Today's Scripture Readings
Isaiah 50: 4-9a (NRSV)
Psalm 116: 1-8 (BCP., p.759)
James 3: 1-12 (NRSV)
Mark 8: 27-38 (NRSV)
Blog Reflection
This week the world witnessed a horrible series of events. The killing of several individuals in Libya, as a result of an uprising that began from an anti-Islam YouTube video have stunned and saddened us all. Individuals claiming to be soldiers for Christ made some decisions that have brought serious implications upon people of another religious tradition. The dangers of religious exceptionalism have once again made a dent in humankind that is difficult to heal.
In the Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 6: Restraint of Speech, he wrote:
Esther de Waal in her commentary on the Rule wrote:
I really do think that is what James was writing about in his letter today. Sadly, Christians do more damage with how much of what we say. Many of our most zealous preachers with the concept of reading the Bible literally, just cannot resist the temptation to create calamity and destruction, and call it being faithful to God's Word. Yet, what they understand about being a righteous follower of Jesus, becomes destruction and evil for others in one way or another. Especially those of other religions, sexual orientations, political parties, genders, gender identities/expressions that just do not seem like measure up to how they think they understand God and others.
I believe a central theme to be found in this Sunday's Liturgy of the Word, is that we are to think very carefully about what we say and do when we claim to follow Jesus Christ.
This morning at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, our guest preacher the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Hahnemann said some very profound things in his sermon. He reminded us that even in the time in which Jesus lived no two people had the same opinion about who Jesus was. When Jesus asked his disciples who people thought he was, each person gave a different answer. Only Peter stated that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus himself never fully told us who he was. Whenever he spoke of the Son of God, he never exactly said it as if he were speaking of himself. Even in the ever famous John 3:16 he refers to God's Son, but he doesn't exactly say that it is him. Christians all through the centuries, from the early Church to this present time have had different ideas of who Jesus actually was. There was more blood spilled over the council of Nicea as they organized the Nicene Creed, and even then, it wasn't completely accepted for a good many years. Yet, even as Christians have disagreed about who Jesus is or was, we have all tended to agree that what he did had historical consequences on the world. It changed the way we think of God, others and ourselves. It also gave to many, the opportunity to open our hearts and minds to who God is, what God does, and what God calls each individual person to do. And, we can all say with quite a bit of certainty, not everyone's experience is the same, nor does our experience of God take us all in the same direction or destination.
Even after Peter's confession, we see that just because he proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, it doesn't change the fact that he is a very weak man. Jesus rebukes him, as he tries to derail what Jesus is about to do as he tells the disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise again. It is the final paragraph of today's Gospel that gives us some tangible way that we can imitate the work that Jesus does We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.
Yet, each Christian depending on what tradition you are from understands what it means to follow Jesus differently. For many fundamentalists and Evangelicals it means saying the sinner's prayer and accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. For some "orthodox" Catholics it means to be obedient to the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even while the rest of the world does not accept them. Many of us who are part of mainline denominations see this as a call to working towards justice and equality for all people, including women, LGBT, those oppressed by addictions and our governments lack of responsibility for their own people, etc.
I would like to suggest that given what has happened this week with regards to Libya and the attacks against the Muslims, that we consider a new idea about what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Taking up our cross and following Jesus means we concentrate on living the meaning of being Christians, instead of always talking about it. It means spending time in prayer, reading, study and reflection. It also means thinking and praying for God to guide us to knowing when we speak of God's love vs. acting on that same love out of respect and care for others who are affected by what we say and do. We may all have different ideas about what we believe about Jesus Christ and what it means to carry our crosses, and proclaim our Faith, but one thing I think we can agree with; if we do not do it out of love for God, our neighbor and/or ourselves is it really worth saying or doing?
As people of Faith who are concerned about striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human person, with God's help, we must recognize the need to respect those who are different from ourselves. We need to allow people to be where they are, but through our own actions and sometimes words, help them see beyond their prejudices by acting as loving people who know that life really does stink sometimes. We do this as LGBT Christians and others marginalized by the Church and society, through working for justice and equality, but also through eliminating our own prejudices. Rejecting racism, sexism and religious based discrimination of all kinds out of love for Christ who accepts and loves all of us.
As we pray and work during the week ahead let us take some time to ask ourselves what is really worth talking about, vs. what cross are we being called to take up to follow Jesus? What ways do we open our mouths and say things that have the possibility of impacting others negatively? What ways by which we could speak good things, but think about holding them back out of a need to listen more closely to what God may be calling us to do?
Amen.
Prayers
Isaiah 50: 4-9a (NRSV)
- The Lord GOD has given me
- the tongue of a teacher,
- that I may know how to sustain
- the weary with a word.
- Morning by morning he wakens--
- wakens my ear
- to listen as those who are taught.
- The Lord GOD has opened my ear,
- and I was not rebellious,
- I did not turn backward.
- I gave my back to those who struck me,
- and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
- I did not hide my face
- from insult and spitting.
- The Lord GOD helps me;
- therefore I have not been disgraced;
- therefore I have set my face like flint,
- and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
- he who vindicates me is near.
- Who will contend with me?
- Let us stand up together.
- Who are my adversaries?
- Let them confront me.
- It is the Lord GOD who helps me;
- who will declare me guilty?
Psalm 116: 1-8 (BCP., p.759)
James 3: 1-12 (NRSV)
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue-- a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "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, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Blog Reflection
This week the world witnessed a horrible series of events. The killing of several individuals in Libya, as a result of an uprising that began from an anti-Islam YouTube video have stunned and saddened us all. Individuals claiming to be soldiers for Christ made some decisions that have brought serious implications upon people of another religious tradition. The dangers of religious exceptionalism have once again made a dent in humankind that is difficult to heal.
Let us follow the Prophet's counsel: I said, I have resolved to keep watch over my ways that I may never sin with my tongue. I have put a guard over my mouth. I was silent and was humbled, and I refrained even from good words (Psalm 39: 1-2). Here the Prophet indicates that there are times when good words are to be left unsaid out of esteem for silence. For all the more reason, then, should evil speech be curbed so that punishment for sin may be avoided. Indeed, so important is silence that permission to speak should seldom be granted even to mature disciples, no matter how good or holy or constructive their talk, because it is written: In a flood of words you will not avoid sin (Prov 10:19); and elsewhere, The tongue holds the key to life and death (Prov 18: 21). Speaking and teaching are the master's task; the disciple is to be silent and listen. (The Rule of St. Benedict 1980, p. 191).
Esther de Waal in her commentary on the Rule wrote:
As soon as I read this [what is in the final sentence of the chapter about restraining speech] it takes me at once back to the opening words of the Rule and to the need to listen. Benedict's spirituality, if I were to reduce it to one single concept, is that of listening to the voice of God in my life. (A Life-Giving Way: A Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict, p. 51)
I really do think that is what James was writing about in his letter today. Sadly, Christians do more damage with how much of what we say. Many of our most zealous preachers with the concept of reading the Bible literally, just cannot resist the temptation to create calamity and destruction, and call it being faithful to God's Word. Yet, what they understand about being a righteous follower of Jesus, becomes destruction and evil for others in one way or another. Especially those of other religions, sexual orientations, political parties, genders, gender identities/expressions that just do not seem like measure up to how they think they understand God and others.
I believe a central theme to be found in this Sunday's Liturgy of the Word, is that we are to think very carefully about what we say and do when we claim to follow Jesus Christ.
This morning at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Minneapolis, our guest preacher the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Hahnemann said some very profound things in his sermon. He reminded us that even in the time in which Jesus lived no two people had the same opinion about who Jesus was. When Jesus asked his disciples who people thought he was, each person gave a different answer. Only Peter stated that Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus himself never fully told us who he was. Whenever he spoke of the Son of God, he never exactly said it as if he were speaking of himself. Even in the ever famous John 3:16 he refers to God's Son, but he doesn't exactly say that it is him. Christians all through the centuries, from the early Church to this present time have had different ideas of who Jesus actually was. There was more blood spilled over the council of Nicea as they organized the Nicene Creed, and even then, it wasn't completely accepted for a good many years. Yet, even as Christians have disagreed about who Jesus is or was, we have all tended to agree that what he did had historical consequences on the world. It changed the way we think of God, others and ourselves. It also gave to many, the opportunity to open our hearts and minds to who God is, what God does, and what God calls each individual person to do. And, we can all say with quite a bit of certainty, not everyone's experience is the same, nor does our experience of God take us all in the same direction or destination.
Even after Peter's confession, we see that just because he proclaims Jesus as the Messiah, it doesn't change the fact that he is a very weak man. Jesus rebukes him, as he tries to derail what Jesus is about to do as he tells the disciples that he is going to Jerusalem to suffer, die and rise again. It is the final paragraph of today's Gospel that gives us some tangible way that we can imitate the work that Jesus does We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.
Yet, each Christian depending on what tradition you are from understands what it means to follow Jesus differently. For many fundamentalists and Evangelicals it means saying the sinner's prayer and accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. For some "orthodox" Catholics it means to be obedient to the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, even while the rest of the world does not accept them. Many of us who are part of mainline denominations see this as a call to working towards justice and equality for all people, including women, LGBT, those oppressed by addictions and our governments lack of responsibility for their own people, etc.
I would like to suggest that given what has happened this week with regards to Libya and the attacks against the Muslims, that we consider a new idea about what it means to take up our cross and follow Jesus. Taking up our cross and following Jesus means we concentrate on living the meaning of being Christians, instead of always talking about it. It means spending time in prayer, reading, study and reflection. It also means thinking and praying for God to guide us to knowing when we speak of God's love vs. acting on that same love out of respect and care for others who are affected by what we say and do. We may all have different ideas about what we believe about Jesus Christ and what it means to carry our crosses, and proclaim our Faith, but one thing I think we can agree with; if we do not do it out of love for God, our neighbor and/or ourselves is it really worth saying or doing?
As people of Faith who are concerned about striving for justice and peace among all people and respecting the dignity of every human person, with God's help, we must recognize the need to respect those who are different from ourselves. We need to allow people to be where they are, but through our own actions and sometimes words, help them see beyond their prejudices by acting as loving people who know that life really does stink sometimes. We do this as LGBT Christians and others marginalized by the Church and society, through working for justice and equality, but also through eliminating our own prejudices. Rejecting racism, sexism and religious based discrimination of all kinds out of love for Christ who accepts and loves all of us.
As we pray and work during the week ahead let us take some time to ask ourselves what is really worth talking about, vs. what cross are we being called to take up to follow Jesus? What ways do we open our mouths and say things that have the possibility of impacting others negatively? What ways by which we could speak good things, but think about holding them back out of a need to listen more closely to what God may be calling us to do?
Amen.
O God, because without you we are not able to please you,
mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct
and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen. (Proper 19, Book of Common Prayer, p. 233).
Gracious Father, we pray for they holy Catholic Church. Fill it
with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt,
purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is
amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in
want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake
of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, p. 816).
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so
move every human heart [and especially the hearts of the
people of this land], that barriers which divide us may
crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our
divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for Social Justice, Book of Common Prayer, p. 823).
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