Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost: August 24, 2014

Epistle and Gospel 

Romans 12:1-8  I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

Reflections:  St. Paul tells us how to live in Christ; he makes two important points. First, the body is a “living sacrifice,” holy and acceptable to God. Second, we are called to be transformed, which occurs by “the renewing of [our] minds.” How does he explain these two points?

            He begins by encouraging us to have a realistic self-understanding. To see ourselves “soberly” means not to think ourselves better than others, but to be humble. Interestingly, however, humility works both ways. We can be preoccupied with ourselves by thinking ourselves better than others. But we can be equally preoccupied with ourselves by feeling inferior. Either way, we are centered on ourselves.

            In contrast, St. Paul calls us to stop comparing ourselves to others. Whereas normally we live within this envelope of skin and its accompanying mind, Paul tells us that we are in fact not cut off from others, pitted in competition against them. Each of us is, rather, a unique and necessary element of a much greater, inclusive, and profound reality: Christ. And as physically incarnate, together we are Christ’s own body in the world.

It is this awareness that allows us to transcend our assumptions, attitudes, conditioning, personal history. It is this awareness that enables us to be radically open, that we may “discern what is the will of God.”

            To return to the Egyptian midwives, from our perspective, it is clear that they acted in ways that did not further their individual safety or status. Putting aside their fear for themselves, they were free to discern a “higher” calling.

Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20  Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” and they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

Reflections: When Jesus asks who people think he is, he gets two answers. The first, the easy answer, is what other people think. The riskier answer is what comes straight from the heart. Courageous, impetuous Peter, unafraid that he might look foolish, dares to speak from his heart. Jesus’ response to Peter has long been held up as proof of the supreme authority of the Church of Peter (i.e., the Vatican). But that by no means exhausts the potential of Jesus’ pronouncement.

Looked at another way, we see that Jesus changes the name of Cyphas (an Aramaic name meaning “rock”) to Peter (a Greek name also meaning “rock”). We well might wonder what the point is. Perhaps Jesus draws attention to its meaning.

But let’s look at the context. Jesus first says that Peter is blessed because “Flesh and blood have not revealed this to you.” In other words, Peter’s insight came, not from the world around him, but from his own heart. Could this be the “rock” on which Jesus establishes his church: this inner voice of God?

The midwives didn’t look to pharaoh for truth; St. Paul calls us to a transformed mind, which gives us discernment. Perhaps, then, Jesus established his church, not on the external authority of an individual man, but on the deeper authority from which that individual man perceived God’s truth.

But that brings its own problems. For now the question becomes: how do we discern the difference between the voice of my own desires and neuroses, and the still, small, prophetic voice of God? What is more, this implies that institutions are not the voice of God in themselves, but serve God only when the people involved in them actively seek, discern, and attend to the genuine prophetic voice. Our role just to chill out and leave Peter to do Christ’s ministry, but to live engaged. Like Peter, to risk speaking out.