You
couldn’t exactly call today’s scriptures light summer reading.
They come closer to Hamlet than to Much Ado About Nothing! The
Church doesn’t seem to care that it’s still summer and we’re trying to
savor the last bit of vacation. But there is no vacation from the
gospel; no vacation from following Jesus.
Jeremiah sets the tone today. His words
border on blasphemy. He pulls no punches when he tells God, “You
duped me, Lord, and I let myself be duped.” No tip-toeing around
there! And who can blame Jeremiah? God had given him a
message to deliver, a message no one wanted to hear, a message that
turned everyone against him - made his life one long tale of woe, of
opposition, arrest, imprisonment, and public disgrace. No wonder
he felt “duped,” no wonder he cried out, ‘enough! I’ve had it with
speaking in your name, Lord!’
But Jeremiah went on speaking in spite of
himself. God’s word was a fire burning within him and, try as he might,
he couldn’t contain the fire. Talk about a no-win situation. If he
didn’t speak God’s word it consumed him from within like a fire, and if
he did – and when he did - it only got him into trouble.
We should be able to identify with Jeremiah.
If we take our faith at all seriously, if we honestly try to live our
faith beyond just paying it lip service – and we do - then sooner or
later we’re going to feel that we’ve been duped because God will take us
to places we really don’t want to go; God will ask us to give what we
don’t want to give. For the truth, my friends, is that, for a follower
of Jesus it’s not all that different from what it was for Jeremiah. It’s
true he received his call to be prophet while still in his mother’s
womb, but for most of us, ours came early, too - at our baptism - and we
can escape our call no more than he could. There’s no easy way out. But
we look for ways.
So did Peter, as was evident in today’s gospel.
When Jesus began to speak openly about the suffering and death that
awaited him in Jerusalem, Peter wouldn’t hear of it. “Far be it from
you, Lord. God forbid that you should suffer!” And Peter’s effort to
stake out an easy way earned him a bruising rebuke from Jesus: “Get
behind me, Satan. You are thinking not as God does but as human beings
do!”
Those few words of Jesus are the heart of
today’s message. God’s way of thinking and our way of thinking are not
the same. Not even remotely. God’s ways turn our ways upside-down and
inside-out. With God, losing becomes saving, giving up becomes gaining,
dying becomes living. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what profit would
there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life in the
process?”
I’m sure you’re at least somewhat familiar with
the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” - the belief among some Christians -
hugely popularized by televangelists – that God blesses faithful
believers with prosperity, with wealth - financial success - and that
generous donations to the church – the more the better – will not only
win God’s favor, but also increase one’s material wealth. This turns
faith into an entitlement - into little more than a deal, a contract we
enter into with God. In return for placing our faith in God – and
placing generous gifts in the collection basket - God rewards us with
security, wealth, and affluence. Simple as that.
Way too simple. Right? In fact, the
Prosperity Gospel is no gospel at all. It makes a mockery of the
Christian gospel. When we signed up to be Christians we received no
‘signing bonus’, no stock options, no assurance of prosperity, and
certainly no entitlement to a suffering-free or a sacrifice-free life.
Just the opposite, in fact. In the words of St. Paul in today’s passage
from Romans, when we signed on with Jesus Christ we agreed to “offer our
bodies – our very selves – as a living sacrifice to God.” And
sacrifice is a costly thing, and a counter-cultural thing. It was
for Jeremiah, it was for Jesus, and it was for Peter, too – as he would
one day find out.
My friends, our culture, too often driven by
individualism, self-indulgence, conspicuous consumption, and avoidance
of pain at any cost, places little or no value on sacrifice. And yet
sacrifice, rooted in love, is at the heart of the Christian life. And
sacrifice, rooted in love, is at the heart of our worship, too.
Sacrifice is what we do every time we gather to celebrate the Eucharist,
for this is precisely the place where the sacrifice of Jesus intersects
with our lives: where his sacrifice becomes our sacrifice. “Do this in
memory of me” is far more than an invitation to repeat a ritual, it is
an invitation to a way of life!
So, my friends, St. Paul’s words in today’s
second reading: “Do not conform yourselves to this age,” are meant to be
taken to heart. And so are those challenging words that Jesus spoke to
Peter: “You are thinking not as God does but as human beings do!”
Father Michael G. Ryan
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