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).
In Mark's account of Jesus'
encounter with the Syrophoenician woman, in what is now Lebanon, Daniel Clendenin,
in "Send Her Away!"
states that ..."four of the six readings this week remind us that the
Christian story is fundamentally about divine inclusion conquering human exclusions.
About bringing people in to the fullness of God's shalom, rather than
shutting them out in a zero sum game. In particular, the readings show how this is true in two
areas that people love to hate — sexuality and nationality," with
several scriptural references. In his reading of Psalm 67, God's love crosses
national boundaries, and he cites Paul's famous writing that "In Christ
there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are
all one in Christ Jesus." What do you think? Is this relevant today? If
so, how?
Jesus' ministry expands from the One who is to bring light and redemption to the Jews, as he heals the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman. In "Who are the chosen," Katerina K. Whitley says, "... The
Incarnation is vivid in this story, as is the theology of kenosis [ κένωσις] – the
‘self-emptying’ of our will to become receptive to God’s will. Jesus learns
something from a humble woman and from a mother’s love. This is a story to be
honored, to be proclaimed and to fill us with gratitude. “Lord have mercy on
me,” she cries. And the Lord shows mercy to one considered an outcast. God’s
mercy covers all of us."
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 believe he was both human and divine, and in his real presence, then and today. I study Greek, and look at the story from the perspective of Jesus' words, "Take heart!" "Have courage!" θαρσεῖτε in Greek. He is the One who reaches out to lift us up, with grace, forgiveness - whatever we need to get through stormy seas.
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.
