Proper 17 A

August 31, 2008 

Exodus 3:1-15

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Romans 12:9-21

Matthew 16:21-28 

I don’t know if y’all remember those old Maw and Paw Kettle movies. Something was always broken on the farm. Maw always let Paw know about it. He’d always say, "I’m going to fix that one day, Maw." Sometimes I affectionately call Kevin "Paw Kettle". He’s always fixin’ to do something, some day, when he gets around to it.

I’m sure you’ve heard the proverb, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." I heard it plenty growing up. Enough that is plays over and over in my mind like a needle stuck on a scratched record when I intend to do something to let someone know I care about them, that I am thinking about them, like send a card, or a note, or pick up the phone and call, then I let something distract me and I don’t get around to it. That reminds me of another familiar proverb. My brother’s favorite: "It’s the thought that counts." That one might be useful if you’re not particularly thrilled about a gift you just received but my brother says, "Sorry I hadn’t called you in six months, Sis. But I’ve been thinking about you. It’s the thought that counts, right?" No. It isn’t. If I was clairvoyant or I could read his thoughts then I suppose it would count. But since I’m not and I can’t, a thought doesn’t count for much, not nearly as much as a phone call, a note, or an email. I can’t be critical of my brother since I don’t always act on a thought myself, even though I intend to. Good intentions are not worth any more than a fleeting thought if we don’t follow through with them.

What do you suppose makes us resistant to following through with an inner prompting or acting on a thought? Or I could turn that around and say when we do act on a thought or respond to a nudge from within, what makes us do that? Sometimes we do what is good and loving and thoughtful of others, what we know Jesus would do. Sometimes we don’t.

In the Gospel story today we learn Jesus was compelled to go to Jerusalem. He told his disciples he must go. He knew what would happen to him when he got there. He told them that he would suffer at the hands of religious authorities. He would be killed then raised on the third day. What if Jesus hadn’t gotten around to making that journey to Jerusalem? What if he ignored that inner urging from his Father in heaven or worse, just plain rebelled against it like Jonah did? When God told Jonah to go to Nineveh he hopped on the first boat to Tarshish in the opposite direction, as far as he could get from Nineveh. Of course after God brought a storm on account of him, the sailors threw him overboard, and he was swallowed by a fish that spit him out after three days, then he went on to Nineveh like he should’ve done in the first place. God didn’t leave Jonah alone until he did what God told him to do.

God would not have taken no for an answer from Moses either. The difference between Moses and Jonah was that Moses did what he was compelled to do. Which was to leave his father-in-law’s sheep to get a closer look at a bush that was on fire but not burning the way a bush on fire would. He said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight."

Now it’s unlikely a shepherd would leave his own flock unattended long enough to investigate a geological anomaly like a flaming bush that doesn’t burn, let alone leave a flock that he was tending for someone else. Moses did not resist the inner nudge to leave the sheep and check out that bush. When God saw him walking toward the bush, God called to him by name and told him what to do. Notice it was only after Moses walked toward the bush that God spoke to him.

The conversation between Peter and Jesus allows us to stand outside and listen in on a conversation we’ve all had in our own minds at one time or another. Particularly when we feel compelled to do something and we don’t know how it will turn out. I don’t know anyone who has not had a thought or urge to do something and then went through all the reasons why not to, what could happen if you did, and if you didn’t. Sometimes after talking to ourselves about it we convince ourselves to go ahead and do what we’re compelled to do. After while, or tomorrow, or we’ll add it to our ‘to do’ list hanging on the refrigerator, or write it on a post it note and stick it on the calendar or in our day planner. Then we just don’t get around to carrying it out.

If we don’t do what we know we ought to do for those we love, we certainly we don’t do it for people we’ve never met. With Jesus and Moses and Jonah and all the rest of our religious ancestry, God called them all to do things for the sake of many people they did not know and never would. At least not while they lived on this earth. In nearly every case it started with a thought or an inner nudge from God that they responded to in the way God intended and God kept at them, one nudge at a time, until God’s intentions were carried out.

When Jesus told the disciples they had to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him, he might have meant that they would have to make the same sacrifice that he did. Most of the apostles, including Peter, did die for the sake of Christ. But most of us are called to deny ourselves in other ways. We definitely have to deny our own objections and excuses for not responding to a thought or an inner prompting from God that would carry out God’s intentions for the world. When we don’t respond to God’s urging; when we give in to that natural resistance or just flat rebel against what the Holy Spirit prompts us to do; then like Peter, we become stumbling blocks to God. I don’t think any of us really wants to do that.

For the most part, it’s a very subtle nudge God uses to get our attention. I can’t say that God wouldn’t still use a burning bush if it was necessary, but I will say I don’t know anybody who ever had that sort of experience. For most of us it’s as subtle as a thought about someone we haven’t seen for awhile. Something we hear or read in the news that helps us remember our Lord, how he responded to the people he met in his life on the earth. People who just happened to cross his path. He always responded according to God’s urging with love and mercy. He never refused to heal anyone who needed to be healed, or feed anyone who needed to be fed, or forgive anyone who needed forgiveness. So much of the peace on earth that everyone longs for truly depends on you and me. God still works through the likes of us to carry out God’s good intentions for the world. We are not alone in this world. We are the hands and heart of Christ to carry out God’s intentions for the world. That is our responsibility and our privilege as Christians. We don’t have to know how it will turn out. We just have to pay attention and do what we are compelled by God to do.