Saturday, September 12, 2015
Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
Proper 19B ~ September
13, 2015
Holy Trinity & St. Anskar
it stains
the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature,
and is itself set on fire by hell.
+In the Name of God, the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
James seems to wish we would keep our mouth shut. Peter shows us why this is a good idea. The Brother of God wants us to bridle our
tongues, advice from which Peter clearly could have profited. The only problem is that Jesus Himself asks
us to speak: Who do men say that I
am? Who do you say that I am? Jesus requires an answer, He requires us to
talk.
Peter exemplifies the
problem. On the one hand, he is inspired
by God to pronounce the truth (Orthodox dogma).
On the other hand, he goes on to say way more than he should. His first confession arises not out of his
own research (flesh and blood has not revealed this to you) but from divine inspiration. His subsequent advice, which earned him the
rebuke as satan or adversary, DID come of his own experience,
his background, culture, and history – his own knowledge: flesh and blood, human
thoughts, not divine. The problem seems
to be that our talk about God (theology) inevitably contains both. God-given
insight and our own baggage – flesh and
blood along with spirit.
It is tempting to
think that it would be better if we just shut up, but we are not at liberty to
do that. So, we need to be humble, and
to recognize that whatever we do say will likely contain a lot of mistakes, even
though it may also contain some truth. As St. Paul told the Corinthians, all of our
knowledge — and hence all our pronouncements — are partial, incomplete, and
usually accompanied by extraneous material, as Peter's were. But we still have to make them. We have to answer the Lord’s question about His
identity. That is one big difference
between Christianity and Buddhism.
Christianity is the
religion of the logos, the word. A word is an expression of a concept. But God is inconceivable. So, Buddhism prescinds, because talking about
God is "unprofitable." We
cannot conceive the inconceivable, and so it is foolish to speak of it. But Jesus, the Word Incarnate, requires us to
speak of it. In so doing, we are almost
certain to turn, like Peter, into adversaries. The same tongue that confesses
the truth about Jesus at Cæsarea Philippi also denies Him with cursing in Jerusalem.
With [our
tongue] we bless the Lord and Father,
and with it we curse those who are made in
the likeness of God.
From the
same mouth come blessing and cursing.
And in this, Peter is our model. If we shut up out of fear of
error, we also stifle the Good News. Like Peter, we are bound to get it wrong,
but also like him, we must be willing to risk it.
The Lord’s rebuke
comes with the answer to Peter’s problem: “Get behind me.” In other words, get
with the Program. Follow me, even if it seems all wrong, from everything you
know so far. We are going into uncharted territory. Everything you think you
know will be challenged. Now that you know Who I am, trust Me and not your own thinking.
AMEN
MARANATHA
COME, LORD JESUS!
