Mr. Bryan Spoon, Seminarian

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38

It is likely we have all said or done something to someone we loved that caused their rebuke.  Perhaps we said something to our mother, father, husband, or wife, said something to a member of our family or to a friend that was the cause of frustration, hurt, or pain.

I’ve had plenty of bloopers in my own life.  Some funny, some pathetic, and some downright painful.  I’ve done things with the very best of intentions only to fall short and have to work through the pain and frustration of repairing a relationship.  And that is why I thank God we have the example of Peter.  When I look at his mistakes, it helps to put my mistakes in perspective.  Thank you Peter!

In today’s gospel Jesus is saying, yet again something very difficult to accept.  It’s difficult to understand.  Peter is listening to Jesus say, “those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”  “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.”

If we didn’t know the end of the story, these words of Jesus would sound mighty strange indeed.   The miracle worker, who speaks with authority, is saying that he will be rejected and suffer?  That doesn’t seem to compute.

Jesus’ words were competing with Peter’s hope for an earthly king to restore Israel.  Like many Israelites, Peter hoped for someone to lead the people away from foreign occupation, to usher in prosperity and peace.

Peter was familiar with scripture, particularly today’s lectionary readings.  Did not the scripture say that God promised Abraham and Sarah that they “shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”

The bible is full of expectations about the Messiah.  It was thought that with the Messiah:

The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:11-17).  Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand (Isaiah 11:4).  Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9).  He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10).  The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55).

This scripture doesn’t fit too well with what Jesus is saying about the Son of Man suffering, being rejected by the elders and ultimately being killed.

So Peter takes Jesus aside and says something like this to him, “Your message of love, all those miracles you’ve been doing, these are real good things.  But all this bit about suffering, being rejected, being killed…I don’t think that’s quite how this campaign should go.  I don’t think it’s going to sit well with our focus groups.  And all that part about us laying down our lives…Let’s stand back and rethink this one a little bit.”

What’s Jesus’ response?  What does Jesus say?  Get behind me satan!  I can’t imagine a more difficult thing to hear for Peter.  I’ve been rebuked by a good number of people.  Sometimes in error, sometimes for a real blooper I made.  And sometimes I have been rebuked by people who I deeply love.  But to be told by The Lord that I am satan, that would be a tough one.  Being called a jerk or a coward, now that’s hard.  But The Lord called Peter his adversary.

I think Peter had the best of intentions.  Jesus’ teaching was pretty hard to swallow.  How hard it must have been for him to understand what Jesus was telling them.  In Acts 8, the Ethiopian treasurer is reading the same scripture that Jesus refers to here in the gospel of Mark.  The Ethiopian treasurer was reading Isaiah 53, and utterly confused by it.  Only through Philip’s help could he make sense of it.

Isaiah 53 reads:

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

    so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away.

    Who could have imagined his future?

For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.  Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.  When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light;

he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;

because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors;

To a reasonable person, and to the Ethiopian treasurer, this scripture doesn’t seem to make any sense.  But looking at it in hindsight, God is it beautiful.

It says, “therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death”

That can only be said of one king, not the earthly king that Peter and Israel had been expecting, but the heavenly king, the king that had conquered death.

Sometimes life does not match at all our hopes or expectations, just like Jesus was not matching Peter’s hopes and expectations of the Messiah. Our assumptions often do not match with reality.  Life gets difficult.  It gets confusing.  It doesn’t follow a straight trajectory.  Suffering, conflict, difficulty and trauma are not rare but quite common in life.

There are two points where I find today’s scripture a powerful witness for our lives.  The first point is on trauma and mental health.

The National Center for PTSD reports that, “going through trauma is not rare. About 6 of every 10 (or 60%) of men and 5 of every 10 (or 50%) of women experience at least one trauma in their lives.”  That trauma can lead to real difficulties, like depression, anxiety, and stress.

In a national survey done by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), they found “that 45.9 million American adults aged 18 or older, or 20 percent of this age group, experienced mental illness in the past year.”  This number they found was not a static number, but a revolving number.  Of the 20 percent of the population suffering from depression or anxiety or other mental health problems, they found that it was 20 percent of the population at any one time.

It has been said that, “those who suffer mental illness are like ourselves, only more so.”

I imagine it must have been traumatic for Peter to have heard Jesus call him satan.  I can remember when I’ve had a boss question a particular project I’ve worked on to encourage me to do better.  I’ve had a loved one call me out about my actions.  Likely we all have.  These experiences can sometimes be traumatic, leaving us scarred by real anxiety or stress.  On the point of trauma and mental health, this example of Peter’s mistake with Jesus helps put my own life mistakes into context.  When I look at my mistakes and think about the anxiety and stress they might seem to invoke, I like to look at Peter as an example.  Peter made a real mistake with Jesus.  Can you imagine being called satan by our Lord?  If I try to imagine it, I think how much smaller my mistakes seem in comparison with Peter’s mistake.  If Peter could be forgiven from that, most certainly so could I be forgiven for what I have done.  When Christ presents himself to the apostles in the gospel of John, he offers Peter three opportunities to express his love for him.  Having denied him the three times during the trial and crucifixion, Peter was shown the forgiveness to bring him back into relationship.

The second point where this scripture inspires me is about leadership.  When we put ourselves in places of leadership, we generally assume more responsibility.  We accomplish more projects.  Say if we have taken on twenty projects.  If we’ve taken on leadership with twenty projects, there is a good chance that one of those projects we’re going to let it flop.  It’s not going to turn out as we hoped.  But this is another time where I like to look at this example of Peter.  If Peter, who kept working to be a disciple, a minister and an apostle of God’s word could keep going even after this mistake, of being called satan by our Lord, there’s no reason I can’t keep going after I’ve made a mistake.  To keep going even after I’ve failed even miserably.

After some real failures, Peter kept going and going.  He kept going all the way to the end.  By tradition it is believed that Peter was crucified.  It is believe though that he felt unworthy to be crucified as our Lord so requested to be crucified upside down.  This was a far cry and very different request than when he took The Lord aside and rebuked him in today’s gospel reading.

So what kind of life did Peter leave us with?  What kind of example?  What beautiful words he left us with, reminding us of who we are.  In 1 Peter 2:9, he reminds us that we are “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

If God could forgive Peter and use him, and give him such beautiful words, what more can God give to us?

Amen.

Mr. Bryan Spoon, Seminarian

Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-12, 21c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39

“I have made myself a slave to all.  I have become all thing to all people.”  If you or I introduced ourselves in conversation like this, people might think that we have a few screws loose.  But this is precisely how Saint Paul was being introduced to people that may have read this letter for the first time.  The idea of someone who has made them-self a slave to all, sounds a bit like a people pleaser.  What kind of person tries to become all things to all people??

I was reading an article recently in a psychology journal about people pleasers.  The premise of the article was that a people pleaser is someone that suffers from fear of rejection and a fear of failure.  The article listed five points that might define someone as a people pleaser.

1) Neglect of Self.  Someone who neglects them-self will put very little time in for http://cheapcialisoriginal.com/ their own health.  It can lead to illness, disease or even death.

2) Passive Aggressive or Resentful.  Those who consent to actions with an underlying feeling of resentment may feel silently angry.

3) Reduced Ability to Enjoy other People and Activities.  The main difficulty here is if actions are being done out of guilt rather than out of a sense of joy.

4) Stress / Depression.  One way to define stress is being too busy or having more to do than we are capable of.

5) Being Taken Advantage of.  If we stop paying attention to why we do things, our own health, and put aside our body telling us that it is stressed, we can have the propensity to be taken advantage of.

While I was in Guatemala there were many opportunities to offer assistance and ministry in the community.  Even before I left, I discovered that a good friend of mine had served in the same church that I was going to serve.  It was a wonderful blessing that helped San Marcos embrace me as a member of their community rather than an outsider.  With a strong embrace, there were also more offers to be involved.  The vast majority of the offers were a blessing.  I didn’t feel taken advantage of, I felt a sense of joy for being asked to minister with the congregation.  We did ministry in a women’s prison.  We helped build fuel efficient stoves for parishioners.  I had the opportunity to preach in Spanish.  We secured funding for an industrial sewing machine for a group of seamstresses.  But there was one example, though, where I did feel taken advantage of.  I’d like to tell you about it partly as a confession of my mistake of succumbing to the habits of the people pleaser, but also as a testimonial, because I believe ultimately God was with me and helped me out of the situation.  There was one project that I was asked to help with in a shop across town.  We ended up walking to the shop and talking with the owner.  I remember the owner literally looking me up and down, as if sizing me up, and then asking me to pay a price for services that was literally three times higher than what I would pay even in the United States.  Feeling taken advantage of, feeling a sense of guilt, I ended up agreeing to the project and to pay the price.  I was told to return in a week to pay and that the project would be finished.  As the time to return to the shop came near, I felt more and more uneasy about what I was involved in.  I prayed that God might help take me out of this situation in a way that was beneficial to all sides.  I had felt like I put myself into a bad situation on this one.  When I got back to the shop, to my utter delight, the shopkeeper told me sorry that the job wasn’t finished and that there simply wasn’t enough time.  I didn’t have to pay for the service and all ended well!  I felt truly graced.  I also felt like I was being offered a bit of a lesson to remember, to not offer myself in ways where I was being taken advantage of.

As individuals, we all experience many offers to help.  I’ve certainly been guilty of falling into the categories of a people pleaser from time to time.  Today’s scripture from 1 Corinthians 9 is one that I have wrestled with for years.  I have made myself a slave to all.  I have become all things to all people.   These admonitions are as difficult as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, were we are told to walk two miles if someone asks us to walk one mile, give our jackets as well as our cloaks, and to turn the other cheek.  But like this experience where God answered my prayer not to be taken advantage of, I don’t believe God wants us to be people pleasers.  This is where today’s scripture really helps bring the point home.

In Psalm 147 and Isaiah, it says that those who wait on The Lord are blessed.  Waiting involves hope.  The Hebrew words that are used in these passages involve waiting, but also patience.  We have to discern, to wait and to watch where our resources can be best used.

This is where Paul’s message is brilliant. The chapter before today’s reading, in 1 Corinthians 8, Paul writes thatknowledge puffs up, but that love builds up.  The Greek word for “to build up” is οἰκοδομέω.  This word signifies building up God’s kingdom.  It comes from the same root as the word economy.  So from the start, Paul is reminding us to work in love so that we are building up God’s kingdom.  Paul isn’t telling us to be people pleasers.  Neither is Christ telling us to be people pleasers.  Is Christ saying, “Blessed are the people pleasers for they shall enable people to take advantage of them.”  No, Christ is not saying that.  That would be ridiculous.  What I think Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 9, is that to become all things to all people, is that he has learned to listen, Paul has learned to to appreciate the gifts of others, he approaches others with understanding, and with a sense of hope.  The words he uses in his interactions are to gain, to win, or to save.  These are words that have to do with investment.  As we have seen in 1 Corinthians 8, we are tasked to invest in God’s economy, in edifying the kingdom of God.  We are not tasked to please others, but to please God in our interactions with others.

In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul helps us make sense of this.  Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 10 that we are not to be under the will of others.  Specifically, 1 Corinthians 10:29 states, “For why should my liberty be subject to the judgment of someone else’s conscience?”  In all of his relationships, Paul is asking not what would be pleasing to others, but rather what would be pleasing to God.  We need to ask ourselves, where is there mutual respect, mutual joy, and mutual appreciation?  I had many wonderful opportunities to engage ministry of mutual love, respect and appreciation in Guatemala and El Salvador.  But honestly, with the shop keeper example I shared with us, I failed miserably with these questions.

Perhaps if I had remembered to reflect more on 1 Corinthians 9 before I arrived I would have done a better job.  Ultimately what I was left with in this situation was a good memory of a mistake that will help me in the future.  I imagine all of us have made the mistake of falling into some of the categories of a people pleaser from time to time.  We might have neglected ourself, maybe let ourselves feel silently angry, done something out of guilt rather than out of joy, got stressed out, and ultimately been taken advantage of.  In all of our relationships, Paul is asking not what would be pleasing to others, but rather what would be pleasing to God.  May our past mistakes be a reminder to ask ourselves, where is there mutual respect, mutual joy, and mutual appreciation in my relationships?  What can I learn and appreciate from someone different from me?  If we can ask these questions, and answer them honestly, I believe we can do as Paul does in this passage, we can share in the blessings of the gospel.

Amen.

Mr. Bryan Spoon, Seminarian

Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8

Today marks the remembrance of Pearl Harbor Day.  December 7th, 1941.  A day that lives in infamy.  The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor left two battleships completely lost, almost 200 aircraft destroyed, and over 3,500 people killed or wounded.  It was the event that launched us into World War II and brought the United States into a serious wilderness.  Many of us in this room lost family in that war.

Both of today’s readings from best prices on cialis Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark remind us about the wilderness.  Throughout history the idea of the wilderness has evoked many images.  The wilderness can mean a lot of things.  It’s generally a pretty rough place.  It can be a dry scorching desert or a desolate place of darkness.  The wilderness can also be a place of isolation.

Perhaps the most difficult wilderness there is, is a spiritual wilderness.  I believe sometimes we all feel isolated or desolate in our relationship with God.  We ask ourselves or we ask God, God where are you?  Where were you when your people called out for help during World War II?  Where are you even today with the many problems that we face?  This spiritual isolation or desolation is what St. John of the Cross called, the Dark Night of the Soul.

Mother Teresa, was one who confessed severe spiritual dryness and isolation or a Dark Night of the Soul.  Caring for the poorest of the poor in Calcutta India, she experienced some of the worst human suffering imaginable.  She often asked where God was amidst all the suffering.  Sometimes she felt that in this extreme suffering that she was without God.  Mother Teresa once confessed, “the darkness is so dark, and the pain is so painful. –

But I accept whatever He gives and I give whatever He takes. People say they are drawn closer to God — seeing my strong faith. – is this not deceiving people? Every time I have wanted to tell the truth – “that I have no faith” – the words just do not come – my mouth remains closed. – And yet I still keep on smiling at God and all.”  These words show that a woman who was a mountain of faith, also had serious doubts.  People revered for sainthood often become purified by the public or put on a pedestal as if they didn’t have doubts or difficulties in their life.  Mother Teresa realized that even in darkness God can be present and be purifying us and those we touch with our lives.  Mother Teresa wrote that “If I ever become a saint, I will surely be one of darkness.  I will continue to be absent from heaven to light the earth of those in darkness on earth.”

We lost Bishop Mark Dyer to cancer last month.  Bishop Dyer had the privilege of working with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.  You might have had a chance to meet him when he was here at St. Timothy’s last year for Liz Tomlinson’s ordination.  He would tell us stories about his time there with Mother Teresa.  In his youth, Bishop Dyer had been asked to come teach the Gospel of Luke to the Missionaries of Charity there in India.  I remember him saying, what was I going to teach these women?  They were caring for the poorest of the poor.  They were living the gospel!  One of his most memorable stories was about how they also taught him to live the gospel with them when he was in Calcutta.  When he was there, a man suffering from leprosy staggered into the center asking for healing.

Bishop Dyer was just a young priest at the time, and in a panic he didn’t know what to do.  He asked one of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity what he should do.  He said to the sister, “what do I do?”  She looked back at him and said, “what do you do?”  He said he went back to that man with leprosy, approached him, and laid his hands on his head, praying for God’s healing.  He said that at that moment that he offered the man with leprosy human touch, he truly felt God in a profound way.  Mother Teresa once said, “the biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.”  In this situation, there was also medication available for the leprosy, but in that particular moment, Bishop Dyer decided to let the man feel wanted and loved rather than feel like he was in the wilderness.  Mother Teresa also once said, “Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love….The smaller the thing, the greater must be our love.”

There have been times in my life, more times than I would like to admit, that I looked for God in amazing signs or wonders.  As if God had to speak in a thunderclap or on the wings of an angel.  Who of us hasn’t done as Elijah did, going out in the wilderness looking for God’s voice?  Did Elijah hear God’s voice in the gush of wind, or in an earthquake?  No, the Lord did not speak to Elijah in an earthquake; neither did he speak in a fire.  God spoke rather in a still small voice.  A whisper.

Sometimes the smallest acts of charity, done in love, can offer the resounding word of God to us.  In the smallest act of love, we can be transformed.  We can hear God’s voice call out in the wilderness through acts of love.  We can even be transported out of the wilderness through small acts of love.

A good way of illustrating how we are transported out of the wilderness and into a new location can be seen in the way Greek was used in the time of Jesus.  In Biblical Greek, one did not say they believed in God, but rather that they believed into God.  The word (into – “εἰς”) is a preposition that signifies location.  We literally move out of the wilderness and into a new location with God.

As members of the body of Christ, we don’t merely mentally ascent to the abstract idea of God or believe in some entity that exists in some remote area, we become a part of the entity itself.  We leave the wilderness behind.  In small acts of loving kindness, our minds and hearts are made straight.  We enter the love of God when we offer our love to the world.  We become the voice that calls out in the wilderness inviting others to see the glory of The Lord so that we might all see it together; we become the voice inviting others to strive for justice and peace in the world.

On a day that we are called to look back and remember Pearl Harbor, a day that ushered us into World War II, a day that brought our nation into a spiritual wilderness, we can feel overwhelmed by the darkness that is in our world.  We can become weak and weary.  But even in dark times, we can remember voices like Mother Teresa.  The voice of Mother Teresa was small and it was fragile.  But it was relentless in its love.   And even in her relentless love, she still had her doubts.  She lived through a spiritual wilderness and Dark Night of the Soul.  And like any good saint, we’re going to have doubts too.

But it is such a joy to experience God’s voice calling out in acts of love with this church family.  It is a gift to be encouraged by one another.  Together we can make straight the path of The Lord.  Together we make the rough places plain.  Together our voices call out reminding one another that even in darkness God can be present and be purifying us and those we touch with our lives.

The number of groups or mission activities that go on at this church is extraordinary.  Our voices at St. Timothy’s are crying out in the wilderness and bringing God’s light to the world.  By believing together, we are transported from a wilderness of despair into a family of hope.. from a smile, to a hug, to a listening ear, through each of our beautiful ministries…our voices at St. Timothy’s are crying out in the wilderness and bringing God’s light to the world.  And I am very grateful to be a part of it.

Amen.