Commentary

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I.Theme –   Finding identify, confronting power of leaders and molding the growing church.

 "Keys to the Kingdom" – Hermoleon

The lectionary readings are here  or individually: 

Old Testament – Isaiah 51:1-6
Psalm – Psalm 138 Page 793, BCP
Epistle –Romans 12:1-8
Gospel – Matthew 16:13-20 

This week is about identity, power and authority of leaders, people and within the growing church. In fact there is little action – we step back, examine ourselves, ask questions and interpret where this is leading us.

This section marks a turning point in both Roman’s and Matthew’s Gospel.

In three prior chapters, Paul has figured out how God will bring all peoples into the grace of Jesus Christ, even the Israelites who, by rejecting Jesus, seem to have given up their status as the Chosen People. Now Paul focuses on what life as one body with diverse gifts looks like as he blends both Jew and Gentile. And with one body comes worship. We must adopt a new mind set, in order to recognize God’s will for us.

Paul insists that we should offer our bodies and minds to God, open to actively being used and changed – thus our whole lives become “spiritual worship.” There is a wonderful promise that in doing so, we may discern the will of God.

He identifies core activities in his Kingdom though in his time the actual churches were far more dispersed. Note that the gifts listed here are focused not on the “institution” of the church, but on the core activities of the Christian community with each other and on mission in the world—proclaiming God’s living word, serving others, teaching, coaching, giving, leading, and offering mercy . The body only functions when everyone’s gifts are being exercised. The image of the church as the body strongly challenges giving excessive authority in the church to particular individuals or positions, as the body only functions when everyone’s gifts are being exercised.

In the Gospel, up till now Jesus has been teaching the crowds the mystery of the Kingdom in the face of growing hostility from the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus now withdraws with the disciples to begin forming them into his ‘church’.

The gospel text poses a challenge to the authority that comes from Roman might, or divine rule by their gods. And it is happening in their backyard – in Caesarea Philippi . So who is Jesus to challenge the foundation of society ? “Who do others think I am and who do you think I am?”

Jesus’ identity is composed in the context of God’s interaction with Israel as well as the power of Jesus’ own time. When Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah or the anointed one of God, images of political independence are certainly in the air.

In his words to Simon Peter, Jesus gives authority to him and the other disciples – to a bunch of fishermen, tax collectors, rebels and others, who misunderstand him 9 times out of 10, and do not fit anyone’s conventional notion of leaders.

In doing so, however, the Gospel writers are not just interested in correctly defining who Jesus is but also in shaping a community molded in light of his actions and teachings. And so these questions of identity are not just a matter of definition but of formation, not just doctrine but discipleship.

There are two key symbols present here. "The rock" is the symbolic anchor for the church and is could be Christ or Peter’s insight of Christ. Christ gives Peter "the keys", the ability to unlock the mysteries of the Kingdom; they may also be a symbol of authority over the Church Originally, when one came to seek the king’s help or counsel, the servant’s job was to open the door to the king’s house and assist him in reaching the king. Christ’s servants, the ministry, have a similar responsibility to assist those God is calling in coming to their King, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah is not about the identity of leaders or churches but the people themselves.

In the Isaiah passage it is not the leader whose identity is under scrutiny, but the people themselves, as the prophet asks them to look to their own heritage. Although this passage points to several moments in Israel’s story, the most overt reference is to Abraham and Sarah.

In the Psalm identity comes in the context of praise, the psalmist continuing the words of thanks, this time to the “name ” of god, because of God’s “steadfast love and faithfulness. “Name” was an important concept in the ancient Near East. Names reflected the natures and characters of the person who bore them and were conceptually equal to the essence of ones being. The Psalmist is providing identity to God, one how provides “love and faithfulness;” who “increased my strength within me” , “cares for the lowly”, keeps him safe and confronts the psalmist’s enemies. 

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I.Theme –   God comes to all us, includes all in his mercy and calls us to lead lives of justice

 "Jesus and the Canaanite Woman"  – Jean Colombe

The lectionary readings are here or individually

Old Testament – Isaiah 56:1,6-8
Psalm – Psalm 67 Page 675, BCP
Epistle –Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
Gospel – Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28 

Three ingredients come together to create a celebratory mix in this week’s Lectionary: The first is God’s salvation (expressed in terms of justice and mercy); the second is God’s blessing given to those who are saved; and the third is the inclusion of "foreigners" and "outcasts". The expansion of the gospel beyond the boundaries of Judaism does not supersede God’s love for Israel, but reflects God’s love and inspiration of all people.  The focus, then, of this week’s worship is on God’s coming to us, welcoming all people, and including all people in God’s mercy, salvation and blessing, while also calling all people to lives of justice.

In Isaiah 5 , God calls God’s people to justice and fairness because God promises to come to them and bring not just God’s people, but also the foreigners and outcasts, to worship and to be blessed by God on God’s mountain.

Psalm 67 is a psalm of praise for God’s blessings and mercy, which calls all nations to join in praising God for God’s saving power.

In Romans 11, the apostle Paul affirms God’s faithfulness to the Jewish people. There is no room for anti-Judaism in Christianity. God’s providential gifts of grace are irrevocable. God has made an eternal covenant with the children of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. God’s revelation in Christ expands God’s covenant to include all the peoples of the earth. God will have mercy on disobedient people everywhere, whether Jew or Gentile.

The question of being chosen once again is ambiguous. An omnipresent and omni-active God, for whom love is the guiding principle, chooses all creation. No one is left out. This is problematic for those who see the Jewish people and nation, or any other nation, as absolutely unique. As some prophetic writings suggest, Israel was chosen for a mission, to be a light to the Gentiles, bringing God’s love to all peoples.

The gospel reading places Jesus in an unusual light. When a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus to seek healing for her daughter, Jesus puts her off, apparently excluding her because of her ethnicity from God’s healing realm. The woman persists and eventually Jesus relents, apparently impressed by the depth of her faith and her willingness to experience humiliation for the love of her daughter. Jesus cures her daughter from a distance; his energy transcends the boundaries of space.

This story also portrays another kind of transcendence, the transcendence of ethnic and personal barriers for the sake healing and wholeness. Now, there are a number of ways to interpret the encounter of Jesus with the Canaanite woman. At first glance, Jesus appears to succumb to the racist tendencies that characterized the attitudes of many Jewish people toward foreigners. He puts her off because, as a Canaanite, she is unworthy of God’s love. A second interpretation suggests that Jesus is testing her faith, trying to discern how much she loves her daughter and what she is willing to do to secure a healing for her daughter. Finally, a third interpretation asserts that Jesus may be creating a trap for those who see the woman as an inferior outsider. He acts and speaks like a racist, getting their insider assent, and then pulls the rug out from under them by healing the Canaanite woman’s daughter. From this perspective, the encounter is a parable, a reversal of expectations, a turning upside down of socially acceptable racism in light of God’s realm of inclusion and healing.

However, we understand the meaning of the encounter between Jesus and the Canaanite woman, the story portrays Jesus’ eventual inclusion of non-Jewish people into his ministry. God’s healing embraces all people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, or sexuality. Mature faith widens the circles of God’s love to go beyond our well-being to embrace and support the various gifts of the earth’s peoples.

Earlier in the readings, Jesus explains that it is not what we eat that defiles us but the evil that is in our hearts. Then he is approached by a Canaanite woman who convinces him, in spite of his initial reluctance, to heal her daughter who is being tormented by a demon.

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Scriptures: Exodus 34:29-35 and Luke 9:28-36

I love a good mountaintop experience, and in the Scripture passages appointed for last Sunday, we heard about two of them. Mountaintop experiences are moments when everything changes. You gain a sudden insight into something that up until then, was hidden. You see things for what they really are. And you’re never quite the same again.

But “mountaintop experiences” don’t only happen on mountaintops…

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We say the following prayer from page 365 almost every week:

“Eternal God, heavenly Father, you have graciously accepted us as living members of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ, and you have fed us with spiritual food in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Send us now into the world in peace, and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart; through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Where does the Post Communion Prayer come from? After Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in the 4th century, the large numbers of people joining the Church led to a need to develop a post communion thanksgiving prayer. . The 1549 Book provides one fixed post communion prayer which is equal in length to several of the Sarum post communion prayers (from the middle ages) joined together The following also may have been a source – “You have fed me with the Precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.” – Sir Thomas Aquinas

Massey H. Shepherd, Jr., has written of post-communion text “[It is] one of the most remarkable summaries of doctrine to be found in all the formularies of the Prayer Book. It gathers up all the varied meanings of the Holy Communion; thanksgiving, mystery, grace, incorporation into Christ, fellowship in the Church, anticipation of the Kingdom of God. “

The prayer on Page 365 Rite II was written the Rev. Dr. Leo Malania for the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. The emphasis of this prayer is not on the benefits of communion but on the work God calls us to do as we go out into the world. In Rite I we ask God to “assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship, and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in; “ and in Rite II “strength and courage to love and serve you with gladness and singleness of heart.” Malania served as coordinator for Prayer Book revision and Captain Howard Galley as assistant. Galley wrote the BCP Prayer C, the “Star Wars” prayer).

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Excerpt from "Forward Movement" 

"It is cliche to speak of something that is "out of the box." Perhaps we should replace the metaphor with "out of the boat." That’s what Peter did. He got out of the boat and walked across the water toward Jesus. 

"We long for out-of-the-boat thinking—to step out, to be freed of conventional expectations, and to take a risk, like Peter. We forget that doing so is inevitably met by a strong wind resisting us. Like Peter, we are not too far out of the boat before the wind frightens us and we begin to sink. It is as if the forces of nature conspire to keep us in the boat, but there is just no way to Jesus but to get out and take a chance. 

"The story about walking on the water is about faith taming the forces of nature. Faith is what compels Peter to get out of the boat in the first place. Faith is also what Peter relies on when he encounters nature’s resistance. Faith is how Jesus stills the storm. The choice we face is almost always between fear and faith. 

"One is a matter of survival. One is a matter of life. Jesus calls us to come to life.  "

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Walking on Water in our Time – The Truman Show 

When we confront our fears in real life they are no longer fears inside our head and we destroy them. However, that is easier said than done! It is usually a lengthy process with fits and starts.  

One of the best examples of this is the 1998 movie, The Truman Show.

The amazing thing is that for much of the movie he is along in dealing with his fears. He doesn’t have an advantage of a counselor in the process.

 

Truman, played by Jim Carrey is caught inside a 24 hour-a-day comedy-melodrama in which he is the star. The idyllic island town where he grew up and lives is an immersive stage set enclosed in a giant dome (shown in part at the top of the page) with a ceiling that creates the illusion of a sky. Wind, rain, night, the moon, the stars, even the sun is a high-tech special effect. With some 5000 cameras placed around the city, Truman’s life is followed 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a nonstop telethon of reality programming for a public hungry for pathos and vicarious emotion. All of humanity watches as he goes through the stages of life and finds himself in realistic situations that are actually scripted and improvised, to give the show some of the dramatic density that separates entertainment from mundane life.

There is a god-like director that controls Truman’s televised world. His name is Christof. His name is also significant. He’s more like anti-Christ however, making it impossible for Truman to know the truth and have a normal life.

Truman falls in love in a library (symbol of the knowledge of good and evil). They kiss on the beach with the pounding surf in the background (foreshadowing what lies ahead). She is a bit player on the show and is quickly written out. She is banished from the show. Truman is told she moved away across the sea. Truman is now determined to leave Seahaven -the illusionary human-made Paradise. What is Paradise without Eve? Without love?

Read more about this movie…

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