13 Pentecost/Year A/August 30, 2020
Psalm 26: 1-8; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16: 21-28
Do you ever just stop and marvel on just how fast things change at times? My first thoughts make me think of infants, and young children…I think about how they change, rapidly, and seemingly, overnight…and next thing you know they are graduating high school or getting married, before you even have a chance to blink your eyes again…I think about the seasons of the year….winter sometimes seems to drag on, and we think it will never end…but then we wake up one morning…and somehow there’s a full spread of flowers popping up everywhere…Then summer arrives….and there are more flowers, more outdoor time, and longer days….but, seemingly overnight… the leaves are falling off the trees, the days are growing shorter and cooler…and thoughts of winter begin to dance around in our heads again…
Wow! Where did the time go…? How is it possible, that we have not been in the church building for services since March 15? How is it possible, that since we were last in the church building…we’ve endured so many things since then….so many rapid changes in our personal lives, our communal lives, and in the seasons of the created world….we’ve been living through some times of great joy and some times of great unrest: a time of a pandemic, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, and a time of escalated violence present across the world….we’ve lived through the end of a snowy and icy winter, we celebrated Holy Week, Easter, the season of spring, the Day of Pentecost, the long season of summer, which is coming to an end; and here we are today, embarking on a new beginning for schools and the season of autumn that is just around the corner…
How fast everything changes…
Peter reminds us of that in today’s reading.
It was just last week, that Jesus was praising Peter for his bold faith and answer that he believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Jesus told Peter he was giving him the keys of the kingdom of heaven….and we too were encouraged to take a bold stand, as Peter did and to step out with that same faith and hope, and open up our hands to receive the keys of the kingdom of God, that Jesus is eager to place in our hands too…the keys of the kingdom that would assist us in opening our hearts and minds to love God and our neighbors….with a genuine love…a love that transcends all times and seasons of our lives…
But, how fast things changed just moments later… when Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Peter didn’t want to hear anything about that. That’s not what he had in mind, when he said he believed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God….that’s not what he had in mind when he committed himself to following Jesus....Peter seemed to default to the limits of his human imagination and neglected to stay focused on the divine love, and way of love, that Jesus was seeking to graft in his heart, and in the hearts of others who were following him and learning from him.
It was as if Peter misplaced the keys of the kingdom that Jesus had just placed in Peter’s hands just moments ago. It was as if he had forgotten everything Jesus had taught him before. It was as if he lost everything, when he lost those keys…and maybe that’s what Jesus was saying… For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Those keys of the kingdom again this week, are a very relatable image for me.
If you, are like me, at times…losing our keys or misplacing our keys, happens more often that we would like to admit. They seem to go missing at the most inconvenient times…times we already stressing and running about frantically about other things…And its not a good feeling, when this happens. Every insecurity that we’ve ever experienced in our lifetime, seems to bubble to the surface. We are anxious, worried, fearful, distressed, angry, because we’ve lost these keys…we put every ounce of our energy into finding these keys that we need to get us where we need to go. Nothing else seems to matter…except to find those keys.
In our scriptures today, we are reminded about the importance of keys…not our car keys, but the keys of the kingdom of genuine love…and that’s good news to ponder today..
These keys of the kingdom, that have been placed in our hands are important…they do matter…If we have misplaced them or lost them… we are going to be scattered and distracted and overwhelmed…until we find them…we are to keep searching, to keep looking for them…until they are back in our hands…Our souls will not be at rest…until they are back in our hands…
These keys of the kingdom are needed to assist us in navigating these times of great uncertainty, and rapidly changing seasons, we are living in now….These keys of the kingdom are crucial to help us find our way, to help us find a balance and a connection between the divine things and the human things in this world…
We can do this by making time in our daily lives, to connect with the divine things, in times of prayer, quiet, scripture reading, walks in nature, listening to sacred music, sacred words and poetry…listening to words and inspirations that lead us to align ourselves with Jesus and God’s genuine love…and invite us to take up our cross and follow Jesus…in a way of life, that is the key to opening our hearts and minds to love God and our neighbors….with a genuine love…a love that transcends all times and seasons of our lives…
I invite you this week….to set aside some time, to pray and reflect further on the scripture reading we heard today from the letter of Paul to the Romans 12:9-21…
Reflect on some of these key markers of what genuine love looks like, sounds like and acts like….as followers of Jesus….think about all the different ways this love is expanded upon in this reading…and how you could connect these divine words to your human surroundings…and think about the endless possibilities for healing and reconciliation among all God’s people, if we use these keys of the kingdom of genuine love that are place in our hands now…what difference would we see in our lives, and the lives of others around us?
Listen…In all times, and in all seasons, listen closely for the voice of the divine…who is calling your name, and inviting your response…
(hold up set of keys, shake them)
Jesus has found your keys and wants to give them back to you…
Let us pray: Where he leads me I will follow (LEVS #144
1 I can hear my Savior calling,
“Take thy cross and follow, follow me.”
Where He leads me I will follow,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
2 I’ll go with Him through the garden,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way
Refrain
3 I’ll go with Him through the judgement,
I’ll go with Him, with Him all the way.
Refrain
4 He will give me grace and glory,
And go with me, with me all the way.
Refrain
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, Alaska