Greetings from St. Mark’s on the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost where fall has tried to return and we celebrate the fifth Sunday in August with Rite I liturgy and a potluck.
We were gathered with a reminder that God provides all that is good, that the love we share comes from God, and that our mission is defined as being doers of good works. Our first lesson from Exodus details Moses meeting God on the mountain in the burning bush and his commission to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. The Psalmist sings a song to give thanks to God and celebrate God’s call and presence in our lives. The reading from the letter to the Romans is Paul’s reminder to hold on to the good we’ve been taught in the face of the discord of the world. Matthew’s gospel contains Jesus’ interaction with Peter after Peter tries to stop him from going to the cross, which is followed with an accounting of the cost of discipleship.
Our lessons remind us of God’s intentionality to call us, exactly as we are, to follow and be ministers of God’s grace to the corners of the world. Peter is a good example for us to recall as we struggle through our ministries; last week he was heralded as the rock on which the church is built and this week he is the stumbling block for Christ and his followers. This gospel reminds us that we are called from one point in our life knowing the entire arc of our faith. We must evolve and engage God in Christ to better understand our significance and insignificance in God’s plan; we are essential as God’s hands and feet in the world, but the glory is God’s alone.
How will you allow yourselves to evolve and expand the way you understand God at work through you in the world? To whom has God led you to help all of us find God’s grace present? I invite your comments,
Les+
Lessons: Exodus 3:1-15; Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c; Romans 12:9-21; Matthew 16:21-28
Sermon link: https://audiomack.com/fatherles-2/song/pentecost-14-sermon-2
