Last week I offered a talk, a short sermon, about the long and sometimes difficult process of becoming our fullest self, in alignment with who we are called to be and what we are called to do in our world. Below you will find a link to that talk and its text. May it encourage you during these difficult and challenging times.
Become Who You Are
Matthew 16:21-23
March 10, 2024
For several weeks, now, we've been following Matthew's linked stories about Jesus and Peter. Jesus is discovering his deepest identity and his call from God, to bring his powerful teaching into the world of Jerusalem and its surrounds. And although the stories are linked together, as if they are a roughly chronological account of the emerging ministry of Jesus, please do keep in mind, it is Matthew's ordering, and it doesn't necessarily follow an historical chronology. Rather, Matthew has strung these beads on a cord, to make his larger point. He wants us to believe, Jesus is the Expected One, the Christ, the Messiah, the son of God. All the other characters in his story are meant to help us recognize who Jesus is and to believe it. Matthew knows the end of the story, for he wrote well after the Resurrection, and the new story is emerging right in front of him. So, Matthew assigns Peter the very difficult role of answering Jesus' question: who do you say I am? And by implication, what do you believe? Peter has long been understood to be a flawed, ambivalent, and even an anti- hero.
I will try to offer you another way to read these wonderful stories, but first, I want to say a few words about how we have been persuaded to interpret this figure Peter (whom I will forever now hear called "Rocky" in my mind, thanks to Pastor Nathan!)
In a long tradition of Biblical interpretation, Peter is portrayed as impulsive, enthusiastic, undisciplined, doubting, questioning, criticizing, whining, frightened, and inconsistent in his words and action. I've always wondered why Jesus would hand the keys to heaven and hell to such a man, much less name him the foundation of the most massive, long lasting, and often wealthiest institution on earth. But that is a question for another moment.
I think Peter is a true hero. We watch him struggle to make sense of this man Jesus, whom he has come to respect and trust with his very life. My goodness, he let Jesus persuade him to walk on water! What scripture scholar has ever been so trusting, so reliant on his relationship with Jesus, that he dares to criticize Peter for moments of doubt? Oh, the Scribes and the Pharisees are still among us, I fear.
When we arrive on the scene, in our two verses of chapter 16, Peter has already proclaimed joyfully, in answer to Jesus' question to him, "Who do you, Peter, say I am?" - "You, Jesus, are the Christ, the son of the Living God!" Jesus honors his response, and charges his disciples not to disclose this to anyone outside their small circle.
But Matthew presses on. He reports that Jesus teaches his disciples what the end, or the near end, will be: persecution, arrest, judgment, torture, crucifixion, and resurrection on the third day.
Peter panics. This man, his teacher whom he loves with all his heart, must not die this way, must not! Peter screams his outrage and terror to Jesus. And as it is often translated, Jesus rebukes Peter "Get behind me, Satan." It's a terrible moment.
Several weeks ago, when we heard the story of Jesus calling the demonic spirit out of the afflicted man in the temple, I suggested we might also be watching Jesus struggling to understand who he really was, what God was calling him to fully be and do in the world. How much did Jesus have to stretch within himself, to agree to this emerging identity with its startling powers to heal? We can only guess.
I think we might well be watching a further version of this complex struggle within Jesus, now that he also recognizes what the cost will be to his regular human life, the life he knows and the people he loves. We see the full weight of the call to Jesus to surrender to his path, with its terrible price, and which must be offered freely, with his entire being. Some resistance remains, and Peter gives it voice: "No, no, beloved Teacher, you must not die!" In the climax of his desperate inner struggle, Jesus rebukes that voice, both within him and outside, and he resists the offer of escape, "Get behind me Satan. You are an obstacle to my path." The rebuke is not for Peter. It is for that interior "No." Jesus has decided.
When we look again at Peter, we learn much more about who he is, and then, who we all are. Peter's explosive "No, no! You must not die, Jesus" echoes in each of us, when we face the loss of a beloved or our own fragile gift of life. This is not a sign of doubt or faithlessness in Peter, nor in any of us. It is a human heart cracking open with fear, fear of loss, fear of death.
Jesus too, in his full humanity, fears where his path seems to be leading. He may be "The son of the Holy One," but he too lives in a body which has seen and heard the dozens of anguished bodies writhing on crosses on Golgotha, for it was Rome's way to execute rebels and insurrectionists. Jesus' struggle to walk the path offered to him was not just to make a spiritual or theological point. Perhaps the whole of salvation history, as recounted in the Hebrew Bible, that the anointed one would return, was at stake? Who knows?
I am old and increasingly fragile, as are many of you beloved people sitting in this sanctuary this morning. We know death is close. The young and sturdy are also mortal, and will suffer in some way before they die. We all must wrestle with this central fact of our lives: we are mortal. How can we approach our own death and the death of our beloveds with clarity and trust, with open hearts?
I watch Jesus like a hawk, as he struggles to be who he is called to be, and to live as he is called to live. I watch him retreat to the wilderness, to listen to his God and rest and repair. I watch him offer healing and teaching. I watch him practice surrendering to Spirit. I watch him reckoning with danger, injustice, and death.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, his friends gathered to tell each other stories about his life and teachings. They were called Followers of the Way long before they were called Christians.
I consider myself a follower of the way, and I watch Jesus opening to Spirit, over and over, into such clarity and transparency, vast streams of wisdom and compassion can flow through his Spirit into the world.
Peter knew this path as well, that he would be called to walk through his own fear until he could be one in heart and mind, rooted in trust and love, surrendered and free. Of course, volatile and beautiful Peter could be the leader of the emerging community. May each of us find our way, to become who we truly are.
Your voice is cherished too Penny <3
I am a Watcher, from the book of Enoch, living the privilege of receiving the eternal flow of Companionate healing and Grace. Penny your inspired Presence roots me in, trust and love..