Patrick Comerford
We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity (15 September 2024).
We are in Belfast this weekend and were at a family celebration last night. I hope to go to church in Belfast later this morning before we catch a flight back to Luton later this afternoon. But, before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, today’s Gospel reading;
2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Mark 8: 27-38 (NRSVA)
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ 28 And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 29 He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ 30 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36 For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37 Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38 Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’
Today’s Reflection:
We were reflecting on Holy Cross Day yesterday and the significance of the discovery of the true cross by Saint. Today, the Gospel reading (Mark 8: 27-38) challenges us to think what it means to take up the cross ourselves individually and to follow Christ as disciples.
In this reading, Christ travels with the disciples north from the Sea of Galilee to the villages around Caesarea Philippi, a town known for its shrines to the god Pan.
On their way to Caesarea Philippi, they tell him that some people think Christ is a great prophet from the past, like Elijah. Others think he is a modern-day prophet, like Saint John the Baptist. They are good comparisons, but they do no t paint the full picture, they do not tell the full story.
Saint Peter tells Christ that he believes he is the Messiah (Mark 8: 29-30). But even then, Peter seems not to get it fully right either.
Christ then tells his disciples that it is not all going to be a bed of roses, indeed it is going to be more like a crown of thorns. He tells them that on the journey he is going to suffer, be derided, and face his own execution.
Saint Peter is upset. This is not what he expects. This is not what anyone of the day expects of the Messiah. He takes Jesus aside, and he rebukes him.
But he has got it wrong. Christ in turn rebukes Peter and reminds those present that if they want to be his followers they must take up their cross and follow him.
If people asked me two key questions today – ‘Who is Christ?’ and ‘What does it mean to follow Christ?’ – I wonder what answers I would give them.
You could compare Christ to great prophets of the past and the present. You could invite people in to Church with you some Sunday morning, and to seek to meet Christ in Word and Sacrament.
Or you could ask people to see Christ in the way you take up our cross and following him (Mark 8: 34).
I was once on a walking tour of Jewish Berlin. As we passed through the streets and shops, saw the houses here Jewish people had hidden, the factories where they had worked, the synagogues where they had prayed and worshipped, I wondered how they could have seen Christ in their Christian neighbours, their Christian in-laws, the pastors and congregations in the local churches and congregations.
We had just visited the first Jewish cemetery in Berlin, had moved along the street and we were standing outside the Sophienkirche, the Church of Saint Sophia, the Church of Holy Wisdom, when our Jewish guide told us the story of a German priest who is now counted among the ‘Righteous of the Nations’ – people recognised for having risked or lost their lives to save the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.
Father Bernhard Lichtenberg (1875-1943) was born into a German family in what is now Poland (Ohlau, now Oława, near Breslau, now Wrocław), the second of five children. He studied theology in Innsbruck and Breslau, was ordained in 1899, and began serving as a priest in Berlin in 1900, as the pastor of Charlottenburg.
He was decorated for his distinguished service as an army chaplain during World War I, and he also worked at the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Berlin.
In 1931, the Bishop of Berlin made him a canon of the cathedral of Saint Hedwig. When he encouraged Catholics to go to see the anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front, he was targeted in a vicious attack by Joseph Goebbels and his Nazi propaganda paper Der Angriff.
On 31 March 1933, Father Bernhard arranged for the Jewish banker Oskar Wassermann to meet Cardinal Bertram in a vain attempt to convince him to intervene against the planned boycott of Jewish businesses.
The Gestapo raided his house in 1933, for the first but not for the last time. He was not to be silenced. He went personally to Hermann Göring in 1935 to protest against the cruelties of the concentration camps.
Father Bernhard became provost of the cathedral in 1938, and was put in charge of the Bishop of Berlin’s Relief Office, helping Catholics of Jewish descent to flee the Third Reich.
On Kristallnacht, synagogues were attacked and Jewish buildings and houses had their windows smashed and set on fire on the night of 9 November 1938. It was the first organised Nazi pogrom in Germany.
The German churches kept silent in the face of these vicious attacks, but he raised his voice publicly and fearlessly against Nazi brutality. Preaching in the Church of Saint Hedwig, Father Bernhard warned: ‘We know what happened yesterday, we do not know what lies in store for us tomorrow. But we have experienced what has happened today. The burning synagogue outside is also a house of God!’
He continued to pray publicly each day at Vespers for the persecuted Jews. Bishop Konrad von Preysing later entrusted him with the task of helping the Jewish community of Berlin.
As we heard this story, we were standing outside Saint Hedwig Hospital, where he had supported patients who passed on food to Jews, and staff who passed on the identities of dead patients to Jews trying to escape.
He protested in person to Nazi officials against the arrest and killing of the sick and the mentally ill, as well as the persecution of the Jews. At first, the Nazis dismissed this priest as a nuisance. Father Bernhard was warned that he was in danger of being arrested for his activities, but he continued fearlessly. He condemned the concentration camps like Dachau, and even organised demonstrations against them outside some camps.
Two women students who heard him pray publicly for Jews and the victims of concentration camps denounced him to the police. The Gestapo raided his home again on 23 October 1941 and found a sermon he had prepared for the next Sunday. It was a response to a Nazi leaflet circulated by Goebbels warning Germans not to help Jews, not even with a friendly greeting. In his sermon, he had written, ‘Let us not be misled by this un-Christian way of thinking but follow the strict command of Jesus Christ: “You shall love you neighbour as you love yourself”.’
Father Bernhard was arrested that day and sent to prison. The Gestapo offered to set him free if he stopped preaching for the rest of the war. Instead, he asked to accompany the deported Jews and Jewish Christians to Poland so he could serve them in pastoral ministry.
With these unyielding principles, the Nazis ordered his internment in Dachau. While he was in transit, he collapsed and died on 5 November 1943. He was beatified in 1996, a public statement that his life was a model of Christian discipleship, of taking up the Cross and following Christ. Yad Vashem listed him among the Righteous of the Nations in 2004.
There is no shame in being Christ-like (Mark 8: 38). And so, we too must be willing to see any insult or taunt, any expression of prejudice or rejection, any racism or any discrimination based on ethnicity or language, gender or sexuality, colour or looks, class or age, is prejudice against Christ, is prejudice against the Body of Christ, is prejudice against all of us, is prejudice against you and me.
If we have no need to be ashamed of who Christ is for us, then neither must we be afraid of speaking up for those he says he has come to bring good news to.
If we take up the Cross and follow him, we may actually find that the burden is not all that heavy. Indeed, we may find we have uncovered a new wisdom and a fresh way of speaking and new expressions of wisdom.
Today’s Prayers (Sunday 15 September 2024, Trinity XVI):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘The 5-finger prayer from the Diocese of Kuching, Malaysia.’ This theme is introduced today in reflections ss told to Rachel Weller, Communications Officer, USPG:
“It’s simple,” Revd Jonny replied. As the palm trees swayed in the afternoon breeze outside, he turned to explain the 5-finger prayer he has taught his congregation. “At 12 pm each day, we stop whatever we are doing and pray. With our thumb, for the people who are close to us. With our index finger, for local and national leaders. With our tallest finger for our enemies. With our ring finger, for those in need. With our smallest finger, for ourselves.
Situated in Kampung Benuk, St Paul’s Church was founded in 1951 and is one of the Diocese of Kuching’s more rural parishes. Many in the church here call themselves SPG-Christians rather than Anglicans, as a nod to the presence of SPG missionaries (precursor to USPG) in the region over 170 years ago. A telling sign of the lingering power of a global community of believers.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 15 September 2024, Trinity XVI) invites us to pray reflecting on these words:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (Thessalonians 5: 16-18).
The Collect:
O Lord, we beseech you mercifully to hear the prayers
of your people who call upon you;
and grant that they may both perceive and know
what things they ought to do,
and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil them;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post Communion Prayer:
Almighty God,
you have taught us through your Son
that love is the fulfilling of the law:
grant that we may love you with our whole heart
and our neighbours as ourselves;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Lord of creation,
whose glory is around and within us:
open our eyes to your wonders,
that we may serve you with reverence
and know your peace at our lives’ end,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s reflection
Continued tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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