Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 16 September 2018, is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XVI). The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted in the Church of Ireland, are:
Continuous Readings: Proverbs 1: 20-33; Psalm 19 or the Canticle The Song of Wisdom (Wisdom 7: 26 to 8: 1); James 3: 1-12; Mark 8: 27-38.
Paired Readings: Isaiah 50: 4-9a; Psalm 116: 1-8; James 3: 1-12; Mark 8: 27-38.
There is a link to the readings HERE.
Introducing the readings:
There is an interesting theme about Wisdom running through the Continuous Readings provided for next Sunday. The qualities of wisdom as an image of God are described in the first reading. The Psalm describes how wisdom can be searched out and found. An alternative to the Psalm is found in the Canticle, ‘The Song of Wisdom,’ which describes the characteristics of wisdom.
The New Testament reading, however, warns us against unwise use of our tongue in talk and conversation, and the Gospel reading is an introduction to how the disciples, personified in Saint Peter, find it difficult to be wise about who Christ is.
Proverbs 1: 20-33:
Wisdom, who is personified as a woman, makes her first appearance in this book in this reading and delivers warnings of her own.
She speaks in public places where she can be heard – as did the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah – reaching ordinary people in the street and the busy people who work at the city gates. She calls to the simple, to the scoffers and to fools, all of whom reject wisdom.
If only they would change their ways, she would make God’s ways known to them. But, even though she has stretched out her hand, they have not changed their ways and they laugh at her.
But, she warns them, she will have the last laugh. Their downfall will be sudden and unpredictable, like a storm or a whirlwind, when they will realise it too late. Then, because they hated knowledge and chose not to hold God in awe, because they did not accept the advice of Wisdom, nor listened to her criticism of their ways, they will reap what they have sown. But those who listen to Wisdom’s call will live ‘without dread of disaster.’
Psalm 19:
This Psalm is familiar to many churchgoers because its closing words were often used in the past by preachers as the opening prayer as they began their sermons: ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer’ (Psalm 19: 14).
In the Psalm, the heavens and the firmament are depicted as telling us of God’s glory and work. The firmament was understood as almost like a pudding bowl over the earth, and beyond this was a hierarchy of heavens.
God’s glory is told day and night to all without needing to use words. The sun rises early in the morning, making God’s presence known with its heat.
Verses 7-9 present the wonders of the law as an expression of God’s will for humanity. It revives the soul, gives wisdom to the innocent, rejoices the heart and gives light to the eye.
The Canticle Song of Wisdom (Wisdom 7: 26 to 8: 1):
The lectionary provides the Canticle The Song of Wisdom as an alternative to the psalm on Sunday. This is one of the 20 canticles provided for use at Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer (see pp 132-133), but unlike other Biblical canticles in this section – such as Venite and Jubilate, we are offered only one form of this canticle.
The Book of Wisdom is important for our ideas of Christ. As in the first reading (Proverbs 1: 20-33), Wisdom is once again personified as a woman. She has 21 characteristics of wisdom – although some are repeated to reach this number. In Hebrew literature, the number 7 signifies perfection, while the number 3 is the divine number. So, the number 21 represents divine or absolute perfection.
Wisdom flows from eternal light, is a flawless reflection of God’s activity, and an image of his goodness. Wisdom can do all things, is constant unchanging, gives life to each generation, and enters the souls of the godly. Wisdom is morally perfect and ‘orders all things well.’
James 3: 1-12:
The author of this Epistle is a teacher who realises the expectations for teachers is greater than those for others, and warns that none of us can live a perfect, Christian, moral life.
The tongue is small, but like a horse’s bit or a ship’s rudder, it can steer and move the rest of the body, with grave consequences. The tongue can be set on fire by hell, is difficult to be tame, and is capable of spreading evil. It can be used for good or evil, to honour God or to curse other people, who are ‘made in the likeness of God.’ It should only be used for good.
In nature, a spring only produces good water or bad water, fig trees do not yield olives, nor do vines yield figs, and salt water cannot yield fresh water.
What do we produce that are signs of a living Christian faith?
Mark 8: 27-38:
In this Gospel reading, Christ travels north from the Sea of Galilee to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, a town known for its shrines to the god Pan. It was first settled in the Hellenistic period, and was also known as Caesarea Paneas and Neronias.
On the way to Caesarea Philippi, Saint Peter tells Christ that he believes he is the Messiah (Mark 8: 29-30). Peter has that rock-like faith on which the Church is going to be built (see Matthew 16: 18-19).
But Christ then tells his disciples that it is not all going to be a bed of roses, indeed it is going to be more like a crown of thorns. He tells them that on the journey he is going to suffer, be derided, and face his own execution.
Saint Peter is upset. This is not what he expects. This is not what anyone of the day expects of the Messiah. He takes Jesus aside, and he rebukes him.
But he has got it wrong. Christ in turn rebukes Peter and reminds those present that if they want to be his followers they must take up their cross and follow him.
Later, during the trial of Jesus, Peter denies he is a follower of Christ, not just once, or even twice, but denies Christ three times before the cock crows.
This is the same Simon Peter who has a faith that is going to be so rock solid that the church could stand on it. This is the same Peter who drew his sword in the garden in a futile attempt to stop the arrest of Christ (John 18: 10-11; but see Matthew 26: 51-54, Mark 14: 47 and Luke 22: 49-51, where Peter is not named).
But, when push comes to shove, Peter denies Christ, and denies him three times in the course of just one night (Matthew 26: 69-75; Mark 14: 66-72; Luke 22: 54-62; John 18: 15-17, 25-27).
Yet this Peter is to find his potential, or rather Christ sees his potential, in an Easter story, a story of hope (John 21: 15-17).
The Risen Christ meets the disciples on the shore early in the morning. After breakfast, Christ asks Peter: ‘Do you love me?’ Peter answers, ‘Yes Lord; you know that I love you.’ Christ tells him: ‘Feed my lambs’ (verse 15).
A second time, Christ asks him, ‘Do you love me?’ Peter answers, ‘Yes Lord; you know that I love you.’ Christ tells him: ‘Tend my sheep’ (verse 16).
A third time, Christ asks him, ‘Do you love me?’ Peter feels hurt, and he sounds exasperated and exhausted as he answers a third time, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ This time Christ tells him: ‘Feed my sheep’ (verse 17).
Christ’s three questions to Peter serve as a way of reversing the three denials the previous week. Now he is given a triple charge: to feed the lambs of the Good Shepherd; to tend his sheep; and to feed his sheep.
Despite this, Saint Peter still does not manage to get it quite right all the time. He argues with Saint Paul at Antioch, and Paul rebukes Peter for seemingly trying to insist that Gentiles must become Jews if they are to convert to Christianity (Galatians 2: 11-13).
Even when he gets it wrong in Antioch, Saint Peter goes on to get it right at the first Council of the Church in Jerusalem (see Acts 15: 7-20). He goes on to refer to Saint Paul as ‘our beloved brother’ and his letters as ‘scripture,’ even when they may be difficult to understand (see II Peter 3: 16-17).
A later Church tradition says Saint Peter and Saint Paul taught together in Rome, founded Christianity in the city, and suffered martyrdom at the same time, so that an icon of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, standing side-by-side, is a popular icon of Church unity and ecumenism in the Orthodox Church.
Reflecting on the Gospel reading:
Like the people who are listening to Christ in Sunday’s Gospel reading, we are called to take up our cross and follow Christ (Mark 8: 34). Along the way, we may fall and stumble, we may wonder where we are going and why. But the Easter message is always a reminder that the journey in faith leads to is one of hope and love.
If Saint Peter knew what was ahead of him, he might have been even stronger in rebuking Christ in this Gospel reading. But the triumph comes not in getting what we want, not in engineering things so that God gives us what we desire and wish for, so that we get a Jesus who does the things we want him to do. The triumph comes at Easter, in the Resurrection.
We cannot separate who Christ is from what Christ does. In Sunday’s Gospel reading, Christ asks his disciples, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ (Mark 8: 29). The suffering of the Suffering Servant is an image that is drawn on when Christ talks in our Gospel reading this morning from Saint Mark’s Gospel.
There he talks about his coming passion and crucifixion, when he says that ‘the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected … and be killed …’ (Mark 8: 31).
If we say we believe Christ suffered and died for our sins, then we must also say that he takes on the ways we are sinned against.
When people are taunted and spat on in the streets, when their ethnicity and their language become a matter for rejection and humiliation, then how do we respond to it when we think that it is Christ himself who is being spat upon, that Christ himself takes on the insults and the injuries?
But suffering and rejection must never have the last word. As Christ reminds us in this Gospel reading, all sufferings must end in hope: the Son of Man ‘after three days [will rise] again’ (Mark 8: 31). All suffering must eventually be put to an end, because that is the promise of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection.
To be true followers of Christ means taking up our cross and following him (Mark 8: 34). There is no shame in being Christ-like (Mark 8: 38). And so, we too must be willing to see any insult or taunt, any expression of prejudice or rejection, any racism or any discrimination based on ethnicity or language, gender or sexuality, colour or looks, is prejudice against Christ, is prejudice against the Body of Christ, is prejudice against all of us, is prejudice against me.
Some years ago, in my book Embracing Difference, I pointed out that immigrants and asylum seekers in Ireland suffer disproportionately when it comes to industrial accidents and poor wages. Statistics show they are more likely than Irish-born residents to be the victims of violent crime, including murder, to end up in prison, to be the victims of racism, to be killed in road traffic accidents, and to be the victims of workplace accidents, including fatal accidents.
Those same statistics show that a disproportionate number of the children admitted to our hospitals are the children of asylum seekers. If they suffer like this, then how ought we to respond as Christians?
Mark 8: 27-38 (NRSV)
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ 28 And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 29 He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that 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. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Saint Peter depicted in one of the paired east windows in Saint Brendan’s Cathedral, Clonfert, Co Galway (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green
The Collect:
O Lord,
Hear the prayers of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of mercy,
through our sharing in this holy sacrament
you make us one body in Christ.
Fashion us in his likeness here on earth,
that we may share his glorious company in heaven,
where he lives and reigns now and for ever.
Suggested Hymns:
The hymns suggested for next Sunday in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling, include:
Proverbs 1: 20-33:
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
11, Can we by searching find out God
324, God, whose almighty word
Psalm 19:
606, As the deer pants for the water
153, Come, thou Redeemer of the earth
351, From all that dwell below the skies
631, God be in my head
696, God, we praise you! God, we bless you!
616, In my life, Lord, be glorified
97, Jesus shall reign where’er the sun
384, Lord, thy word abideth
432, Love is his word, love is his way
638, O for a heart to praise my God
34, O worship the King all-glorious above
35, The spacious firmament on high
The Song of Wisdom:
643, Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
33, O Lord of every shining constellation
Isaiah 50: 4-9a:
230, My Lord, what love is this
235, O sacred head, sore wounded
239, See, Christ was wounded for our sake
Psalm 116: 1-8:
494, Beauty for brokenness
374, When all thy mercies, O my God
James 3: 1-12:
31, Lord of the boundless curves of space
589, Lord, speak to me that I may speak
33, O Lord of every shining constellation
446, Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands
Mark 8: 27-38:
666, Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side
460, For all your saints in glory, for all your saints at rest (verse 1, 2j, 3)
533, God of grace and God of glory
588, Light of the minds that know him
59, New every morning is the love
108, Praise to the Holiest in the height
599, ‘Take up thy cross,’ the Saviour said
112, There is a Redeemer
605, Will you come and follow me
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
No comments:
Post a Comment