Readings
for Proper 17A:
Jeremiah 15:15-21, Psalm 26:1-8,
Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:21-27
August 28, 2005
The Robert J. Mayer
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
Lord God, uplift me so that I may uplift thee I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
Some people enjoy reading science fiction. I do. My favorite kind right now is Alternative History, which is a science fiction answer to the question, “What if …” So, what if you had to answer someone from another planet who asked you about Christianity, about what you believe in, who is your God, and how do you worship. I would answer that I believe in God who came among us in a way that we could understand, as a human being; therefore, I would follow God by emulating that example, that human being. And, this is my topic, how do we follow God in a way that we can understand? How do we follow that example? My topic came from the readings for today.
Almost every set of readings from Holy Scripture we use in a service of worship has one or more themes, and somehow the readings seem to connect with one another. Understanding a theme among several readings may require puzzle-solving skills, just like working your way through a maze or a labyrinth. Here’s how I do it, I go from the end to the beginning. So let us trace backwards by working from the last reading through to the first one. Let us consider the readings from Holy Scripture in that order.
God has been in and among us, saving us and delivering us, even before Holy Scripture came into existence. But now, Holy Scripture documents God’s presence:
God seems to do whatever God wants to do. God became God among us in a way that we can understand to try to get through to us. So, how do we follow God in a way that we can understand? How do we emulate that example? That visitor from another planet might ask me, “How do you do that? What does that mean to you? Explain yourself.” Being a Book-of-Common-Prayer-toting Episcopalian, I would turn to the Catechism … and then read ,
Regardless of which gifts God gives to us, and every one of us receives gifts from God. To represent Christ and his Church is difficult to do. It is difficult, whether you see yourself as a vertical Christian ?, reserved, and ‘It’s between you and me, God,” or as a horizontal Christian ?, self-disclosing, and obviously active. Either way + our job is to bear witness to God.
From the book of Isaiah , Christians understand the definitive witness to God is like the Suffering Servant, like Jesus Christ. At Christmas and Easter, we usually hear about the Suffering Servant in Handel’s Messiah: “… He was despised and rejected by men … Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows …“ Our calling is to witness, to emulate Jesus when we step up to represent Christ and his Church.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Oregon recently wrote about how to be a Christian Disciple:
To be a Christian Disciple is neither simple, nor convenient, nor easy to do. Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship to help us to understand his action in returning from safety as a refugee back to Hitler’s Germany and to his own execution.
Now, being a disciple by just being faithful is not enough as James a servant of God wrote to the twelve tribes dispersed throughout the world
… For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works or actions or good deeds is dead.
To conclude, the lyrics of Where He Leads Me , say,
I hear my Savior calling, “Take your cross and follow me.”
Where He leads me I will follow, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
I’ll go with him through the garden, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
Where He leads me I will follow, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
I’ll go with him through judgment, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
Where He leads me I will follow, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
He will give me grace and glory, And go with me, with me all the way.
Where He leads me I will follow, I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
| Updated 9/13/05 |
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