The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 19 - 16 September 2012
Isaiah
50:4-9a
Psalm
116:1-8
James
3:1-12
St.
Mark 8:27-38
Background: Caesarea Philippi
This place name is so associated with this confession of Peter that I
thought it might be interesting to talk about the place. Located near the southwestern base of Mt.
Hermon in the Golan Heights area, it is the site of a spring and grotto and thus
several shrines devoted to the god Pan.
Originally the site was named either Banieas
or Paneas, reflecting the cult
that had developed there. The site is
not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, but is mentioned in the Gospels of
Matthew, Mark, and Luke (and also in Thomas).
It was first settled by the Ptolomies (Hellenic rulers of Egypt) in the
third century BCE. Pan was the god of
“desolate places”, so the site seems appropriate to that. It is, however, located close to the Way of the Sea, the trade route that
stretched from Mesopotamia into the Levant, also the route of ancient
armies. In 20 BCE, Paneas was annexed to
the Kingdom of Herod the Great, and in 3 BCE Philip the Tetrarch founded a city
there. In 14 AD it was named Caesarea Philippi in honor of Caesar
Augustus. In the Gospel account, Jesus
doesn’t enter the city but is in the region.
It is here that he asks of his disciples, “who do people say that I am?”
Isaiah 50:4-9a
The Lord GOD has given
me
the tongue of a
teacher,
that I may know how to
sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he
wakens--
wakens my ear
to listen as those who
are taught.
The Lord GOD has opened
my ear,
and I was not
rebellious,
I did not turn
backward.
I gave my back to those
who struck me,
and my cheeks to those
who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and
spitting.
The Lord GOD helps me;
therefore I have not
been disgraced;
therefore I have set my
face like flint,
and I know that I shall
not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is
near.
Who will contend with
me?
Let us stand up
together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord GOD who
helps me;
who will declare me
guilty?
In a section of IInd Isaiah called “Hymns to the New Jerusalem” we have
today’s reading about “Israel in darkness” or the Third Suffering Servant
Song. Who is the servant? To the eye of IInd Isaiah it is the
collective whole of Israel. In this
understanding, the prophet encourages the people to have open ears, awakened
each morning to the Word of God.
Listening to the Word and then structuring life around its understanding
is a dangerous thing in the mind of the prophet. “I gave my back to those who struck me,”
seems to indicate how others treated those who listened and acted on God’s Word.
The second section (verses 7-9) contrasts good and evil in the context
of the courtroom. In a virtual pun (the
word disgraced is a form of the verb to buffet seems to bind the two sections
together. The prophet states his case directly with declarative sentences and
sharp questions. The last sentence of
the song is elided from the reading, but is helpful here. “See they will all wear out like a garment,
consumed by moths.” The notion of cloth
or of clothing becomes a metaphor for the person of the enemies, those who
persecute the hearers and doers of the Word.
God’s help and redemption is stated succinctly in this verse that
concludes the song.
Breaking
open Isaiah:
- How do you hear God?
- Have you ever been derided for your faith?
Psalm 116:1-8 Dilexi, quoniam
I love the LORD,
because he has heard the voice of my supplication, *
because he has inclined
his ear to me whenever I called upon him.
The cords of death
entangled me;
the grip of the grave
took hold of me; *
I came to grief and
sorrow.
Then I called upon the
Name of the LORD: *
"O LORD, I pray
you, save my life."
Gracious is the LORD
and righteous; *
our God is full of
compassion.
The LORD watches over
the innocent; *
I was brought very low,
and he helped me.
Turn again to your
rest, O my soul, *
for the LORD has
treated you well.
For you have rescued my
life from death, *
my eyes from tears, and
my feet from stumbling.
I will walk in the
presence of the LORD *
in the land of the
living.
In this Thanksgiving Psalm, in the Hebrew, the first verset ends with
the name YHWH, so that the sentence more correctly reads “I love when the Lord
hears.” That construction places the
emphasis on the trust that the author has in God’s ability to hear and then to
act. Somehow the author has encountered
death either through a personal tragedy, or in battle. It is in this situation that he utters his
plea, and “the Lord hears.” The prayer
is not only directed to God, but to the individual’s soul as well, “Turn again
to your rest, O my soul.” God’s
intervention has returned life to a sense of normalcy and calm. The phrase “I shall walk before the Lord” (in
our reading, “I will walk in the presence of the Lord”) is an idiom expressing
not only life’s journey with God, but also continued service to the God who has
delivered the author from the threat of death.
Breaking
open Psalm 116
- How do you speak with God?
- Does God listen to you?
- How do you know, and how do you react?
James 3:1-12
Not many of you should
become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will
be judged with greater strictness. For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who
makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check
with a bridle. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us,
we guide their whole bodies. Or look at ships: though they are so large that it
takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder
wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet
it boasts of great exploits.
How great a forest is
set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed
among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on
fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species
of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed
by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue-- a restless evil, full of
deadly poison. With it 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. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour
forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my
brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water
yield fresh.
We continue with our continuing reading from the Epistle of James. In James 1:19, James encourages his readers
with the discipline of being “slow to speech.”
This section expands on that injunction by instructing his readers on
how to teach, or how to use the tongue.
Various tools are mentioned, such as the rudder of a ship, or the bridle
of horse, to bring to the reader’s mind the controls that are needed for
Christian speech. Other examples are
used by the author such as a forest fire, or the cosmic reach of an untoward
phrase. An interesting set of contrasts
concludes the second paragraph, where blessing God is contrasted with the
curses with which we beset our God-created neighbor.
Breaking
open James:
- Who does James want us to be “slow of speech”?
- Have you ever regretted something that you have said?
- How did you redeem yourself?
Mark 8:27-38
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?" And they answered him,
"John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the
prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter
answered him, "You are the Messiah." And he sternly ordered them not
to tell anyone about him.
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. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began
to rebuke him. 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."
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. 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. For what will it
profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can
they give in return for their life? 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."
The
confession of Peter at Caesarea Philippi is both a mountaintop experience and
the nadir of misunderstanding. At first
blush, Peter seems to get it, understanding the “who” and role of Jesus. What follows however is akin to the contrasts
that James notes in the epistle. Peter
wants to dissuade Jesus from his talk of suffering and rejection. Jesus sees in Peter’s speech nothing other
than Satan, the argument of evil against his ministry in the world. From this incident comes a sermon on denial
and salvation, both tied together in the Christian effort to model Christ. Of special note is the use of the word
“ashamed”. It not only distances us from
the embarrassment of the Suffering Christ, but also distances us from the One
who sent him.
Breaking open the Gospel:
- Do you have any sympathy for Peter in this situation? Why?
- What do you think that Jesus means about denying yourself?
- Are you ever ashamed of your faith?
After
breaking open the Word, you might want to pray the Collect for Sunday:
O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully
grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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