Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15 and
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45b •
Jeremiah 15:15-21 and
Psalm 26:1-8 •
Romans 12:9-21 •
Matthew 16:21-28
This week we are given the name of God. Last week Peter was blessed and given the keys of the kingdom when he confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. In Exodus, when Moses asks the name of the God who will deliver his people, he is given the answer "I am Who I am, and I shall be Who I shall be."John's gospel contains several "I am" sayings of Jesus. This week Peter is rebuked by Jesus when he seeks to deter Jesus from his mission, as he looks on the Lord from a human perspective, as opposed to the divine perspective of the redemption and deliverance through a suffering God, who lives and dies with us, and is raised to new and everlasting life. Consider Susan Butterworth's "A Paradox of Faith."
This week's epistle from Paul to the Romans is one of my favorites. It teaches us about vengeance. Consider The Rev. Dr. Peter Marty's "Trusting God to Settle Scores."
Scripture: Exodus 1:8-2:10 and Psalm 124 • Isaiah 51:1-6 and Psalm 138 • Romans 12:1-8 • Matthew 16:13-20
In this week's gospel reading, Peter confesses that Jesus
is the Christ, the Messiah, and Jesus tells him that this can only be revealed
by God, not man. He tells Peter that upon this rock (Petros - Πέτρος) he
will build his church. Jesus told Peter he would give him the keys to the
kingdom of heaven and the authority to bind, and to loose? What kind of power
is this? How is it to be used? Is it to be used to separate, divide? To include
or exclude? To favor, or punish? What is to be loosed? Who do we say Jesus is -
not only in our words, or as we recite the Nicene Creed, but in our hearts, and
works? Does that have anything to do with loosing? What do we open, close, bind
or loose? What do we use as "keys?"
Consider The Rev. Janet Hunt's "The Rock of Forgiveness: Binding and
Loosing," and Professor Alyce MacKenzie's "Peter's Confession and Ours." (2
short web pages).
Who is welcome at God's Table? How are we to treat those who have wronged us, foreigners, strangers, and even enemies?
In the story of Joseph and his brothers who sold him into slavery, we see lessons learned of humility, patience, trust, forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation. The psalmist tells us how good and pleasant it is when we can live together in unity. Paul tells us that God has not rejected his people. And we learn in the story of Jesus and the disciples encounter with the Syro-Phoenician woman who cries out for healing for her daughter, that even little dogs are given crumbs from the master's table. What do we learn about stewardship, scarcity and abundance, the "chosen", the privileged and outsiders in this story? What about persistence in seeking God's grace?
When we come to the Table of the Lord, what do we bring with us? What do we experience there? What gifts do we offer? What gifts do we receive?
Consider what Bruce Epperly has to say in "Reconciliation and Grace," and Sharron R, Blezard's "A Crumby Gospel."
Scripture: Genesis
37:1-4, 12-28 and Psalm
105: 1-6, 16-22, 45b • 1
Kings 19:9-18 and Psalm
85:8-13 •
This week our Scripture ranges from Joseph's brothers selling him into slavery after deciding not to kill him, an exhausted, despairing and depressed Elijah needing desperately to hear from God as Jezebel seeks to have him killed, to Peter and the disciples cowering in a storm tossed sea when they see what?
Although I delighted in the story of Jesus walking on water as a child, and Peter trying to step out of the boat to go to Jesus, I confess, as I grew older, I had my doubts about the literal account. I studied Greek, and looked at the story from the perspective of Jesus' words, "Take heart!" "Have courage! θαρσεῖτε in Greek.
Professor Alyce MacKenzie gives us so much more about this passage in "Walking Towards Us, A Reflection" on our gospel account from Matthew. It is on three web-linked pages, not very long, and is worth reading. As she says, Jesus is "...someone who never stands on the shore watching us suffer, but is always walking toward us on the sea, stretching out a hand to us—with forgiveness, with love. Reaching out a hand to us that is both very human, and the very hand of God."
This week's Old Testament reading is the nocturnal wrestling match between Jacob and what some commentators say is God, others an angel, and a few, a demon. The Rev. Kate Matthews, in her excellent Reflection titled "Struggle,"shares many perspectives from different commentators and offers her own thoughts. What are your thoughts about "struggle," with your faith, fears, doubts, failures - you name it. Even with struggle, in our journey with Jacob, we see the amazing and wonderful persistence of blessing/ I commend this article to your reading.
There is an ancient Greek proverb: Καλεπα τά καλα: "Beautiful things are difficult," translated in a practical sense: "naught (nothing) without labor." Does this relate to our reading from Genesis?
And then there is the gospel account of a tired Jesus, wanting to get away from it all, but moved with compassion for them he healed them, and with their own 5 loaves and fishes, he fed them, and taught them, and us, how to feed the hungry - those hungry for bread, for love, for mercy, for answers, for forgiveness, and hope. Hungry for life, and the abundance of life which God offers. In Jesus, and each other, we can see the face of God. If only we care to look.
