SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 | AFTER PENTECOST - Proper 19 (B)

Isaiah:

Link with Jesus - call to nonviolence and not resisting - God protects the faithful x Christian militarism - gotta go out there and set things right with might

James:

What we say matters (links back to Jesus about “what comes out defiles”) and can be a source of goodness, but also evil. However, it should not happen together - it poisons the source/water.

Mark:

σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστός (NA28, 29) - You are Christ! - later traditions add to it.

31: Mark’s understanding of salvation history?

Peter disagrees -> Jesus rebukes him (some traditions are missing the name of Peter)

By not entrusting your life to God, you are wasting it, forfeiting it (2421 ζηλωτής (zēlōtēs), οῦ (ou), ὁ (ho)

James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

Good morning,

A little later morning, which I personally quite welcome! Another week and we have a ton to talk about and I think the texts are pretty on point with what is happening in the country.

And yes, I mean the James reading - pre-election season is a lot of words, but not many actions, those are supposed to come later. And while we are not here to be partisan, the Bible provides a lens to scrutinize our reality. Again and again, we are told that what we say matters (remember: according to Jesus it is not what comes in but what comes out of our hearts that defiles) and James adds to it that thinking about our speech as some balancing act is wrong for a spring also cannot have both fresh and poisoned water.

When someone alleges that Haitian migrants are stealing pets and then eating them only based on some hearsay or accusations without proof, such a person poisons their spring - it is an old racist trope, a way to dehumanize an entire group of people for some kind of power gain. And once it is out, it can poison the wells of many. Or in the words of James - they are cursing those who are made in the likeness of God.

Of course, That is not the way of our Shepherd and Savior, Jesus Christ. As we can see, Jesus was misunderstood by his closest even back then - Jesus asked his disciples to tell him who they thought he was and Peter, later referred to as Apostle Peter or The Rock, answers “you are Christ (Christos)” - simply as that, even though later traditions are adding more details to his proclamation.

However, Peter does not like what comes next, when Jesus describes what needs to happen before Jesus can truly fulfill his purpose - 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.

In a way, Peter minimizes Jesus’ own words and is trying to force his own understanding, probably much grander and involving Jesus liberating them from the Roman occupation. Jesus then rebukes him forcefully: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Oooh, it’s on! Interestingly, later traditions are sometimes missing a clear designation who is being rebuked, perhaps a mistake or perhaps an attempt to obscure Peter’s failing a little bit as later on he is thought of as this big wig bishop and in a later tradition referred to as the first pope.

Personally, I find it fitting that the first important church leader would be at the same time so right and so very, very wrong about his understanding of Jesus. Pretty sure that is the history of the church in a nutshell - we proclaim that Jesus is the Lord, but more often than not, the more we act on it, the more we get tangled up in our “human things” instead of the divine things.

We end up spending more time and resources on the church building rather than actually BEING the church in the world; we spend more time on devising rules about church membership rather than focusing our energy on welcoming the stranger; or simply put we end up stuck on proclaiming the right theology rather than actually putting it to use for the orphan, the widow, the foreigner, the imprisoned.... It is not about choosing one over the other, but rather seeing that one should lead to the other!

Just like hate speech rarely only stays contained within words but spills over to actual oppression, violence, and exclusion, the good speech must do so and if possible, nay...even more so!

If we say that children’s and teachers’ lives matter, then we should make sure that a 14-year-old has a much harder time to get his hands on a gun of any kind for whatever reason by pressuring the elected officials to do their job to protect the community; if we say that all good-intentioned people are welcomed in this country then we better condemn any baseless and dehumanizing speech against them; or if we say that we profess our allegiance to the Peaceable Kingdom of Jesus Christ, then we better try to practise humility, compassion, love, and peaceful resolutions to arguments right here and right now. Our tongue can lead us astray, but it can also set us right if we pay attention to our words and allow the rest of us follow the lead of good speech. It can be our rudder for steering during our voyage through this world.

By that we are following the example of Jesus - he not only taught to look out for the vulnerable and love your enemies, he actually did it! Hungry were fed, the sick were healed, women were listened to, tax collectors welcomed.... In God, there is no division - God says we are loved just as we are and it is true and God acts on it; God says that we all matter and it is so… I think you get the idea. So let us try and do the same - practise good speech and act on it, protecting our own springs from poisonous words of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Christian nationalism, and everything else that leads to our own defilement. By attempting that, we will not be forfeiting our lives, but rather gaining it. Amen!