Twenty Second Sunday of the Year (A) – August 30, 2020 When I read this Gospel the phrase ‘quit while you are ahead’ comes to mind! Last Sunday, in answer to the question “Who do you say that I am?”, Peter answered with great enthusiasm, insight and commitment, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”, and in response to this insight, faith, trust and commitment Jesus affirms him as ‘the rock’ (literally ‘rocky’) upon which the Church, Christ’s Church, the communion of faith, is to be built. And now Jesus declares that Peter is an obstacle to his mission, and even calls him Satan, who is THE obstacle to everything Christ wishes to accomplish. Yes, Peter (like us) has feet of clay, and the tendency to undermine not only the mission of Jesus but also himself. It does not take much for us to have the rug pulled from under us, we think we have everything sown up, and then all of a sudden we discover we are heading down the wrong path, in the wrong direction, and the good we have achieved is being undone because of our foolish comments, unwelcome or unjust behavior. We undo the good we have done. From this encounter one can feel, experience, the sheer frustration of Jesus. He has a mission to accomplish which demands more than personal declarations of faith, however accurate, insightful and beautiful they are. While I can understand Jesus’ frustration, I can also understand Peter’s reaction to what Jesus announces, that he will suffer and be killed, but will rise on the third day. We could easily miss the last part of this proclamation, that he will rise on the third day, if our minds and hearts were captured by the first part of what Jesus says, that he would suffer and die. If a relative or friend declared to me that he or she was going to suffer and die at the hands of others, my first reaction would be to see what we could do, what could be done to avoid such an outcome, after all we don’t want anyone we love to suffer, and we will do whatever is possible to find a way through it, to see if it can be avoided. But this is where Jesus’ frustration comes in. Being called, referred to as Satan would certainly have woken Peter up, shaken him out of any kind of complacency. Jesus is not going to change course with Peter, he is not going to take away the responsibility he has given him, he just wants him to get on board with what lies ahead, with the mission he has to fulfill as the Christ, the Savior, the Son of the Living God. I am sure Jesus was not looking forward to what was becoming inevitable as he continued his mission of salvation, but complete it he must, whatever the cost. There are times when we hope situations are not going to turn out as some predict, or believe to be inevitable because of the way things are progressing, because of the direction they are heading in. We all hope and pray that there is going to be an end to the racial tension and division appearing on our TVs and in our newspapers nearly every day. We want the rioting and looting to end, peaceful demonstrations in the cause of righteousness is one thing, but not the destruction of people’s livelihoods and neighborhoods. Injustice can be exploited by those who simply enjoy a fight, who use it as a means to advance their own divisive agenda. Some people actually enjoy creating division and tension, stirring the pot, they seem to thrive on it. But we must always look to find, discover, the underlying causes of injustice, and root them out. Until the underlying causes are redeemed, transformed, injustice remains on both sides of the law. Jesus’ mission is about redemption, salvation. He has to embrace all the underlying causes of injustice, everything that divides us from one another and our God: sin, suffering and death. Someone has to, in order to prove there is a way out, a way of hope, the promise of new life, the promise of resurrection. And this ‘someone’ can only be God. Jesus was not the Messiah, the Savior, people expected. They were expecting a victorious warrior King, who would drive out all their enemies and affirm their promised land. Yes, there was quite a bit of razzamatazz surrounding Savior Jesus. He changed gallons of water into wine (that’s my kind of Savior), fed thousands with a few loaves and two fish, raised the dead, walked across water, calmed storms (we have enough of them). But he also spoke of gentleness and mercy, peace, and forgiveness (even for one’s enemies), of turning the other cheek rather than resorting to vengeful acts or hateful words, to love and hope beyond reason. This was a different kind of ‘Messiah agenda’ than the one they were expecting, so it’s no wonder the Apostles, such as Peter, had difficulty in embracing the mission according to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. With this God nothing is forced upon anyone, everything is a gift freely given, and freely received. Being forced to do something, to believe someone, leads to resentment rather than faith. Jesus is inviting Peter and the apostles to get on board his Savior’s bus, and not to climb aboard another. In today’s first reading the Prophet Jeremiah is obviously not a happy camper. He believes he has been misled, duped by God. He believes God has seduced him, and he is mad, upset, let down. He has spoken God’s Word to the people, and it has brought him nothing but misery. We can feel let down by God. I have tried to do everything right, yet my world seems to be collapsing around me. I have been duped into believing that nothing is impossible for God, that nothing can separate me from God’s love, that in every situation I can find redemption, salvation, a way through. But that is not my experience. Faith does not remove us from reality, but affirms God’s presence within it. Jesus is THE realist. This is why he is frustrated with Peter. Peter would like to avoid the reality of Christ’s mission, the suffering and death, maybe to protect himself from it. Does he deny Jesus three times in order to avoid being crucified next to him? Is it a natural human response to avoid the possibility of suffering, even if it requires denial of someone you love? I don’t think we naturally throw ourselves into a situation of suffering unless it is inevitable and cannot possibly be avoided. I am sure parents would do so for their children, it would be a natural reaction. If their son or daughter is suffering, the natural response of a parent is their willingness, their cry, to embrace their child’s suffering. This is probably a very good way to understand the intention of Jesus as Savior, his willingness to embrace, take on, suffering and death, to redeem them, to redeem us. If a child is wounded in some way, a parent’s hug goes a long way to redeem it, making it better, as if the parent has taken the suffering to themselves. This is what Jesus wants Peter to understand. Certain things can’t be avoided, but rather embraced for the greater good. Jesus wants Peter, the apostles, and us, to always see the bigger picture. Taking up one’s cross does not mean running around looking for suffering, embracing difficulties, going out of our way to be duped and undermined, it simply means embracing life as it is, with its joys and suffering, its blessings and limitations. It is no good wishing that we were someone else. This is our life, a gift from God, and even its rough and hard moments are steps toward happiness. While Jeremiah did not like feeling duped, misled by God, he continued to be the prophet God invited him to be. He continued to preach God’s Word and proclaim the truth to his people, even though it did not win him many friends, and made his personal life difficult and somewhat unhappy. He accepted the reality of his mission. By accepting who we are, the situation we are in, what we are going through at a particular time, and what lies ahead, amounts to carrying our cross. In my home parish in the UK there was a young man called Jonathan, a brilliant clarinetist, who played at my ordination. He went onto to the Royal College of Music, and has been a member of a number of famous orchestras. A couple of years ago, while running down a hill to catch his London bus, he slipped, rolled over and broke his neck and back, and this freak accident paralyzed him from the neck down, at least initially, things have slightly improved. I was in the UK not long after the accident and able to visit him. He amazed me. He was not bitter, no questioning ‘why me’, no blaming anyone else. He embraced his situation with the determination to get better, to move his body muscles. And he has made great progress, beyond what was expected. And I will never forget what he said to me from his hospital bed. He told me that the accident had actually redeemed him, redeemed him from an abusive relationship, an addiction to drugs, decisions that had severed his relationship with his family, whom he dearly loved.