Holy Cross Monastery, West Park, NY
Br. Luc Thuku OHC
The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 17 A, September 3, 2023
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28
Moses was minding his business of tending his father-in-law’s flock and not looking for an encounter with God or some spiritual experience. Despite who he was and where he was, God broke through to him with some drama that involved a burning bush to draw his attention. Instead of running away in fear, curiosity drew him closer to the bush to investigate what was really going on. The holy can only break through to us when we drop our defenses, and this happens when we are caught off-guard but not necessarily by something as dramatic.
First and foremost, God wanted to establish a relationship with Moses and that is why He tells him He is the God of his ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God wanted Moses to not only know Him, but to know Him personally. This is crucial in the sense that it is only when we have had a personal encounter with God, that leads to a personal relationship with Him, that we are able to serve Him whole heartedly. That personal relationship is what gives us conviction that we are personally called for this or that mission. It gives us the courage to soldier on when our motives are questioned otherwise we will be easily shaken or discouraged from taking the direction that God wants us to go.
Knowing that God is in our hearts gives us the courage to risk, and sometimes the courage to fail, because we know that even in our failure as persons, God can still bring success for His plans. Knowing God is with us transforms our whole perspective on life. It helps us look at our imperfections differently and helps us understand that in spite of them, God still wants to establish a relationship with us.
For humanity, God has only one master plan which is salvation. God desires us to be freed from whatever that enslaves us and causes us suffering. We are enslaved by sin, by addictions, by pride, by friendships and so on, but whatever we call it, it is most often an enslavement of our own making. God wants to free us from all these and to use us to free others.
Moses attempts to resist God with a lot of seemingly valid reasons but God promises him help and offered to provide all he needed for the specific task that he was being given. God never told Moses that it was going to be easy. He just promised to be present. Moses was to act in faith. Faith does not make things easy but it makes them possible. The call of Moses is therefore crucial in helping us understand the call or mission of Jesus and our own calling as is made evident in our Gospel reading today.
“From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed, and on the third day be raised to life”. (Matthew 16:21) In these few powerful words Jesus reveals the whole purpose of his earthly ministry, that is, the father’s divine plan for the salvation of all Human kind and the good news or gospel if you like that he, the Christ, had come to suffer, die and be raised again for the forgiveness of our sins and the sins of the whole world.
Peter, the one who had a few verses before proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God(Matthew 16:16) could not comprehend what Jesus was revealing to them and tells Jesus that that will never happen to him. I understand Peter very well. In fact I empathize with him. He was Just being like all of us who at times practice what is called selective hearing. We either hear what we want to hear or pick a word or two in a sentence and draw a conclusion out of context. Peter seems to have only heard the words ‘suffering’ and ‘death’ but never heard or at least never paid attention to ‘being raised on the third day’ or even the reason why the death, suffering and rising were happening, that is, ‘the forgiveness of our sins and the sins of the whole word’! Peter and the other disciples were looking for another kind of Christ. One who preferably would dramatically enter on a horse and some shining armament, coming as an earthly savior to free them from the tyranny of their Roman oppressors. In other words, Peter and company were looking for power and glamour and were therefore not ready to hear the truth of the matter.
Jesus, however knew who he was and why he had come. He was also wise and discerning enough to look through Peter, see the devil, who was trying to discourage him from his mission and rebuked the devil and cast him away… “Out of my sight Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men!(Matthew 16:23).
There will always be well-meaning“Peters” in our life of faith who will try to “speak sense” to us when we embark on our journeys of doing the will of God. In 2010, several months before I left Kenya for an Abbey in the high desert of New Mexico, I was invited out for lunch by a Canadian Missionary Sister, a member of the Congregation of Sisters I was working for, who was also a colleague at the program I was in charge of.
A few weeks earlier I had handed in my resignation so that they could hire a replacement for me so that I could hopefully get time to train him on the job to ensure a smooth transition. The sisters were of course very sad that I was leaving and employed several tactics to make me stay. When we finished our lunch, the sister told me that she took me out to get a chance to speak to me privately and honestly. I told her to spill.
She told me that she had gotten to know me very well for the time we had worked together, and that I was making a huge mistake leaving a stable and very well paying job to join a monastery in the middle of nowhere. She told me she understands the pull most people from the “third world” have to go to the United States and the West in general, but life there can be challenging or outright miserable. She mentioned my personality, the severe winters and cruel summers, racism, isolation and individualism, culture shock, food, and lack of a close-knit support system among things that should make me reconsider my decision. I, on the other hand, was burning with the desire to be a Contemplative Benedictine Monk and therefore could hear none of what she was saying and jokingly told her to “get behind me Satan.” We laughed, toasted with a whiskey and that was the end of the conversation.
I, of course, got to New Mexico and almost immediately all of what she had predicted to me happened! However, despite the struggles and difficulties involved, I do not have any regret because monastic life has provided me with a mirror that helped(and that continues to help) me face my inner self that was broken, traumatized and burdened with self-hate despite the happy facade that I was presenting to people. Monastic life put me on a journey of self discovery and self love which is one of the many crosses that I carry to this day. Had I heeded the well meaning advice of the sister, I would have cancelled my date with destiny and would most likely be a rich but miserable human being. I am not the happiest person on earth yet…that prize has already been taken by a Buddhist monk somewhere in the Far East. All I am trying to say is that a strong God given conviction is crucial in keeping these well meaning “Peters” at bay.
Jesus knew he had come to fulfill the will of his heavenly father and that included literally taking up his cross and following this will wherever it led to. It was absolutely necessary for him to go to Jerusalem, suffer unjustly at the hands of the wicked and hateful men who in fact thought they were holy; die a cruel death on the cross and on the third day be raised again to life by the power of God who is almighty. By doing so, he took my sins and yours, redeemed you and me from the grasp and hold of the evil one and by this forgiveness restored our relationship with the father.
Having set an example, he calls us to take up our cross and follow him. So often we misunderstand this call, mistaking at times our daily struggles as crosses. Our cross is not something common to all people, both believers and non believers. Difficulties at work, illnesses and diseases, death of loved ones, difficulties in relationships, separations or divorces and so on, are not necessarily crosses by the fact that they are common to all human beings.
Our cross is something that is placed before us as individuals to willingly endure or suffer because we are Jesus’ followers, because we are believers, because we are his disciples! Things like forgiving those who we would otherwise better not forgive, loving the unlovable, caring for the lonely and forgotten, hugging and visiting the untouchables of our world, helping those in need without favor or discrimination, speaking truth to power wherever injustices happen, are just a few examples of crosses that individuals take up or could take up and follow Christ.
We should take up our crosses out of love. Love is also the major distinguishing mark of a Christian and as we heard from the second reading this morning from the letter to the Romans, Paul exhorts us to let our love be genuine(Romans 12:9). Genuine love is characterized by hating what is evil and clinging to what is good. The images that Paul gives are very powerful. He tells us to…let our love be heartfelt; be eager to show each other honor; be set on the fire by the spirit; be devoted to prayer; contribute to the needs of the saints and to pursue hospitality. True love is therefore fervent, relentless and practical.
Now, is following Christ closely in vain or self serving? In Matthew 16:27, Jesus reminds us that he, the son of man, is going to come in his father’s glory and he will reward each person according to what he has done. He does not promise us eternal life because of ‘what we do’ but rather because of ‘how we do’ it, that is, how willingly you and I take up our cross to follow him. The level or degree of willingness demonstrates our faith and our loving response for all that Jesus has done for us and asks of us. It is this faith that will be rewarded with the gift of eternal life.
Our work as followers of Jesus, be we monastics or not, is to individually discern the workings of the Holy Spirit in me, what cross Jesus is placing before me today and how to respond in joyful service to our Savior. The golden question this morning is… How will I take up my cross to follow Jesus…how will you take up your cross to follow Jesus?
May God in His graciousness and love give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts filled with compassion as we take up our cross to follow Jesus!
Amen
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