SATAN DOES NOT WANT US TO SUFFER

Many among us grew up with images of and ideas about Satan that do not actually come from the Bible. Most of us grew up with this idea that Satan is a hideous monster, with a tail, horns, and a pitchfork. Many among us believe that Satan is God's equal. We blame Satan for things that go bad or wrong in our lives, and thank God for the opposite. It's like God and Satan are playing Chess, and we're pieces on the board we call life.

In the book of Job, Satan is with other heavenly beings in the presence of God. In the book of Zechariah, there is a vision of God with Satan to God's right. In Mark, Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights. He was not alone. He was with Satan. In 1 Chronicles 21, the anger of the LORD is described as Satan. In Numbers 22, the use of the Hebrew term "satan" actually means blocking one's way forward.

In Sunday's lection Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why?! This is Peter, the leader of the disciples: Peter, whose house in Capernaum served as Jesus's home; Peter, the Rock. Peter is probably Jesus's most loyal disciple. Peter is probably Jesus's closest friend. Among the disciples, Peter probably loved Jesus the most. Thus, he did not want him to suffer, to be rejected, and to be killed. Peter thought Jesus was making a big mistake by going to Jerusalem.

Jesus calls Peter Satan. Why? Peter was in the way, in front of Jesus. Jesus tells him to get behind him, to get out of his way. Peter was wrong!

My friends, never, ever, forget this. Satan does not have horns, a tail, and a pitchfork. Many times in our lives, the adversary is not the enemy. Many times, the one who opposes or blocks our decision, our mission, or our advocacy is a loved one. Family. Parents. Spouses. Children. Friends--even a best friend. Like Peter.

Why, you ask? Because they love us. Because they think we are making a mistake. Because they want what they believe is best for our well-being. Because they do not want us to undergo great suffering. Because they do not want us to be killed. They behave like Peter.

Every day people decide to follow Jesus, to follow the path dedicated to the least, the lost, the last, and the left out, to fight against tyranny and dictatorships, to work for peace based on justice, to proclaim good news to the poor and liberation to the oppressed.

And every day, people who love, people who care, people who do not want their beloved to suffer, to be rejected, to die, or to experience hell on earth, do as Peter did. They rebuke their loved ones because they think they're making a big mistake. They stand in the way.

Like Peter, they become Satan. Like Jesus, we need to rebuke them and continue on the path that God has called us to tread.


*art, "Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!" by James Tissot (1836-1902), from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives.

WHO DO YOU SAY I AM?

Close your eyes. Imagine Jesus. Is he handsome? With piercing blue eyes? With beautiful shoulder length hair? White?

In Sundays lection, the most definitely nondescript, most probably brown eyed, unkempt, and Palestinian Jesus asked his followers, "Who do people say I am?"

How did they respond? John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the Prophets. Do we associate "prophet" with Jesus, like our Moslem sisters and brothers do? One of the oldest historical traditions in the Hebrew Bible is about another prophet, Miriam. But many of us do not associate prophet with her as well. Sister of Moses, yes. But prophet? No.

Close your eyes. Imagine Jesus. Not your Personal Lord and Savior. But Jesus, the Prophet. Like John, like Elijah, like Jeremiah, Huldah, Anna, and, yes, like Miriam... Is the Jesus we imagine immersed with the struggles of the Palestinian people? Is he part of the Black Lives Matter movement? Is he in solidarity with farmers struggling for genuine agrarian reform?

Is he still calling the rich among us to sell everything we have, to give the proceeds to the poor, and to follow him? Or have we been, all this time, following the wrong Jesus?


*art, based on the work of Tom McElligott for the Episcopal Ad Project. Updated 2018 by Rev. Emmy Kegler.

WE ARE THE ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS

We know Sunday's lection. It is the story of the mother who came to Jesus. Her daughter was sick. (The girl was probably twelve years old.) She begged Jesus for help. She was initially ignored. She was a Canaanite, a member of the peoples displaced and dispossessed by the Israelites, and Jesus treated her like a dog. Yet she persevered. And she persisted. And because she persevered, because she persisted, she changed Jesus’s mind. She got what she came for: her child was healed. Do not forget this. Ever. She was the "little bitch" who taught Jesus a lesson.

Like the mother who persisted and persevered, we are the answer to our prayers. We are the families split apart by forced migration. We are the parents whose children are dying from a virus worse than covid-19: hunger. We are the children whose parents are snatched away from us by the evil culture of impunity that pervades our land.

We are today's Canaanites, displaced, dispossessed, treated like dogs, those whose pleas are never, ever, heard. We are also the mothers who will do anything and everything for our children's welfare. We are also the fathers who will storm the gates of hell to get our children food, shelter, and education. We are the children whose outrage will break the silence of heaven. We will make sure that God hears our mourning, our anger, and our collective cries for justice.

We are the answer to our prayers! We are the change that we desperately need. We are the warm bodies who will help birth the future. And we have much to do, you and I, because tomorrow is already here.

Today is the tomorrow we helped birthed yesterday.

*art, "The Daughter of the Canaanite Woman" by Peter Koenig (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)

FACING THE RAGING STORM

I have always argued that Immanuel, God-with-Us, serves as a powerful theme for the Gospel of Matthew. We can ask while going through the gospel, "What does it mean to experience God's presence in our lives?" More often than not, the answer is, "Be God's presence in someone else's life!" Jesus was such a presence. The gospel begins and ends with the promise of Immanuel!

The pandemic has been described as a raging storm. There are those who say that we are all in the same boat. There are more who cry, no! There are a few in cruise ships. The majority are in boats--really small boats. And there are millions who don't even have boats during this raging storm. 

This Sunday's lection reminds us that it is always safer to be inside the boat, especially during a storm. But there are times we need to get off the boat during a raging storm, because Jesus is not in the boat. Immanuel is not where we want him to be.

He is out facing the storm. And he is calling us out of our boats, like he did with Peter. Do we have the faith to do so? 

*art, "Walking on Water" by Peter Koenig (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

FIVE BARLEY LOAVES AND TWO FISH

Sunday's lection, which has parallels in Mark, Luke, and John, has Jesus telling his disciples to feed the hungry multitude. His disciples make up excuses: send the crowd away; let them feed themselves; we don't have enough funds to address the situation.

Their excuses sound so much like our excuses today.

In John's version, a young child, possibly 12 years old or younger, offers what he has: five barley loaves and two fish. And the miracle of feeding of the 5000 begins. There is a tradition that says. "Barley tastes good... to cows, sheep, and horses!" The poor, the anawim, ate barley. It was all they could afford. The rich had storehouses of wheat, and fattened themselves with it.

Do not forget this. Ever. The barley loaves and the fish that led to the feeding of the POOR, HUNGRY multitude were offered by a POOR, HUNGRY child. Many times, God's liberating acts begin when one-- just one we usually do not expect-- takes that step forward, that leap of faith, that offering of bread and fish.

*art, "Jesus multiplies the loaves and fish," (JESUS MAFA) from vanderbilt divinity library digital archives. 

PEARLS AND HIDDEN TREASURES

Sunday's lection contains several parables of Jesus. Scholars call the one about the pearl and the one about the hidden treasure twin parables. Wealthy men find things of immense value that "they sell everything they have" in order to possess a pearl for one and a hidden treasure for the other.

Pearls were most valued in Antiquity, actually, until the 19th century when diamonds replaced them.

The key to understanding the parables are the words inside the quotation marks. If you read your Bible, then you know those are the first words Jesus says to the rich young man who wanted to follow him, "Sell everything you have." 

The rich man goes away sad. The rich men in the twin parables, after selling everything they had, go away joyful. 

Jesus's challenge to the rich has not changed. Sell everything you have. I don't think it ever will. 

*art, "The Hidden Treasure," JESUS MAFA 1973, Cameroon (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives). 

WHEAT AND TARES

I’m sure most of us have heard a sermon about this parable. I’m sure most of us heard an allegorical interpretation. I’m also sure that most of us heard an interpretation of this parable that challenged us to be good wheat. 

Incidentally, scholars say only the rich could afford wheat bread in Ancient Palestine. The poor ate barley.

I want to focus on the weeds--masamang damo! Or more appropriately, weeds or tares that look so much like wheat that Palestinians to this day call it “bastard wheat.” You can actually call this narrative the parable of the wheat and the bastard wheat!

The parable is akin to the one about sheep and goats. It's about judgment. God will judge, not us. There will be time to separate the wheat from the bastard wheat, in God’s time. 

Why God? Because wheat and bastard wheat are actually sisters and brothers! God created both. So, God will judge. God will separate. Definitely no one else. Only God. 

And since God is a God of surprises, God’s judgment will probably surprise both those who self-righteously think they are the good wheat and those whom the good wheat label as bastard wheat.

In the name of the Crucified and Risen One, the Bastard son of Mary, whom we call Lord and Savior.

Amen.

*image from Bernat Casero.