A new season in the church year is about to begin, and it is an exciting time for us to be
alive. Over the course of the next ten months our goal, as established by the Church Council, will be to "reimage
the Holy" in our own experience. I want to be clear with you from the start that this does not mean doing
away with any concept of the sacred as presently held by anyone of you, but instead, to accept the challenge of
confronting additional and sometimes alternative views of theological constructs and divine pronouncements on a
wide variety of subjects, in order to expand our understanding of God's place and purpose in our lives. Furthermore,
we will be making an earnest attempt to do this across the board on all levels, in church school, youth group,
Bible studies, and morning worship.
This is the culmination of a four year journey that we began when we looked at "Christ in the Arts,"
and considered the various ways that Christ has been portrayed in art, music, and literature. Then we "Imagined
the Possibilities" as to how each one of us could use the talents we have been loaned to work for the Kingdom
of God. Last year we began the Igniting Ministries program of "Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors,"
stressing the need for a more evangelical interaction with the community and the world.
With the first anniversary of the September 11th attacks just a week and a half away, we will be spending the month
of September looking at the place of pain, suffering, and grief in the human experience. Obviously these are unavoidable
concepts that effect us all, and not ones that we are quick to want to confront except when forced to. That is
a common response as evidenced in our Gospel lesson for this morning, where Jesus shares with the disciples that
he must soon undergo "great suffering," and they quite naturally try to change the subject. "God
forbid it," says Peter for us all, "this must never happen to you!" But the reality is, that if
it could happen to the Son of God, it can happen to anyone, and that if suffering is something that God was willing
to undergo, to relate to, to empathize with, we must also be willing to examine it more closely.
It is important to remember that this conversation was part of that experience we call the "Transfiguration,"
where Jesus took on a glowing radiance. Perhaps it is this very intentional confrontation with the worst that life
can do to us that does in truth "transform" our very being. You'll remember that the Transformation event
was the first moment that the disciples finally glimpsed that Jesus was the long anticipated Messiah, a milestone
indeed, and then he shifted the emphasis to his own need to suffer and die. In truth each step of the spiritual
journey is meant to prepare us for the harder ones which will follow. Each part of our spiritual growth is a progressive
movement into deeper and harder lessons. One of the most devastating experiences of ministry is to see people again
and again back away from the truth, because they began to see the cost of it, preferring instead to live in the
lie, simply because it was more comfortable.
Jesus said "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Here we find the challenge of willing self-sacrifice, cross bearing, and following without question, echoed in
the Old Testament lesson concerning the call of Moses, as well as in the lesson from Romans, which is pretty straightforward
in terms of what it means to live out one's Christian vocation. How appropriate to consider that as our true vocation
as we celebrate this Labor Day weekend.
We are being asked: Do we only listen when the news it good? Or do we hold fast to follow through the bad news
to find the joyful end? Jesus responds to Peter's very human understanding of "avoid suffering at all costs,"
with "Get thee behind me Satan." Actually the Greek word used for "behind" here may actually
be a contraction of the word which means "to follow." That word functions the same way in English when
we say something like "Are you behind me on this? Will you back me up?" And as far as Jesus' use of the
word "satan" here, which is not capitalized in the original Greek, it specifically means "adversary"
or "accuser." It is used to describe someone or something who entices, and specifically here for someone
who would encourage an easier view of reality.
In Exodus the bush burns, but it is not consumed! The fire is threatening, but we are not overwhelmed. Isn't that
part of what we are being told again in the Gospel, and what we will later hear in Romans following a long list
of common perils, that "nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord"? Yet don't
we continue to see the fall in the stock market as something unfairly done to make us lose our ability to get rich
quick, to see every ache and pain as something we should be able to subdue with medication, to see aging as an
unnatural process meant to be staved off for as long as possible, to see every pitfall and personal disappointment
we confront as some punishment for a misjudgment rather than a natural process common to us all? Aren't we being
encouraged to see terrorism, or Anthrax, or cancer, Alzheimers, or job cutbacks as being our inevitable end?
A "stumbling block" or skandalon in Greek, pretty much has to be in front to do much damage. How many
times do we become a "stumbling block" to Jesus, heading out to do it our way when we have promised to
follow? It is scandalous indeed when someone like Peter goes from being the "faithful rock" on which
the church will be built, to stumbling block who tries to entice others to follow an easier way.
It is not just the priest who becomes the pedophile, or the budding executive who gives into inside trading, or
the CEO who skims some extra cash off the top, or the head of a government who tries to say that the only way is
their way who becomes such an "obstacle." How often each one of us are guilty of such an action. There
is a lot to be said for taking time out to listen, to pray, to watch, to wait, and even to endure a wrongdoing…in
order that we might also discern and know the will of God on any given issue. It's why intentional centering, even
though it may seem like a brief exercise is such an important discipline.
Regardless of where pain and suffering come from, the reality is that in the end, the measure of who we really
are is how we handle the times of difficulty in our lives. I believe there is a difference between "testing"
and "suffering" and we must pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance to discern which is which. "Suffering"
comes, in terms of this Gospel lesson, when we try to save our lives, but then lose them, when we try to gain the
world and in the process lose our souls. "Testing" on the other hand is found in the process of denying
our selves for the sake of Jesus and his gospel, taking up the cross, and giving up our lives for a greater good.
In M. Scott Peck's book "People of the Lie" as he works to develop a psychology of evil he says something
that very much speaks to the topic of evil and suffering that we begin facing squarely this week. He writes:
"Dozens of times I have been asked by patients or acquaintances: 'Dr. Peck, why is there evil in the world?'
Yet no one has ever asked me in all these years: 'Why is there good in the world?' It is as if we automatically
assume this is a naturally good world that has somehow been contaminated by evil. In terms of what we know of science,
however it is actually easier to explain evil. If we seriously think about it, it probably makes more sense to
assume this is a naturally evil world that has somehow been mysteriously 'contaminated' by goodness rather than
the other way around. The mystery of goodness is far greater than the mystery of evil." (page 41).
For what if in the end, our end is nothing more than our fear of hearing the Truth?
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