Year A, Lectionary 121
God's judgment and decisions are inscrutable. God allows us to be stewards and have positions of power but we must continuously be grateful and understand where those privileges and gifts come from. As long as we recognize God, God's glory, and God's grace bestowed upon us, we can be faithful servants administering God's work in this world. Yet, in moving away from God, we will fall and fail in our ministries by abusing our positions and no longer serving God, but ourselves.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Authority • Caesarea Philippi • Call • Calling • Choice • Church • Community • Divine • Evangelize • Experience • Faith • Focus • Freedom • Grace • Hell • Hesed • Holy Spirit • Humility • Identity • Inscrutable • Key • Keys • Kingdom • Knowledge • Messiah • Ministry • Mystery • Peter • Pope • Power • Relationship • Repent • Resurrection • Revelation • Rock • Shebna • Sin • St. Augustine • St. Monica • St. Teresa of Calcutta • Steward • Thankful • Transformation • Trust • Understand • Worry •
“So all created things have their source, their origin in God and that's why he's inscrutable, that's why his judgments are unsearchable. That's why there's a transcendent element to God that we can never fully comprehend.”
“In today's gospel reading, Jesus does us the kindness of separating the voices of others from the spirit's voice inside ourselves”
“Faith, people of God, does not mean having every answer before we begin. Faith means trusting enough just to take a step, and allowing God to walk with us as we discover what is true, what is lasting, and what is worth building our lives upon.”
“And even in knowing us and all of our emotions and thoughts and vulnerabilities, he chooses to call upon us to do his holy bidding, to be his vessels here on earth”
“we can't really teach Christianity if we're not living it in our day-to-day lives. We can't teach Christianity if we don't know Christianity. And we can't know Christianity if we don't know Christ personally.”
“They want to have an experience of Jesus, the one we claim to know, the one we claim to believe in...For if the world does not know Jesus it is my fault and if you are baptized and you're listening to me now, it is your fault. The world wants to experience Jesus in us.”
“we never give up on Christ's power to redeem us, to forgive us. We never give up on his mercy and on his love and so the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.”
“We don't always feel ready for what we're being called to but that's not ours to worry about. I can just picture Jesus looking right into Peter's eyes and saying you are enough Peter because you are mine. All we need to do is take that courageous first step into his grace trusting who he is.”
“This gospel therefore gives us room to recognize and celebrate other disciples past and present who are authorities in faith for us. They may not be in positions of authority...but they are individuals whose lives accurately attest to Jesus as the Christ, Son of the living God.”
“if the definition of god, with a small 'g', is that which we dedicate our whole lives to, do we always make that choice every day of our lives?...If a god is the very thing that we dedicate our lives to, is that where our attention is always drawn?”
“Jesus was teaching Peter that the true way of authority is not exercising power over others but giving of oneself so that others may flourish”
“How many times in our lives has Jesus given us an opportunity to not only say who we think he is but to show the world who we really believe he is?”
“It is not enough to get it right, it is important to know the source of your getting it right. It is also important to be sure that you remain connected to the source of your getting it right. So when you are successful, know where your success comes from and remain connected to that source.”
“The glory and power of the Messiah will be revealed not through military victory but through the cross”
“The Christian life is not about becoming self-confident. It is about becoming God-confident”
“This is something established by Jesus himself on Peter as the foundation stone of his church and it reveals to us that the papacy, far from being a medieval invention, is something that is thoroughly rooted in Judaism and thoroughly rooted in the will and the intention of Jesus himself”
“when you and I become entrenched by lots of other things, it's not that other things are bad but we have to have the discernment to be able to figure out what other things transform us and what other things enslave us”
“are we going to use the gifts we have received, the power that we have to either build a monument to ourselves or to bring people into the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”
“Who is Jesus to you? Is he the one you go to and then if he doesn't answer you in a microwave minute you get mad at him? Is Jesus the one who you set a little time aside on Sunday morning and then the rest of the Lord's day is your day? Or is Jesus the center of your life? Is he your joy?”
