New Names for the Faithful - 25 February 2018 - Second Sunday in Lent

Abram becomes Abraham, Sarai becomes Sarah, and followers of Jesus become cross-bearers. “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” God makes outrageous promises, and the faithful who hear the call and trust in it are exalted with new identity.

It is told of Martin Luther that he said each morning as he splashed water on his face, “I am baptized.” It was this sure knowledge of being marked as God’s own forever that fueled his courage as he faced both pope and emperor and refused to stop calling for reform. . .

As we walk the road to Jerusalem with Jesus in this season, as we face the powers of this world to declare, despite the consequences, that love is more powerful than hate, that peace needs to “made” as intentionally as war, that the hungry deserve bread, we live the baptismal truth that nothing. . . can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus [Rom 8:38-39]. . .  –– Scott Haldeman

Mark 8:31-38

In Mark 8:31–38, what appalls Peter about Jesus’ prediction is not just that Jesus must suffer but that, inevitably, those who follow him will face suffering and rejection, too. In contemporary parlance we sometimes trivialize the “cross we have to bear.” What are the more important crosses we might face, the circumstances in which today’s Christians might have to make real sacrifice for the sake of the real Gospel? –– David Bartlett

In Mark 8:27–30, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” Predictably, he gets widely variant answers, but Peter identifies Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus does not respond directly to this claim, but “ordered them not to tell anyone about him.” Among the many different claims about the Messiah in Jesus’ time, none of them would have called for the Messiah to suffer and be rejected the way Jesus describes in this passage. It should be no surprise then that Peter would question Jesus’ statements and likely he would have been shocked at the sternness of Jesus’ rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” –– Jonathan D. Lawrence

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16

One of last week’s readings described God’s covenant with Noah and all living things. This text focuses on God’s covenant with Abraham and through him with all of his descendants, promising land, descendants, and a blessing. . .  

Of course, the very idea of descendants is shocking in this story, since Abraham and Sarah were too old to even imagine having a child. Yet. . . God’s promise of a son is fulfilled, as proof that with God all things are possible.

In the course of their encounter with God, Abram and Sarai become renamed as Abraham and Sarah. Sarah’s name does not change significantly in its meaning “Princess,” but Abraham, formerly “Exalted Father” becomes “Father of a Multitude.” –– Jonathan D. Lawrence

Romans 4:13-25

Paul suggests that the promises to Abraham were fulfilled not through the law but through “the righteousness of faith.” He refers specifically to Genesis 17:5 and God’s promise that Abraham would be the “father of many nations.” He speaks of Abraham’s unwavering faith that God would fulfill those promises, which could refer indirectly to Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command. This deep faith is presented as a model for Christians who put similar trust in Jesus and his death and resurrection. –– Jonathan Lawrence

David Bartlett, an ordained American Baptist minister, is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia, and Lantz Professor Emeritus of Christian Communication at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut.

W. Scott Haldeman is associate professor of worship at Chicago Theological Seminary, Illinois.

Jonathan D. Lawrence, an American Baptist Church ordained minister, teaches Religious Studies and Theology at Canisius College, Buffalo, New York.

Homily Service 39, no. 4 (2006): 22-32.

Set Your Mind – 3 September 2017 – 13th Sunday after Pentecost/ Lectionary 22

Our invitation to be disciples of Jesus is an invitation to help God deliver the world from sin and death into love and life. . . Jesus invited the apostles there at Caesarea Philippi; Jesus invites us in this holy meal of bread and wine.

How can we participate in God's deliverance? We start by simply being a community that witnesses to the power of the Gospel to change lives. . . –– Brent Laytham

Matthew 16:21-28

Jesus continues to prepare the disciples for what awaits him in Jerusalem. Peter's incredulity at what Jesus foretells stands in for the reaction of all who had eagerly anticipated the Messiah: torture and death for Israel's savior simply were not part of the plan. Jesus' rebuke of Peter (“Get behind me, Satan!”) recalls Jesus' experience in the wilderness where he dispatched the devil with “Away with you, Satan!” (4:10). . .

Verses 24 and following reveal what kind of Messiah Jesus is and what kind of followers he calls. Instead of taking up a scepter or a sword, Jesus takes up a cross and asks the same of those who would be his disciples: “Let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” Self-denial here is not the erasing of one's inherent worth; it is, rather, the abandonment of all self-assertion driven by fear and the desire for power. It is, in other words, the complete refusal of violence.

The familiarity of verses 24–26 has often led to a tepid and confused theology of the cross; one which assumes that my private anxiety—a difficult relationship, financial hardship, uncertain health—is my personal cross to bear. While certain forms of emotional or physical suffering may be redemptive, the cross Jesus speaks of in Matthew 16 and elsewhere does not represent the sum total of our personal worries and aggravations. It is, instead, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer claimed, the suffering that comes from our allegiance to Jesus Christ alone.

The cross, Bonhoeffer insisted, is not random suffering, but necessary suffering; it is rejection for the sake of Jesus Christ. . . . Verse 28 seems to . . . preoccupy some Bible readers, causing them to create timetables and offer predictions of Jesus' return. They would do well to pay closer attention to Jesus' teaching about the way of the cross and the cost of discipleship. –– Debra Dean Murphy

Jeremiah 15:15-21

The prophets received invitations from God, as well. They were not always accorded triumphant success, as we well know, but the deepest joys came to them in the same way Jesus’ followers experienced the call to take up the cross. God gave Jeremiah delight when the prophet ate the word of God. The road is not without dangers, but God’s promises are sure: “I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze...” God’s word is strong. Ingested, it is invincible.

Romans 12:9-21

Building on the first eight verses of this chapter (last week's text), Paul continues to set forth specific patterns and practices and a vision of life in the body of Christ grounded in “genuine love.” As always, for Paul, love is concrete action, not a feeling or emotion; love does things, behaves in certain ways. . . The commands in these verses are not a checklist of orders to be carried out (or else), but something like the contours of a life well-lived in Christian community. . . by the exquisite self-giving of the cross. –– Debra Dean Murphy

D. Brent Laytham is the Dean of The Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Baltimore, Maryland.

Debra Dean Murphy is assistant professor of Religious Studies at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Homily Service 41, no. 3 (2008): 178-189.