Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.

And this week, Peter doesn't do so well. Last week it was the confession, naming Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God. This week, in the verses immediately following, Peter is called Satan. He is told he is not on the side of God but on the side of people. Last week Peter was all about confessing Jesus as the divine Christ. This week, he is not willing to follow Jesus, the Christ who suffers. It is the basic collision of two ways. One way believes that success is the seal of the divine and the other is the way that believes suffering is. Instead of it being all about power and pomp and the religious leaders welcoming him and thrilled that the suffering messiah has come, they will be the ones who reject and work to destroy him. Suffering instead of honoring, death instead of celebration is what Jesus receives at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and scribes. 

Jesus is rejected by the powerful, the leaders. He comes to completely upend their world and their understanding of how things should be done. In return, in defense of their way of life they decide to kill Jesus. I wonder, what would they have done with Jesus if he had appeared as expected? How would they have treated him? Would the triumphal entry which we celebrate on Palm Sunday have been the rule and the religious and political leaders joined in if only he had done what was expected? That's the thing though, that's the human way of thinking which gets Peter rebuked. 

Peter has gone quickly from being the rock to being a stumbling block. He has become Satan or at least a mouthpiece for Satan offering the same temptation which we heard when Jesus was in the wilderness back in chapter 4. There Jesus was tempted to avoid suffering, which is exactly what Peter is also advocating. Peter is trying to school Jesus in what it means to be messiah. It does not go well. It never does. When the church, when we as the body of Christ point to Jesus as ultimate we are rocks. Whenever against Jesus' clear word, we try to defend Jesus or his followers or ourselves from the Messiah's way of suffering we are devils. God used or devil used, following Jesus or following human thoughts and wishes and desires and descriptions of how it should be. That is the dilemma which has faced the church and the followers of Jesus ever since Jesus walked this earth.

The church down through history has far too often strayed from the thoughts of God. When it is more concerned about power, obsessing after greatness and success it is clinging tightly to human things. To be concerned with the things of God is to be concerned with lowliness, with service. That is what it means for the church, for the body of Christ, and those who make up the body of Christ to be thinking the things of God. How do we serve? I know. It is a point which I have emphasized maybe a little bit in my preaching over the years. That I will readily admit and confess. I do so because it is something which must always be kept before us as a congregation and as followers of Jesus. Peter went from rock to stumbling stone in just a couple of verses. Let us guard well against being those who worry most about serving and protecting only our selves. I will keep reminding that we exist to serve. We exist to serve Jesus by serving those whom Jesus loves which is everybody. We follow Jesus by serving, by denying self, by taking up the cross. 

Is that an active thing or a passive thing, this business of taking up the cross? Do I as a follower of Jesus endure those struggles of life and call them a cross? Do I find ways to serve, to give away my life, to lose my life knowing well the suffering it might cause? Is it a both and? As we live the life of a follower of Jesus we are called to live the life that hates what is evil. We are called to genuinely love one another. We are to outdo one another in showing honor. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering. There's that word again, suffering. Extend hospitality to strangers. Take care of the saints. 

That's a pretty good list Paul gives us of what it means, what it looks like to follow Jesus. How goes it? Have you been checking this list, marking off all those items on a regular basis? This chapter of Romans, chapter 12 is one of the hardest in the Bible in my mind because it is so darn clear. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Those instructions aren't too difficult. To sit in solidarity with those who are crying is really no hard calling. Their tears call forth our tears. Their sorrow moves us deeply as well. We are connected to each other as parts of the body of Christ as well as fellow humans. So we weep together when needed. When possible we rejoice together. We celebrate those achievements. We rejoice at those amazing life events of the ones we know and love. Again, not too tough, really to live with others in this way. 

Live in harmony with one another followed by if possible live peaceably with all. In between those daunting bookends we get don't repay evil for evil. Do that which is noble in the sight of all. That's where it gets hard, doesn't it? Remember the chapter started off with do not be conformed to this world. Paul, you mean I have to think about other people and what they might consider to be noble and not just what I think and believe is the noble thing. Are you sure? You mean this isn't just about me and my best interests? No payback evil for evil, no getting even, no revenge, but there are days and there are people who really need, who really deserve some sort of payback. Not from me. Not by me. Not if I am going to take seriously this call to follow Jesus and this call to think the things of God and not the things of people. 

Here's what I wonder about these last instructions in this part of Romans 12. If you enemy is hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. That is most definitely not the way the world works. Enemies are to be attacked. Enemies are to be mocked. Enemies are to be called names and dehumanized. Enemies are in no way to be regarded as actually being real people with real feelings. Listen to any pundit, any talking head on either side of the aisle and how quickly do they behave in this way, talk this way when speaking of the other? Am I to follow pundits or am I to follow Jesus? It is so easy to get caught up with those who pontificate in such a way that they say all the right things because they agree with what I think. Am I to let their words shape me or do the words of Jesus, does the cross of Christ give shape to my life? 

Back to Paul and that business of food and drink for the enemy. Your mind is set on the human way of thinking when we treat enemies as the world says they should be treated. If I feed my enemy, if I give my enemy something to drink the question I have is what is that going to do to them? How will it affect them? Better yet, what is that going to do to me? When I recognize that they are someone who is hungry, will that make me realize, recognize, admit that they are a real person after all? When I give them something to drink and seek to quench their thirst, will I have to see them as a real person after all and not just some label others have stuck on them that I also use all too freely? Will the same be true for rejoicing with those who rejoice or weeping with those who weep that are on that enemy list? Maybe those encouragements from Paul are more challenging than I thought. 

Heaping coals on their heads, yeah maybe, but is Paul just giving us some sort of motivation so that we would actually do what he calls us to do? Is Paul motivating us to do what Jesus calls us to do? What do you think the repayment will be for finding ways to bless our enemies when the Son of Man comes in his glory? Do you think there is repayment which will come before that. Will Paul's final word there in the chapter come to pass, evil will be overcome with good? Can you wish burning coals upon the one you have served? 

It is not about power, at least not as the world understands it. It is not about force and might or coercion or compulsion. It is not about making sure that we are the ones on top. Again, that was Peter's mistake. He wanted it all and did not think that suffering, the suffering and death of Jesus was a part of it all. 

Hard words, I know I have preached hard words this week. I must be channeling my inner prophet again. It is hard to live as a follower of Jesus. So why do it? Why enter into a relationship which bids me come and die as Bonhoeffer put it? Love for starters. Jesus loved me, you, everyone enough to die for you, for me, for everyone. Jesus loves you so much that he would spare you from eternal death, from an eternity apart from him and outside of heaven. Jesus loves you. The son of God by whom and through whom all things were made, loves you dear child, walks with you each day, supports and blesses and comforts you each and every day. There is more, so very much more. Life changes when Jesus is a part of it. The beauty, the wonder, the joy, the richness, the amazingness of living as a part of the body of Christ is like nothing else on earth. That is the promise and that is the reality. Suffering, yes, but joy oh my the joy, and peace which passes all understanding, that is what our Jesus gives us here and now each and every day. It is what Jesus gives you, always.