The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
August 30, 2020
Year A, Proper 17:
The Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26,
45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28
Temptations in a Troubled Time
If
you were here last Sunday, you may remember that it was a really good day for
Simon Peter.
Jesus
asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And, they run down the list
of prophets, including John the Baptist and Jeremiah.
And,
then Jesus asks the disciples an even more important, more pointed question:
“But,
who do you say that I am?”
And,
maybe to everybody else’s surprise, it’s Simon Peter who gets the answer
exactly right:
“You
are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
Jesus
celebrates that God has given Peter the ability to know this great truth – and
then Jesus does something at least as unexpected as Peter getting the answer
right – he tells Peter and everyone else that the church will be built on Peter
the rock – and the church will have the power of condemnation and forgiveness –
and nothing will be able to overcome it.
Well,
what a difference a week makes!
In
today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes his first prediction about
what will happen in Jerusalem - that he will suffer greatly at the hands of
those in charge, that he will die, and that he will rise again on the third
day.
That
would have been a lot of shocking and upsetting information for anyone to
absorb, but maybe because he remembers that he’s the Rock, it’s Peter who takes
Jesus aside and, we’re told, “began to rebuke him” – strong word, that rebuke.
Peter rebukes Jesus, saying:
“God
forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
In
reply, we’re told that Jesus rebukes Peter, really rebukes him, saying:
“Get
behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your
mind not on divine things but on human things.”
And
then Jesus proceeds to teach them all about the cost of discipleship:
“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.”
So,
let’s stop right here for a minute.
A
couple of things:
It’s
true that it might have been better for Peter to hold his tongue, to take some
time to think things through before speaking, especially since he seems to have
missed the last part of Jesus’ prediction – about rising on the third day.
And,
it might have been wiser for Peter to not “rebuke” Jesus. I mean, that just
seems like a bad idea, right?
But,
there’s also Jesus’ response.
In
normal times, I bet Jesus would have responded to Peter firmly but
affectionately – something like, “Come on, Peter, settle down. Listen to everything
I’m saying. You know I love you and will never abandon you, no matter what.”
But
these are not normal times – these are troubled times for Jesus and his friends
– and so Jesus rebukes Peter, calling him “Satan.”
Now,
I can imagine Peter looking so crestfallen, so hurt, about that – of all the things
Jesus could have called him. Satan! It’s long way from the Rock of the church
to Satan.
But it’s important
for us to not think of Satan so much as the “Devil” which is the way the name
is usually heard today, right? But, instead we should think of Satan the way
Jesus and his friends would have:
The Tempter.
It
seems to me that Jesus reacts so strongly to Peter, who really just cares so
much about his Lord’s wellbeing – Jesus rebukes Peter – because Peter
has said out loud a temptation that our brother Jesus was already wrestling
with – the temptation to give up, to turn away from his mission, to not meet
his fate on the cross.
Maybe Jesus was
tempted to return home to Nazareth, to go back to his family who no doubt would
be relieved to have him back, and glad to put all this messiah business behind
them, to try to forget everything that had happened.
We
know that Jesus wrestled with the temptation to avoid his fate at least right
up to his arrest, praying in the Garden of Gethsemane that his Father might
take this cup from him.
Temptations
in a troubled time.
In today’s Old
Testament lesson, we continue with the story of Moses, born to an Israelite
woman, raised by the Pharaoh’s daughter, and now he’s a married man tending his
father-in-law’s flock when he has an encounter with God.
God
entrusts him with a great and most unlikely mission, to lead his people to
freedom. Moses seriously doubts that he’s the right person for the job (always
a good sign – it’s the overconfident ones you’ve got to watch out for) but he
trusts the God who promises to be with him and the people.
Moses begins a long journey that will be
filled with many obstacles and frustrations.
As we’ll hear in
coming weeks, during their time of trouble the people will be tempted over and
over – tempted even to return to enslavement in Egypt where at least there was
plenty of food and water – tempted even to turn away from God and instead
worship a golden calf made by human hands.
It will not be an
easy journey, but despite many missteps, the people of Israel will persevere,
will overcome their temptations, and reach the promised land.
And now, here we
are in our own time of trouble.
Every week, every
day, brings more and more trouble:
The dismantling of
the Postal Service, with dismembered sorting machines tossed in dumpsters and
mailboxes removed from sidewalks and piled like junk.
Police officers
still shooting unarmed Black people, even after all the cries of “Black Lives
Matter,” even after all of the videos taken by outraged bystanders, even after
all of the protests and promises to do better.
Increasingly open
displays of white power symbols, both by everyday people and, much more
dangerous, by people in authority.
More and more
people having their minds poisoned by bizarre and plainly untrue conspiracy
theories – so poisoned that some, as we saw just the other day, resort to
violence.
People who are so
understandably enraged and frustrated, who feel so powerless, that they destroy
property, unfortunately only serving to fuel a cynical narrative that causes
even more division and destruction.
The environment is
collapsing: all-time record high temperatures, wildfires burning yet again in
Northern California, an unprecedented two hurricanes at the same time in the
Gulf of Mexico, and government policies that encourage more drilling and more
burning.
And, lest we
forget, we are still in the middle of a pandemic – with COVID killing about a
thousand people in our country every day - and there are millions unemployed
and many are on the verge of eviction.
And, in one last
wound from a terrible week, as you know, the actor Chadwick Boseman, who dazzled
and inspired playing real-life heroes like Thurgood Marshall and Jackie
Robinson and of course the superhero Black Panther, died way too young – and,
as we learned, he was a hero himself.
Well, by now I’ve
depressed you all – by comparison, forty days in the wilderness chowing down on
manna doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
And, as always, in
our time of trouble, Satan is very much at work.
Like the
Israelites, we may be tempted to just go along with the crowd, to live like so
many other people, to worship the golden calves of today. We may be tempted to
choose hate instead of love, choosing what seems
like the easier way, but is always a so much heavier burden.
We may be tempted
– and I know this is my temptation – we may be tempted to look away – to turn off
the news, to skip the newspaper, to stay quiet – to just go back to minding our
own business, caring only for the people we consider our own, just like I’m
sure Jesus really was tempted to go home to Nazareth and forget about his
mission.
But, Jesus did
follow through in his mission – and, yes, as he had predicted, there was great
suffering – but in the end there was new life for him, and new life for us.
And so, in our
time of trouble, I’m holding on to God and the new life promised and given by
Jesus.
Let’s trust in the
God who gave Moses the strength to lead his people to freedom – let’s trust in
the God who raised Jesus on the third day.
Even in a time of
social distancing, let’s stick together.
Let’s keep close
to the church, because we know that nothing can overcome it.
Let’s keep close to our family and friends
And, let’s also join with people of goodwill
to fight for long overdue and much-needed change, like I hope we all will
tomorrow night at the New Jersey Together action.
In our time of
trouble, let’s not give in to Satan the tempter.
As St. Paul
writes, let us “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Amen.
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