The Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity
“ But she answered him, ‘Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
Summary
I can, Isaiah 50:4-9 tells us, sustain the weary with a word. Words are powerful things: they can move us to compassion, inspire us to struggle for justice and bring hope. Words can also stir up conflict, generate division and feed hatred.
When Jesus asks his disciples to find words for who he is in Mark 8:27-38, they come up with some great ones: Prophet, Elijah, John the Baptist, Messiah. But these are not the right words, they express what others want Jesus to be, someone who will champion their people, who will restore Israel.
For Isaiah speaking begins with listening: “morning by morning God wakens my ears to listen as one who is taught”. Listen, Jesus tells us, this is who I really am, someone who will suffer and die; someone who will not fight your enemies but will reconcile you to them; someone who will live out his belief that God’s kingdom will come and, when it does, it will be for everyone. Words, Jesus tells us, are not enough. We can talk about the kingdom of God till the cows come home (and we do!) but the kingdom will only come when we put our money where our mouth is: when we show, not just by our words, but by our actions, what we truly believe in.
First Reading
Isaiah 50:4-9
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards.
I gave my back to those who struck me,
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
GOSPEL
Mark 8.27-38
Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For 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. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
