September 3, 2017 – Pentecost +13A

“From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life? “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done. Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Matthew 16:21-28

“Jesus as the king of the Jews or God’s Christ/Messiah (“anointed one”) is obviously a threat to the status quo. His mere existence as an infant constituted a threat to King Herod, Rome’s client king (Matthew 2), and to the extent that Herod was willing to murder all children under two years old in and around Bethlehem to assure the annihilation of the one who might someday replace him (or his progeny) as Rome’s puppet with privileges. Freedom is sometimes forfeited by even the oppressed for privileges and advantages of empire. Herod could rely on the chief priest and scribes to cooperate with his murderous agenda (2:4). Religion is political (i.e., hierarchical, at least) and the political is religious.

Sometimes even members of the intimate circle of a revolutionary band don’t yet know what it means to be a revolutionary. The colonized Jesus envisions a basileia (often translated kingdom) that prioritizes justice/righteousness, promotes neighbor love that is defined and motivated by God-love and self-love, is not charmed by wealth, position and authority, is not dreaming of becoming Rome’s puppet king or of occupying an earthly throne, and is anticipating an imminent disgraceful death. Not able to inhabit that space with Jesus, Peter scolds him. Pulling Jesus aside, Peter chastises him, as if Jesus has lost faith. Many religious folks will not or cannot abide sisters and brothers who demonstrate anything but faith in their talk. Christians sometimes can’t mourn any impending or actual loss without being accused of having lost their faith. Grief and mourning are natural human reactions to loss. God created us to be human and declared our humanness to be good. Peter declares that his loyalty to Jesus will withstand the threat of death; that though the crowds forsake Jesus, he will not. We sometimes prefer to see Peter as weak, rather than as human. Perhaps Peter saw himself as superhuman. I don’t think Jesus calls us to deny our humanity but to commit to following him while fully accepting how vulnerable our humanity will be if we choose to be revolutionaries. Jesus was willing to be God’s revolutionary Messiah knowing the violence that could be done to his body as a consequence of pursuing justice, love and peace instead of the privileges of empire.” (“How does a revolutionary leader prepare a colonized people for the death of their Messiah?” Mitzi J. Smith, September 3, 2017, workingpreacher.org)

Living this Christian life can turn out to be harder than any of us could ever have thought it might be. In fact some days it seems almost impossible. But that is the point. It can’t be done without the Lord’s help, and the Lord’s presence in our lives. At the end of our Gospel text this morning Jesus says “Some standing here will not taste death before they see the in-breaking of the Kingdom.” Some believed this meant the second coming of Jesus, but I have learned that this is not so. Jesus was trying to show the disciples that his presence with them was the in-breaking of the kingdom of God and that it had started then and continues into the “now”. You see, right now in your lives, you can experience, and will experience, are experiencing the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God – but maybe you just don’t realize it is happening. Let me share this story from my life.
One day my wife was texting someone, and as I often do, I asked her who she was texting. She told me that a woman she became friends with had lost her grandmother and they were having trouble finding a pastor to do the service on the Labor Day holiday. Of course I told her I would do it, but she had already offered my services. When it was determined that I would do the service, I was given the name of the daughter of the woman who died so we could schedule a time to meet and to talk about the service. As it turned out, this woman was married to my wife’s aunt’s brother. Through a chance meeting between my wife and someone who became friends, I ended up doing a funeral for part of my wife’s extended family from Maryland.
Now let me reframe that – through the in-breaking of God’s kingdom, two people were brought together for God’s greater good – and what becomes more and more obvious to me is that the Kingdom of God is breaking into our lives all of the time – if we are paying attention.

My friends, living the Christian life means many things – and those things are not always that easy. There are many things we would rather say “I would prefer not to” when asked to do them in the name of our faith – and yet we are asked to do them whether we want to or not. And God asks us to do them because we already know the end of the story when it comes to God’s son, Jesus Christ. But that doesn’t mean we are off the hook – that our behaviors can run completely off the tracks. If we are followers of Jesus, then we are not people who “One Day” will be “Kingdom Dwellers” – no we are “Kingdom Dwellers” right now. As such our lives should be about doing human things in the ways of the Kingdom. So instead of hating those who do us evil, we feed them and clothe them and give them drinks of water – and in doing so we set ourselves “apart” – not because we are better than others – but because we are “a part” of God’s Kingdom here, right now.

Pastor Dave