For Sunday
Proper 17A
Collect
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
This passage is inseparable from the one that comes before it, though the lectionary has tried. We read the first half of the story last week, when Jesus asks the disciples who people say the Son of man is and then who they say Jesus is. When Peter tells Jesus that he is the Messiah, Jesus calls him the rock, the church’s foundation. He hands the metaphorical keys to the kingdom of heaven to him.
So then Jesus says that he’s heading to Jerusalem where he will die. And the guy with the keys, is like, that’s not gonna happen. I’ll prevent it. Awe, sweet Peter. Always missing the point.
Jesus has given Peter the place to measure the future, to bind and loose the people of the world and the first thing he does is attempt to use that power selfishly. Because he doesn’t want to lose Jesus or he doesn’t want his movement to die. Peter has suddenly stopped thinking like God and returned to his flawed humanity. Which is as predictable as it is sad.
Meanwhile, Jesus knows the movement won’t die with him. That, as much as we will come to name it after him (or at least his office as Christ/Messiah), the future doesn’t rest in the hands of Jesus, but in people. The ones who make up the movement. Who bind and loose.
And yet, and this hits like a paradox, we don’t get to make it about us. It is dependent on us, but the work is our serving, our community. It is sacrifice and it is love. Like serving food to others and not worrying if there’s enough for us. Because the equation isn’t about their benefit or your satisfaction, but the will and grace of God. And we are to be tuned into this as much as to ourselves.