Thursday of Pentecost 16 – Romans 14:1-12

Romans 14:1-12

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. ² One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. ³ Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. ⁴ Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

⁵ One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. ⁶ The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. ⁸ For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

¹⁰ Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; ¹¹ for it is written,

“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
    and every tongue shall confess to God.”

¹² So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

There are six chief parts to our catechisms, and the fifth one, the section on the Office of the Keys, needs a more attention in these days. Luther, who wrote the catechism, had been shaped by his time as an Augustinian friar. As a friar, Luther would have been expected to confess his sins regularly, perhaps daily. He took this seriously. He tells of the time his confessor told him to go out and commit some real sins before he came back to confess again. While Luther thought that the rite of penance or confession and absolution needed to be reformed in his day, he also maintained throughout his life that the rite was valuable and good for people. He was not speaking of the general confession and absolution which we do in Church. He was speaking of a face to face conversation with another human being in which you confessed your own sins to that person.

This rite has largely fallen on hard times in modern Christianity. Not many come on a regular basis to be absolved individually by their pastor. If they have committed some great sin, perhaps some would come. Many would not. There is a rite for this in your hymnal. You should look it up and consider asking your pastor for an appointed time to meet. But if you do, there is something to keep in mind. You might call it the first rule of confession: You may only confess your own sins. You cannot confess the sins of someone else. All your statements really need to start with “I” as the subject of the verb. Your confession cannot speak of what he or she did, only the deeds and failures of you, the one making confession.

I think we should revive this salutary practice, if for no other reason than the final verses of this reading. If more of us remembered that we stand before the judgment seat of God, this world would go a little better. That awareness gives one a measure of empathy for the weak. When you rely upon the forgiveness of Christ, you tend have a little more patience with the neighbor who has fallen or whose faith is weak and deformed. It is hard to stand before that divine judgment seat. How often I have heard myself or another sinner try to confess the sins of others to excuse the sin which really belonged to me or the speaker. God will have none of that, nor should we. I may or may not be able to understand the sins of another person, but understanding sins makes nothing truly better. Only forgiveness makes things better and I can forgive both the reasonable and unreasonable sins because Jesus died for them all.

Wednesday of Pentecost 16 – Psalm 103:1-12

Psalm 103:1-12

¹ Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits,
³ who forgives all your iniquity,
    who heals all your diseases,
⁴ who redeems your life from the pit,
    who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
⁵ who satisfies you with good
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

⁶ The Lord works righteousness
    and justice for all who are oppressed.
⁷ He made known his ways to Moses,
    his acts to the people of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is merciful and gracious,
    slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
⁹ He will not always chide,
    nor will he keep his anger forever.
¹⁰ He does not deal with us according to our sins,
    nor repay us according to our iniquities.
¹¹ For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
    so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
¹² as far as the east is from the west,
    so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Unusually for politicians, President Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929) was known for being laconic, a man of few words. One Sunday he was caught by a reporter while leaving church. The reporter asked, “What was the sermon about?” “Sin,” Silent Cal replied. “Well, what did he say?” the reporter followed up. “He’s against it,” said the president while walking away.

Our world sometimes seems fixated upon sin, or at least fixated upon some sins. At other times, it seems cheerfully willing to ignore sin. But that has always been the case; we conveniently fixate upon some sins and not others. Our newsfeeds and televisions bring us stories of the latest scandal or crime. But even more wretched and terrible things are probably going on and we do not hear about them.  

Like Silent Cal’s preacher, I too join those who disapprove of sin. Unfortunately, our culture lacks a proper vocabulary for this moment. As a word, “Sin” has fallen out of use outside the dessert menu where the triple chocolate confection might be “sinfully good.” But it is not only the vocabulary of sin which has been lost, it is also the vocabulary of redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Perhaps they sound to “churchy” or “preachy” to some. But they also speak of a way to deal with the profound sins of this world. They are not soft on sin, far from it.

Read this psalm again. In fact, pick up your Bible and read the whole psalm, it goes on for another 10 verses. As you do, notice what God does in all of this. God deals with the sins of people. He forgives, heals, redeems, crowns us with love and mercy, satisfies, and renews. That is just vss. 3-5. The real kicker for me comes in verse 12. Notice what he does with your sins and mine. He removes them from us, as far as the east is from the west. That happened in a cross when Jesus gathered up the sins of the world and paid their brutal price. He did that to my sins. He did that to everyone’s sins. The world needs our words for this. The psalm ends with heavenly beings taking up the praise of God for his great work, his ministers in all his dominions. Lastly the soul of the Psalmist joins them anew. Our words for this world start with our own status as sinners forgiven, people whose sins have been removed. That status as sinner forgiven gives us a word to say to this moment. I encourage you to speak it.

Tuesday of Pentecost 15 – Genesis 50:15-21

Genesis 50:15-21

¹⁵ When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” ¹⁶ So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ¹⁷ ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? ²⁰ As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. ²¹ So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

When I was entering the fifth grade, my father accepted a Call to a small community located next to one of the interstate highways. For the next decade or so, I fell asleep to the sound of the semi-trucks laboring up and down the hills of Missouri. The church, a relatively new and impressive building, was within sight of the freeway. This meant a regular feature of the pastor’s life was people who pulled off the highway looking for some help. Not too many years after we arrived a dilapidated station wagon pulled into the church parking lot. We all saw it; the parsonage was across the lot from the church. Within the car was a rough looking man and his family which included several children. This was the late 1970’s or early 1980’s and high inflation had seriously eroded the purchasing power of my father’s modest salary. The members of the parish were feeling the same pinch. My father had no money to give to this family. But we did have a garden. He asked the man to wait. He came home and we all were marshalled into action. My mother made sandwiches. I was deputed to pick an excellent melon from the garden. We could not give them money, but we could feed them.

I still remember the look on my parents’ faces when we walked onto the parking lot after the car drove off and we discovered all that food thrown out the window of their car. They had wanted money. They were not truly hungry as they had claimed. My mother wept.

In this reading today Joseph weeps. The Joseph story should be part of every Christian’s bible story collection. He had been humbled, sold as a slave by his brothers, thought dead, raised to power, and had rescued the very brothers who had thought to kill him. This scene takes place at the very end of the Joseph story. His father has died, and the brothers assume the worst. Now that Jacob is dead, Joseph will exact his revenge. But Joseph had forgiven them years earlier. You can read about it in Genesis 45. In this scene the brothers come begging for forgiveness and mercy. They had been living in senseless fear this whole time. They had not believed him when he said he forgave them. That is why Joseph wept. It hurts when a gift given is rejected.

Swallow your pride and humbly confess your sin. God, in Jesus, has forgiven you all your sins and continues to love you. It is hard to believe, to accept that. But it true. God delights not in your punishment and death but in your joyful acknowledgment of what he has done for you. He forgives you of your sins. Like a loan forgiven, your sins are gone, removed from the books. No more interest, no more payments. You owe nothing. The IRS has no record of it, so you do not even have to claim it on your taxes. It is yours. Believe it.

Monday of Pentecost 16 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

O God, our refuge and strength, the author of all godliness, hear the devout prayers of Your Church, especially in times of persecution, and grant that what we ask in faith we may obtain; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

My friend Jon served a congregation which had welcomed a group of Sudanese Christians into their midst. He was taking some leaders through a confirmation class so they could become teachers within their community. English was not their first language. When one encountered a long word, it was wise to stop and ask if they knew what it meant. “Crucifixion” was the word of the moment.

“Do you know what ‘crucifixion’ means?’

“Yes, my cousin,” said Tap, the tall, serious, thin man with scars etched across his forehead.  

“What do you mean, ‘your cousin?’”

“The Islamic militia crucified my cousin. Nailed him to a wall. It took three days for him to die and all we could do was watch because the militia would shoot us if we came too close.”

My friend sat in stunned silence for a moment. “Tap, I think you need to teach me,” he said.

I got to know this Sudanese community and others around the country. If you ever get a chance, go to church with them. They know how to sing. It is not Bach chorales, but it is another music of great joy, often accompanied by nothing but a drum. This prayer says that God is the author of all godliness. I find it interesting that God writes godliness, authors it. Is it like DNA in our cells or a plotline in our lives? He wrote deep joy in the Sudanese people which even persecution could not quash. What good has God written in your heart?

Friday of Pentecost 15 – Matthew 18:1-20

Matthew 18:1-20

¹ At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶ but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

⁷ “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹² What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. ¹⁸ Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. ¹⁹ Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

The two women who sat across from me wore worried expressions on their faces. They had been members of my parish for decades. The congregation had spent about ten years in an ongoing conflict which pitted pastors against people and factions within the congregation against each other. No one had won. Brief pastorates had not helped either. Finally, after many had left, a semblance of peace had returned. That was about the time that I showed up. So far, things had gone reasonably well.

Now these two old hands were sitting there, worried. One of the chief protagonists in the conflict had indicated a desire to come back, having spent time in another congregation. The household was unhappy there and wanted to try it back here. For the last several years the congregation had known a respite from the conflict, but now they felt that peace threatened. They asked me what I would do. The individuals involved were much older than I was, retired, and I was a young pastor, fresh out of the seminary.

A meeting was scheduled between the two men who had been involved in the conflict, both of whom had left for a time and now were returning. I have never appreciated a Bible passage as much as I appreciated this chapter on that day when I sat down in church with these two men, decades older than me. Jesus was among us that day. We spoke frankly but without rancor. Forgiveness was tearfully sought, and forgiveness was tearfully and lovingly given.

If you have ever wondered why Jesus rose from the dead, it was to be living and present in moments like these. Old enemies can reconcile when Jesus is in the room. Do you have a difficult discussion looming on the horizon of your life? Many do. Our world has rather forgotten how to have productive and difficult discussions with people with whom we disagree. We shout and scream but little changes and few are moved to see or think differently. We might believe that things will never change. But remember, Jesus has risen from the dead so he can keep this promise to you. Where two or three gather in his name – he is there.

Thursday of Pentecost 15 – Romans 13:1-10

Romans 13:1-10

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. ² Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. ³ For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, ⁴ for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. ⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ⁶ For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. ⁷ Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

⁸ Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. ⁹ For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

I live in Portland, Oregon. If you are reading this from another part of the country, let me tell you that contrary to what news reports have led people to think over the past few years, we are not all homeless anarchists here. The riots have died down, but the homeless encampments remain. In truth, the majority of my fellow citizens believe that government and other structures are a good idea. There are many things we could do better and much that is wrong in our world, but we will only make things worse if we get rid of all the institutions and structures which govern our lives. I am a student of history, and such experiments have never, to my knowledge, ended well.

While we need government to guard and protect the space in which we live, it is also true that government cannot do some things. It cannot make my life good. I still need to work at constructing a wise and well-lived life. Rules will never make me righteous. The highway patrolman beside the road gets me to slow down, but at heart, I may still be a speeder who will accelerate as soon as I am out of his sight. More enforcement does mean better people. It takes something which power cannot provide to make better people.

Paul speaks of obeying the government in this passage. He was writing to folks who lived in the capital of the empire. The role of government was important for them. Paul asserts that one could be a good citizen and a good Christian. But at the end of this reading notice that Paul starts to speak of something else, something more important. There is no law which can command love, but love keeps all the laws. Why we keep the law is important.

In Matthew 18, Jesus lays down the guidelines for how Christians handle disputes. They sound like laws and they are rules, but they are much more.

¹⁵ “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ¹⁶ But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. ¹⁷ If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. (Mt. 18:15-17)

If we treat these simply as rules to be obeyed, then we have not heard what Jesus says. Love keeps the rules for other reasons than those which rules and rulers comprehend. Jesus is after a brother lost, a sheep who has strayed from the fold. He would carry that one home rejoicing. That is the end or goal of these “rules.” In any society we will rub shoulders with those whom it is hard to love. You might find such people in your own home, down the street, or rioting downtown every night. How shall I love that person and thereby keep the law? Jesus speaks of the healing between two people Paul speaks of the society at large. In all of this, we love one another.

Wednesday of Pentecost 15 – Psalm 32:1-7

Psalm 32:1-7

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
    whose sin is covered.
² Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
    and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

³ For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
    through my groaning all day long.
⁴ For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
    my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

⁵ I acknowledged my sin to you,
    and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
    and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

⁶ Therefore let everyone who is godly
    offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
    they shall not reach him.
⁷ You are a hiding place for me;
    you preserve me from trouble;
    you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

“I’m sorry, but…” he started.

“No ‘buts!’” she said, eyes flashing. “You are sorry, or you are not sorry. The ‘buts’ are simply excuses for why you should not be sorry!”

A moment of silence followed this statement. He gaped at her and she glowered.

“Are you sorry?” she asked.

“Yes,” he moaned.

“No excuses? You should not have done it?” she persisted.

“Yes, I mean no, I should not have done it.” He was in an uncomfortable and unfamiliar place.

“Then, I forgive you,” she softly said, taking his hand. “I forgive you.”

Forgiven! Sometimes, the psalms indicate when David wrote one of his psalms. This time, however, the psalm simply is said to be “of David.” It doesn’t tell us when he wrote this psalm but from reading it we know that he has just been forgiven. Was it after his adulterous and murderous affair with Bathsheba? Was it after his ill-conceived census? Or was it some other sin? We do not know, but David’s relief at being forgiven permeates the psalm. He remembers what it was like to be guilty. He remembers trying to keep that inside himself and how much it hurt. Confess your sin, he urges us. Seek the Lord while he may be found. His deliverance is sure, he surrounds us with shouts of deliverance.

What is it like for God to forgive sins? Jesus gives us an insight in Matthew 18:10-14.

¹⁰ “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. ¹² What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? ¹³ And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. ¹⁴ So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

He rejoices over that once lost, now reclaimed lost sheep. There are no losers in forgiveness. Forgive someone today. Acknowledge the sin and acknowledge Christ’s death and resurrection for that sin and sinner. It will be a good day.

Tuesday of Pentecost 15– Ezekiel 33:7-9

Ezekiel 33:7-9

⁷ “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. ⁸ If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

I once saw a woman take three steps back from the person she was talking to. Her conversation partner looked at her rather surprised. Why did she do that? “Well,” replied the woman, “in the Bible sometimes God struck people with lightning who said things like that.” That will get your attention.

Jesus says:

⁷ “Woe to the world for temptations to sin! For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! ⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. ⁹ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.  (Mt. 18:7-9)

Sometimes I think we do not take sin seriously enough. We have learned to cope with its effects and have grown calloused to its presence in our lives. We will work harder to shed a few pounds than we are willing to work to shed a persistent sin. The word sin itself has almost left our vocabulary. About the only place you find the word “sin” outside of church is on the dessert menu where the triple chocolate torte might be “sinfully good.” Temptation also is rarely used outside of something as trivial as a plate of cookies or donuts. But sin and temptation are real, and they are problems.

Jesus draws our attention to that. If your hand caused you to sin, you would cut it off if that meant going to eternal life, the same with a foot or an eye. But it is not your foot or hand or eye that causes you to sin. You cause you to sin. Now what will you do? You cannot cut off your heart and your mind, your very self.

From the beginning God has given us a remedy for sin. He walked through the garden calling our rebellious first parents after they ate the forbidden fruit. He still calls sinners to repent and be forgiven in Christ. He does that through you. God wants to deal with the sin problem. He says that is important. That is why he established the church on earth. That is why he called you into its ranks through baptism. Your silence in the face of sin is not an option. Ezekiel was told that he would be responsible for the death of the unwarned man. He was not responsible for their repentance. But he was responsible for his own words. Is there someone in your life who needs to hear a call to repent? Do it.

Monday of Pentecost 15 – Prayer of the Week

Prayer of the Week

O God, from whom all good proceeds, grant to us, Your humble servants, Your holy inspiration, that we may set our minds on the things that are right and, by Your merciful guiding, accomplish them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

(Our devotional pattern is a little different this week. The Gospel reading appointed for this week, Matthew 18:1-20, is long and rich. We will break that reading up and read a small portion of it in conjunction with the other appointed readings and prayers throughout the week.)

When I was moving up into the third grade, the three-room, small-town Nebraska, Lutheran school I attended welcomed a new teacher into its 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade classroom, Mr. Schaffer. A new graduate from Concordia, Seward, he had a natural gift as an educator. He was a genuine blessing to me as a child. He furthered my love of reading and learning. He failed to improve my handwriting substantively despite his persistent and repeated attempts. But most of all I knew that he cared about me. He was a bright, articulate, grown-up person who cared for me. I think he was listening carefully to these words of Jesus:

¹ At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” ² And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them ³ and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵ “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ⁶ but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.  (Mt. 18:1-6)

We pray in the prayer this week that God would inspire us to set our mind on the right thing and to accomplish it. When the disciples asked who was great (important) in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus set a small child in their midst. Jesus spoke of just how important such children are to God. I remember that Mr. Schaffer got on the floor to read with us. He roped the quilters in the congregation into the classroom to teach us to sew. He acquired a large appliance box, we painted it with bright colors, and it became the “computer.” (This was when computers were huge devices which filled a whole room.) You could sit in there and answer math questions as the computer until you got one wrong, then it was the other kid’s turn. We all wanted to be the computer and as a result furiously memorized our multiplication tables. He found a claw-footed bathtub and some carpet remnants to make a special reading spot in the corner of the room. He was willing to think like a child.

Jesus begins this important passage with an admonition to humble service. The first thing God would have us keep in mind that we too are the needy ones in our relationship with God. We need his help; he has given it. That allows us to be the helpers of those around us. Who can you help today?

Friday of Pentecost 14 – Matthew 16:21-28

Matthew 16:21-28

 ²¹ From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. ²²And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” ²³But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

 ²⁴Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. ²⁶For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. ²⁸Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Read the first verse of the passage above again. It says that Jesus must go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and rise again. Peter does not understand it and I am not sure I do either. What compels him? He is God, after all. At Jesus’ arrest, Matthew quotes Jesus saying that he could summon 12 legions of angels to fight for him (Mt. 26:53). For the record, a legion at full strength has 6,000 soldiers. That is a lot of angels.

He does not summon the angels; instead; he confounds Peter and us by willingly suffering and dying. Our bewilderment, he tells us, is the thinking of broken humanity and not the way of God and His kingdom. But what compels Jesus to that suffering, death, and resurrection? No one forces Jesus to do something except Jesus. This compulsion comes from his own heart. He will give his life to gain the whole world for his Father. 

But now he tells us something more. This principle is not restricted to Jesus. He applies it to all of us. We too must take up that cross and follow him. Again, that “must” confronts us. But experience suggests that it is so. Taking up a cross has so many different expressions. I have known many who have resembled Christ as they gave up their lives, some in heroic acts of courage while others give their lives one day at a time caring for a child born with cerebral palsy. This one stands up for what is right and is crucified in the press for it. Another quits his job because he cannot in good conscience do what they ask of him. There is one thing which marks all of these: Love. It is his boundless love for you and the rest of humanity which drove Jesus to that cross, its suffering, shame, and death. Love even for the men who pounded the nails and those who cried for his blood. When Jesus calls you to take up a cross, it is not to some meaningless sacrifice simply for the sake of sacrifice. He calls you to a life and perhaps a death conformed to his love. If anyone would follow Jesus, let that one deny him or herself, take up the cross, and follow in his love.