Genuine Journey

“Genuine Journey”

Romans 12:9-21  Matthew 16:21-28

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17, Year A, August 30, 2020

First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho

Andy Kennaly, Pastor

          Mountain biking is hard work!  Either you’re holding on tight and paying attention to quickly changing terrain as you zip down a hill, or you’re putting your efforts into a slow climb, gaining ground with each rotation of the pedals and the tires as legs strain and heart pounds.  On a bicycle with gears, if you stop while going up a hill, it can be quite challenging to get started again because it’s hard to have balance when you’re not moving.  Bicycles depend on movement, forward movement, to help provide stability.  Going backwards doesn’t work at all, even looking back for very long is not advised, and remaining stationary, you will eventually tip over.

It can be rather upsetting to people trying to start out going up a hill.  Except for one thing: electricity.  If you’re on an e-bike, with a motor and a throttle, starting out on a hill is no problem!  But, you need to know how to use an e-bike, be practiced in the functions of having extra power available, and not overdo it because the e-bike is probably capable of doing things that the rider can’t keep up with if they pour on too much juice at once.

I recently heard a story of a bike rider who was rather upset that the group stopped on a hill, even rebuked the leader for making that decision.  But the leader was quick to reply with a reminder that they were not on regular bicycles, and very directly and tactfully suggested that rider needed to figure out how to use an e-bike.  It was that rider’s own limited thinking that created their perceived problem, when really, there was no problem, just a lack of experience, lack of trust, a good dose of fear, and the desire to control.

This morning scriptures show the same mix, as our human experience sometimes revels in a lack of tact.  It takes a maturing process to experience and see a larger vision of trust in the power of loving Presence.  The Apostle, Paul teaches about genuine love from a transformed perspective; shared from what he’s learned in life, grounded in Source, filled with God’s presence and purpose, stretching people beyond their limited thinking of evil, violence, and the separation the world typically assumes.

In Matthew’s gospel, Peter rebukes Jesus, totally resisting the cruciform nature of Christ’s ministry and our calling as followers as Jesus shares about the cross.  It’s like Peter stops on a hill, worried about tipping over and he’d rather climb the mountain on his own terms.  But Jesus reminds him of another level of purpose and function – the power of humility, and the importance of letting go of everything other than the very love which creates and sustains us.  That’s the foundation of right relationship.

Last week Jesus asks a trick question, and Simon-Peter answers on behalf of the disciples, which points out the fact that they are in their judging mind, using either/or thinking rather than yes/and openness of an intuitive and unitive consciousness.  Simon-Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  This is the point at which Jesus changes Simon’s name to Peter, offering conversion from human precepts to divine insight.

Here we are this morning just a few short verses after this and we see Peter still stuck in conventional thinking that Messiah involves a political savior, no suffering, only glory; and Jesus talks about suffering and death at the hands of religious and political leaders who are protecting the status quo.  Jesus then gives Peter another name, calling him Satan.

Whose your Satan?  Who in your life, or maybe more accurately, which part of you is holding you back, reacting like Peter, seeking protection and safety from suffering or change?  Jesus says, “you are a stumbling block to me,” which would imply his desire for movement.  Like riding a bike, faith is not intended to remain stagnant, religion is not intended to be enshrined, and love is not intended to be boxed in to protect the status quo, then it becomes self-absorption.  Jesus is inviting us to a genuine journey, deeper into love, which always involves a form of change which brings a sense of dying, like a seed giving itself so new seeds can grow.

Jesus is on the move…  stumbling blocks only affect you if there is the desire to have motion.  The powerful energy that enlivens faith and life is the love of God.  This love is not static, not stagnant, not stationary.  Dynamic change is part of life, and the irony is that, like Peter, the very people who would be most likely to embrace an expansive experience of love are the very ones preventing this.  We all do; its just a matter of scale.

Jesus raises our awareness and shows us how to break the bonds of such a dynamic, to “hate what is evil and hold on to what is good” and this involves love, a love that learns the art of letting go.  He says, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”  “If any want to become my followers,” Jesus says, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

Remember, Jesus carries the cross uphill.  Yet he was not overcome, even in death, by this evil.  Jesus overcomes evil with good.  May we, also, offer our hearts and lives to follow Jesus on a genuine journey of conversion, transformation, and sanctification, releasing our stumbling blocks so we may embrace a cross of service rooted in love, the unencumbered vulnerability of God’s Presence in the moment, and a deep trust of God’s imminent glory.  May love be genuine as we journey with Jesus, who continues to show us the Way.  And may God be glorified, now, even as forever.  Amen.