Process & Faith: 28 August 2005

Lectionary Commentary

See also: [2008] [2002]

Exodus 3:1-15
Matthew 16:21-28
Romans 12:9-21

What I perceive to be the common thread running through today’s texts is the act of claiming our identity despite the struggles in which that identity may involve us. The Divine Vision of the future calls us out of our status quo affirming existence and on the path for adventure and creativity. The little boy who was set in the basket and put out on the Nile embodies a sense of Divine adventure. When he grows into a man and tries to make excuses as to why he can’t live the life of liberation and leadership towards which God is calling him, he is assured, “I will be with you.” The boy who is put into a manger also embodies God’s creativity and lure toward genuine adventure. When he grows up and is tempted to diverge from his path that leads to certain death, he calls his disciples to “pick up their cross and follow him.” Paul leads the Christians in Rome to devote themselves to practices of non-violence in a culture that glorifies the sword. What a genuine openness to God’s creative impulse toward true adventure!

Exodus 3: 1-15

Moses is living a fairly settled life when he notices a curious burning bush and meets a God who calls him out of his pastoral existence and into the role of facilitating God’s liberation. It is not convenient for him to remember the God of his ancestors who reasserts his identity as a member of the slave class of his birth and the troubled situation that he had fled. Though Moses is safely hidden away, tending sheep for his father in law, God plants a vision of freedom in his heart—a freedom that means dangerous confrontation.

This passage is one of the best at illuminating humanity’s hesitancy to follow God’s inspiration. God tells Moses about God’s plan for the oppressed Hebrew people to have a land of their own: A land “flowing with milk and honey.” Moses asks God, “Who am I to go to the pharaoh and ask for the release of our people?” God’s response seems to be simple—you are the person I have asked. “Well in whose name shall I come?” Moses needs some firepower if he is going to face the Pharaoh. He needs this God’s name in order to harness the power of that name. God empowers him only with a cryptic non-answer: “I am who I am.” Go and tell them “I am” has sent you. YHWH. I’ve heard it’s the sound of a breath being taken. So that Moses doesn’t go into a struggle without some accountability, God tells Moses to remind the people that this God is the God of their ancestors. Though “I am” has no reference to the past, this God affirms the part of our existence that is thoroughly rooted to the past. Process Theology affirms the reality of history’s impact on the present moment in the theory of concrescence. In it, we as intelligent beings take into account the richness of our personal experience, plus traditions that have shaped our upbringing, plus the initial aim of God’s vision, when we experience each moment. The fact that God ties Godself not only to the pure state of being, but also to the history that had formed Moses, is an important aspect of this story.

Though Moses attempts to bring up reasons why he should continue living the stable, safe life that he has found, the God who dwells in the present moment and in the roots of Moses’ history encourages him to put aside his hesitancy and follow the pull toward liberation.

Matthew 16: 21-28

In the Gospel passage, Jesus also accepts his identity as one who must face extreme danger (even death on the cross) in order to proclaim (or facilitate, depending on your theological perspective) God’s redemptive liberation. In this passage, Peter offers the excuse that haunts Jesus in the back of his mind. “God forbid it! This must not happen to you.” Jesus identifies this refusal to accept his mission in full as a stumbling block. He tells Peter, “Your mind is on human things, not on Divine things.” Our identity as beings shaped by the Divine Will, or Initial Aim for each moment of experience sometimes brings us to the brink of great powers of resistance.

Matthew tells of Satan tempting Jesus to ignore God’s inspiration and live a comfortable life. Here, Peter’s refusal to accept the implications of Jesus’ radical message of liberation. Jesus apparently is reminded of his struggle in the desert. “Get behind me, Satan!” he says to Peter. “You are a stumbling block to me.” Poor Peter. One minute he is a foundational rock on which Jesus will build his church, the next moment he is an annoying rock in Jesus’ path.

Jesus tells his disciples in this passage that if they want to be like him, they will have to pick up their own crosses and follow him. I take this to mean, they will all have to face their own fears and doubts and excuses, and instead choose the life changing, life threatening inspiration of God.

Jesus elaborates that whoever cares more for their own “life” will actually lose it, and whoever is willing to set aside his or her own life will actually find it. Russell Pregeant makes a good observation in a previous Process theology influenced commentary on this pericope (available to members of Process and Faith on this very website—Join today!). Process Theology has the tools to interpret this potentially detrimental call toward self effacing behavior in a more empowering light. Pregeant writes,

If God is in fact the all-inclusive being, then one’s true self-fulfillment is found precisely by transcending a narrow sense of self and opening one’s life to the wider world of God’s universe itself. And this way of conceiving the matter seems perfectly in line with the intention of the saying, which is not to foreclose self-fulfillment but actually to enhance it. Those who make the call to sacrifice into a tool of oppression do in fact pervert it, and it is important to make this point from the pulpit from time to time. A particularly powerful way of doing this, one might add, is to play upon the paradox oneself: the self that some persons need to lose is in fact the self-effacing self that refuses to receive God’s empowerment.

As you can well see, Brother Russell is more adept with language as well as much more steeped in the Process Tradition than yours truly. So if you would like another, more scholarly, take on the today’s lectionary scripture—by all means joinProcess and Faith .

In any case, the parallels between the Exodus passage and the Gospel passage this week are mutually illuminating and within the grasp of most congregations. The theme of identity and the courage we must muster within ourselves to live the identity we claim as people of faith is a topic which resonates deeply with most people withi whom I have come into contact.

Romans 12: 9-21

In this passage, Paul attempts to shed more light on what the identity of a Christian community should be. A Christian should “rejoice in hope, have patience in suffering, and persevere in prayer.” We may hear our worldly wisdom telling us that hope is childish optimism, suffering is never-ending, and prayer is pointless---but Paul insists that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Christian identity is one that attunes itself to the subtle and persuasive power of the Divine.“Living in harmony with each other” is not about suppressing the Divine pull toward liberation, it is about embracing the liberation of a community out of a collection of Egos. Christ’s call to lose our selves in order to find our self is perhaps another way of thinking about Paul’s collection of advice.

We must have as much courage to accept the Christian identity Paul outlines as Moses must have had to lead his people out of slavery and into freedom. In this passage, Paul is describing a path toward the liberation of a community from the constrictive habits of pride, vengeance, spite, and hopelessness to which we have become accustomed. The adventurous creativity of God depends on our willingness to accept our role as co-creators. We bind ourselves and God with the old habits Paul warns us about. We are called to outdo one another with honor and praise, to exhibit genuine love—what fertile ground for the persuasive pull of God!

Nathan Mattox is a 2005 M.Div graduate of Claremont School of Theology.He is now serving an appointment in the United Methodist Church in Waldron, Arkansas. While attending seminary, Nathan was the program coordinator for the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life at Occidental College in Los Angeles . He is a member of the National Council of Churches Ecological Justice Fellowship and is also involved in the National Religious Partnership for the Environment. He is a new father to a 4-month old son and a husband for 5 years, and is every day discovering new aspects of God in these relationships. He is the author of the weblog, “Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Optimist,” where his sermons can be accessed.

If you found this lectionary helpful, please consider contributing to Process & Faith by making a donation or becoming a member.