Jesus “asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said in reply, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Peter recognizes Jesus as unusual. In a world of supremacy, hostility, and violence Peter knows Jesus keeps calling different people into communion, loving them, and healing their ailments. Peter was experiencing someone who was so different he could not understand him in the usual context. He received Jesus as someone beyond his context, as the “Son of God.” Yet it was possible for every human being to be so unifying, so loving, so healing. Peter displayed some of those same unusual qualities. So too did other people, different men, women, Jews, Gentiles, alive in ancient days, and alive now. People following Jesus’ Way make communion, love, and healing usual. Never did these people call themselves ‘Christ-like’ / Christian. Others may have done so but never did they presume to do so. Evangelical pastor Russell Moore, editor of Christianity Today, calls himself ‘Christ-like.’ But he has supported empire’s usual supremacy, hostility, and violence – exactly opposite Jesus’ usual qualities of communion, love, and healing. This past month, in an interview with National Public Radio, Moore expressed mounting concern for his fellow evangelicals. Like Moore, they too support empire’s usual qualities of supremacy, hostility, and violence and, as usual, reject Jesus’ communion, love, and healing. They usually do so though by making political end runs around Jesus’ communion, giving excuses for not following Jesus’ loving way, and by ignoring Jesus’ witness of healing. Now, current evangelicals are directly rejecting Jesus. From Moore, “Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching— for example, ‘turn the other cheek’—[and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?'” “When the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ’… The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.” Who do we say that evangelicals are – not Christ–like. How un-Christ-like they would be was always a matter of degree. They are reaching the zenith degree of their display of empire’s usual tyranny. They are thus reaching the zenith degree of their rejection of Jesus and his Way.
“If you don’t know the kind of person I am and I don’t know the kind of person you are a pattern that others made may prevail in the world and following the wrong god home we may miss our star… as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail… I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty to know what occurs but not recognize the fact. And so I appeal to a voice… a remote important region in all who talk: though we could fool each other, we should consider (voice)—lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark. … the signals we give… should be clear: the darkness around us is deep. (A Ritual to Read to Each Other – William E. Stafford)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, encourage us as voices of moral clarity.
Question: Jesus calls Peter a “rock” for his witness to truth in his time of moral crisis. Who will people say I am in this time of moral crisis?
August 27, 2023 Gospel Matthew 16:13-20 Twenty First Sunday in Ordinary Time