Exodus 3:1-15
Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c
Romans 12:9-21
Matthew 16:21-28
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen
Good posture is important to good health. Of course it benefits the skeletal and muscular system, especially how the two interact, but other body systems benefit from good posture too. Pinched nerves are caused by compressing, constricting, or stretching them. They aren’t as likely to get pinched with good posture. Good posture also benefits the digestive system. As for the circulatory system, you’re less likely to get that tingly “pins and needles” feeling with good posture. Good posture helps tremendously when it comes to helping us maintain good health.
Physical, bodily posture is one thing, but there are other good postures in our lives too. In faith circles we talk about postures of prayer and praise, worship and gratitude.
One of the major postures we are supposed to take is one of total subservience to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I couldn’t help but feel that when I chose the word “subservience” I used a five-dollar word when a cheaper one would do. Since I couldn’t think of one any better, I decided to check my thesaurus to see if it had a suggestion and I was not disappointed.
Some of the words the thesaurus suggested[1] were dependence, humility, obedience, subordination, and submissiveness. The thesaurus also offered up words that implied on one extreme being dominated by someone or on the other sucking up to someone. Neither of these postures is appropriate. I guess if I was looking for one word, “subservience” was the best because this posture needs to take into account all of the aspects its synonyms. This is the point Jesus was making with Peter.
As the disciples go, Peter is probably my favorite. He’s bold and dynamic. He loves Jesus and he is loved in return. Perhaps the most glorious element to being Peter is that when he’s right, he’s right. Just last week when Jesus asked who the disciples think he is we heard Peter say “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” He was right. Of course, when Peter is wrong, he is very wrong. You gotta love Peter, when he goes down in flames he goes down in his own flames.
Our reading begins by Jesus telling his disciples that he, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, was going to suffer at the hands of the leaders of the temple and synagogues. He told them that he must be killed so that on the third day he could be raised to life. So in our very next reading after Jesus’ grand proclamation about the future of his Church on Earth, we hear that the head of the Church will be murdered by those he came to save.
Well, this just wouldn’t do! The Jews of the first century saw the Messiah as a great leader who would triumphantly enter Jerusalem
Peter was confident; he had just gotten a “100” on his last pop quiz, so he was ready to take this one on too. As I said, he knew what the Messiah was supposed to do; unfortunately he was willing to share that information with Jesus. Peter takes him aside and cries, “Never, Lord!” (At least he has the good sense to take Jesus aside first so he doesn’t play this scene out in front of everybody.) Other translations say “God forbid it!” instead of the simpler “Never!” I like the Greek version’s use of two different words for “no” in this verse, one following the other. Peter doesn’t just tell Jesus “No!” He tells Jesus “Super No!”
“Jesus tuned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan!’” Now it’s easy for us to overemphasize the significance of Jesus calling Peter “Satan.” It’s a pretty nasty thing to call anybody and nastier when it’s the Lord who says it. As easy as it is for us to exaggerate Jesus calling Peter “Satan,” it isn’t as important as why he called him “Satan.”
“Satan” is simply the Greek and Hebrew word for adversary. One writer explains Jesus using this word this way: “Peter is called Satan by Jesus, because his attempt to turn Jesus aside from his divine assignment to accept the consequences of his involvement with humanity has made him a tempter of a diabolical sort, who might thwart the divine plan of salvation. This metaphoric usage relates to the striking verdict.”[2]
Jesus calls Peter a stumbling block, not the guy with horns and a tail from Dante’s “Inferno.” Jesus knows his place and is calling Peter back to his. Jesus doesn’t want to dominate us and he isn’t looking for a bunch of fanny-kissing “yes-men.” Jesus is looking for partners in service to God and creation. This is the posture Jesus asks us to take. He wants us to take this posture not just physically but spiritually. He also wants us to take this posture actively in service, not passively in our seats.
He wants us to stand up for him and with him and carry his banner into the world, or in his own words, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
One of the wonderful things about the history of the faith is the stories that we don’t know can help enlighten us when considering the words of the gospel. Often these little things come to us in words and expressions that mean one thing to us today, but when they were originally used meant something different.
An example from our time is the word “scuttlebutt.” Most people use this word as a synonym for “gossip,” but the source of this word explains it even better. On naval vessels, the place where sailors got fresh drinking water was called the “scuttlebutt.” This is not just where people got fresh water, but of course it’s where people got all the fresh news of the day. Business has a similar expression, “water cooler talk.” The scuttlebutt was a ship’s water cooler. The gossip on a ship eventually became known by the place where it was shared. From there it entered common language. I’m just saying the expressions we use everyday mean more when we learn their origins.
We know what “take up his cross.” means to us. It means to be disciples, followers taking the posture of being behind Jesus. It means we are to follow him in all ways, but when this was written, it meant several different things.
Some believe that this expression meant the same thing in the first century it means today, no difference. But others compare “taking up his cross” with taking on a yoke like those of working oxen, its mantle representing the horizontal piece of the crucifix. Some believe it has militaristic characteristics which would fit wonderfully with a politically triumphant Messiah. Others attribute this phrase to a popular expression which was originally applied to the zealots and later to Jesus’ followers as a sort of rallying cry or curse.[3] Imagine someone crying out to a zealot “Eh, take up your cross!” as a sort of “get out of here” or “whatcha gonna do about it?”
These are just three additional examples of where this expression took root in the first century. I like them because like knowing the origins of a scuttlebutt, we learn more about what this expression meant to the people who said it and the people who heard it. But there is one theory I like even better.
In ancient Israel , the Greek letter “Tau”, our letter “T” was worn by some people as a cultic marking, a sign of protection and possession. After the crucifixion, the Tau was connected with the historical cross of Jesus as a seal of possession in Christ.[4] Maybe this was on the mind of the community that wrote this gospel. Now, don’t worry, this is not a call for the people of the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall
We carry the cross in the waters of our baptism. As some took the Tau was a symbol, we accept the water and living wet as the sign that we rise and die and rise again with Christ. As Jesus called the followers to take up the cross, we are called by our confessions to improve our baptism.[6] In our baptism we accept Jesus’ call to faithfulness, rebirth, and covenant into the body of Christ.[7]
This is the cross he calls us to bear, the posture he calls us to take, the posture of being a good disciple.
We have been told all our lives to improve our posture and “stand up straight.” But there’s more to it than that. A recent article about good posture says this:
Most people think that to “stand up straight” means tensing your back to heave your chest ‘in and up’, and pulling your head back in to your chest. This is not so. The spine has two natural curves that you need to maintain called the ‘double C’ or ‘S’ curves, these are the curves found from the base of your head to your shoulders and the curve from the upper back to the base of the spine. When standing straight up, make sure that your weight is evenly distributed on your feet. You might feel like you are leaning forward, and look stupid, but you don't.
Using a mirror, align your ears, shoulders, and hips. Proper alignment places your ears loosely above your shoulders, above your hips. Again, these points make a straight line, but the spine itself curves in a slight ‘S’. You'll find that this doesn't hurt at all. If you do experience pain, look at your side view in a mirror to see if you're forcing your back into an unnatural position. If so, stop it! [8]
When sitting at a chair, the author offers this advice:
Sit in an office chair.
Align your back with the back of the office chair. Avoid slouching or leaning forward, especially when tired from sitting in the office chair for long periods. Keep your shoulders straight.[9]
This advice is all good and well, and a wonderful description for us used to the furniture of the Americas and Western Europe . But this advice isn’t always the best when viewed through the eyes of others.
In her book “The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body and Design,” architecture professor Galen Cranz describes no fewer than six postures in which to work: standing, sitting, lying, perching, squatting and “autonomous sitting” (that’s using a stool). In photos from the Upper Volta
“Cranz noticed two men with fabulous posture: spines erect, heads balanced, necks relaxed. Not coincidentally, they were the only people in the village who had not attended missionary school [and sat in chairs]. For Cranz, this was an epiphany: The problem wasn't poorly designed chairs; the problem was chairs, period. The body is designed to move. As she put it: ‘What's the best posture? The next one.’”[10]
Good posture is important to good health, but we need to remember that sometimes posture needs to change. I think this is a good point and speaks to spiritual posture too; sometimes God calls us to change our posture. We look at the postures of Christ’s disciples and we see some glorious qualities. We see the boldness of Peter. We see the love and the thunder of James and John. We see their willingness to leave everything behind shared by Andrew in the fishing business and Matthew who left the tax collection business. We see the fervor of Simon the Zealot and even the doubt of Thomas. We see good posture as their postures changed too. They left their former lives and got behind Jesus. They followed.
We not only need good posture, we need to be able to shift and maintain good posture like the disciples shifted when they were called to change their lives from what they thought was important, what they thought were the signs of the kingdom; and follow the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
This is what they did and what we are called to do. We are to continue his work. We are to walk his steps. We are to wear his mark. We are called to live in community, in the assembled body of Christ; living wet, and bearing the cross. We do this in subservience; dependence, humility, obedience, subordination, and submissiveness in the life and the work and the glory of Christ. In this, we receive his reward for life in service to the triune God and all of God’s good creation.
[1] Subservience, http://thesaurus.com/browse/subservience, retrieved August 27, 2011.
[2] Satan, Brown, Driver Briggs. A Greek-English Lexicon f the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Third Edition. Chicago : The University of Chicago
[3] Kittel, TDNT, Vol. VII, page 577-578
[4].Ibid.
[5] Lewis, C. S., Screwtape Letters, The, page 125.
[6] Book of Confessions, 7.277
[7] Book of Order, W-2.3004 (2009-2011 Edition)
[8] “How to Improve Your Posture,” http://www.wikihow.com/Improve-Your-Posture, retrieved August 27, 2011.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Botello, Alfred, “Don’t Just Sit There.” Utne Reader, March-April, 1999, pages 99-101 retrieved from HomileticsOnline, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=2285, retrieved August 27, 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment