christian model to follow;)
A bit of a cross is about the only thing that sets me straight.
Peter was solely focused on survival
Later, at the crucifixion,
when he was warming himself by the fire
and denied Jesus three times until that cock crowed
He was focused on survival.
You can’t pick up a cross…either your own or someone else’s
If you are focused on your own survival…
To follow
To stay behind
To be a disciple
Means that I will have to go where the Gospel takes me
It is to live a life of compassion…
A life focused on putting another person…or group of persons…ahead of me
Such a life says
“You…you…are a really important person!”
or “You are a really important group of people”
You might say…
Cindy that sounds all nice and gospely
But…please…get practical!
None of us need to go looking for crosses
I have never before felt so weighed down by images and stories, and speech witnessing to senseless violence and hatred and ugliness
Right now, it is “other people’s crosses” that confront me
I am safe in my little cocoon
Caring for my sweet Dad
And trying to support those in my life who are trying to reboot their professions after being halted by COVID
And I can do these things
They aren’t crosses
A couple days ago
I walked with my Dad to a little coffee shop run by a fellow
“Marchegiana”
Which is what you call others (female-others) who come from Marche
…My father’s home province in Italy
Her name is Catarina
And while we were there
A young girl,
very tall, very thin, very dirty, she looked Southeast Asian
…perhaps Vietnamese,
And she carried a plastic grocery sack of belongings
She had this blank vacant stare
Seeing the homeless is nothing new for me
Especially in Sarasota
But somehow it was different
She came into the coffee shop
She didn’t have a mask
She didn’t really speak
After a minute or two
Caterina, the owner asked her to wait outside…
There were a few people already there
The cafe is tiny
…And…well it is COVID and she had no mask.
The girl left
There I was
Sitting across from my Dad
With my hot coffee and breakfast sandwich
…I was overcome with grief and sadness for her
But I didn’t do anything
Was I too scared?
In my mind, I quickly blamed it on being with my Dad,
And Covid…of course.
But really…if I am honest…
I had survival on my mind
I only say this because I can’t get her face out of my mind
I realize that there are a lot of good and logical reasons why I shouldn’t have engaged this poor young woman
But the heart of the matter is that I had survival on my mind
After taking care of the few customers waiting and paying,
Caterina stepped out of her shop and called to her across the street
“Are you hungry? Do you want a muffin?”
But the girl just walked away…maybe she didn’t hear
Maybe she didn’t understand.
Caterina said that she has seen her before
and that all she is able to say is that she is waiting for her mother to come and get her.
Did she get stuck in Sarasota, or somewhere near, when all this COVID broke in?
Who is she? What will happen to her?
I can remember vividly such times when I failed to help carry another person’s cross
…there have been enough of them.
And I can remember times when I have also stayed behind
…in the disciple’s position
And reached out to put the other person first.
Like many of you…I suspect…
I can be both a rock and a stumbling block.
I look around
Both close to home and around the country
And see so many opportunities where “putting the other first” is in short supply
And I wonder
Where do I fit?
Maybe the answer to that question is a moving target.
Maybe what is being asked of me
Is to respond more like Catarina
…with a bit of boldness
I pray…let me put my own comfort and survival BEHIND ME
So that I will not be a stumbling block for the Gospel
This homily sounds a bit like a Lent Homily
And in some ways…
COVID-time really is a kind of never-ending LENT;)
The thing is
I really miss you all
And I think I am struggling
Because the physicalness of Christian Community is missing
And it is such a gift
A gift AND a real necessity to living out my discipleship
Having the opportunity to look you in the eyes just Helps!
You.
Help me.
To be a better disciple.
Thanks for being the community that you are
In these days of longing!
And let’s just keep praying for one another
Lord, help each one of us
To be a bit more Rock
And little less Stumbling Block
Peace be with all of you
I miss you
